The End of the Aisle
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| "The End of the Aisle" | |
|---|---|
| How I Met Your Mother episode | |
| Episode no. | Season 9 Episode 22 |
| Directed by | Pamela Fryman |
| Written by | Carter Bays & Craig Thomas |
| Original air date | March 24, 2014 |
| Guest actors | |
|
John Lithgow (Jerome Whittaker) |
|
"The End of the Aisle" is the twenty-second episode of the ninth season of the CBS sitcom How I Met Your Mother, and the 206th episode overall.
Plot
Barney and Robin each suffer panic attacks at 5:28 p.m. on Sunday, just 32 minutes before the wedding. Robin considers escaping through the window, as Ted and Victoria had from Victoria's wedding a year earlier. After she brings up how she wishes that Barney had found her locket as a sign of his reliability, Ted secretly gives the locket, which he retrieved from the river, to Barney and instructs him to take credit for finding it. When Robin realizes the truth, she remembers Barney's dishonesty and begins to consider that Ted is the right person for her after all. Ted swallows his feelings, and refuses to run away with her, telling Robin that they aren't the same people who loved each other once and that she and Barney are meant to be together. Unconvinced, Robin decides to run away on her own and crashes into the band's bass player, the event that Future Ted describes as "how Robin met your mother."
Meanwhile, Marshall and Lily manage to calm Barney down, but find that he is struggling to write his wedding vows. When Lily points out how selfish and easy his vows are to accomplish, Barney counters by remarking about how Lily and Marshall have broken all their marriage vows over the years. They are disappointed to realize that Barney is right. However, they spend a moment at the altar to update their vows and promise to keep updating them as they need to instead of making perfect vows. Barney witnesses the moment and goes to find Robin.
Robin apologizes for knocking over the Mother, who sees that Robin is trying to run away. Because they do not know each other well, the Mother does not persuade Robin to stay, but encourages her to take three deep breaths instead. The Mother slips away as Robin follows the Mother's suggestion and Barney appears. He promises to make only one vow to her: he will always be honest with her, and begins with revealing that Ted had found her locket.
As the wedding begins, Barney has one last panic attack, which Marshall ends with the final slap of the slap bet. The ceremony goes through without any trouble, even with the arrival of a bear as the ring bear (though Barney cancels the flower gorilla at the last moment) and concludes with Robin and Barney married before their family and friends.
Critical reception
Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found. Bill Kuchman of Popculturology said, "While I'm not too pleased that HIMYM used a good chunk of its final minutes to rehash Ted and Robin", the episode "was the show's final chance to tie up loose ends and to get the necessary pieces where they needed to be for next week's series finale."[1]
Donna Bowman of The A.V. Club graded the episode a B.[2]
Max Nicholson of IGN gave the episode 7.8/10, praising the wedding and the conclusions of the slap bet and locket mystery. However, he felt Marshall and Lily re-doing their vows was unnecessary.[3]
