Whoa, Mother

[W]e met The Mother, but we hardly knew her.

We won’t get the chance to, either. The series ended Monday night, and for a while after the show I was sure the web was going to explode.

Most of the reaction I saw after the series ended was venomous, and the debate raged on today.

I decided I’d weigh in and discuss why I liked the finale.

I was, at first, just as ticked off about the “How I Met Your Mother” finale as the next person, and I had a big reason why.

I thought Robin and Barney getting divorced was one of the stupidest things I’d ever seen on television.

Why spend the entirety of the show’s final season, which I will say has been far from my favorite, drawing out every imaginable detail of Barney and Robin’s wedding only to have the marriage fall apart a few years later?

It didn’t make sense. I felt like I’d wasted my time watching the show this season, and I was mad.

I felt like I was owed an explanation, and then Ted gave one.

Within his explanation, which he delivered to his longsuffering children, I found what I believe to be his reason for telling the story.

I know I am in the minority here, but I don’t care. I believe Ted told his story out of his love for The Mother.

I think Ted told his kids the story of how he crossed paths with the woman who would one day be their mother because he wanted to make sure they knew just how much he loved her.

All of Ted’s relationships with the women who weren’t the one eventually led to her. I think all of the heartbreaks, the talk of destiny and the blind faith he’d exhibited throughout his story was put on display to show his kids just how much he appreciated their mother once she finally entered his life.

I think Ted really did love The Mother. I loved The Mother. She was amazing in her short time on the show, and I think that’s the reason people are mad. I also think they missed what I believe to be the point of the show, which was for Ted to make sure his kids knew how much their mother — whose name was revealed to be Tracy — meant to him before he tried to begin dating Robin again.

I figured Tracy wouldn’t be around long, because of hints dropped earlier in the show. Also, people who spend a lot of time on the internet developed the theory The Mother was dead and the powers that be (or were) never quite shook it off.

I was prepared for the possibility Ted’s time with the mother of his children would be cut short by tragedy, but I can see why people aren’t happy with the way it ended.

I thought Tracy’s role in the series, and especially the finale, was rushed. Considering she was a pretty important part of the title, and she was just a great character, I was hoping to see more of her.

The show, however, was the story of how Ted met her, which was told. People are mad because they didn’t end up together forever. Sometimes life doesn’t always include a happy ending, even if one is expected. Sometimes, tragedy rips the end of the story apart and a new ending has to be penned, which is what Ted was doing throughout the show’s story.

After Tracy died Ted was forced to move on, and he did. Slowly. The Mother had been gone for a number of years before Ted began to tell his kids the story of how she came into his life. During those years, the kids saw his interaction with Robin. They knew how much she loved him, and they knew he loved her.

Ted still felt the need to make sure his kids were really OK with seeing him with someone else, which I appreciated. More importantly, I believe he needed them to know how much their mother meant to him.

So he told the story, which wound through nine seasons of high fives, slap bets, Fieros and French horns.

I thought the inclusion of the iconic blue French horn in the finale was great, because it harkened back to the first time Ted realized what Robin meant to him. The timing wasn’t right then, but it was in the finale.

The show did come full circle in the final episode.  It wasn’t the ending most expected or even wanted. Then again, how often do good stories stick to the scripts we imagine?

That’s what makes them special, and that’s why How I Met Your Mother just may be legendary.