Ted steals a blue French horn in the first episode of How I Met Your Mother. By the time he tells his kids that the woman he stole it for is their Aunt Robin, he’s already spent a whole episode answering a question they didn’t ask.
For years, that was the joke. Of course Ted would start too early. He’d tell you about the goat before he’d tell you about your mother. But once you know how the show ends, it’s worth asking why he takes so long to get to her.
Spoilers for the full series below.
The 45 days Ted wants back
In “The Time Travelers,” Ted imagines leaving MacLaren’s, running across the city and knocking on the door of a woman he won’t meet for another 45 days. When the episode aired, we hadn’t met Tracy yet either. It was easy to hear it as a lonely guy wishing he could skip ahead to the good part.
Listen to who’s asking, though. It’s the older Ted. He already knows what happens when she opens the door, how much time they get together, and how little of it will feel like enough. Forty-five days is such a specific thing to want. He knows exactly when they met. He’s counted back.
It changed how I hear all those detours. Every time Ted tells another story about the bar or takes us through another breakup, Tracy is still someone he’s about to meet. He can spend as long as he likes in that part of his life. His kids can roll their eyes. He’s got one more story.
The part of the finale I keep coming back to
I get why people felt shortchanged by the ending. We waited eight seasons to see Tracy’s face, and the finale barely gives us time to sit with her death. The episode I keep going back to is “How Your Mother Met Me,” where Tracy gets to tell her side.
Before she meets Ted, Tracy steps outside to talk to Max, the boyfriend she lost years earlier. She asks if it’s okay to move on. Later, she sits on a balcony with a ukulele and sings “La Vie en Rose.” Ted can hear her from next door. He has no idea what she’s just had to say out loud to get there.
I made this video because I wanted to put that balcony scene next to the couch in the finale. Tracy asks someone who can’t answer. Ted spends nine seasons talking to two people who can.