There haven’t been many sitcoms that captured the essence of friendship as well as How I Met Your Mother with the Maclaren’s Pub Gang constantly getting in and out of hilarious predicaments that served as subplots to the overall story of Ted explaining how he met his wife.
The number of subplots and side-stories How I Met Your Mother went through were vast (as with any sitcom) but some of them were definitely wrapped up better than others. Here’s our list of 5 subplots from the Manhattan-based comedy that were wrapped up perfectly (and 5 that fans are still scratching their heads over).
(Perfect) Slap Bet
One of the longest-running jokes of the entire series (coming from an episode that introduces one of the second longest-running jokes of the series in Robin Sparkles) took more than seven seasons to reach its completion. In season 2, Marshall and Barney begin their infamous “Slap Bet” which results in Marshall getting to slap Barney a total of five times at any point from then until eternity. The joke managed to stretch until the second-to-last episode of the series when Marshall slaps Barney as he’s about to run out on his wedding day. You just got slapped.
(Not Perfect) Lily’s mom
What exactly was the deal with this one? Nobody ever accused How I Met Your Mother of being the perfect television show, but the number of subplots they chose to just sweep under the rug was a tad baffling, Lily’s mom is one of the worst.
Throughout the series, fans were introduced to virtually every family member that the main characters could have had, including Lily’s mother. However, unlike some family members who had simple one-and-done appearances, Lily’s mom made multiple - and yet, the character was just never seen or heard from again after season 6.
(Perfect) The Pineapple Incident
People who aren’t die-hard fans of the show might be confused that this particular subplot is under the “Perfect” category because the season 1 episode, “The Pineapple Incident,” is commonly known as one of the most famous How I Met Your Mother subplots that was never concluded. Fun fact, though - it was revealed in a deleted scene from the series final season that the pineapple Ted stole actually belonged to The Captain, Lily’s boss and boat-connoisseur. You can watch the clip if you search it on YouTube and it’s truly a joy for any fans who wish to see an iconic How I Met Your Mother subplot come full-circle.
(Not Perfect) Clint on the side of the road
Is Clint still meditating on the side of the road where Marshall and Daphne left him? One of the most hilarious and out-there characters that How I Met Your Mother introduced the world to was Clint, Ted’s step-father. The pot-smoking hippie never missed an opportunity to share his guru-wisdom with anybody who was within hearing-range and quickly started to get on the nerves of every other character he interacted with (besides Ted’s mom).
Thus, it wasn’t a surprise when Marshall and Daphne decided to leave the stowaway on the side of the road. The only problem is that the show never addressed what happened to him after that.
(Perfect) Barney’s Job
Talk about clever. One of the most irritating subplots of the entire series was the fact that Barney Stinson seemed to have an incalculable amount of income and had one of the most interesting jobs in the world - yet nobody knew what it was! For nearly the length of the entire show, fans were left hanging whenever Barney’s career was brought up by only getting a simple chuckle, followed by the word, “please.” As it turned out, that single clue was all fans truly needed since Barney was actually informing everyone what he did from the very beginning. (Side note: we doubt the creators had this one planned from the beginning, but it was still an incredibly skillful way to wrap it up).
(Not Perfect) Marshall’s mom & Lily’s dad
As we already stated, the whole mystery behind the disappearance of Lily’s mom wasn’t exactly handled properly, but this one was an even bigger head-scratcher for fans as Lily’s dad and Marshall’s mom became something of an item by the end of the series. But once again, the show failed to address what actually came of the couple or if they were just having fun.
The last that audiences see them, the pair is helping Lily and Marshall raise Marvin and Daisy in Italy and they seem to be doing better than ever. Do they get married? Are they just baby-sitters-with-benefits? We’ll never know.
(Perfect) Robin’s Music Career
The episode that gave the world “Slap Bet” was also the episode that introduced audiences to Robin Sparkles, the name Robin used when she was a teen pop-star in Canada. Understandably, this became one of the best running gags of the series and had several episodes devoted to diving further into Robin’s musical past. However, she had completely shed her pop-star-persona by the time she moved to New York and it left fans wondering what made her fade away from her musical background. The episode “P.S. I Love You” tied that bow up nicely by letting fans know that Robin Sparkles had a nervous breakdown over her obsession with Paul Schafer, quickly changed her name to “Robin Daggers” and then ultimately retired from music.
(Not Perfect) Barney & Robin getting divorced
How I Met Your Mother quickly divided its fan-base when they aired the show’s final hour-long episode, and for multiple reasons - this was one of the biggest. The series had fallen into a rut during seasons 7 and 8 but quickly earned its audience back when they decided to focus the entirety of season 9 around Barney and Robin’s wedding.
This final season is widely regarded as one of the series best, yet the creators chose to make the entire season worthless by having Barney and Robin get divorced about 20 minutes into the series finale. This was a subplot that may have been wrapped up, but far from perfectly.
(Perfect) Barney Having a child
The entire premise behind creating a well-thought-out and realistic fictional character is that they have to have a complete series arc. The person can’t be the same person they always were at the end of the show - they have to grow and change from who they were in the first season to who they are during the final one. This moment did that perfectly for one of television’s greatest bachelor’s as Barney finally had a child that he could love whole-heartedly without ever having to worry about being abandoned (he could’ve also done that with Robin, but again, the creators butchered that one).
(Not Perfect) Mother dying
Yes, plenty of fans are still mad about this one. In fact, they’re always going to be mad about this one because it takes a lot away from who Ted was as a character. Many fans of How I Met Your Mother will argue that they wish the mother hadn’t died simply because she was a likable character and perfect for Ted. However, the actual reality is far worse - the premise that Ted is only sharing the story of how he met his wife with his kids because she’s no longer around and revealing that he’s always been in love with Robin destroys the romantic-persona Ted had spent the entire series building up. This was supposed to be one of the greatest love stories ever told about how a man met the love-of-his-life - it wasn’t. In all honesty, the series should’ve been called How I Still Want To Bang Your Aunt Robin.
