User:Prism/2

"Last Forever" is the series finale of the television sitcom How I Met Your Mother. The episode serves as the twenty-third and twenty-fourth episodes of season nine; the episode's two parts were classified as separate episodes. It was written by series creators Carter Bays and Craig Thomas, and directed by Pamela Fryman. The series finale was first aired on CBS in the United States on March 31, 2014 when it was watched by 12.90 million viewers, becoming the series' most watched episode.

The episode sees Ted Mosby (Josh Radnor) finishing telling his daughter Penny (Lyndsy Fonseca) and son Luke (David Henrie) the story of how he met their late mother, Tracy (Cristin Milioti). Robin Scherbatsky (Cobie Smulders) and Barney Stinson (Neil Patrick Harris) divorce after three years of marriage while Marshall Eriksen (Jason Segel) and Lily Aldrin (Alyson Hanigan) are expecting their third child. After six years of mourning Tracy and gaining approval from Penny and Luke, Ted goes to Robin's apartment to ask her out on a date.

After stalling the writing process repeatedly, Bays and Thomas started writing the episode's script in February 2014 with inspiration from Cheers. Filming began in 2006 for the scenes of Penny and Luke, and concluded in early March 2014, with several scenes filmed being deleted for the broadcast. To match the emotional tone of the finale, the music selection was done carefully in order to match the emotional tone of the broadcast. Critical response to "Last Forever" was mixed, as was the reaction from fans and viewers. As a response to the criticism targeted to the episode, an alternate ending will be included in home video releases.

Plot
In a flashback to September 2005, Ted Mosby (Josh Radnor), Marshall Eriksen (Jason Segel), Lily Aldrin (Alyson Hannigan) and Barney Stinson (Neil Patrick Harris) accept Robin Scherbatsky (Cobie Smulders) into the group. Lily, who is optimistic about Robin's entrance, decrees that Ted and Barney cannot hook up with her unless they marry her, while Barney scoffs at the idea. Fast forwarding into May 2013, Ted discusses his move to Chicago with Marshall and Lily at Barney and Robin's wedding reception. Meanwhile, Barney recognizes the bass player as the woman (already introduced in previous episodes as the Mother, played by Cristin Milioti) who advised him to pursue Robin. When he hears she's single, he decides to introduce her to Ted, who declines the idea as he has to leave, in order to get ready to move the next day. Outside, the group sadly bids Ted farewell, and he does a final high-five with Barney, resulting in the two hurting each other and delaying his departure.

Later, Ted goes to the Farhampton train station, however his train is late. He tells an elderly lady about his weekend, to which she asks many questions about destiny. She looks up and spots the Mother standing nearby, but Ted insists he cannot talk to her because he's moving. The next night, Marshall and Lily are surprised to see Ted sitting at their table in MacLaren's. Ted justifies this by telling them that he met a girl, which they approve after finding out she is the bass player from the wedding. In 2015, Ted, now engaged, meets Robin and Barney at MacLaren's to discuss wedding ideas. As Robin goes to buy drinks, Barney admits their marriage is suffering because of Robin's rising career, which requires her to travel frequently. The Mother arrives and tells Ted they have to delay their wedding because she is pregnant. In May 2016, Ted and the Mother host a get-together with the rest of the gang. Marshall is miserable at his new job, having been forced to go back to being a corporate lawyer. Barney and Robin reveal that the constant traveling for Robin's work put a strain on them, and after three years of marriage, they got divorced. The mood turns positive when Barney realizes that Marshall and Lily are expecting their third child, but Lily is worried about the group breaking apart. Together they promise they will all be there for the big moments and remain friends.

Five months later, Marshall and Lily decide to move out of their old apartment, and put together a final Halloween roof party. As Robin shows up, she is sad to see Ted and the Mother with matching "hanging clad" outfits, alongside Barney who has returned to his womanizing ways. She decides to leave and confesses to Lily that she cannot be in the group anymore as she still has unresolved sentiments for Ted, which devastates Lily. Fast forwarding to 2018, Barney, Ted and Lily are sitting at their table in Maclaren's. Marshall arrives and announces he is replacing a retiring judge in Queens, which prompts a celebration. Later, as Barney attempts to score with a young woman, Lily reprehends him for regressing into his previous self right after divorcing Robin. Barney defends his behavior by telling her he knows that if he couldn't make a marriage to Robin work, he'll never make it work with anyone. In 2019, Ted, the Mother, Marshall and Lily are watching Robots vs. Wrestlers. A depressed Barney shows up to say that after having completed a "perfect month", the last woman he has slept with is pregnant with his child. Ted runs into Robin, who has become a famous news reporter and talk. Some months after, Marshall, Lily and Ted await the birth of Barney's child. While meeting his daughter, named Ellie, Barney is moved to tears, and this leads him to finally change his ways.

Five years after getting engaged, Ted re-proposes to the Mother, and they agree to marry the following Thursday. Before the wedding, the group reunites at MacLaren's, including Robin, and Marshall announces he is running for New York State Supreme Court. Lily gives a toast of praise to Ted for all he has been through, and future Ted admits during his narration that he always loved the Mother, up until the time when she died in 2014 due to terminal illness. Returning the story to May 2013, Ted gets the courage to introduce himself to the bass player, and she invites him underneath her yellow umbrella. The two engage in a conversation where she tells Ted she remembers him from when he accidentally taught her Economics class on his first day as a professor. Ted realizes that her umbrella is his umbrella that he left at Cindy's house, noticing that it has his initials on it. The woman, however, tells him that T.M. are her initials, and reveals her name, Tracy McConnell. Ted continues his conversation with Tracy as the train arrives. In 2030, future Ted finishes his story by saying "And that, kids, is how I met your mother." His daughter and son Penny and Luke (Lyndsy Fonseca and David Henrie) protest the point of the story, and deduce that it was actually about how he still has feelings for Robin. Ted initially denies this, but his children give their approval and recognize a connection between the two of them.

In the final scene, Ted goes to Robin's apartment with the blue french horn, as they smile at each other.

Production
The script of "Last Forever" was written by the series' creators Carter Bays and Craig Thomas. They started conceiving early drafts of the episode in 2006, nonetheless it was only finished eight years later. In January 2014, Bays and Thomas revealed it had yet to be finalized, although discussion on its content had already taken place. They noted, "We have a lot of ideas, and we're gathering ideas. [...] we know what happens in the final script, but we haven't had the 'Craig and Carter in a room' time yet to really figure it out. I think part of it is, we're putting it off, because it means this is really ending." Before writing it, Bays and Thomas watched the series finale ("One for the Road") of TV show Cheers "for inspiration". Thomas raved about it, denoting its mixture of humor and thoughtfulness. He stated that he "would be proud" if "Last Forever" was on the same level of quality as "One for the Road". The series' creators claimed that they were still delaying the process due to "sheer nostalgia" and their fear of reacting emotionally while writing it. The definitive script started being conceived in February.

Production of the episode ended on February 28, 2014 whereas filming was completed on March 1 of that year. Josh Radnor (Ted) said the last scene he took part in for the episode was on the train station, accompanied by Cristin Milioti (Tracy). He described his state of spirit after finishing it: "It was so complicated. It wasn't like I left the set and felt completely emotionally resolved about everything. It was a very complete experience the last two weeks, but I didn't know how to process it actually ending." Approximately 18 minutes of filmed scenes were cut from the episode in order to prevent exceeding the television runtime. After the original airing of the finale, Hannigan revealed by means of Twitter that 18 minutes of footage had been cut from the episode. Those scenes would reveal the mystery behind the "The Pineapple Incident", the woman who gave birth to Ellie and the conclusion of Lily and Marshall's bet over whether Ted would end up with Robin or not. Other scenes saw Robin—dressed up as Robin Sparkles—singing at her wedding reception and some years later, a meeting between Ted and Robin after her divorce.

The song selection for the finale was helmed by Andy Gowan—the music supervisor of How I Met Your Mother. The music was chosen carefully to match the emotional tone of certain scenes in the episode, which helped making the ending "less about love and more about companionship". The first pivotal moment that Gowan denoted—when Ted first meets Tracy and a sequence of moments between the two is displayed—was accompanied by English duo Everything but the Girl's acoustic cover of "Downtown Train" (originally performed by Tom Waits, who approved the series' use of it). This version had been considered by Bays and Gowan for previous episodes of the series, however it was never chosen. They finally opted to include it in the finale and Bays wrote the script keeping the song "in mind". Gowan commented:

"I thought it was gorgeous. It was so heartbreakingly beautiful; it played both sides of the story so well. When Ted and Tracy are under the umbrella together, they finally meet, and they're struck with this clarity, almost—it played that part with a sweet and romantic feeling. But as that sequence flips, and Ted is narrating about this life they had—the Christmas mornings with the kids, their happy life together—you turn the page and go into the more somber, dark part where they went through a really tough time when she got sick and passed away. [...] A song like that to capture two different sides of the coin in such a way, it was magic."

The Walkmen's song "Heaven" is played during the closing scene, when Ted goes to Robin's apartment with the blue french horn. Before the song was chosen, other plans were initially being considered. In November 2013, Bays and Thomas approached Gowan to tell him about a track they planned using for the climactic scene. It was an "older song" which the creators wanted Stephen Malkmus to cover and adapt in order to make it more contemporary-oriented. However, Gowan did not know how the series would end, and after discovering the plot twist, he abandoned the idea. They started to watch the available final footage repeatedly so they could find a song that conveyed the motifs of "optimism" and "energy". With that in mind, Gowan thought "Heaven" was adequate for the moment, as it reminded them of Ted talking to his children ("Our children will always hear / romantic tales of distant years"). It was ultimately picked for the scene.

Fans' theory
After the episode "Vesuvius" aired, rumors circulated the Internet, pointing towards a tragic conclusion in which Tracy would have died by the time Ted concluded the story or was dying. They were fueled by a particular scene in that episode where Ted hints that Tracy would not attend their daughter's hypothetical future wedding. When confronted with those rumors, Cristin Milioti—who plays Tracy—denied them and called them "insane". During a questions-and-answers session with fans, Thomas and Bays talked on the rumors: "It's really cool knowing people are invested enough to have theories about the show. Obviously we're not going to comment on it, but we very much appreciate and are grateful for the fact that our show is meriting so much discussion."

Reviews
Upon broadcast, "Last Forever" garnered polarizing responses from TV critics. Time's James Poniewozik deemed the finale a "clumsy, emotionally disjointed hour" and panned its ending. He also defended that the plot twist should not have been kept by the writers; the reviewer considered that the storyline itself did not fit the original nature of the sitcom. In spite of such criticism, Poniewozik praised the non-linear style of narrative, and highlighted the scenes where Barney first looks at Ellie and Ted meets Tracy. Margaret Lyons, reviewing the episode for Vulture, also praised the Barney and Ellie scene, however she particularly panned Robin and Barney's divorce after having the show focus on them for the entire season: "This is complete bullshit. I loved Robin and Ted as a couple early on, but I bought their eventual breakup. Then I got on board with Robin and Barney as a pair, partially because of the fun chemistry between [the actors], and partially because the show absolutely insisted we do so. [...] We were supposed to be happy for them, right? Wasn't that the point of the last 20 episodes?" Lyons also criticized Barney's character development, calling "patronizing" and "dismissive towards woman" the way that he reprehended the women in the bar. She concluded the review by dubbing Ted and Robin's ending as "a slap in the face" as it contradicted the show's premise. Philadelphia Daily News' Ellen Gray dismissed Tracy's short time on the series, describing Milioti's role as a "placeholder" and her death as a convenient cliché". Brian Moylan of The Guardian

Other reviews were generally positive. IGN's Max Nicholson gave it 9.7 points out of 10 and called it as a "beautiful end to a great show", while he praised its climactic scene. Writing for Entertainment Weekly, Katie Atkinson awarded the episode with a B+ grade. Atkinson did not think it was a "perfect ending" for the series, expressing dislike for the amount of storylines "crammed" in the episode, however she preferred the chosen ending over a "fairytale" closing for Ted and Tracy. Donna Bowman of The A.V. Club gave it the same grade, opining that the finale was a "strange ride, marvelous in some ways, confounding in others", despite thinking it might have been "too neat by half". Daniel Petty from The Denver Post recognized it probably was not the conclusion the series' fans expected, and described it as "realistic". The Orlando Sentinel writer Hal Boedeker characterized the episode as "lovely" while giving it three stars out of five. Alessandra Stanley of The New York Times considered it was experimenting on the sitcom genre, which resulted on it being "too clever by half" but "still wholly satisfying." TV columnist Brian Lowry reviewed the episode for Variety. He wrote: "The one-hour finale reinforced the sense that this was a show willing to take chances, and one that at its best deftly mixed melancholy and sentimentality with—finally—how to reach happily ever after." Verne Gay of Newsday opined that the 44 minutes were "bloated" with too much storylines, however he thought it was a "sweet, sentimental, good-hearted, and gentle" hour.

Ratings and public reaction
Although it received a lukewarm response by most critics, "Last Forever" enjoyed success at a ratings level. In total, the broadcast attracted 12.9 million American viewers, surpassing the number of those who watched AMC's Breaking Bad series finale. With a 5.3 rating for 18 to 49 year old viewers, it also got the best rating "by any episode of any comedy on television" in that category except for The Big Bang Theory, which also airs on CBS. That may have been the result of it being branded as a social networking mark by CBS, with its chief scheduler Kelly Kahl commenting: "We tried to 'event-ize' this episode. You had to watch, young people had to watch it live or be left behind on social media."

"Last Forever" received a decisively mixed response from its viewers. Most Twitter users felt dissapointed and angry because of Ted and Robin's assumingly resumed relationship. Online reactions included offenses and threats, as well as accusations of Tracy's death being a Deus ex machina-type plot device. YouTube user Ricardo Dylan created his own version of the finale, which quickly became viral and was later removed by copyright issues; Marah Eakin from The A.V. Club described it as "saccharine" however more adequate to the show's nature. A petition was created a few days later, which demanded CBS to rewrite and reshoot the episode. The initiative gained popularity as in four days it got more than 8,000 signatures. While appearing on Fuse's game show Billy on the Street, American actress Lindsay Lohan filmed a skit with the show host Billy Eichner. In the video, they are shown destroying a station wagon painted with catchphrases from the sitcom, while Lohan shouts that it was ending too soon.

Response from the staff
Bob Saget—who voiced Future Ted—responded positively to the finale, as did Radnor, who defended it during an interview with website Vulture. He expounded:

"I think if you're going do something new and bold and daring, you're going to upset some people and you’re gonna thrill others. I think it's better to do that than try to have some homogenized, safe ending that was never really what the show was. The show was always bold and daring and questioning assumptions and leading you where you thought you didn't want to go, but realized at the end that that was where you belonged."

Neil Patrick Harris commented on the finale: "Everyone was a little concerned in our midseason as to what the end game was. But once we were confident that they knew what they were doing, and then once we actually were told a few weeks before what the actual end game was, it justified the means. It justified all of the long play of our show. It's not, like, we end on the final scene and then they met. 'Good night, everybody.' It's deeper than that." Jason Segel (Marshall) billed it as unexpected, while Cobie Smulders (Robin) called it "beautiful" and "very true to life". Alyson Hannigan, who played Lily, revealed that she got very emotional while seeing the finale and stated that "the writers really wrapped it up the way the fans wanted it to be".

Alternate ending
A different finale for the series was produced, after Bays and Thomas realized that the footage recorded for the episode was sufficient to produce an alternate ending. It was described in advance as "very different" and as a "happy ending". It will be included in the home video releases of the series' ninth season as well as in a box set with all seasons.