It’s last call at MacLaren’s! There are only five episodes left for Ted, Marshall, Lily, Robin, and Barney. Five episodes until the curtain closes on How I Met Your Mother.
To help you (and mainly myself) get through these last weeks of HIMYM with some sense of closure, here are the best of the best moments of Season 1 & 2. Keeping in theme with HIMYM’s sense of musicality over the years, These are How I Met Your Mother’s Greatest Hits.
Season 1
1. “I think I’m in love with you.” – Ted falls in love with Robin. And he falls hard.
Image via johnautry24.wordpress.com
These two become the ultimate “will-they-won’t-they pair” for a good first half of the series. In Ted’s initial attempts to woo Robin, he steals her a blue french horn, throws a 3-day party, and talks to her on the roof. Between all that, a new year kiss, and the shared glances and comforting touches, it was only a matter of time until they finally started dating.
But, Ted screws things up- trying to make a move on Robin while he’s still in a long-distance relationship with the adorable Victoria. And that is why fans swear by the “Nothing good ever happens after 2-am” rule.
By the end of the season Ted tries to give Robin a huge romantic gesture by bringing a blue string quartet to Robin’s apartment. I mean, come on, who does that? Nobody does that. When the quartet and roses don’t quite work, Ted successfully makes it rain to keep Robin from a company camping trip, and the rest is history. Current Ted/Robin status: On
2. “Suit up!” – The origins of Barney
We find out how Barney went from a long-haired, keyboard-playing, zine-writing, (actual) peace core-joining coffee server, to the suited-up Barney we know and love. It’s the first flash-backstory we get of any of the gang, and it’s a good one.
3. “Legen- waitforit…” – The season of firsts
Many of the running gags of the whole series begin right from the start. For example, several Barney Stinson-patented gags are introduced, including his liberal use of “Legendary,” his high-fives, the Bro Code, and his dramatic-flailing-running move.
1.07 also has the first appearance of the most disgusting creature known to New York: it looks like a cockroach wearing the skin of a mouse, and is aptly named the cockamouse. We’ve been there. Many of us have laid eyes on a creature so shockingly-gross that we peed ourselves a little. What makes it more fearsome is that the audience never gets to see the cockamouse directly. And may that never change…
4. “Drumroll please!” – Introducing the (almost) mother
Had things gone south for HIMYM in its first season, Victoria was set to be Ted’s wife. Ted and Victoria’s first episode is arguably the most romantic of Ted’s first dates in the series (With Robin and Ted’s first date at a close second, and Stella and Ted’s 2-minute date sliding in at third). Though we have yet to see what Ted has in store for his first date with The Mother.
5. “Unpause” – The one where everyone cries.
Ted’s rain dance brings the beginning of Ted and Robin as a couple, but marks the biggest break up in the history of Marshall and Lily. Which is in part due to Alyson Hannigan’s great range. Lily left Marshall for an art fellowship in San Francisco, but was she really in the wrong? That is still debated by fans to this day.
Season 2
6. “When I get sad, I stop being sad and be awesome instead!”
After a difficult Summer and a bit apart, Lily and Marshall get back together (thanks Barney) and the season ends with their (3rd) wedding! The Atlantic City shenanigans were hilarious, what with group pedicures, Ted’s thing for Robin’s shirt, and Barney’s nonsensical gambling game – Xíng háishì bùxíng, all leading up to Marshall and Lily’s 12-second marriage.
Before the real wedding in the finale, Marshall gets 90s-esque frosted tips, a problem he promptly solves… with a razor straight down the middle of his head. Despite this and many other wedding-blunders, it was Lily and Marshall’s intimate outdoor pre-wedding wedding that got us all choked up.
7. “Sometimes you want to go where everybody knows your name”
Thanks to a crazy-eyed barista, Barney gets a new nickname: Swarley! And it all happens because they decide to hang out at a place that serves coffee and has chairs arranged in a way similar to that other show about friends that hang out in a place where you can get beverages. Never again.
8. “Let’s go to the mall everybody!” – The Slap Bet and Robin Sparkles
In episode 9, the first iteration of the infamous Slap Bet begins! And it’s all spurred by Robin’s irrational fear of malls. Was she an adult film star? Nope. Did she get married in a mall in Canada? Nope! She was 90s Canadian Teen Pop-sensation, Robin Sparkles!
9. “Barney Stinson come on down!” – Barney meets his Dad!
Barney got told a lot of ridiculous things in his childhood, which is as funny as it is tragic. Even though everyone knows Bob Barker isn’t Barney’s dad, they don’t want to ruin what Barney’s believed his whole life- not even Barney. It is extremely exciting and sweet to see him get to The Price is Right, and spend some quality time with Bob… while winning every single round of the game show and gifting all the prizes to Marshall and Lily.
10. I “Falafel” You
Robin knows it’s true, and she wants to say it, and so she tells Ted the three syllables everyone dreams of hearing: “Falafel.” To be fair, Robin does end up being able to say “I love you” at the end of 2.12, but “Falafel” will be cemented into my mind as one my favourite one-liners.
Image via http://slapcountdown.tumblr.com/
Unfortunately, at the end of the season, it’s revealed that Ted and Robin’s life plans proved too different to overcome, and the season ends in marinara sauce and tears. Not to mention the most heartbreakingly-lovely line from Ted: “I would have stolen you a whole orchestra.” Although Ted and Robin stop dating here, the best is yet to come.
Next Monday: Season 3 and 4!
Of course, I couldn’t squeeze all of the great moments from Season 1 and 2 in the post: the slutty pumpkin, krav maga, Robin and horse poop. So, comment below with your favourite moment in the first two seasons! Also, what are you going to miss most about HIMYM?
The next episode titled ‘Vesuvius’ airs tonight, March 3rd, at 8-pm on CBS.
All images and video belong to CBS