Tracy Got a Raw Deal: How I Met Your Mother's Disappointing Finale

After nine years, fans of "How I Met Your Mother" finally got to see how the main character, Ted Mosby, met the mother of his children, whose name we now know was Tracy McConnell. And for nearly the entire ninth and final season, fans had to endure a "24" style format as it was spanned across Barney and Robin's wedding weekend, where Ted and Tracy would meet. Now the series is over, and as a fan who got on board half-way through and was able to catch up thanks to reruns on a number of channels, I was very disappointed in how things played out in the final episode, which spanned over a number of years to get where Ted was telling his kids the story.

Let me get to the first thing that made me mad. Apparently after three years of being married, Barney and Robin got divorced. My literal reaction was me screaming "Are you kidding me?!" Fans spent the last six months watching things lead up to the two getting married, enduring meaningless episodes that would make you go "Oh my God, who the hell cares?", including the infamous rhyming episode "Bedtime Stories", and then the series finale shows that it didn't even last? What was even the point then? It also greatly cheapens the way Barney proposed with his final Playbook move, "The Robin", which in my opinion was the best proposal in television history.
Then after that, Barney goes back into his old ways, eventually knocks a girl up, and starts to get serious when he meets his newborn daughter, Ellie. Now I probably would have enjoyed this more if we actually met Ellie's mom, who Barney called "Number 31." Hell, this probably ties in with that new "How I Met Your Dad" spin-off CBS is planning. Yes, "How I Met Your Dad" is apparently a thing that is going to happen. I'm just calling it: Barney's the dad. There, I saved you a bunch of time. I mean, do you want to go through this kind of story again? That's like doing a "Smallville" type show for Batman, where you'd wait years just to see like five minutes of him in the suit. Yes, I know that's actually being planned with the "Gotham" series; I'm making a point. But I digress, let's get back to the main couple.

For years, we listened along with Ted's kids about everything that led to him meeting the woman who is supposed to be the love of his life. During the last two seasons, it was also implied that Tracy had died, which was the reason Ted was telling his kids the story. As the finale approached, I was expecting to watch and be overly emotional and bawl my eyes out. Well it turns out I would be emotional, but to another extreme. Yes, Tracy did die, but we didn't get to see her and Ted's last moments, or Ted and the kids mourning her death and moving on. All we got was Ted narrating over a scene of them in her hospital room and see the moment they actually met, referencing the yellow umbrella and the first day of Ted being a teacher where he was in the wrong classroom, both signs that they were destined to be. What ends up happening? Ted finishes the story, and his kids tell him to date "Aunt Robin", and then Ted shows up at her apartment with the blue French horn again like he did in the first episode. This is a serious "WTF" moment for me. Yes, Ted meeting Robin was the overall catalyst that led to Ted meeting Tracy, but they weren't supposed to be. Ted chased her, lost her, let her go, and started a family. So six years after Tracy died, Ted goes running back to Robin? I'm sorry, but that's bullshit. Again, Ted let her go and found Tracy, and him going back to Robin really cheapens both Tracy's character and her death in my opinion. I've been through what Ted did with Robin, believing in your heart you found "the one", getting your heart broken, and learning to let go. I'll give you that Ted and Robin were able to remain friends through it all, but if there was some scenario where I had the chance to be with that person, I wouldn't take it, as the pain from before would be a remind of why it wouldn't work. No, I'm leaving my "Robin" in the past, and will wait for my "Tracy" to show up.

So it started with Robin and disappointingly ended with her too. There's just no other word to describe the finale: disa-wait for it...ppointing. Disappointing. I can't be the only one feeling this way. We waited nine years for Ted to meet Tracy in what was supposed to be a story of destiny and true love, and it's tarnished by a finale that didn't honor her memory, but made Ted go back to the woman who didn't deserve him in the first place.

Oh well. It was a fun ride for the most part at least, especially with everything involving Barney.