Its about the story arc.
I had occasion to tell a friend about my obsession with How I met Your Mother. I started on the show years ago, solely as an opportunity to enjoy Neil Patrick Harris being Legend—wait for it—Dary. I didn’t explain much of my obsession past the fact that I really do enjoy NPH. Tonight’s episode reminded me why I started watching to begin with.
How I Met Your Mother (HIMYM) is a 30 minute sitcom about a man who is desperately searching for happiness and companionship in New York City. It takes the group dynamics of ‘Friends’ and ups the level of humor and acting, and stuffs them into a bar to hang out, tell stories, and experience life. The central story premise is that the lead character, Ted Mosby, is in a room somewhere in the future talking to his two teenage kids about how he met their mother. Every episode is Ted telling a story about his life and his friends to his children. Season by season we see them sitting in this one spot as Ted recounts his life. Even within this frame story there are deeper frame stories. Often within an episode a character will launch into their own frame story and slip further back into history.
Through all this we learn that Ted Mosby is a sad sack of person. He is a hopeless romantic and quite eccentric. It is clear that is perfect woman is going to need to be someone who can identify with him as much as she puts up with him. Here’s the rub: we know he finds her. We know the show must have a happy ending. Or does it?
*********SPOILERS TO FOLLOW*******************
The fact is, we never even consider why Ted is telling his kids how he met mom. Yet in this one brief moment of honest pain we know everything we need to about the series and its deeper purpose. There is a moment in this newest episode where the mother and Ted are sitting at a table telling stories about a wedding they were both at. At one point Ted’s wife says something along the lines of ‘mothers will always show up at their daughter’s weddings.’ Ted immediately starts crying. Weeping, actually.
She quickly scolds him and changes the subject fast enough for him to forget his tears. However, those few seconds were enough to let the cat out of the bag. Now we know that mom is dying and every memory of her is about what she did for him and for them. This is a brilliant end to a show that everyone expected to end on a happy note. Now we are left to wonder once again how it ends. Will Ted find another love or is he doomed to forever be trapped in the past, content telling stories about what was to his children?
We are obsessed with happy endings in our culture. Not everything is supposed to be happy. I think for once, sitcoms got that part right.