How I Met Your Mother - "Something Old" - Review

We’ve been led to believe that How I Met Your Mother takes place in a universe where fate and destiny exist and a whole manner of strange inexplicable things occasionally occur. Part of this is due to Ted being our narrator, but some of it can’t really be explained away no matter how heightened Ted has made this story he’s providing us.

Ted has been like a dutiful Job, worshiping at the altar of fate, and as the series has gone along we’ve watched his belief in faith break down. And that’s a little heartbreaking. In that last scene where skeptic Robin has been converted by Ted and Ted has sworn off fate, there’s something truly sad about it all. HIMYM probably shouldn’t have gone on this long, but it’s handling the way people would respond to their circumstances in older age still fairly well.

And yet as the rain falls down, in such a way reminiscent to the season one finale, we can’t help but feel that Ted was meant to swear off his big meeting to come and comfort Robin. Perhaps this is fate. And it proves to be a rather sad and sweet scene that makes up for an episode that on the whole is merely spinning plot wheels to kill time until the wedding. 

Robin also acknowledges one of the season’s big flaws. She admits that she’s hesitant about her marriage to Barney; the way he continues to act completely like a man child distant from his emotions has her deeply concerned about the engagement. The connection, on top of this, paralleling Barney’s behavior to her father (a point made very apparent by Barney and her dad competing at laser tag) makes this moment all the sadder and more touching. 

Robin and Ted know that they aren’t meant for eachother (heck, hasn’t the universe sabotaged them enough times already), and yet the rain comes down as if as sign from the universe that in that moment they need eachother, may be even belong together ... if only until the storm passes.