How I Met Your Mother – Live-action comedy; created by Carter Bays and Craig Thomas; rated TV-14; airs Mondays on CBS; 60 minutes; “End of the Aisle” (original airdate, March 24, 2014). Written by Carter Bays and Craig Thomas (8 out of 10).
Aside from Ted’s meeting with the actual Mother, tonight gave us one of the moments we have been waiting for all season — Robin and Barney’s wedding. It’s been a tumultuous journey, and I’m happy to say that except for a few hiccups, it all paid off and gave us the penultimate episode we deserve.
Full spoilers to follow.
With the wedding less than an hour away, Robin confides in Ted that not only does she have cold feet, but she’s beginning to think that maybe Barney never was the right one for her in the first place. After all, even the best moments of their relationship have been grounded on lies and misdirection, and who wants to base their future on something as fleeting and unstable as that? Not to mention that she never found the locket that she had been looking for at the end of season eight. Ted, of course, went to the ends of the earth (and the bottom of a pond) to get it for her, and you can see the struggle in him not to be the shining, white knight and save the damsel in distress. Thankfully, Ted decides to give the locket to Barney who then gets to present it to Robin who immediately saw through the ruse and called Ted out on the fact that he had actually found it for her. Again, relying on the fact that their whole relationship has been built on nothing more than dishonesty, Robin declares that Ted always has been the right one for her, and that she’s marrying the wrong man.
What made me extremely happy here is that Ted immediately shoots her down and says that while both of them love each other, neither are truly IN love with each other anymore, and that she needs to marry Barney. As I’ve stated before numerous times in previous reviews, I was really worried that the writers would bring back the Ted/Robin relationship in one of the last episodes, and I was relieved that they finally killed that subplot and did it the right way. We all knew that it would end with Robin and Barney getting married, but I was worried that Ted would pull something during the “speak now or forever hold your peace” part of the wedding that would put a damper on the whole event and turn Ted into the biggest douche in the universe. But no. The issue was put to bed a few weeks back when Ted finally let go of her, and the series is better for how it turned out.
Robin’s fleeing Ted only to literally run into the Mother set up a really sweet moment wherein the Mother helps Robin regain her senses and allows Barney (who had been struggling with what to put into his wedding vows) to make the one promise to Robin she had to have from him — to always be honest with her, no matter what, for the rest of their lives. His admission that Ted actually found the locket sealed the deal and sent the happy couple to their beautiful wedding (complete with ring bear!).
The only part of the episode that really fell flat was Marshall and Lily’s realizing their own wedding vows had been too perfect, and that they had broken most, if not all of them, as they aged, became comfortable around each other and had a baby. Sure, the end of their renewing their vows was touching, but it seemed more like a bunch of throwaway gags that just didn’t add to the story or the funny.
All in all, it was a wonderful and touching episode that delivered the perfect wedding we’ve been looking forward to. We got the ring bear, the final slap, Robin walking down the aisle to “Sandcastles in the Sand” and another wonderful moment with the Mother. From the flash forwards we’ve seen of when Ted does finally meet the Mother, it’s obvious something isn’t going to go too well during the reception, but we’ll have to wait until the series finale next week to see what happens.
The wedding, though, was definitely legendary.