I rewatched this scene and one part of it doesn't make sense. When Ted approaches Tracy, and they share space under the umbrella, he identifies her as Cindy's roommate. Not as the bass player, but Cindy's roommate. How does he know that?
He's never met her before -- as the show has made abundantly clear -- or even seen her before the wedding reception that day. Maybe he deduces her identity from the yellow umbrella, but (1) that's a huge conclusion to draw based on an umbrella that's not very unique, and (2) he's very resistant to approach her at first, even though the old lady on the bench keeps pushing him.
Anticipatory rebuttal: Ted does briefly look at the umbrella's pole before he holds it for both of them, and could theoretically have seen the initials "TM" on it. The problem with this is that he doesn't seem to process it at all when he starts talking to her, and in fact doesn't try to look for it until later in the conversation, when he suddenly realizes that they are holding what he believes to be his umbrella. At that point he adjusts the angle of the umbrella to point out where the "TM" should be, and is.
Anyway, an odd inconsistency in a show that thrives on its sense of continuity. Explanations welcome.
One little thing I wanted to point out -- over the many years it sorta (a little bit) annoyed me that the "story" was taking so long to tell to the kids. Who on earth goes into this kind of detail with side-stories and back-stories?!?! I know it was all a device to show 100 hours or so of TV but I still sometimes shook my head at it.
Well, if it is a father telling his children about their mother who is dead -- dead for several years o they don't know her all that well -- then the painstaking detail and minutia makes sense. You would want to re-live every moment and make sure your children knew about the magic of your relationship.
-Jason "just a little thought... we can go back to picking it apart now" Evans
Why are you wasting time here when you could be wasting it by listening to the latest episode of the DBR Podcast?
The showrunners don't deserve my defense, but I'll provide some anyway.
Ted is full of stories. If this isn't apparent from 9 years of "side-stories" and "back-stories" he tells the kids, it's official in the 2024 episode where Ted has run out of stories to tell Tracy. By the show's chronology, Ted meets Tracy on May 26, 2013. I would argue that Ted has separated, in his mind, the stories before he met Tracy (September 2005 - May 26, 2013, with some childhood and college stuff beforehand) and the stories after (about May 29, 2013 - 2024). He probably told his kids many stories about their mother when he knew her, but has waited until 2030 to finally tell them the long and winding story of how they met. This story, ultimately, isn't really about Tracy at all, but about who Ted was before he met her. We can debate as to why he waited this long. I would guess that, until then, the kids weren't old enough for the story content of adult bachelor Ted. The kids themselves argue that he's implicitly asking for their blessing to reunite with Aunt Robin.
One problem that viewers have with the finale, and the whole ninth season, is that they were denied hearing much about Ted and Tracy together. If you asked them at the end of the eighth season whether they'd want a full ninth season dedicated to Barney and Robin's wedding or maybe 3 episodes of that and 21 of Ted and Tracy, almost every one of them would pick the latter. The showrunners had the time, but they made a choice that ended up becoming extremely unpopular. (Honestly, even viewers who liked the finale can't easily argue that the showrunners couldn't have budgeted their time more wisely.)
I guess I don't see it as written like that, though. In the end, the show presented the Mother as not fundamentally different from Victoria or Stella, just more extreme - someone Ted loved but ultimately was not Robin. Throw in the fact that Tracy's high school boyfriend died young as well, and it sure does seem like the writing of the show DOES end with the idea that everyone has "one" - Lily and Marshall, Ted and Robin, Barney and his daughter, Tracy and Max.
I agree with JE that the mother dying makes sense in the context of the plot device.
Well, I found the alternate ending on Youtube:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3m8UIkX12Ys
(While it's not actually the alternate ending, it is semi-official since it includes the same two actors playing the kids -- grown up as they are today).
I didn't like it. And really, it was their faullt for being too good at so much of the series. They worked so hard on selling Barney and Robin that they really felt like they were a right pairing. In fact it started to feel forced and contrived and really wrong that Ted was still dwelling or even thinking about Robin anymore.
They did such a good job of showing us Barney and Robin falling in love and Marshall and Lilly being a wonderful, loving couple it was only right to expect that since the mother shows up at the end of season 8 that season 9 would be about them meeting and then falling in love. And it wasn't.
The finale wasn't about how Ted met the mother - turned out Ted's kids were right. None of that was. It was really about Ted loving Robin. Maybe we as the audience should have picked up on that, but we were sold on the premise of the title and hint after hint over the seasons. And they didn't deliver on that. Not even close.
I'm glad someone else saw it(BD80). It was nice and simple and there was no "gotcha" feel to it.
I just got the final season DVD and watched the alternate ending.
It was a very simple remix of the last episode -- Barney and Robin still break up; Barney still undergoes his transformation after fathering a baby girl, Ted and Tracy still have two kids before finally getting married.
The only difference is that there is no voiceover suggesting that The Mother was ill or had died and thus no final scene with Ted going after Robin. It ends with the scene at the railroad station, when Ted and Tracy meet.
PS Learning that the mother is named Tracy adds to one of the best jokes on the show. Early in the series, the gang ends up in a strip club for Thanksgiving and Ted meets a stripper, who first says her name is Amber, then she whispers "It's really Tracy." Then Ted tells the kids, "And that's how I met your mother." After they freak out, he tell them he was joking.
I guess we should have known from that point that the mother would be named Tracy.