Cathleen Chow '23
WARNING: SPOILERS AHEAD
It is hard to think of American romantic sitcoms without thinking of How I Met Your Mother, perhaps one of the greatest sitcoms of all time. This is not only because of the amazing storyline and wonderful humor, but also because of the continuity: the easter eggs that would be referenced in multiple episodes onwards, the lack of loopholes, and the nonrepetitive chronological sequence of the show. In 208 episodes, an older Ted Mosby in the year 2030 tells a long-winded nine-year-long story (between 2005-2013) to his kids about how he met their mother (shocking) and uses this story to rationalize why he should end up with the love he had but lost 17 years ago.
Ted’s tight circle of friends all represent an archetype when it comes to relationships: Barney Stinson (a player), Marshall Erickson and Lily Aldrin (the couple of the group), and Robin Scherbatsky (a career-driven Canadian). Everyone has these types of people in their lives: that guy who asks every girl out just because he can, that couple who literally ignores all the rules of PDA, or that gamer who constantly stays in their room. But what about Ted? Ted is a romanticist–a person who is constantly optimistically looking for “the one,” which serves as both his greatest strength and greatest weakness. He retells every story as if it were beautiful and magnificent, still looking through rose-tinted glasses when it could’ve just been a pretty normal relationship.
The series starts off with Ted eyeing a girl, Robin, from across the bar and goes out with her when his wingman, Barney, pulls the line “have you met Ted?” The date is going great–they eat dinner, they dance, he steals a blue french horn for her–but he says the unspeakable nine characters to say on a first date: I love you. Later in the series, Robin dates Ted, breaks up with Ted, dates Barney, breaks up with Barney, and this kind of tension persists through the nine seasons. By the end of the story, Ted’s wife has passed away, and he is rekindling his relationship with Robin (who divorced Barney). This ending was really controversial. However, as unhappy as I am with Ted being with Robin, it does make sense, and here are the reasons why:
1. Robin and Ted never moved on.
Robin never did break up with Ted because she doesn’t like Ted; rather, they had different goals in mind. While Ted wanted to settle down, Robin wanted to pursue her career. It is evident throughout the show that Robin has lingering feelings, and that Ted just swept his feelings under the carpet in hopes of finding “the one.” Being a career-driven person, Robin has no problem holding onto her feelings without doing anything;Ted, being a romanticist, has no problem romanticizing another love story in hopes that it will be his.
2. The nine-year rant would have a purpose.
Ted literally recounted nine years of memories to his children simply to show how he met their mother. While it would’ve been fine had the mother not died, the story now has more meaning in hindsight because it was a rationale as to why he wanted to date Robin again after all these years.
3. They hold no regrets.
After watching the entire series, it’s hard not to become a romanticist yourself. With every character having gone through a lot, as a romanticizing viewer, you’d want a great happy ending for everyone. The problem with this, though, is that Robin, Barney, and Ted will forever have a love triangle, a controversial topic in who belongs with Robin more and a dissatisfaction if either Ted or Barney ends up with someone else because they would never have the chemistry they and Robin had. However, with this ending of having Robin and Barney divorced and Robin ending up Ted, viewers can feel relief from knowing Robin did experience a future with both male leads and actively chose Ted.
Honestly, there are not that many reasons why Ted should’ve ended up with Robin. And, I would definitely not recommend getting back together with your ex two decades later simply because of them being your first partner. However, Robin being Ted’s ending is perhaps one of the greatest finales to the most suspenseful love story told (at least according to Ted).
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