SPOILER ALERT!
One of America's Most Watched comedy of the 21st century, How I Met Your Mother, has finally closed its curtains last Monday with a one-hour special finale, but here comes the big question, how happy were the fans with how the writers concluded the show? What with the fact that the finale confirmed one of our greatest fears sparked by online theories : the Mother's death. It was a rather morbid way to end a comedy, really, in spite of how the writers had cleverly slipped in hints of seriousness amongst the multiple misadventures thoughout the 9 seasons such as Robin's infertility, passing of Marshall's dad, Ted being left at the altar, Barney's quest to find his long-lost dad and even Lily's career conflict that made her leave Marshall as she made her way to San Francisco.
Speaking for myself,and some of the fans of HIMYM who are acquainted with me, I can say that fans who rooted for the Mother to end up with Ted are extremely disappointed with the sudden plot twist. Not only is it sloppy - cramming every single huge detail revolving around the mother's passing and Robin & Barney's divorce into one confusing episode, it is also anti-climatic in a sense that it defeats the purpose of Barney having a legendary wedding in the first place if he's going to split up with Robin anyway. Just as we thought that Barney has finally settled down,he knocked up a girl (whom he addressed as number 31) during his one-month streak and had a baby named Ellie whom he later found out to be the true love of his life. I was clearly unhappy with how the writers wrapped up the final season. They could have at least introduced one of these major points earlier on rather than throwing lame puns upon lame puns to the audience just to 'stretch' the season to be longer. With that being said, here's how I've imagined the ending to HIMYM to be instead :
It starts off as usual, Ted's two kids seated on the sofa as Ted tells them the story that approaches the moment he met his wife (their mother) where he mentions his last night in NYC before he was leaving for Chicago the next day. He was seated at the dinner table where the wedding reception was held,and he saw The Mother, on stage, playing bass for the band who were performing for the wedding.Barney saw Ted and the Mother locking eyes,and wanted to be Ted's wingman one last time but before he could pull off the usual "haaaave you met Ted?" charade, Ted walked out and refused to play as he was already leaving NYC and it wouldn't be realistic. He then said good bye to everybody in the gang individually. While he hugs everybody and gives his little speech, the Mother observes from a distance,wishing she could meet Ted.
It was fate, as Ted was waiting for his train in Farhampton, he tells the old lady next to him about the bassist girl he had seen earlier and seconds later, she showed up with her yellow umbrella and her bass in a hard case. The old lady encouraged Ted to approach her,and so he gathered all his courage and spoke to her. They started to connect through coincidences, and it all started to make sense to Ted. The train finally stops and the Mother got off, bidding farewell to Ted but she left her bass in the train by accident. Ted went after her,carrying the bass with him and they met each other again right before the Mother got on the cab. Both of them exchanged glances and greeted each other with an awkward "hi", then the scene ends.
As Ted wraps up the story to his kids with "So that kids, is how I met your mother..", his wife walks in with a baby in her arms,smirking as she says :
"You're finally wrapping up that story huh? Classic Schmosby. Now come on over here partner, I need a hand with Ellie." Ted walks over to his wife, gives her a gentle peck on her cheek and helps her tuck Ellie into bed while their kids wait outside the bedroom. Robin & Barney walks in a few hours later to get Ellie,and thanks Ted & Tracy for babysitting for them while they were away for a news trip in Argentina. The camera zooms in on Ted & Tracy's wedding photo where the flashbacks began. Robin & Barney got into a huge fight during the weekend of the wedding because of Robin's hectic career, but they then realized that there was a way to make it work by merely observing Marshall,Lily, Marvin and Daisy. With the help of James (Barney's gay brother),they managed to get hold of the right organizations and adopted a daughter which they agreed to name Ellie Stinson- Scherbatsky.
The scene ends with the camera zooming in to the photos of the happy families in frames - The Eriksens with Marshall in a judge suit and all of them surrounded by Lily's paintings, The Mosbies beside Ted's most glorious architecture model, The Stinsons and finally the entire gang with their children in McLaren's Pub,flashbacks of all the coincidences come in snapshots on the screen, including how the rest of the gang were first acquainted with the Mother. and finally the yellow umbrella positioned near the bar to conclude it all.
That, is how HIMYM should have ended in my perspective.
