History Recap / HowIMetYourMotherS9E24LastForeverPartTwo

* FootDraggingFiance: By accident, Ted and The Mother end up as this by accident, because of a few surprise pregnancies.

* BreakUpMakeUpScenario: Robin finally returns to the group for Ted and The Mother's wedding. The fact that she has her dogs again implies she is done with her globe-trotting. There is no mention of her being a bullfighter.

In the last flashback, it returns to the train platform. Ted approaches The Mother. She recognizes him as the Best Man from Robin and Barney's wedding, and invites him under the yellow umbrella. He compliments her on the show, then recognizes her as Cindy's roommate, while she calls him "the professor". She remembers the first college class he taught. He realizes the umbrella is ''his'' umbrella. He left it at Cindy's place once. She claims it's ''her'' umbrella, and remembers buying it. They both recognize the initials on it as theirs, revealing The Mother's name as Tracy [=McConnell=]. They playfully argue over ownership of the umbrella...until she admits she once lost the umbrella at a club on a St. Patrick's Day. That's when Ted found the umbrella. As Ted and Tracy come to a realization, Tracy mentions it's funny how sometimes you just find things.

* SplitAndReunion:
** Robin finally returning to the group for Ted and The Mother's wedding.
** The fact that Robin has her dogs again implies she is done with her globe-trotting. There is no mention of her being a bullfighter.

--->'''Tracy:''' Oh, that's a pretty name. What is that, French?

** Barney's promiscuous ways catch up with him and a one-night stand ends up pregnant, leaving him with a daughter to take care of.
** Close friends drift apart because of life circumstances, no longer as close as they were in their youth.

* IllGirl: The original ending revealed The Mother to be this. The sickness (never specified but universally believed by the fans to be cancer) is what ultimately killed her.

** The Mother is revealed to have died in 2024 from an unstated illness (Fanon stating it to likely be cancer), leaving Ted to raise their children alone.

In the last flashback, it returns to the train platform. Ted approaches The Mother. She recognizes him as the Best Man from Robin and Barney's wedding, and invites him under the yellow umbrella. He compliments her on the show, then recognizes her as Cindy's roommate, while she calls him "the professor". She remembers the first college class he taught. He realizes the umbrella is ''his'' umbrella. He left it at Cindy's place once. She claims it's ''her'' umbrella, and remembers buying it. They both recognize the initials on it as theirs, revealing The Mother's name as Tracy [=McConnell=]. They playfully argue over ownership of the umbrella...until she admits she once lost the umbrella at a club on a St. Patrick's Day. That's when Ted found the umbrella. As Ted and Tracy come to a realization, Tracy mentions it's funny how some times you just find things.

In the alternate ending, which begins with Lily's wedding toast on Ted's long and difficult road to happiness. A voice over by Future Ted says that Lily was only half right: while it was long (possibily really, really long), it was not difficult - in life, things happened. Things will fall apart, things will get fixed (Here, Barney and Robin are shown smiling at each other, a possible suggestion that they have reconciled). And when Ted wakes up next to Tracy everyday (hinting that Tracy is still alive in 2030), he is amazed by how easy everything was. He recounts, through flashbacks to all the events in the series that led to their meeting. Following this, the sequence of the actual meeting is shown. When Ted and Tracy say "Hi", Future Ted says, "See? Easy. And that, kids, is how I met your mother."

** The theory that the mother was DeadAllAlong was also prevelant in the buildup to the final episode, helped by some fairly heavy-handed {{foreshadowing}} of same.

* StatuteOfLimitations: Ted mentions to his fiancee Tracy in a scene from the future that the statute of limitations for marriage proposals was five years, so he proceeds to re-propose right there.

* {{Deconstruction}}: The entire finale can easily be viewed as a deconstruction of a HUGE number of tropes, from tv shows to character tropes to audience reactions. It is so biting with how RealityEnsues that it is a main reason why the GrandFinale was so controversial, all along the irony of the episode name "Last Forever." A brief rundown goes as follows:

* RealityEnsues: Several examples in the finale.
** Barney and Robin, despite loving each other, find they are simply incompatible in their life goals and divorce.
** Barney's promiscuous ways catch up with him and a one-night stand ends up pregnant, leaving him with a daughter to take care of.
** Close friends drift apart because of life circumstances, no longer as close as they were in their youth.
** The Mother is revealed to have died in 2024 from an unstated illness (Fanon stating it to likely be cancer), leaving Ted to raise their children alone.

* WhamEpisode: In this series finale, RealityEnsues as the gang shifts apart, Tracy aka The Mother is revealed to be dead which opens the opportunity for Ted and Robin to get together after Ted mourns for six years, and Barney is blessed with the unexpected gift of a daughter.