How I Met Your Mother’s most iconic and worst episodes have one thing in common: The mother

How I Met Your Mother (HIMYM) is one of the long-running shows, and it had its share of standout episodes — and its share of missteps. But what's unique about HIMYM is that its best and worst episodes center on the same person: Tracy McConnell, the titular "Mother."

The series mostly follows Ted Mosby, played by Josh Radnor. He is shown as a hopeless romantic dealing with love and heartbreak in New York City while narrating his search for the kids' mother and the love of his life. But in hindsight, Ted's journey, while frustrating and funny at the same time, is rarely Tracy's story. She is the destination of Ted's story, the emotional payoff when all of Ted's heartbreak makes sense.

But in the show, Tracy felt like a figure that exists in imagination, is Ted's wife and his kids' mother. As a result, viewers never got to have a real connection with the actual person the show is technically about. The most rated and least liked episodes of How I Met Your Mother are in season 9. "How Your Mother Met Me" is rated 9.5/10 on IMDb, while the worst is "Last Forever: Part Two," which is rated 5.5/10. Read on to know more.

Here is how How I Met Your Mother’s most iconic and worst episodes have the "mother" in common

The best episode, as mentioned, is “How Your Mother Met Me,” which offers a rich, emotional backstory for Tracy and builds real narrative weight around her character. She crosses paths with all of the primary characters except for Ted, but this also allows for them to have a proper meeting later. The worst episode is “Last Forever: Part Two,” which abruptly kills Tracy off, undermining the emotional investment built up around her. This shows that her character was the most vital yet mishandled one, and the ending of the show was far from being Legen... (wait for it)... dary.

The idea of the best episodes of How I Met Your Mother doesn’t feature Tracy at first. Instead, they build the idea of her. Episodes like "The Time Travelers" or "Right Place, Right Time" beautifully showcase Ted’s heartbreak and hope, making us ache for him to find the right person. These episodes, though never showing her directly, are filled with anticipation and are powered by her absence.

Why did one episode work so well while the other failed in How I Met Your Mother?

Tracy appears in season 8 and takes the central role in season 9; she becomes what the fans hoped for. The best-rated episode perfectly shows Tracy's life parallel to Ted's, which humanizes her and makes her more than just a plot twist.

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While the other episode failed because the show mishandled her fate. In a rushed montage, Tracy is killed, and the show is back to Robin, like it was 9 years ago. This felt like an emotional betrayal of something the show built throughout the seasons since the start. Tracy wasn’t just the mother — she had become the emotional core of the story. To suddenly erase her and reframe the narrative as “Ted always loved Robin” left many fans feeling cheated.

The real tragedy is that Tracy was the glue the show didn’t realize it needed until the very end. While How I Met Your Mother is technically about Ted's journey, Tracy is the story’s emotional destination.

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