Prior flash-forwards have suggested that both Barney and Robin freak-out right before their wedding. There was also a suggestion that Robin would climb out the same window that Victoria climbed out of on her wedding day.
However, the flash-forward at the end of last night's episode showed Robin dancing at her wedding, and Ted casually leaning against a bar while he watched the mother (okay, the mother's hand) play the bass.
But how did we get to this point?
The episode began with Ted and Lily fighting about who would organize Barney and Robin's wedding. Lily had a binder, but Ted had a bigger binder. Lily knew a band that Robin liked, but Ted thought that Robin should have a DJ.
Now, you may think that's a serious argument (okay, you probably don't think that), but the real issue is that Barney didn't ask Robin's dad for permission to marry her. And Robin points out the gang that A) her dad is really scary and B) he's traditional.
Except...is he?
When Robin introduces Barney to her dad, her father shows up in a Hawaiian shirt with a smile on his face. He also has a new girlfriend and Facebook. Apparently he's "fun now".
However, that doesn't mean that he likes Barney. He doesn't like the fact that Barney's blonde (apparently that's not a real hair color for a grown man), and he doesn't appreciate the fact that Barney won't shoot a rabbit to prove his loyalty.
Robin wants Barney to figure out a way to get her dad's permission. But then she stumbles over his Facebook page. Apparently her father is married and he didn't even bother to tell her (let alone invite her to his wedding).
She's devastated and yells at him that she and Barney are already engaged, that she's marrying him, and that her dad is no longer invited to the wedding.
Meanwhile, Ted and Lily are still having a hard time. Turns out that wedding planning is not the only devastation in their lives. During a fight over the band (Lily called to book it, but Ted had already booked it in an attempt to keep it away from the wedding), Ted yells that Robin deserves better than a wedding band, claiming that the band will be unreliable and has slept with half the women in New York City. In other words, he's talking about Barney.
Lily then admits that sometimes she wishes she wasn't a mother. And Ted admits that he thinks that Robin should be marrying him, not Barney.
I have to point out that this is so typical of Ted. He claims that he's a terrific friend, and other people seem to have the same opinion (though really, who knows? He's the one narrating and he's clearly a pretty unreliable one). But is Ted really a good friend? It seems that each time he's making a decision he's really only doing what's best for him. Even when he's helping his friends make decisions he doesn't ask them what they want, but insists they do what he thinks is right.
Two clear examples of this come to mind: Robin moving to Japan and Robin becoming a coin flip bimbo. Both times Ted insisted that he knew what the right decision was, while Barney actually listened to Robin, contributed to the conversation, and helped her make her own decisions.
Hmm, I wonder who's a better match for Robin?
The next time Ted talks to Robin she reiterates this. Robin tells Ted that Barney got her dad to cave...he made him come and apologize to her. She said that no one has ever tried (or managed) to talk to her dad like that. Ted tells Robin he's really happy for her, and it seems like he's trying to be, but the conversation ends with him arguing with her over the fact that a DJ would be more better than a band. Has Ted really learned anything at all?
The flash-forward begins with Ted on the subway. He's talking to the Rachel Bilson character (remember his ex-girlfriend who turned out to be a lesbian?). As the show suggested years earlier, her roommate will turn out to be the mother. Ted is crowing over the fact that the band cancelled anyway and that Robin should have gone with the more reliable choice of a DJ (for a second I was concerned that this was foreshadowing a Barney/Robin split). Bilson says it must be kismet, because she just saw her old roommate that morning and she plays bass for one of the best wedding bands in NY. Ted takes some persuading, but eventually agrees that would be a good solution.
And we're back to that scene I mentioned earlier: Robin dances past Ted in her wedding dress, and Ted leans back against the bar, staring at the mother.
P.S. There's also a side-story where baby Marvin is super constipated. Which I guess could be used as an analogy for the lack of movement in Ted's life or something. I don't know, the baby poops once Ted's admitted his true feelings to Lily, so way to go writers.
