The entire ninth season took place over the weekend of Robin and Barney's wedding. We watched serious character development happen between the two about how they were unsure if they were really meant to be together forever. In the end, the two married and it seemed that all was right with the world. After all, the mother is the woman that Ted was supposed to be with. After a heartbreaking goodbye to his friends as he leaves for Chicago, Ted waits for a train at the Farhampton station and this is where he sees the mother. He first sees her at the wedding reception, but the lady sitting next to him at the train station tells him to approach her. Maybe it is fate.
Fast forward a year and Ted is telling Robin and Barney his elaborate wedding plans. Ted is happy, but his best friend Barney is not. Robin's job is causing problems in his marriage and it is here we got a small look into the beginning of the end. In comes the mother to the bar smiling ear to ear telling Ted that she needs to tell him something. Turns out they can not get married in September because she wants to fit into her wedding dress. And that is how we first learned about Penny Mosby.
Another big moment is the final party at Lily and Marshall's apartment. A very pregnant Lily hosts a Halloween party and it is here that the audience realizes that the gang has not been together in a very long time. Robin shows up with no costume because she is so busy with work, Barney is back to his old ways and Robin sees how happy Ted is with the mother of his children and it all becomes too much. Robin tells Lily that there is too much damage and she can not come around as often anymore. She can't be in the same room with her ex husband and the guy who she was probably supposed to be with. The gang could never be "the gang" anymore and it leaves Lily devastated.
As the episode continues, the rest of the gang still sees each other even with Robins absence. Ted, Lily and Marshall are all becoming drained but happy parents while Barney continues to live up to his old habits of picking up women 10 years younger then him. He tells the group that he will never find that special someone who he can give his entire life to. He also said that he can never fall in love with someone the first time he meets someone. He believes that if it did not work with Robin why would it work with anyone else.
Remember Robots vs Wrestlers? Well it is back and this time Ted takes the mother. During this double date with Lily and Marshall we learned that Ted and the mother are still no married even after having two kids. They are happy the way things are and they are in no rush. Insert a drunk Barney on this double date and it is here he tells the gang if they remember The Perfect Week. A Perfect Week is when he sleeps with seven women in seven days. Well, in typical Barney fashion he challenges himself even more and goes after 30 women in 30 days aka The Perfect Month. Turns out The Perfect Month did not go as planned because on the 31st day he got the girl pregnant.
Flash forward to Ted showing his daughter Penny the building he designed in the city. The coincidence is that Robin happens to be standing on the same street corner. The two talk about how they have not seen one another in a long time. Robin talks about work and how busy she has been anchoring the world news. A bus drives by with her face on it and it shows just how Robins career took off. This encounter then becomes a story that Ted is telling in the hospital waiting room to Marshall and Lily. Lily calls it a rare Robin sighting. They are all at the hospital because Barney's 31st girl is having the baby. The baby turns out to be a little girl and a apprehensive Barney holds her for the first time. It was in this moment that viewers were reminded of how special the show is and how it can take one even to change a character. Remember when Barney said he could never love someone and give them his life the moment he met them? There was one exception to that rule-his daughter. In a beautiful and emotional speech we see Barney fall in love with one little lady.
Ted and the mother get married and after the wedding we are taken back to the time when they first met on that rainy night in Farhampton. Ted approaches the mother and they immediately talk about how she is the roommate of one of the woman Ted used to date. Then they talk about how the infamous yellow umbrella. Ted says that it is his umbrella because it has his initials TM engraved on it. The mother tells her he is wrong because it actually has her initials TM engraved on it. The mothers name is Tracy McConnell. After nine years we finally learn her name. They then disucss how Ted found this umbrella at a party and then the mother revels that it was her umbrella at that same party. Its fate and the two discuss how funny it is how some things just find each other.
1. Where do Marshall and Lily move to after they leave the apartment?
2. What do they name their third kid? Better yet, was it a boy or a girl?
3. Why did we not see Ted, the mother and the two kids together at all in the finale? The picture at Christmas did not count.
4. Who was the 31st girl that Barney got pregnant?
5. How did the mother die?
6. Where did Ted get the blue french horn so quickly?
7. What about that damn pineapple?
8. What happened to Bob Saget?
9. Oh and we never learned the story of Robin being a bull fighter. Please re-watch season 7 to understand the reference.
10. Does Barney feel betrayed that his main bro is not with his ex wife? Major awkward- *Salute* Major Awkward!
Love it or hate it just realize that you will never be able to watch this show the same ever again after seeing this finale.