'How I Met Your Mother' Finale Answers One of the Series' Biggest Questions

CBS

Almost two years after first offering a glimpse at Barney's (Neil Patrick Harris) wedding, somewhere in the increasingly near future, How I Met Your Mother wrapped up its seventh season by revealing the identity of his bride.

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And the revelation did not come easily. The recent season found the show's eternal bachelor becoming something of a serial monogamist, spending the first half with Nora (Nazanin Boniadi) and the second half with Quinn (Becki Newton). Along the way, he seemed to exhaust his last shot with former flame Robin (Cobie Smulders).

Barney's uncertain future wasn't the only big event of the episode. Marshall (Jason Segel) and Lily (Alyson Hannigan) fulfilled the series' promise of a birth in the finale. The duo welcomed Marvin "Wait For It" Eriksen in the end of the first half-hour, leaving more than enough time for the series' various romantic quandaries.

How I Met Your Mother is, after all, still about Ted's (Josh Radnor) search for his own wife. Finally clearing the air with Robin during Lily's labor, the rekindled friends decide together that Ted needs to reach out to Victoria (Ashley Williams). Ted's ex-girlfriend from the first season had reappeared in earlier this year, but her return was short-lived. The two met again, at MacLaren's, during what was supposed to be the cupcake baker's own wedding.

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So while Victoria, wearing a wedding dress, suggests they run off together, Ted offers up some quintessential Mosby waffling. His own experience being left at the alter inspires him to drive her back to the church, but at the last minute, he changes his mind, and the two literally drive off into the sunset.

Is she the mother? Not likely.

What does seem clear is that the show is finally resolved to let fans of Barney and Robin's short-lived romance have their happy ending. Despite getting engaged to Quinn in the episode, another flash forward to Barney's nuptials showed Robin in a wedding dress.

It's a fitting end for a season that saw her character go through some of the series' darkest storylines and a weight off the shoulders of fans who've wanted the couple to reunite since they broke up more than two seasons ago.