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Why How I Met Your Mother’s Last Episode Is Its Best
…Or at least not completely awful. Lord, please have mercy on my soul for this.
A lot’s happened since Ted stopped talking in 2014, but How I Met Your Mother remains a beloved show, at least for those who forget everything between the fifth season and history’s longest wedding. By then, everybody had their own ideas about the show and any plot twist was going to be divisive. “Last Forever,” the final episode, wasn’t exactly met with cheers. I’m not sure I’ve met another fan who doesn’t hate it. But even if it came off some weak episodes, I still think “Last Forever” was secretly the show’s finest moment. I know, hold on.
There are two main plotlines, so let’s start with Barney and Robin, who get divorced a few years after marrying. If the show had been shorter, this would have worked better. With Marshall and Lily together from the start and Ted meeting the mother in this episode, their relationship became the biggest ship in the series, and it hurt to see it undone so quickly. But in the story, it takes 3 years, and stays true to their characters. Over the show, Barney becomes someone worth marrying, but Robin’s own reluctance is mostly unaddressed. She and Ted split because she prioritizes her career, and she bonds with Barney over preferring short-term relationships, hardly…
