Season 9 of How I Met Your Mother aired during the 2013-2014 television season. It's the final season of the series. How I Met Your Mother was renewed for a ninth and final season on December 22nd, 2012, with an official announcement made by CBS on January 30th, 2013. [1][2][3]

The final season premiered on September 23, 2013 with two back-to-back episodes; The Locket and Coming Back. The series finale aired on March 31, 2014, also with two back-to-back episodes that were part 1 and part 2 of the same episode.[4]

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Synopsis

The season begins with Ted and Lily driving to Farhampton, Ted starts being really annoying with his roadtrip facts, and doucheyness. Lily gets upset at him, so she gets out of the car, and takes a train to Farhampton. This is how Lily meets The Mother. Lily is stressed about not seeing Marvin for a week, and The Mother comforts Lily by offering her cookies, which The Mother refers to as Sumbitches). Marshall's mom keeps posting annoying photos on Facebook, and puts one up revealing Marshall's new judgeship. Marshall freaks out, and refuses to get off the phone with his mother on the plane, while trying to talk her through how to remove the photo, before Lily sees it. Marshall's freak out causes him, and another passenger to get kicked from the flight. The photo is removed before Lily sees it, but not before Lily comes to the conclusion that Ted was annoying to get rid of her to give the locket to Robin. She tackles Ted just before he is about to give her the red gift shown from the last season (this won't be her last tackle of the wedding weekend). The gift is then revealed to be the picture from the main credits (Ted has 2 more wedding gifts left to give). We learn that Ted had given the Locket to Stella back when they were dating, and that he went to L.A. to look for it.

Lily learns about Marshall getting kicked from the flight, and might not make it to the wedding, which causes her to pay the bartender at The Farhampton Inn $100 to replace her glass of alcohol every time she isn't holding a glass (which becomes a running gag). After learning that James is getting a divorce, Lily drunk, tells Barney by mistake. Although Robin is relived that Barney doesn't freak out. Also, Marshall is now stuck driving back to NY with the passenger he got kicked off the flight with. We see a flashforward of Ted and The Mother visiting The Farhampton Inn one year after they met.

Lily discovers a list of all the things that Ted wants to do before moving to Chicago, and discovers that he's been avoiding Barney from the incident that happened in Something Old. After a lecture from Lily, she convinces Ted to have his one last drink with Barney, who when approaching him, reveals he saw Ted/Robin holding hands in the rain, and Ted drops an expensive bottle of scotch. Barney throws a fit, and replaces Ted as Best Man with William Zabka. Marshall skypes with the two of them, and tells them to recreate the scenario while the two of them hold hands. Ted admits to Barney he does have feelings for Robin, and that he would never do anything to get in the middle of them. Barney forgives him over a poker game, which irritates William Zabka.

When James makes negative remarks about Barney getting married during the poker game, Robin gets her wedding ring for James', and wins his old wedding ring. James tells on Robin to his mom, and Robin proceeds to win Loretta's blouse over a poker game. Barney tries to smooth things over with everybody, but winds up flipping out on his brother and his mother saying the only thing he needs anymore is Robin. Barney introduces Ted to a few single ladies that will be at the wedding, for them to be his weekend date, and winds up getting stuck with Cassie, who winds up irritating Ted. When the minster learns about the sinful ways Robin and Barney got together, has a heart attack and dies. We learn he was Cassie's uncle. Also, Marshall's new driving companion finds out about the impending fight between Marshall/Lily, and texts Lily about it. Marshall has the rest of the gang attempt to get Lily's phone from her, to delete the message. After Ted convinces her to smash her phone, Marshall has a revelation that he shouldn't be doing this to hide things from his wife, and tells her. She is furious, and tells him he is dead when arrives.

Robin/Loretta's conflict escalates into fighting over who makes better scrambled eggs, the day before the wedding. The whole thing turns out to be a metaphor to Robin over not having kids, when she can't make them. (we learn that Barney does know of her infertility and it doesn't matter to him because Robin means more to Barney than kids). Loretta tells Robin to call her mom, when she learns that Robin's mom didn't board her plane for her daughters wedding. Ted takes Cassie to The Farhampton Lighthouse, to try to attempt to date her, but she just further frustrates him (we haven't seen Cassie since this). In a flashforward, we see Ted propose to The Mother on The Farhampton Lighthouse. While trying to cheer Robin up, the gang tells a story, where we learn The Mother actually wound up inspiring Barney to write and draft "The Robin," and that Ted is planning on working for Hammond Druthers when he moves to Chicago.

James' dad arrives, and agrees to be the one to now officiate Barney and Robin's wedding. We also learn the Barney's mom and James' dad are now dating. James drops an expensive bottle of scotch. William Zabka tries to sabotage Ted being best man (Lily tackles him). Marshall's driving companion has also forced Marshall into standing up for himself, a bit, towards her. He drops her at her destination, when they get to NY. The bus Marshall then takes from there breaks down 5 miles from the Inn, and decides to walk it (Marshall Vs. The Machines 2). Barney pulls a big trick on Robin, and reveals that their rehearsal dinner is in an ice rink, and has a Canadian theme(Ted's second wedding gift was figure skating lessons for the dinner). While walking to the Farhampton Inn, a van stops, and the driver offers him a ride. Marshall gets into the Van, and the driver happens to be The Mother.

We learn that the lead singer from her band, Superfreakonomics is trying to kick her out, and lives to cause destruction. The lead singer Darren causes a fight between Lily and Robin about Lily being more worried over her own drama between her and Marshall than about being there for the wedding. He also causes drama between Ted and Barney by revealing about Ted moving to Chicago to Barney. Robin has Lily try to beat her anger out on Marshpillow, just as Marshall arrives at the Inn. They 'pause' their fight. The gang gets together to have a drink together, when Darren bumps into Ted, causing him drop another expensive bottle of scotch. Ted then punches Darren in the face, and furious, Darren tells The Mother that she can have her band back and quits. Marshall uses one of the last two slaps he has on Barney.

Marshall tries to go big the night before the wedding, to avoid fighting with Lily. They do wind up going to bed, and fighting. Marshall brings up the San Francisco incident from the first season, and Lily storms out. She calls the Captain and has a car pick her up. Barney enters a new territory of drunk, from Marshall trying to go big, and reveals his real job and that Robin comes from wealth. In a flashforward, we learn that Ted's kids' names are Penny and Luke.

In the 200th episode, we learn that the night Marshall and Lily got engaged was the same day as The Mother's 21st birthday. Her boyfriend at the time died that night, and his last gift for her was a ukulele. She left the St. Patty's party to give a musical instrument to Mitch (The Naked Man), who tells her that every decision from that point on in life, should be in pursuit of her dream (ending poverty). She goes to college, Darren joins her band, slowly starts to take it over, and she meet and starts dating Louis. The events of Darren quitting the band happen, and she goes to her boyfriend's beach house in Farhampton, and he proposes to her. She goes out on the porch, and pours her heart out to her deceased Ex. She goes back inside, and refuses the proposal, and thus goes to The Farhampton Inn. The front desk clerk gives her the keys to Robin's mother's room (who never showed up). She goes out to the deck, and plays the ukulele. Ted, who is on the deck one over (separated by the wall) hears this. He goes into the room to tell a drunken Barney about the incident, and discovers Barney is missing.

He and Robin go looking for Barney, and Ted tells her why he and Victoria broke up, he is moving to Chicago, and we learn that Stella didn't have the locket, Victoria did. Victoria over nights it, but Jeanette intercepts it from Ted, and throws it off a bridge into a pond. That night, looking for Barney with Robin is when Ted finally lets go of Robin, during the Sunrise. Lily returns to Marshall and agrees that they will stay in NY (we still do not know where she went).

Ted/Robin find Barney, and Ted/Marshall rush to get the ingredients for his hangover cure. They learn that the hangover cure doesn't work, and Barney used it as a placebo for his friends out of love. Barney misses the Wedding photos, and Robin's dad is mad. In a flashforward, we see Ted use the Hangover cure out of love for the mother. The gang lies to him, and tells him they did Weekend At Barney's. Barney has Ted try to help him pick a suit for the wedding, while Lily tries to trigger Robin's "Holy crap it's my wedding day" moment, but fails. Ted eventually convinces Barney of the right suit, and Barney mentions forgetting this cornflower blue tie, that would be perfect for it. Robin runs into her mother, who has finally shown up hours before the wedding, and it triggers her "holy crap its my wedding day" moment.

Marshall try's to figure out where Lily went the night they had their disagreement. He learns that she went to the Captain's house. He storms over to his lakeside house and learns she was in the powder room for a long time. After Ted purposes an elaborate thought why Lily was there, it was based on his theory that she was smoking again. They then, trying to prove Ted's theory, pull a positive pregnancy test of Lily's out of a daisy (the flower).

Still euphoric over her mother's sudden appearance, Robin asks how she was able to make it despite a fear of flying. Genevieve says she somehow got over the fear despite panicking on board and accidentally opening the exit door, resulting in her being restrained to her seat by duct tape. Genevieve asks Robin more about Barney and immediately makes comparisons to Robin Sr. However, Genevieve's various descriptions of Robin Sr rankle Robin and Lily because the similarities with Barney make Robin think she's about to marry someone like him.

Gary Blauman arrives at the wedding and freaks out Robin. She tells Marshall who tells Ted. Ted reveals he hates that guy. Lily comes in and reveals that she loves him. Barney hates Gary Blauman. William Zabka loves that guy. James cheated on Tom with Gary Blauman. Marshall decides to let Blauman stay at the wedding but Barney threatened him to leave. But eventually he came back.

With a half hour to go before the wedding Barney and Robin are freaking out before their wedding. Marshall and Lily try to come down Barney. Barney is working on his wedding vows and struggles. Ted talks to Robin which she reveals that she still thinks it's a bad sign that she never found her locket. Ted leaves her room and takes out the locket. It is revealed that he jumped off the bridge in Central Park to retrieve the locket. He gives it to Barney to give to Robin. However Robin realizes that Ted is the one who found the locket and maybe she should marry him. Ted tries to convince her to marry Barney but she decides to run away and runs right into The Mother. When they get up The Mother tells Robin to take three deep breaths. Then Barney shows up and vows to Robin one thing: To be honest to Robin. Robin decides to go through with the wedding and they get married.

After the wedding reception Ted heads to the Farhampton Station and it is raining. He tells the older lady next to him about the beautiful bass player he saw. She asks him if the bass player is the woman with the yellow umbrella. Bernice (the older lady) realizes it is and urges him to say go talk to her but Ted says he will be in Chicago in 24 hours. The episode flashes 24 hours later and Ted is sitting at the bar at MacLaren's which freaks out Marshall and Lily. They ask why didn't he move to Chicago and Ted tells them he met a girl. The episode flashes back to the station and the lady gets excited and asks if he is going to have a big wedding but Ted says a big wedding is a young man’s game. In reality Ted is planning a huge wedding in France in 2015. He asks Barney and Robin who don't seem to be that happy together if they are coming and they say yes. The Mother arrives and says they can't get married in September because she is pregnant. In May of 2016 the gang meets up at Ted's house, Barney and Robin revealed they got divorced, and Barney figures out that Lily is pregnant. In October of 2016 Marshall and Lily decided they need to move to a bigger place and have a Halloween/Goodbye The Apartment Party. Robin shows up at the party but leaves when she sees Ted kiss Mother. She tells Lily that the gang can't work anymore because it is her ex-husband hitting on sluts, a married couple, the man she should have ended up with and the mother of his child.

In 2018 Ted, Barney, and Lily meet up at MacLaren's. Barney is excited and is going crazy. Lily tells him that tonight is not a big deal but Marshall shows up and says it is because he is going to be a judge. They end up staying up really late. In 2019 Ted, The Mother, Marshall, and Lily are watching Robots vs. Wrestlers. Barney shows up miserable and says he tried to achieve a perfect month and he did but number 31 is pregnant. In 2020, at the hospital where number 31 is in labor, Ted tells Marshall and Lily that he ran into Robin when he was showing Penny the GNB Tower. Barney eventually holds his child and realizes he has to stop messing around and settle down because he found the love of his life. Later that year Ted and The Mother finally get married. The gang meets up at MacLaren's before and celebrates. Marshall pays Lily for the bet because Ted didn't end up with Robin. Ted tells his kids he has to love this woman as much as he can for as long as he can even when she got sick in 2024. Ted says that he finally had the guts to go and talk to the woman on the shoulder. She recognizes him as the best man, and the Econ Professor. Ted asks if she was Cindy's ex roommate. They talk about the yellow umbrella and who it belongs to. The Mother points out that her initials are on it "TM" Tracy McConnell. They share a beautiful moment. Ted then says and that kids is how I met your mother. His kids don't buy it though. They bring up how their mom was barely in the story and that the point of the story is that Ted is in love with Robin. They convince him to ask her out because their mom has been gone for six years. Instead Ted brings her the blue French horn like he did in the pilot and the show comes full circle.

Cast