Season synopsis
Contains spoilers for this season and earlier seasons.
Barney and Robin’s wedding weekend brings the friends to Farhampton. Marshall’s trip from Minnesota with Marvin is delayed, and he shares the road with Daphne before reaching Farhampton. Lily learns he accepted a judgeship without telling her, putting their planned move to Rome under strain. After their failed park search before the wedding weekend, Ted has recovered Robin’s childhood locket. On the wedding day, Robin panics, Ted gives the locket to Barney, and Barney admits Ted found it and promises to be honest with her. Robin walks down the aisle, and they marry.
A separate timeline follows Tracy from the death of her boyfriend Max on her 21st birthday. She studies economics because she wants to help end poverty, becomes roommates with Cindy and repeatedly crosses paths with Ted’s life without meeting him. During the wedding weekend, Tracy turns down Louis’s proposal after asking Max whether she can move on. She takes a room at the Farhampton Inn and plays “La Vie en Rose” next door to Ted. After Barney and Robin’s wedding reception, Ted approaches her on the rainy platform; they introduce themselves, and Tracy recognizes her umbrella as the one Ted took years earlier.
The original broadcast finale then jumps forward by years: Ted and Tracy have children, postpone their wedding when Tracy is pregnant, and marry in 2020. Barney and Robin divorce in 2016 after her career keeps them traveling apart; Barney later becomes devoted to his daughter Ellie. Marshall and Lily raise three children, while Robin grows distant from the group. In 2024, Tracy dies after an illness. In 2030, Ted’s children realize his story also concerns Robin and encourage him to pursue her. He visits Robin with the blue French horn from their first date.