Do Ted and Robin belong together? It's a question the show has been asking since almost it's very first episode, and after building up to the two of them getting together in the first season, it builds to the two of them falling apart here. Sure, it's a question the show would wrestle with (almost interminably) in later years as well, but this episode felt like the culmination of the Ted-Robin story the show had been telling over two seasons.
There's some deft choices in terms of structure to the episode. After giving Marshall and Lily the spotlight in "Something Borrowed", the episode mostly sidelines the two of them, though still manages to work in some solid, well-observed humor about it being difficult to eat while being greeted and hugged by everyone at your wedding. And it even throws in a nice grace note for the pair, with Marshall beaming as he looks back and realizes that the macarena-ing, vomiting woman with him at a fast food restaurant can officially be called his wife.
But the main event is the story of what happened to Ted and Robin (which, unbeknownst to Barney), took place two episodes ago. In true HIMYM style, the story is told in flashback, with the various fakeouts, and Barney's reaction to them, livening up what is otherwise one of the more mature and serious episodes a fairly silly show has offered.
But the conversation between Robin and Ted, the fight, and its resolution feel very trenchant and real. As much as Ted and Robin get along with one another, they ultimately want different things. Robin doesn't want to have kids in Argentina, and Ted doesn't want to have kids in Argentina. That's the core of it, and as Ted points out, they can keep going and enjoy being together despite the fact that they know their relationship has an expiration date, or they can break up and try to find someone who wants the same things out of life that they do.
And beyond that, it feels real in terms of how couple fight and resolve their differences and argue and make up and reach decisions. The moment where Robin tells Ted that if she ever wanted to have someone's babies, it would be his is so sweet and so sad, sweet because she really means it that if anyone could cross that threshold with her, it would be him, but it's sad because that's not what she wants, and it's the kind thing you say with resignation when you realize a relationship is doomed, no matter how much two people love each other.
And it feels real in the way that, faced with this crisis, Ted and Robin make these grand plans. They plan to move to Argentina, Ted handwaves his concerns about having kids in the city, Robin feels like she can make it work. But they remember the plan to move in together, that taking their relationship to a level of seriousness beyond where they were barely worked for half an hour. They were, as Robin put it, "all talk", and it's a frank and mature realiziation that while Ted and Robin work as two people who love each other in their separate lives, they don't work together as two people sharing one life together. They realized that before, and contrary to Ted's usual M.O., a grand gesture or hasty decision isn't going to change that fact.
So they break up. And Robin's tears during Lily's vows make more sense. And it's sad to have them reach that point, but also real. It points the two of them in different directions (with enough time for an adorable Barney excited to be a wingman once more), but shows what they understand about their relationship with one another. For however romcom-esque Ted and Robin's coming together was, the reason and the way they broke apart is one of the truest and realest things the show has offered as counterpoint.
And in the end we're left with the reverse of last season. Marshall and Lily are together once more, filled with joy and mirth at their future, and Ted and Robin are apart. It's a fine parallel, and a sign of the deft way in which How I Met Your Mother could move its characters around the chessboard in a way that felt touching, heartbreaking, funny, and true.
Review by Andrew BloomVIP 9BlockedParentSpoilers2016-02-27T22:55:25Z
Do Ted and Robin belong together? It's a question the show has been asking since almost it's very first episode, and after building up to the two of them getting together in the first season, it builds to the two of them falling apart here. Sure, it's a question the show would wrestle with (almost interminably) in later years as well, but this episode felt like the culmination of the Ted-Robin story the show had been telling over two seasons.
There's some deft choices in terms of structure to the episode. After giving Marshall and Lily the spotlight in "Something Borrowed", the episode mostly sidelines the two of them, though still manages to work in some solid, well-observed humor about it being difficult to eat while being greeted and hugged by everyone at your wedding. And it even throws in a nice grace note for the pair, with Marshall beaming as he looks back and realizes that the macarena-ing, vomiting woman with him at a fast food restaurant can officially be called his wife.
But the main event is the story of what happened to Ted and Robin (which, unbeknownst to Barney), took place two episodes ago. In true HIMYM style, the story is told in flashback, with the various fakeouts, and Barney's reaction to them, livening up what is otherwise one of the more mature and serious episodes a fairly silly show has offered.
But the conversation between Robin and Ted, the fight, and its resolution feel very trenchant and real. As much as Ted and Robin get along with one another, they ultimately want different things. Robin doesn't want to have kids in Argentina, and Ted doesn't want to have kids in Argentina. That's the core of it, and as Ted points out, they can keep going and enjoy being together despite the fact that they know their relationship has an expiration date, or they can break up and try to find someone who wants the same things out of life that they do.
And beyond that, it feels real in terms of how couple fight and resolve their differences and argue and make up and reach decisions. The moment where Robin tells Ted that if she ever wanted to have someone's babies, it would be his is so sweet and so sad, sweet because she really means it that if anyone could cross that threshold with her, it would be him, but it's sad because that's not what she wants, and it's the kind thing you say with resignation when you realize a relationship is doomed, no matter how much two people love each other.
And it feels real in the way that, faced with this crisis, Ted and Robin make these grand plans. They plan to move to Argentina, Ted handwaves his concerns about having kids in the city, Robin feels like she can make it work. But they remember the plan to move in together, that taking their relationship to a level of seriousness beyond where they were barely worked for half an hour. They were, as Robin put it, "all talk", and it's a frank and mature realiziation that while Ted and Robin work as two people who love each other in their separate lives, they don't work together as two people sharing one life together. They realized that before, and contrary to Ted's usual M.O., a grand gesture or hasty decision isn't going to change that fact.
So they break up. And Robin's tears during Lily's vows make more sense. And it's sad to have them reach that point, but also real. It points the two of them in different directions (with enough time for an adorable Barney excited to be a wingman once more), but shows what they understand about their relationship with one another. For however romcom-esque Ted and Robin's coming together was, the reason and the way they broke apart is one of the truest and realest things the show has offered as counterpoint.
And in the end we're left with the reverse of last season. Marshall and Lily are together once more, filled with joy and mirth at their future, and Ted and Robin are apart. It's a fine parallel, and a sign of the deft way in which How I Met Your Mother could move its characters around the chessboard in a way that felt touching, heartbreaking, funny, and true.