The Final Page

"The Final Page"
How I Met Your Mother episode
Episode no. Season 8
Episode 11 (Part 1)
Episode 12 (Part 2)
Directed by Pamela Fryman
Written by Dan Gregor & Doug Mand (Part 1)
Carter Bays & Craig Thomas (Part 2)
Original air date December 17, 2012 (2012-12-17)
Guest actors

Seth Green (Daryl)
Peter Gallagher (Professor Vinick)
Chris Elliott (Mickey)
Marshall Manesh (Ranjit)
Alexis Denisof (Sandy Rivers)
Ellen D. Williams (Patrice)

"The Final Page" is an hour-long episode of the eighth season of the CBS sitcom How I Met Your Mother. It aired in two half-hour episodes on December 17, 2012.

Plot

Part 1

Ted's new building is set to open the next day, and he decides to invite his favorite architecture professor, Vinick, from his college days to the grand opening. The group says that Ted has put the professor in his "pit", in that he has obsessed over him and hasn't let him go since college. This is further confirmed when the professor declines the invite (he even writes back stating he doesn't remember who Ted is). Infuriated, Ted takes the group to Wesleyan, intending to unleash his wrath on Vinick. After hearing one of his inspiring lectures again, Ted begins to once again crave Vinick's approval and shows him a sketch of the GNB building. Vinick is unimpressed, calling it hideous; Ted later brings a 3D model to show him, but Vinick just views the attempt as pathetic. Ted realizes he just has to move on.

Meanwhile, Marshall and Lily explain they themselves are in someone else's pit. Daryl, a friend from their college days, became obsessed with the two (after playing one game of hacky sack with them two years prior), causing them to feel very uncomfortable. To their horror they run into Daryl at Wesleyan, who is still obsessed with them, having formed a company selling hacky sacks named in honor of the three of them. He invites them to his house; Marshall and Lily fear they will be killed, but find that Daryl's company has become very successful, and they unknowingly reject his offer to give them $100,000, claiming it was partly their idea. Daryl seems to accept that they don't want any part of his life (although Lily still wishes she had taken the money).

Marshall calls "Jinx" on Barney when they utter the same phrase simultaneously, where the jinxed person can't speak unless someone in the group says their name. Future Ted explains the group takes the childish game very seriously; Barney had previously broken the jinx out of mockery, but later had been hit by a bus, causing everyone to follow the rules whenever they're jinxed. The group plans to relish the moment and have Barney not speak for quite some time, frustrating him to no end. Meanwhile, Robin too has someone in her pit, Patrice, and plans to fire her for getting together with the man she loves. However, she decides to move on and lets Patrice stay. Later, Barney tricks Ted into saying his name by showing him a wedding ring, breaking the jinx. Barney explains that he's serious and makes Ted promise not to tell anyone he plans to propose to Patrice.

Part 2

With Ted's new building opening that night, everyone is excited. However, Ted is distracted by his promise to Barney that he will tell no one that Barney is planning to propose to Patrice; he winds up asking Robin to be his date to the gala when he loses the nerve to tell her about Barney's plans. Because he still wonders if he wants to be with Robin, Ted confides in Marshall, who advises Ted not to tell her. When Ted meets up with Robin, he tells her anyway. Though Robin initially claims to be fine with Barney's plans, she eventually admits that she has still loved him for a long time, but cannot keep chasing after Barney if he will never feel the same way about her. Ted encourages her to go after Barney. Finally letting go of his pursuit of her, Ted takes Robin to the WWN building where Barney intends to propose to Patrice. He advises her that she should go after Barney, as he doesn't regret going after her many times in the last eight years, even though it didn't work out the way he'd originally hoped.

Meanwhile, Marshall and Lily are excited to have their first evening away from baby Marvin, thanks to Lily's father Mickey taking care of him. Their evening doesn't go as planned due to Marshall hearing about Barney and the two end up missing Marvin all night. They decide they are more content with spending the night back home with him.

When Robin heads to the roof of the building, she sees no sign of Patrice. Instead she finds a page from Barney's Playbook, titled "The Robin". It is revealed that Barney had a long plan to get back together with Robin, which started with proclaiming his love for Robin and intentionally getting shot down. Afterward, he went to Patrice for help and pretended to date her so that Robin would realize her feelings for him. When Barney arrives, Robin feels that she can't trust Barney because of how he manipulated her to get to this moment. However, he still proclaims his love for her and proposes; Robin accepts, and they embrace and kiss.

At the gala, a GNB executive proposes a toast to Ted. While Robin, Barney, Marshall, and Lily are shown happily in their respective couplings, Ted stares out from the GNB building alone.

Production

One of my favorite parts about my job is helping to share music from relatively unknown acts with a larger audience. We went through a ton of songs for this scene – including songs from much bigger acts – but this song won the day, and it was one of the most popular song uses in the show's history. I still hear from people about this one, thanking me for helping them discover this band.

Andy Gowman, How I Met Your Mother music supervisor

Originally, episodes 11 and 12 were not planned to be shown together as a two-part, one-hour combined episode, but the decision was made to present them together after the show was preempted because of Hurricane Sandy. Show co-creator Carter Bays said, "we knew we wanted [episode 12] to be our Christmas episode, and we were thinking of creative ways to catch up. ... Episodes 11 and 12 really felt like two halves of the same story, so we thought, let's make this our big hour-long Christmas special."[1] Before the two episodes were combined, episode 11 was entitled "The Silence of the Jinx" and episode 12 was entitled "The Robin".[2]

Bays said that "the idea of a long con" represented by Barney's play to win Robin was influenced by "the final run of episodes in season four of Breaking Bad" and that they "wanted a moment of, 'Ohhhhh, that's what's been going on.' Just without anyone getting blown up or poisoned." He adds that they are "not blind to the possible ickiness of how Barney went about getting Robin to say yes" but that it shows Barney's character "in a nutshell: loveable amorality."[3]

Series co-creator Craig Thomas added that Ted and Robin's scene in the limo packed unexpected power because the script did not call for the two characters to be teary-eyed.[4]

Critical reception

Donna Bowman of the AV Club gave the episode an A. She calls the episode "hilarious" and "touching". She says that the show "deftly and imaginatively" turned "Barney the womanizer into Barney the fiancé." She called making "Patrice ... part of the final play" a "brilliant idea". She adds that "nearly every character gets great material" in the episode.[5]

Ethan Alter of Television Without Pity gave the episode a C+. He described the episode as "not good" and the storyline of Barney and Robin's reunion as "painfully drawn-out". He referred to the presence of Peter Gallagher and Seth Green as "the upside" of the episode and using the "Silence of the Lambs motif as both a comic and dramatic device" as "the downside". He describes the trip to Wesleyan as "obvious, but not entirely unenjoyable filler." He says that the reveal of the final play and Barney's proposal comes "to nobody's surprise besides Robin's."[6]

Michael Arbeiter of Hollywood.com writes that "this week's 'big twist' that Barney was actually using his relationship with Patrice as a cover for his plan to propose to Robin is a far cry from surprising, and as such not as effective as the show might have hoped it would be." Overall he calls the episode "one of the stronger of the season's outputs" but notes that "the show has lost a ton of its luster." He also comments that "an appearance by Ranjit can always be celebrated."[7]

Max Nicholson of IGN gave the episode a score of 7.8/10 (Good). He writes that Seth Green's "pathetic obsession with Lily and Marshall offered a few chuckles, as did Barney's sustained silence throughout the proceedings." He says that "in the second half ... Marshall and Lily's story took a notable downturn" but that it ends "with a satisfying reunion for Barney and Robin."[8]

Sandra Gonzalez of EW.com said that the first part was "a great episode in and of itself." About the second part she commented that "the proposal ... was great because it was 100 percent from Barney's heart."[9]

References

  1. ↑ Porter, Rick (December 17, 2012). "'How I Met Your Mother': EP Carter Bays teases 'The Final Page' and talks final-season plans". Zap2it.com. Retrieved December 18, 2012.
  2. ↑ Fitzpatrick, Kevin. "'How I Met Your Mother' Goes Hour-Long for Holiday Episode". Screen Crush. Retrieved December 18, 2012.
  3. ↑ Adalian, Josef (December 18, 2012). "How I Met Your Mother Producer Carter Bays Tells Vulture What’s Next After Tonight’s Big Episode". Vulture. Retrieved December 18, 2012.
  4. ↑ Gonzalez, Sandra (December 18, 2012). "'How I Met Your Mother' boss on the next step for Barney and [spoiler]. Plus, scoop on a big return!". Entertainment Weekly.
  5. ↑ Bowman, Donna (December 17, 2012). "The Final Page". The A.V. Club. Retrieved December 17, 2012.
  6. ↑ Alter, Ethan (December 17, 2012). "Silver Linings Playbook". Television Without Pity. Retrieved December 18, 2012.
  7. ↑ Arbeiter, Michael (December 18, 2012). "'How I Met Your Mother' Recap: BIG TWIST... That We Already Knew About". Hollywood.com. Archived from the original on January 25, 2013. Retrieved December 18, 2012.
  8. ↑ Nicholson, Max (December 18, 2012). "R.I.P. Team Tedward.". IGN. Retrieved December 18, 2012.
  9. ↑ Gonzalez, Sandra (December 17, 2012). "The Robin". EW.com. Retrieved December 18, 2012.

External links

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