Robin Scherbatsky

Robin Scherbatsky
How I Met Your Mother character
First appearance "Pilot"
Last appearance "Last Forever"
Created by Carter Bays
Craig Thomas
Portrayed by Cobie Smulders
Information
Nickname(s) Aunt Robin, Bus Lady, Scherbatsky, RoRo, R.J., R Train
Aliases Robin Sparkles, Robin Daggers, Night Falcon
Gender Female
Occupation Journalist, News Anchor, and Ex. Canadian Pop Star
Family Robin Charles Scherbatsky, Sr. (father)
Geneviève Scherbatsky (mother)
Katie Scherbatsky (sister)
Spouse(s) Barney Stinson 2013-2016; divorced
Significant other(s) Simon Tremblay (ex-boyfriend)
Gael (ex-boyfriend)
Don Frank (ex-boyfriend)
Ted Mosby (boyfriend)
Kevin Venkataraghavan (ex-fiancé)
Nick Podarutti (ex-boyfriend)
Relatives Larry (cousin)
Vince (cousin)
Ruth (cousin)
Unnamed grandmother
Mitch (cousin)
Renee (cousin)
Renee's adopted parents (grandparents)
Renee's biological parents (grandparents)
Unnamed great-grandparents
Unnamed grandfather
Nationality Canadian

Robin Charles Scherbatsky, Jr. is a fictional character created by Carter Bays and Craig Thomas for the CBS television series How I Met Your Mother, portrayed by Canadian actress Cobie Smulders. Robin is the on-again, off-again love interest of Barney Stinson (Neil Patrick Harris) and Ted Mosby (Josh Radnor), and a close friend to Lily Aldrin (Alyson Hannigan) and Marshall Eriksen (Jason Segel).

Development

Show creators Carter Bays and Craig Thomas always intended for Robin Scherbatsky not to be the mother of Ted Mosby's children, stating that the show is about how "Ted meets the perfect woman, and it’s [still] not his final love story." In various interviews, Bays and Thomas said that "a pretty famous actress"[1] turned down the role of Robin; they revealed in February 2014 that Jennifer Love Hewitt had turned down the part.[2] They then cast Cobie Smulders, an unknown. Bays and Thomas later said: "Thank God we did for a million reasons... when Ted’s seeing her for the first time, America’s seeing her for the first time — the intriguingness of that propelled the show going forward and kept the show alive."[1]

Early life

Robin Charles Scherbatsky, Jr. was born on July 23, 1980 to Robin Charles Scherbatsky, Sr. in Toronto, Ontario. Robin had a minor career as a Canadian pop-star, under the stage name of Robin Sparkles, with one hit single "Let's Go to the Mall". After an accompanying music video[3] and the ensuing year-long mall tour, she developed a serious aversion to shopping malls that lasted for years. Robin followed "Let's Go to the Mall" with the "artistic follow-up" "Sandcastles in the Sand".

As Robin Sparkles, she also appeared on the Canadian educational children's show Space Teens with Alan Thicke and Nicole Scherzinger as Jessica Glitter, where two teen girls traveling through space in a curling stone–shaped spaceship "solve mysteries using math" featuring the song "Two Beavers Are Better Than One" further parodying Canadians. It was also implied that the aforementioned show had some 'sexual' hints—in particular a multiplication segment that challenged the girls to multiply 23 X 3 by using a "joystick." But Robin insists that it was just a children's program.[4] Toward the end of her musical career, Robin attempted to shift from teen pop to grunge by adopting a new stage name (Robin Daggers) and penning a track entitled "P.S. I Love You." Robin performed the song at the 84th Grey Cup, effectively ending her career in music.[5]

As an adult, Robin is embarrassed by her teenage stardom,[6] and though she admits resenting her father's methods of raising her as if she were a boy,[7] she still enjoys cigars, frisbee, hockey, scotch, guns, and saying 'eh'.

Character history

After moving to New York City in the summer of 2005, Robin became a news anchor for a New York cable news channel, Metro News 1, and later became a host of her own morning talk show that airs at 4:00 in the morning. She lived in the Park Slope area of Brooklyn[8][9] until her temporary unemployment (before the morning talk show) forced her to move in with Ted Mosby (her ex-boyfriend and the show's main character), only briefly residing with Don, her colleague and then-boyfriend (she returned to Ted's apartment after the breakup, as Don moved to Chicago).[10] Scherbatsky is originally from Vancouver and has a younger teenage sister named Katie, who appears in "First Time in New York". Although she was a reporter for "fluff news pieces" at the end of news segments at the time of first meeting Ted, over the series she has worked her way up to be lead news anchor at Metro News 1, before taking a prominent anchoring position in Japan, only to return to New York and, with help from Barney Stinson, host her own talk show.

Robin has been portrayed as an independent, confident woman throughout the series. She has stated numerous times that she doesn't want to get married and have kids, in episodes such as Purple Giraffe, Something Blue, Little Boys and Symphony of Illumination. She was reluctant at first to date Ted as he wanted to marry her and settle down, but got together with him anyway in the Season One finale. After Kevin proposed to her, Robin thought she was ready to settle down, but Kevin ultimately takes back his proposal when she says that she is unable and unwilling to have children.

In "Mary the Paralegal", Robin wins an award for her report on Pickles the singing dog, and attends the Local Area Media Awards show (LAMA's) with the group. She brings Sandy Rivers, a fellow reporter, as a date in order to make Ted jealous.

It was originally thought that Robin was the only main character on the show who smokes cigarettes sober (as Marshall has admitted to smoking while drinking and Lily smoked on her wedding day), but in the episode "Last Cigarette Ever" it is revealed that everyone in the gang smoked cigarettes at some point in time and would eventually quit. Ted asks her about her smoking in "Moving Day", and Robin tells him no, but is then shown smoking in the bathtub in her apartment later in the episode. She has an in-depth knowledge of cigars and was shown enjoying one with Barney in "Zip, Zip, Zip" at his cigar bar, with a glass of Johnnie Walker Blue Label scotch, in Marshall's car in a flashback with Lily in the episode "Arrivederci, Fiero", in a flashback very late at night before Marshall was scheduled to take the bar exam in episode "Dowisetrepla", and with Barney in Ted's new car in "The Chain of Screaming".

Robin has often stated her attraction to men with battle scars, especially injuries such as bruises and missing teeth that have come from fights or sports. In "The Fight" she shows a vast change in interest in Barney once she believes he has gotten into a fight. Robin is also an avid gun enthusiast, shown in multiple episodes brandishing a Desert Eagle, as well as having a subscription to Guns & Ammo magazine.

In "Not a Father's Day", Robin moves into Ted's apartment after coming back from Japan. Robin gets into a relationship with her co-host Don Frank in season 5 after getting over her break-up with Barney, and moves in with him in the episode "Robots Versus Wrestlers". She breaks up with him in the season finale when he moves away to take a job offer in Chicago, which was initially turned down by Robin to stay with Don.

In Duel Citizenship it is shown that she is applying for US Citizenship, though she wound up detouring herself and Barney to Toronto. In the Say Cheese episode, it is confirmed from a photo in Lily's album that she eventually got sworn in as a US citizen (while probably maintaining dual citizenship with Canada).

Despite having been in a relationship with Barney, and having rekindled her friendship with Ted, it is implied Robin never let Barney go. Despite spending most of "Challenge Accepted" plotting with Barney to find a way to prevent Ted from pursuing a meaningless relationship and rekindling her relationship with him in the process, she also pressures Barney into approaching his current love interest, Nora. However, when Barney asks Nora for a cup of coffee, Robin realizes she may still have feelings for him.

In the season 7 premiere episode "The Best Man", Lily confronts Robin about her feelings for Barney, and advises her to tell him. She is about to do so when Barney pulls her onto the dance floor at a wedding. Whatever tension there is between them is broken when Barney receives a call from Nora. Barney isn't sure what to say to Nora and asks for Robin's help; Robin feeds Barney the words that she had intended to say to him, which he uses to convince Nora to meet him again. In "The Stinson Missile Crisis", Robin assaults a woman setting out to destroy Barney's relationship with Nora and is sent to court-mandated therapy with a therapist named Kevin (Kal Penn). They start dating shortly after. Their relationship is tested when Robin cheats on him with Barney, and she decides to break up with Kevin. She changes her mind when Kevin tells her how much he cares for her, and they stay together.

The episode "Symphony of Illumination" depicts Robin as having a son and a daughter (much like Future Ted), telling them the story of how she told "their father" that she was pregnant. Later in the episode, Robin finds that not only is she not pregnant, she is unable to have children. The children she was narrating to are revealed to have been imaginary and she was actually talking to herself. Despite the fact that she never planned on having children, she is devastated that she is unable to, and sobs heavily as Ted comforts her. She uses the excuse that the Canadian Olympic Committee deemed her too tall to be a "pole vaulter," which Ted sees through (although at this point he thinks her unhappiness is due to not being home for Christmas). Future Ted comments that she "never became a pole vaulter," but she became a world famous journalist, and even, for a time, a bull-fighter. He also says that she "was never alone" in the years to come.

In the episode "Tailgate", Robin is put in charge of a New Year's Countdown show on her news station. Sandy Rivers is host but flakes off after breaking up with his girlfriend before going on the air. He gets drunk live on the show and Robin is forced to replace him, just before midnight, quoting "When that ball drops, we all get a fresh start, and, I don't know about you, but I could really use one."

In "The Drunk Train", Robin and Kevin go with Marshall and Lily to a couple's lodge for Valentine's Day. There, Kevin proposes to her and she does not know what to say. She reveals to Marshall and Lily that she can't have children and asks them what Kevin would think. They tell her that if he really loves her, he won't care. When she does tell him, he proposes again and she happily accepts. However when they return from the vacation, Kevin discusses options to start a family, which Robin responds to by saying not only can she not have kids, but she doesn't want kids. This prompts her to ask Kevin again, would he be okay with not having any children, and not "waking up in two, ten, or fifty years, and regret what you've decided." Kevin then decides she is right and they break off their engagement. Soon after Ted finds her smoking alone on the roof of the apartment building, and she explains what happened. Ted then realizes that he and Robin haven't moved into any serious relationship since they were dating, and he tells her he loves her. However, Robin is unsure of what to think, and after returning home from a business trip to Moscow, she tells Ted that she doesn't love him, and she moves out of his apartment to live with one of her coworkers. Barney's girlfriend, Quinn, moves in with Barney and Robin and Ted fight over who gets her apartment. After Barney gets engaged to Quinn, Robin is visibly upset. However, believing Barney to be truly happy, tells him that she is happy for him. Ted has been living in University housing and Robin has been living with her "overly-motherly" co-worker. She gets a promotion to co-host and a huge raise, so she gives the apartment to Ted. In the season finale, it is revealed that she will be the bride at Barney's wedding. In the "The Final Page", Barney proposes to Robin, and Robin agrees to marry him.

The final season of the show depicts the 56 hours before her wedding to Barney. On her wedding day, she gets cold feet when she learns that Ted went to great lengths to find a locket she had buried years before; she takes it as a "sign from the universe" that she should be with Ted. Wanting her to be happy, Ted tells her that he no longer loves her in that way. She goes through with the wedding after Barney vows to always be honest with her.

The series finale, "Last Forever", reveals that Robin and Barney divorced after three years because her hectic travel schedule prevents them from spending any time together. By 2030, Robin is a very successful television news anchor, and lives with her dogs in New York. One night, Ted surprises her at her doorstep holding a blue french horn, having just received his children's blessing to renew his relationship with Robin, some six years after their mother's death.

In an alternate ending released in September 2014, it is strongly implied that she and Barney get back together after Ted's wedding.

Discography

In other media

The Robin Sparkles song "Let's Go to the Mall" was included on the video game Just Dance 3.

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 Stransky, Tanner (2013-05-13). "'HIMYM' unveils the mother! The creators answer your burning questions -- EXCLUSIVE". Entertainment Weekly. Retrieved 2013-05-13.
  2. ↑ "Jennifer Love Hewitt Turned Down How I Met Your Mother?!". E! Online. February 3, 2014. Retrieved February 3, 2014.
  3. ↑ CBS Innertube "Let's Go to the Mall" music video. Retrieved on 2009-10-09.
  4. ↑ "How I Met Your Mother’s Cobie Smulders on the Return of Robin Sparkles". New York Magazine.
  5. ↑ "P.S. I Love You". How I Met Your Mother. Season 8. Episode 15. 2013-2-4. CBS. Check date values in: |date= (help)
  6. ↑ "Slap Bet". How I Met Your Mother. Season 2. Episode 9. 2006-11-20. CBS.
  7. ↑ "Happily Ever After". How I Met Your Mother. Season 4. Episode 6. 2008-11-03. CBS.
  8. ↑ "Pilot". How I Met Your Mother. Season 1. Episode 1. 2005-09-19. CBS.
  9. ↑ "Nothing Good Happens After 2 A.M.". How I Met Your Mother. Season 1. Episode 18. 2006-04-10. CBS.
  10. ↑ "Doppelgangers". How I Met Your Mother. Season 5. Episode 118. 2010-05-24. CBS.

External links