So apparently How I Met Your Mother has an alternate ending...

[Asita]

Google search says this has been making its rounds around the web over the last dozen or so hours. Apparently even the source of the story (TVLine) aren't certain if it's an "Official alternate ending" or not, but - as they themselves note - the voiceover by Bob Saget does lend credibility to the idea that it is, and it certainly fits an announcement back in April that an alternate ending existed/would exist and would be part of the box set. Videos are being taken down regularly, so I'm going to borrow a blurb on it as written in the Sydney Morning Herald:

Spoiler: The Alternate Ending

The official alternative ending, which is narrated by Bob Saget as the older Ted, offers no new footage and wields no surprises. But it may offer closure to those fans who were outraged at the original ending's one-sentence eulogy for Tracy after nine seasons of foreshadowing the relationship.

In a montage which draws on footage from across the nine seasons, the alternate ending recaps Ted's past girlfriends, his tortured romance with Robin - in which she ultimately marries Barney - and finally his fateful encounter with Tracy at the train station. It wraps with the implicit happily-ever-after line: "And that kids, is how I met your mother."

The alternative ending was reportedly leaked to the video sharing site Vimeo on Saturday night, but was removed a short time later. However, fans had already posted the video to YouTube where it can still be viewed.

A more shot-by-shot recap can be found on Buzzfeed

So...thoughts?

 

[Catfood220]

Well, I don't think its any better than the original ending, but that is how HIMYM should of ended.

 

[Albino Boo]

My ending had Ted and Barney finally admitting their love and the mother being a Thai surrogate they hired of the internet.

 

[BarkBarker]

So...the alternate is sorta just stopping where the original one SHOULD have? I guess that's alright, cuts itself off before it sticks its neck too far out and SLAM goes the guillotine.

 

[Random Argument Man]

I was in love with this show and was left heartbroken. I'm in the lines of "the ending is paramount" when it comes to shows. As for this ending, I would need to see the full episode with this ending to see if it still makes sense.

Everyone thought that anyone who hated the ending only wanted a happy ending. We wanted an ending that was true to the show. I don't mind if things end badly for the characters as long it fits. When the whole ending goes back to square one and ignore every character growth, it feels terrible. It feels like you're watching strangers. The original ending is rushed crap that didn't respect the entirety of it all. If they did it all to shock the fans, congratulation. It worked and we hate you for it.

 

[Artemicion]

The video has since been taken down but I read the TVLine blurb. It's an okay alternate ending, I guess, but I still prefer the actual one.

 

[Asita]

The video has since been taken down but I read the TVLine blurb. It's an okay alternate ending, I guess, but I still prefer the actual one.

Should be fixed now. Replaced the video link with the one on Mashable.

 

[Crazy Zaul]

Thats weird, the video has been copyrighted by Fox, not CBS...

 

[Asita]

*Sigh* This is going to be a recurring problem, isn't it? Well, the Sydney Morning Herald has a nice recap of it. I think I'll go with using that instead. It'll save me a bit of a headache from trying to reupdate the OP, at the very least.

 

[immortalfrieza]

I was in love with this show and was left heartbroken. I'm in the lines of "the ending is paramount" when it comes to shows. As for this ending, I would need to see the full episode with this ending to see if it still makes sense.

Everyone thought that anyone who hated the ending only wanted a happy ending. We wanted an ending that was true to the show. I don't mind if things end badly for the characters as long it fits. When the whole ending goes back to square one and ignore every character growth, it feels terrible. It feels like you're watching strangers. The original ending is rushed crap that didn't respect the entirety of it all. If they did it all to shock the fans, congratulation. It worked and we hate you for it.

Agreed, the ending has a massive effect on the quality of a series. A bad nonsensical ending can retroactively ruin the entire series by making everything that happened throughout a series crazy and/or pointless. Conversely, a really good ending can retroactively make a series that's already nonsensical and pointless make sense.

The worst thing is they apparently planned and filmed most of the official ending episode sometime in season 2. The HIMYM writers had SEVEN YEARS to come to their senses and realize this was a bad idea and come up with something better, but apparently they somehow thought this was a good idea that entire time. You know when people say and/or do something that's so divorced from logic and reason, so beyond insane that you can't even imagine the thought processes that could possibly have driven those people to say and/or do that? The writers going with this ending is one of those times.

 

[KINGBeerZ]

I feel that the original ending just threw away a bunch of character development, because the mother was treated as a sort of consolation prize for robin, and Ted went after her again immediately after his wife's death and the show had already established that they didn't work together, it just wasn't satisfying, also all of Barney's personal growth they put so much emphasis on in the last season or two just went down the toilet, the original ending should only have been aired if the show had finished after about season two, because then it would have made more sense (sorry for the long ranty post)

 

[Catfood220]

I feel that the original ending just threw away a bunch of character development, because the mother was treated as a sort of consolation prize for robin, and Ted went after her again immediately after his wife's death and the show had already established that they didn't work together, it just wasn't satisfying, also all of Barney's personal growth they put so much emphasis on in the last season or two just went down the toilet, the original ending should only have been aired if the show had finished after about season two, because then it would have made more sense (sorry for the long ranty post)

To be fair, there is supposed to be 6 years between the death of the mother and Ted telling the kids the story of how he met her. You just don't notice it because it goes from "and your mum got sick" to "can I date Robin?" without missing a beat.

There is no emotional gut punch after everything that happens, a short scene where it shows the Ted with the kids mourning, with the voice over saying something like "...and she never got better" would of actually shown that her death had effected him. But as it stands her death is treated as a throw away moment, a slight inconvenience that is breezed over so Ted can end up with Robin again.

Just thinking about that ending again is starting to make me feel angry about it again so I'm going to leave it like that.

To be fair, the whole final series was a mess as far as I'm concerned. Almost 99% of the series is dedicated to the Barney and Robin wedding and all of that build up is undone in about 15 minutes as in the next episode it is revealed that they have split up. Someone on the last HIMYM ending thread (I don't remember who) said that the wedding should have taken up half the season and the rest dedicated to Ted and the mother and also the disintegration of Robin and Barney's marriage. I agree, I think that would have built to a far more enjoyable ending, possibly an emotional one than the one that we got.

I have written far more than I expected to about this, I think the hurt still runs deep within me