Wait for it…
And wait for it we did. How I Met Your Mother has had its ups and downs throughout the years, but luckily the seventh season finally provided laugh-out-loud moments coupled with sentimental ones that made me openly weep.
“The Magician’s Code” was a double feature that could easily be broken up into smaller segments, but it flowed so naturally that it didn’t matter that this was truly two episodes and not an hour-long season finale, the first being the series of flashbacks implemented as Ted and Robin told silly stories to distract Lily from her contractions. The tactic has been used before—most recently and most notably by Community—and due to the heavy emotional undertones of this season finale, it worked again.
There was a moment where it felt like the episode was stalling, but it actually helped to build up the anticipation for the eventual birth of Marshall and Lily’s baby boy. On the flip side of the flashbacks were Barney’s attempts to get an extremely intoxicated Marshall home from Atlantic City, resulting in Mr. Erikson agreeing to give his son the middle name of “Wait For It.”—which, let’s be honest, is the coolest middle name of all time.
By the end of the first part of the finale—let’s call it a prologue for the real season finale—Marvin Wait For It Erikson was born. I cried.
Then we turn to the real magic. It turns out Barney plans on taking to Quinn to Hawaii for a romantic getaway but is stopped in security when they find a mysterious box in his luggage. Of course he admits that the police dogs smell the explosives in the box and guns are drawn. He’s taken to a holding room, which as he points out happens an awful lot. There he finally performs an excruciatingly hilarious magic trick that results in Barney proposing to Quinn. A “noooo” worthy of Darth Vader at the end of Episode III probably escaped so many fans at that moment.
Okay, I know I said the real magic started above, but the real magic of the episode is that Ted calls Victoria. They plan to meet. She shows up—in a wedding dress.
It turns out she hasn’t stopped thinking about him and now that the Ted-Robin-Barney love triangle is solved, she’s willing to run from her wedding that should take place in an hour to be with Ted. Talk about the destiny Ted has always wanted. He decides that he can’t let her leave her fiancé at the altar, but in the end drives past the church and the two embrace. It’s really not what I personally want to see unfold. I was never a Victoria fan, and while I’m hoping that we find out who the mother is soon, I just know in my heart of hearts it can’t be her. But that’s another story.
In the end we finally flash forward to Barney’s wedding where Ted and Marshall realize it’s been a long, strange journey to get to that point in their lives, which sets up another saga for the upcoming seasons. What could have happened in between Barney proposing to Quinn and his eventual wedding to Robin?
That’s not a typo, but perhaps the most exciting (and somewhat predictable) twist in HIMYM’s history. The show has done what it does best every season finale: answer a few questions and leave us wanting more. It’s about time, too.
But it looks like we’re going to have to wait for it.