How I Met Your Mother - Season Finale Recap: How We (FINALLY) Met the Mother

Credit: CBS

Recap and review of How I Met Your Mother - Season Finale - Something New:

Well, after eight season, it's finally happened. Eight seasons of teases, delays, dead-end relationships, hook-ups and Robin -- always, eternally Robin. The romantic journey of Ted Mosby (Josh Radnor) has long been building to the moment where he meets The Mother (hell, it's right there in the title of the series), yet it never really occurred to me that we would meet The Mother before Ted. But that's exactly what happened, and I'm still trying to shake off the shock of it long enough to process how I feel. The problem with building up the solution to a mystery over the course of eight seasons is that the reveal will ultimately be underwhelming for some, even if it's far too early to actually assess whether Cristin Milioti (from the Broadway musical Once) is the right choice for the role of The Mother. We don't know what her chemistry with Josh Radnor will be, nor do we really know what qualities she brings to the table that compelled the casting directors to give her the role -- a role that could make or break the series for some longtime fans. Because, make no mistake, having seen the vitriol Lost caught for the twist of its last season, there's a very real likelihood that an underwhelming "big reveal," for a series built on such a plot conceit, could retroactively ruin the show for some people. And while that's not an attitude I agree with at all (I really don't see how The Mother not being the person you wanted her to be somehow renders the high points of the last eight seasons moot), I can't pretend as though that's not an attitude that's prevalent. And so here we are, at the last season finale of How I Met Your Mother before the show kicks off its final season, and what we're left to wonder is -- well, have we really come all that far?

Ultimately, I'd argue that we have, even though much of "Something New" treads on familiar territory. For instance, we're back on the Ted and Robin (Cobie Smulders) train, as Ted reveals to Lily (Alyson Hannigan) that he's moving to Chicago, and she quickly surmises that it's because he's still in love with Robin and can't bear to see the love of his life married to his best friend. Whenever the show teases that it might finally be past the Ted-Robin romance, it invariably brings that story back around, and while it's frequently annoyed me in the past, it didn't really annoy me here. This is part of Ted's journey toward The Mother, and he can't really get there without definitively closing the door on Robin. While he's had that door closed on him, it wasn't really his choice, and until he decides that Robin is no longer what he wants out of life, Ted will never be ready for The Mother. It's a fundamental part of his endgame, as a character, and it works out pretty well here, as Ted's storyline this week plays into his overly romantic sensibilities.

Ted recounts to Lily the confrontation he had with Robin last week, having blown off a meeting to help her search for her buried locket. Ted realizes that there's still a part of him that would drop everything to run to her side and try to make her happy. "If I could open a vein and bleed out that locket for her, I would," Ted says, in a line that probably wasn't meant to come off as disturbingly as it did. But then, Ted's love always bordered on obsession, so it doesn't surprise me that he'd get a little dark here. Of course, Lily inadvertently feeds into Ted's romantic grandeur, as she reveals to him that she actually knows where the locket is: while getting drunk before her trip to Japan nearly five years ago, lamenting the fact that Ted won't marry her, Robin took Lily out to Central Park to help dig for the locket. Robin found the locket (smuggled in her grandmother's butt, no less! A Pulp Fiction homage that totally landed) and was convinced by Lily to put it in safe keeping. The small box that Lily convinced Robin to store it in turns out to be a box that is sitting on Ted's desk back at his apartment. And like that, Ted gets the idea for the ultimate, mind-blowing wedding gift. Ted's exuberance once again borders on creepiness, prompting Lily to warn Ted to be careful. It seems he's setting himself up for another heartbreak, and the fact that he doesn't seem to recognize this further illustrates how ill-prepared he is for The Mother, as Robin represents that final hurdle standing in his way. The sooner he realizes that not every grand romantic gesture can over as well as a Blue French Horn, the better off he'll be.

There are two largely comedic subplots this week, the first involving Marshall (Jason Segel), who takes Baby Marvin to visit his mother in Minnesota, as she's flipping out at the prospect of Marshall and Lily moving across the world with her grandson. The midwestern tropes whenever the Eriksens are brought into the story (the food they eat, their forceful suggestiveness, their sense of humor, and the fact that they're all huge) are as funny as ever, yet the story exists to introduce a new wrinkle into the "moving to Rome" arc, as Marshall gets the call that he's being offered a spot on the judges' bench. He tries to cut a deal to accept the judges' position after he returns from Italy, but it's a take it or leave it offer. Marshall, faced with passing on what could be a once in a lifetime opportunity to realize his career goals, accepts the job. Now all that remains is to break the news to Lily. We leave Marshall on that cliffhanger, as he can't bring himself to tell Lily over the phone, telling his brother that "This is face-to-face news," echoing his earlier rationale for why he hadn't told his mother that he and Lily were moving to Rome. The story is interesting for how it further illustrates the fracturing of the group, as the business of life continues to shape their world in ways they never expected.

Credit: CBS

The second subplot is played for straight comedy, as Barney (Neil Patrick Harris) and Robin encounter a couple out at dinner, a woman named Krirsten (Casey Wilson) and her boyfriend of seven years (Keegan-Michael Key). The couple gets on Barney and Robin's nerves by requesting they put out their cigars and then put the bags containing them away, only to then take Barney and Robin's signature table. Barney and Robin take the vendetta far too seriously, making it their mission to break up the couple. There are some amusing bits here, particularly Barney getting continually rammed by the door to the kitchen, a result of his new, crappy seating arrangement. Also, Barney and Robin totally nailing what Krirsten (a name they rag on for most of the night) and her boyfriend are talking about is terrific (politics, podcasts, French). This all culminates in Robin's surefire breakup gambit, in which she places her engagement ring in a champagne glass and has it sent over to their table, leading Krirsten to believe that her boyfriend is proposing to her. However, the resulting argument, after he denies having any intention of marrying her, sends their relationship into disarray. Barney and Robin wonder if, perhaps, they might have gone too far, only for Krirsten and her boyfriend to approach the couple later to thank them: the fight they caused led to Kristen and her boyfriend calling their therapist, working through their lingering issues, and deciding to get engaged. And with that, we launch into the final cycle of the episode, as a montage kicks off the happenings 56 hours before the wedding...

Barney and Robin are lovey-dovey as they hop in a limo, Marshall returns from Minnesota with Baby Marvin while wondering how he's going to break the news about his job offer to Lily. Lily, meanwhile, contemplates her future as Ted wonders whether he's doing the right thing or not, relative to his overtly romantic wedding gift. They chat in the car together about Chicago, as we cut to a pair of female legs -- it's a woman carrying a bass and a yellow umbrella as she approaches the ticket window for the train. And then it happens. We see The Mother's face.

Credit: CBS

She sweetly asks for a ticket to Farhampton, and after eight seasons, everyone can now shut up about when we're going to meet this woman Future Ted keeps talking about.

I'm sure a lot of people will hate this reveal, for any number of reasons: she's not some big, recognizable name actress, she isn't blonde, she isn't demonstrably prettier than Ted's previous exes (an actual criticism I read on Twitter in the minutes after the episode aired), she doesn't have personality (a weird critique, since we saw maybe four seconds of her), she isn't Robin, etc. But I kind of loved it, just for the sheer ambition of it. I doubt many people were expecting a full-on reveal, and whether it's the Mother you wanted or not, this is still a huge moment for the series. We met The Mother. Seriously, how is this anything but awesome? I'm somewhat miffed that we'll only get one season in which to develop this romance directly, but I'm already looking forward to the premiere, and I can't think of many times a sitcom has had that effect on me.