How I Met Your Mother has a unique story-telling format in that it jumps back and forth through time to depict Ted’s story of how he met his children’s mother. Some storylines were impressively concluded throughout the show’s nine-season run, but the risk of running with this style of narration is the inevitability of plot holes.
Fans were hugely invested in the HIMYM main characters’ lives, so there was obvious disappointment when gaps in their stories weren’t filled by the time the season finale came around. To recap, here are 10 unanswered questions we still have about the show’s main characters.
What Actually Happened With Ted And That Pineapple?
In Season 1, Episode 10, Ted has a one-night stand with Trudy. After one too many shots the night before, he wakes up the next morning with a pineapple on his nightstand and a mysterious girl in his bed. The case of the mysterious girl gets solved, but not the pineapple – which story-telling Ted says he’ll get back to. So, what gives?
Fans of the show may be aware that this was revealed in a deleted scene. From this forgotten scene, we find out that Ted stole the pineapple from The Captain’s house that same night. This revelation makes little to no sense as The Captain and Zoey don’t appear on the show for many seasons later, but at least it solves one of the many unanswered questions from the show!
What Happened To Robin’s Friends?
From the iconic scene in the first episode of the show, Ted notices Robin from across the room. At this moment, Robin is chatting with friends.
Who were these people? Why do we never see them again? Does she just dump all her acquaintances once she joins Ted’s gang? It can only be assumed that she does exactly that.
What Causes Tracy To Die?
We know Tracy falls ill as we see Ted visiting her in a hospital bed, but we never learn the specifics of the illness that took her life. Do the kids learn how their mother died? We understand the show is called How I Met Your Mother and not “How Your Mother Died,” but considering we waited nine long seasons to finally meet her, we feel we deserve to know why she was taken away?
It must be assumed that the writers were too focussed on clearing the path for Robin and Ted to get together again. Something that fans will never forgive the writers for.
What’s The Deal With Lily’s Parents?
Viewers are given a decent insight into the rest of the gang’s family life, including their upbringing and general backstory, but there are many unanswered questions about Lily’s parents. We are to assume that Lily’s mother is based in New York, but we barely see her.
Lily’s father, however, pops up many times, particularly in the later seasons. He even ends up going to Rome with Lily and Marshall. It would have been great to have been given more information on Lily’s upbringing and the overall situation with her parents.
Who Is The Anonymous Mother Of Barney’s Baby?
Fans were torn over the revelation that Barney has a baby at the end of the show. It was almost a cruel twist of fate for him to have a baby girl of his own, after the years he spent mistreating and taking advantage of women. Unfortunately, we never find out who the baby mama is, which is disappointing considering the many, many women we see him pursue throughout the show’s run.
It’s suggested that Barney is taking care of the baby himself, which means the mother is either out of the picture, or that Barney fought for full custody. Whatever happened, there’s no doubt fans would have appreciated further explanation.
Why Did Tracy Leave Mid-Reception?
Ted was out in the rain due to leaving the wedding reception half-way through, and that was also when he met Tracy – who was supposed to be playing in the band for Barney and Robin’s wedding.
How did she get away with leaving mid-reception? We don’t know a lot about Tracy, but she seemed passionate about her job and it didn’t seem like she would do something so unprofessional.
What Was The Deal With Marshall’s Elusive Fighting Skills?
Marshall discusses in Season 4 that he’s been in many fights with his brothers before, which is totally believable from the scenes we’ve seen him in with his two older brothers. However, in the Season 1 episode, “Sweet Taste Of Liberty,” Marshall believes a man is hitting on Lily at the bar, only to find out after that the man is gay. Marshall states that he’s glad about this as he’s never been in a fight before.
Maybe he forgot his upbringing? Or he doesn’t consider the fights with his siblings to be to the same standard as a bar fight? We’re not convinced. And is it even worth addressing the storyline of him traveling to the Far East to learn the ancient slap technique for the final slap with Barney? Probably not.
What Was Tracy’s Relationship With The Gang?
The show is called How I Met Your Mother, and it’s understandable that viewers would only be shown the story leading up to that point, however, fans also waited nine seasons for this woman to be revealed, so the least they deserved was to find out how she fits into the gang.
We know she must have got along with everyone, but an insight into her individual relationships with everyone would have been a great addition to the final season.
What is Barney’s Job At Goliath National Bank?
After much speculation, it’s finally revealed to us that Barney has been honest about his role at GNB all along. Every time someone asked him what he did there, he would respond with “please,” which seemed to be his way of avoiding the question.
But in Season 9 Episode 15, titled, “Unpause,” it’s disclosed that his role is Provide Legal Exculpation And Sign Everything, meaning that he is a legal scapegoat for his company’s corrupt activities. But is this believable? Obviously, HIMYM is a sitcom and most of the storylines should be taken with a grain of salt, but even with this brief explanation, Barney’s career as a whole remains questionable.
Why Doesn’t Future Ted Speak In Bob Saget’s Voice?
When we finally see Ted finally wrapping up his long-winded story to his kids, Ted is speaking as actor Josh Radnor, not Bob Saget, who has been doing the voiceover for the entire show.
It’s not so much of an unanswered question as it is an obvious gap in continuity, so the relevant question here is to probably address why we needed Bob Saget’s voice at all?
