True love isn’t lost. It is just misconstrued.
It’s when Ted sees the mother for the first time, that words bereave him. His heart stops and he keeps staring. It is just one of those moments when somebody beautiful falls on your eyes and time stops. You are rendered speechless and you forget living for a while. The reason it wasn’t stretched was probably because creators ran short of time, also because it was just a moment and like any other such gazillion moments, we always let it pass by, without actually doing anything about it. So did Ted.
The Farewell:
I always thought I was as strong as a mountain. But then I encountered goodbyes.
I just feel like a hug isn’t enough.
Ted replies, “E.T. goodbye?” Although everybody knew Ted was going to leave them, nobody had given it a serious thought. When reality hit them and Ted humored his way through farewells, Lily was the most emotional one. It struck Barney too. He knew what he would miss the most about Ted – high fives. And the ‘high infinity’ was born.
The Absence:
We know this moment. We have lived it all our lives. The absence of someone dear. As Marshall explained to Lily how everything seemed different without Ted, and how he could feel his absence, Ted sits down with a beer at MacLaren’s with a smile on his face only to break it to them that he had found someone.
The Divorce:
What would have really bummed us out? If Barney would have ended up being any less legendary. Yes. We find him up at his game. To believe Robin and Barney ending up with a happily ever after would have been a stretch. The creators made sure of that, by ending their short lived legendary run with a quick amicable divorce. Reality sucks. Nothing pans out the way we want it to be. It was a hint and we knew right there, we were in for a twist.
Big moments:
“This right here, this is why we can’t fall out of each other’s lives.”
Lily is broken because nothing would remain the same. Even though Robin makes a vague promise to hang in for the big moments, it is hard for her to abide. A blast from the past when she finds Ted wearing his old hanging chad costume:
How do you do this, Ted? How do you sit out here all night on the roof in the cold and still have faith your pumpkin’s gonna show up?
It is shattering for her to see Ted, the guy who she was supposed to end up with, doing great with another woman. Watching the tainted possibility, the ‘it-could-have-been-me’, gives her a hard time. She knew she had thrown it away, the chance she had for a happy ending with Ted, and yet there is nothing she could really do about. She chooses to stay away from their lives. It is shattering to see a sad Lily, who looks adorably cute in her white whale costume, when she is hit with the disheartening truth:
It’s just never gonna be how it was. It can’t be.
Judge Fudge:
Really great to see how things finally pan out for Marshall. Great to see ‘Judge Fudge’ in action. Eventually we find Marshall ending up with an even more awesome title ‘Fudge Supreme’.
Legendary:
Barney wraps up his life with a ‘please-let-me-be-me’ and scores himself a verdict. That is how we always saw Barney. It wouldn’t have been legendary had Barney really walked the distance. Besides three years was a really long time for him. He makes himself clear with:
If it wasn’t gonna happen with Robin then it’s just not gonna happen with anyone.
Barney finally has his epiphany, with his accidental daughter, the only girl to whom he says, while intending it:
You are the love of my life. Everything I have and everything I am is yours, forever.
The Mother:
We finally discover mother’s actual name which was subtly wrapped up under the umbrella story. All those moments where Ted had missed her finally breathe alive and they connect instantly. Her blanks are filled by Ted’s story to which she says:
Funny how sometimes you just find things.
All those memories of her have been wrapped up perfectly in heartwarming photographs. She was just so perfect for Ted.
You see, kids, right from the moment I met your mom, I knew I have to love this woman as much as I can, for long as I can, and I can never stop loving her, not even for a second.
The Disease:
It is exactly at this moment we realize that those kids hearing the story are in a motherless world. That the mother had died of some disease and that Ted has been living without her for six years.
Even then, in what can only be called the worst of times, all I could do was look at her and thank God, thank every god there is, or ever was, or will be, and the whole universe, and anyone else I can possibly thank that I saw that beautiful girl on that train platform, and that I had the guts to stand up, walk over to her, tap her on the shoulder, open my mouth and speak.
Robin, the one:
Whilst most of us are sniveling over the fact why it didn’t end then and there, the creators decided to trickle down the climax into the story. We all know Ted has been telling us a quite intricate story ever since 2005. His kids point out the apparent – “Mom’s hardly in the story.” Why would Ted take the trouble to tell such a detailed tale unless he had a point to make? His kids see through it and throw the obvious at his face. Ted was looking for an approval – his children’s take on his decision to go after Robin.
Admit it! It has always been Robin right from the start. We all have secretly wished it to be Robin. The moment Ted stole that French blue horn for her. The moment he looked at her and said, “I love you” for the first time. The moment he missed that interview just because she needed him. The heights he went just to give her that locket. It is hard to find a lover like Ted. Even Robin had realized that, but only at the verge of her wedding.
Robin’s happily ever after signs off in style once again with that old French blue horn we had seen in the pilot. The background fades with a happy ending and an apt song – “Heaven” by The Walkmen that goes:
Remember remember….all we fight for.
Now that the story has found its conclusion, we are going to miss it forever. There are a lot of things that I am going to miss about the show. One of the greatest bits about it was that it never lost its amazing sense of humor. Ted’s love stories were always drenched with the right amount of love and fun. It was always great to see Barney building make-believe stories to score and then later icing it with, “True Story!” Marshall had always been an honest and loyal lover. His way of telling a story would just light you up. Lily was the backbone of the gang and the sane one. Robin was the best thing that had happened to the group, more importantly to Barney and to Ted.
Even though the story was pulled out of context, and there were dispensable bits of exaggeration engulfed, I felt it was one of the finest runs that TV had ever encountered. Like any other death of an era, a TV show, or a movie, HIMYM, you too have imprinted memories in our head. Now we feel your absence. You shall be missed. You shall be missed badly.
The Perpendicular Universe 