The Yellow Umbrella and the Blue French Horn: A Slightly Better "How I Met Your Mother" Finale

Since the announcement of How I Met Your Mother's ninth season is what gave me the kick I needed to start this blog, I suppose I should comment on the finale.  Based on the various articles and social media statuses I've read, the general consensus appears to be "distaste."

I'm not here to say that the finale ruined the show or that it improved the show either.  At the time I watched it, I found myself coming away with mild disappointment.  But I couldn't pinpoint why.  I wasn't upset that Barney and Robin got divorced or that the mother died or that Ted ended up back with Robin.  In fact, I found all of these plot points to be interesting and worthy of a finale.  And while I know that these are the three main issues that upset viewers the most, I must fall back on my mantra that all stories have the potential to be great.  It's all about how you tell it.

And as I began to think over the episode, I found more evidence of missteps than I expected to see in the finale of this show.  While I wouldn't call every episode perfect, creators Craig Thomas and Carter Bays usually know how to handle their most important episodes.  So why was this one leaving me feeling so...blah?

Over these past 24 hours, I've constructed exactly the kind of finale I had been hoping for in my head, and I found that, the episode actually hit on every plot point I wanted.  But it didn't go beyond those points.  So I present to you an outline of the finale I wish I had seen.

Act 1:

Ted says his goodbyes at the wedding, then remains in New York to be with the Mother

The episode began beautifully with this meta-textual twist on the standard sitcom goodbye trope.  Ted made it very clear that he did not want to remain in New York after the wedding, and so the whole gang got to have their tearful farewells.  Following this up with the reveal that he has stayed all because he had met the mother shortly after their goodbyes was a stroke of genius!  Not only does it set up what a significant force the Mother is in Ted's life, but it also shows that things don't always go according to plan.

However, the episode made it's first misstep by continuing to move forward, leaving the wedding far behind.  After a whole year spent at this wedding, I wish we had spent a little more time there.  Not because it's important to Ted's story, but because it's important to Robin's.

Act 2:

Barney and Robin get divorced

 A lot of people are upset that Barney and Robin's divorce "came out of nowhere."  But did it really?  We saw as recently as the previous episode that Robin is having major doubts (Major Doubts!) about her marriage to Barney.  They are so grand that she downright admitted that she still had feelings for Ted and felt as if she had missed a big chance.  This story is as much about Robin's journey as it is Ted's, and it is all the more important to see that Robin has changed since the pilot.

So, while we can leave in the scenes where Robin announces the divorce (upsetting Lily), we must also flashback to the night of the wedding.  We needed to see a scene that showed Robin's reaction after Ted left for good, maybe even one where she expresses this hesitation to Barney, causing their first fight as a married couple, showing that their marriage is starting off on a doomed foot.

Act 3:

Robin permanently leaves the group

Why is it important that we flashback to the wedding with a fight between Barney and Robin?  Well, if I may indulge a little bit, I believe that Robin (in the past) should make the decision to track down Ted, before he boards that train for Farhampton.  This would keep the idea alive that she is not destined to be with Barney, dispelling the notion that fairy tale endings are true.

Did you notice we got very few Ted and Mother scenes in the finale?  My attempt to fix that would be to explore what the TedRobin/The Mother relationship was actually like.  In the future, we learn that Robin leaves the group because she cannot stand to be around Ted and the Mother.  So we need to see scenes of Ted and the Mother being close in Robin's presence, so sickeningly sweet that she has no choice but to leave.

Act 4:

Barney becomes a father

While it was a shame to see Barney regress so much into his terrible original personality, you've got to admit that the scene where he meets his baby daughter was flawless.  I never truly bought Barney's love for Robin.  She never was the type to make him change his ways.  If anything, she encouraged his behavior, which is why he liked her so much to begin with.  Barney (as a character) deserved a fitting conclusion and I feel this was the best possible outcome for him.  (Also, we could have had one brief joke where Barney explains to his future daughter how he met her mother, rather than dehumanizing her with the "Number 31" name and forgetting all about her.)

In keeping with the added flashbacks to the wedding, couldn't you just see Barney drunk at his own wedding, hitting on the guests after Robin storms out?  If we're going to tear these two apart after spending all of this time getting them together, let's do it with a bang you know?

Also, let me take this moment to address the Marshall/Lily issue.  At this point in Ted's story, they've fulfilled their personal arcs.  We don't need to spend so much time with them (taking away screen time from Ted and the Mother).  If you recall the finale of Friends (I'm comparing this HIMYM to Friends, what of it?), the main focus was on whether Ross would be able to prevent Rachel from leaving New York for Paris so that they could finally be together.  And Phoebe, despite being one of the leads, only took a supporting role in the Ross/Rachel story.  And it worked because she made that story all the stronger.  She didn't need to have more babies and opportunities to become a judge.  Her story was over.  Marshall and Lily would have been better utilized as support for Ted/Robin/The Mother/Barney at this point.  In fact, their two points of poignancy were small compared to their bigger storylines.  Lily trying to get Robin to stay and Marshall telling the young crowd in the booth next to him that "a lot of stuff" happened in that bar were wonderful heart-melting moments.

Act 5:

The Mother dies/Ted meets the Mother under the Yellow Umbrella

Alright, here is where I really take my scapel.  I am assuming that the reason Ted re-proposes to the Mother for a quick wedding "on Thursday" is because they had learned by this point that the Mother was going to die.  Having Robin come back at this point worked for me, but again, I would have still liked to see how her presence affected the Ted/Mother relationship.  Between this moment and the ending, we never physically see Ted and Robin interact.  This is part of what made the ending feel so out of left field.  Do they still have that spark?

Ultimately, I would have pulled a tacky sitcom move and delayed the Ted/Mother meeting just a little bit longer and all because of one simple scene at the beginning of Season 3: the introduction of the Yellow Umbrella.

As viewers we first see the Yellow Umbrella supposedly at the eventual meeting of the mother, and it is blowing down a city street.  That never happens in this episode.  But it should have.  Here's how I see it playing out in the context of everything else.

- Ted works up the courage to talk to the Mother on the train platform

- Before he arrives, Robin shows up and explains that she just ran out on her wedding

- All three get on the train.  Ted sits with Robin and has a long talk about what it means to be in love and how love isn't planned and isn't solitary.  She may have loved him once, but now she loves Barney.  It is possible to love two people equally strongly at different times of your life.  See what I'm setting up here?

- Ted convinces Robin to take the train back because he is not her (only) one.  He and the Mother get off in New York, and he practically forgets all about her.

- Suddenly, a strong gust of wind blows the Mother's umbrella away and Ted chases after it.  During this part of the story, we see alternating moments of the Mother dying and Ted chasing the umbrella.  Narrator Ted discusses the feeling of the most important part of your life slipping away and sometimes you can make that grasp and sometimes you can't.

- Ted catches the umbrella and finally introduces himself.  And we learn at that moment why Ted and Tracy are meant to be together.

- And Ted finishes his story to the children, reminding them that love comes in many ways.  None of that hokey, previously filmed material that upset the tone of the show/episode.

Act 6:

Robin and Ted get back together 

Remember how I said that this story is as much Robin's as it is Ted's.  If Ted's journey was all about maturing and not making grand gestures and putting all of his faith in "fate," Robin's journey was about becoming what Ted once was: open to taking grand risks, if it meant finding love.  And, finally, as Future Ted is about to call it a night, Robin is the one to show up at his place to give him the Blue French Horn.

If I could only change one aspect of the episode, it would be this.  Ted running off after Robin again is old news that stomps all over the Mother's legacy.  But Robin coming to Ted?

Why, that would be legendary.