Season synopsis
Contains spoilers for this season and earlier seasons.
Season 8 opens at Farhampton on the day of Barney and Robin’s wedding, then returns to Ted driving with Victoria, who has left her fiancé Klaus at the altar. They try again as a couple, but Victoria asks Ted to stop being friends with Robin; he cannot agree, and they break up. Barney and Quinn’s engagement also collapses when a prenuptial agreement exposes their mutual distrust. Meanwhile, Robin dates Nick, and Marshall and Lily adjust to raising Marvin while considering Lily’s opportunity to work in Rome.
Barney and Robin acknowledge that they still want each other, and Robin ends her relationship with Nick. Barney’s proposal plan is framed as a scheme to marry Patrice, Robin’s colleague, and he tells Ted that this is what he intends to do. Ted initially keeps the confidence, then tells Robin and has their driver take her to the World Wide News rooftop. There she discovers Barney’s plan, called “The Robin,” and accepts his actual proposal to her. The two are engaged, and the group begins preparing for their wedding.
Ted completes the renovation of his Westchester house but decides to sell it and move to Chicago after Robin and Barney marry. Marshall receives an offer to become a judge just as he and Lily are preparing to move to Rome; he hides the news while they travel toward the wedding. Robin searches for the locket she buried as a teenager, hoping it can be her “something old,” but does not find it in the park. The closing scene shifts back to a Long Island station, where a bassist with a yellow umbrella buys a ticket to Farhampton.