A Few Things That Don’t Make Sense About The ‘How I Met Your Mother’ Finale

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HIMYM is one of the greatest sitcoms to ever grace our television screens. The actors were multi-talented. The scripts were genius. The storylines were heartfelt and authentic. The writers created ten golden years of television which I cannot thank them enough for — with the exception of the last episode.

Even after all this time, there are some things I’m still pissed about from the finale. Things that make less and less sense to me the more I rewatch the series. Here are a few of them:

1. Why did the writers dedicate an entire season to Barney and Robin’s wedding (and multiple seasons to the development of their relationship) when they were only going to divorce them in the final episode?

2. Why did Barney have such a strong character arch — transforming from a heartless ladies man to someone soft and gooey who was excited to get married to the love of his life — only for him to knock up a random woman in the last episode who doesn’t even get a name?

3. Speaking of children, why does Lily’s “happy ending” include her having more children when there was an earlier episode about how she wasn’t actually excited about being a mother in the first place?

4. And what’s up with Ted seemingly forgetting about Robin (who has never wanted children) until the woman who does give him children passes away?

5. Why was Robin cool with the idea of ending up with Ted after turning him down a million different times? And why was Ted cool with it, for that matter? There was an entire episode dedicated to him finally ‘letting her go’ — but he apparently forgot about this revelation in the last five minutes of the finale. There were plenty of other exes he could have returned to.

6. Why did the writers insist on explaining how Ted and Robin didn’t belong together when they had it planned all along that she would end up with him?

Ted made her get rid of her dogs while Barney surprised her with dogs.

Ted was obsessed with marriage and children when that was never part of her plan (until she met Barney, who changed her mind about marriage even though they’re both commitment-phobes).

There’s even an episode where Ted’s divorced parents are compared to Barney and Robin because they’re too different to make a relationship work. There was no sign of them having a happy ending.

7. Why did the mother get such little screen time? Why didn’t we get to see more of her relationship with Ted?

8. Why did the writers think ten seasons of such a heartfelt, uplifting story should end with a twist ending involving divorce and death? Was the shock value really worth it?