**SPOILER ALERT** HIMYM Finale Review: A great end to an even greater show

On March 31st 2014, I watched the nine year running situation comedy How I Met Your Mother (HIMYM) on air for the very last time.

I was a late comer to the show; I had to catch up and watch season one to the middle of season six on DVD. After a week-and-a-half of late night/early morning HIMYM marathons, I was caught up to what was airing on television.

I was hooked from the very first episode. It was funny, it was smart and it was a little sexy. There was emotion and the show was so relatable, even though I was (and still am) in my early 20s. Though characters were creeping pretty close to the 30-year-old mark, I still understood it all.

After watching the series finale I can honestly say, with a straight face, it was exactly what I was expecting.

What I loved:

• The shot of Ted’s face when he saw the mother for the first time. It was love at first sight and you could see everything change in him. I thought it was so beautiful.

• Robin and Ted’s long standing inside “major joke” (see video above). That had to have been some kind of foreshadowing.
• I have always loved the different types of high fives Barney has, so the epic high five or high infinity between him and Ted from Monday’s finale was really special. The last high five was truly legendary. “The high five to end all high fives.” Tear.
• I liked when Barney asked to just be himself. He just wanted to be the Barney that he has been since season one.

What I still have questions about:

• Would Barney really stick around for the birth of his baby? The way Barney got around New York City, how do we know there aren’t hundreds of his babies running around? Well, crawling around, I should say.
• I would have liked if show opened up about the mother’s death. There was only one scene of her and Ted together in the hospital throughout the entire series finale. I didn’t really feel anything (no catharsis for me) because the finale just glossed over it. Wasn’t the mother the whole point of the show, the story itself? Uh, yeah. Hence the title.

What I saw coming:

• When Robin and Barney announced their divorce: Called that one.
• The mother getting sick and dying: Called that one.
• Robin and Ted getting together in the end: Hi there. My name is Kaaleen Joseph. I watch HIMYM and I CALLED THAT BIG ONE TOO!

So all in all I was ready, ready for everything. Nothing shocked me, except maybe the whole Barney becoming an actual father situation, but besides that I foresaw it all.

I was satisfied with the series finale of HIMYM because it made perfect sense to me. Why would the writers, season after season, for nine seasons, go back to the fact that Ted never really stopped loving Robin? There is so much evidence! Marshall never closed that chapter, Robin and Barney never would have worked. Robin was the first person Ted said he loved, the wedding day when she was ready to leave Barney, her flashing back to that Halloween night on the roof together. What Ted went through to get the locket back – he jumped into a body of water for goodness sake. I mean come on! How else would it have ended?

I took some time after to read through what people were saying on Twitter about the finale and nearly everyone is ready to riot. Several people thought producers ruined the entire series in this one episode. My boyfriend actually felt as if he wasted years of his life watching this show (drama king). Many people thought it should have just ended with Ted saying, “And kids that’s how I met your mother.” But this show is supposed to represent life! In life, people you love die and you have to pick yourself up.

There is one tweet that I saw and it really moved me and made me even happier with the ending of the show. See below:

For all the viewers, long time or otherwise, who did not like the series finale, I am personally really curious to know what you thought was going to happen in the end. Leave a comment and tell us what your thoughts were.

xo