How I Met Your Mother ending​

The popular sitcom How I Met Your Mother ended its run after 9 seasons and 208 episodes. Ever since the show's premiere, fans eagerly anticipated its ending, wondering how Ted Mosby met the mother of his children after giving his heart to many women over the seasons. The show concluded the storylines of all the five main characters in a two-part show finale. The ending given by the creators left fans divided.

The ending shows us how Ted and the mother met and what happens to them along with what happens to his friends- Barney, Marshall, Lily, and Robin. In the two-part finale, we see how Ted wraps up the long story he has been telling his kids in 2030. Along with the past, we get to see where all these characters are now and what they are doing in their lives. Let’s take a look at what happens in the finale of How I Met Your Mother.

Who is the mother?

Even though the mother was officially revealed in the Season 8 finale, she and Ted meet at the end of the show. Ted sees Tracy, the mother, for the first time at Barney and Robin’s wedding reception and is immediately drawn to her. Barney even tries to introduce them, believing they would be perfect for each other, but Ted has to leave for the train station as he plans to move to Chicago the next day.

However, fate had other plans. Ted waits for 45 minutes in the rain for the train and then sees Tracy standing under her yellow umbrella on the platform. He gathers the courage to say hello, and they quickly bond, realizing they have been connected in many ways over the years. As a result, Ted cancels his plan to move to Chicago and later tells Lily and Marshall that he met a girl who eventually became the mother of his children.

Two years later, Ted and Tracy get engaged. However, they postpone their wedding because Tracy is pregnant. It takes them seven years and two children before they finally marry in 2020. However, their time together was short, as Tracy passed away in 2024 due to an illness which was not revealed.

What happens to Lily and Marshall?

During Robin and Barney’s wedding, Marshall declines a judgeship offer, which was his dream job, so that Lily can pursue her dream of being an art consultant in Rome. However, her job lasted only a year, and by 2016, they were back in New York, expecting their third child. That October, they hosted a final Halloween party before moving out of their apartment. In 2018, Marshall finally becomes a judge, and by 2020, he runs for State Supreme Court. In Season 9, episode 18, it was revealed in a flash-forward that Marshall wins the election.

What happens to Robin and Barney?

Three years after Robin and Barney's wedding, they get divorced. Robin's career at World Wide News grows, and she travels the world. As her career grows, she gets busy, which creates problems in their marriage. After their divorce, Robin focuses on her career, and Barney returns to his old playboy lifestyle until one of his hookups gets pregnant. In 2020, he becomes a father to a daughter named Ellie.

It was an emotional moment for him as he held his baby and told her, “You are the love of my life. Everything I have and everything I am is yours forever.” On the other hand, Robin struggles to stay close to the group because of Barney and Ted, who is in a serious relationship with Tracy. She confesses to Lily that she should’ve ended up with Ted and distances herself from the group. However, she later reconnects when she runs into Ted and his daughter, Penny. Eventually, she attends Ted and Tracy's wedding, bringing the group back together.

What happens to Ted?

In the end, Ted finishes his story by saying, “And that, kids, is how I met your mother,” his kids don’t believe it. They realized that his story was more about his feelings for Aunt Robin than about how he met their mother. Since their mother passed away six years ago and Robin makes him happy, they tell him to go for it. Ted takes their advice. He goes to Robin’s apartment, and just like in the first episode, she opens her window to see him standing outside, holding the blue French horn from their first date. The show ends with a hint that Ted and Robin finally get back together.

Also read: Cast of How I Met Your Mother