There's a moment in Christopher Nolan's Dark Knight that I always remember. It's when the joker is talking about plans. He says: "Nobody panics when things go 'according to plan' even if the plan is horrifying!" Think what you will about comic book movies, but I think that speaks to the human condition on a level most art forms never reach. We are obsessed with plans. Sticking to them makes us feel better. And I'm not just saying that for the sake of my argument. One of the first things a therapist suggests to a depressed patient: make a plan. Why? Because following through on a plan makes us feel better. The problem is that it doesn't necessarily make anyone else feel better.
Last night, Carter Bays and Craig Thomas stuck to their plan. The footage from 2006 was clear proof of that. They always intended Ted to get back together with Robin. Which makes sense...circa 2006. Plans are written on paper. Or computers. You know what I mean. Plans are stagnant unless you change them, and it is incomprehensible to me how Bays and Thomas never changed the plan. Plans change all the time! I'm glad I didn't follow through on my first choice of major for college. My first girlfriend? We're not still together. The Articles of Confederation? They didn't exactly work out.
That's my problem with the finale. It changes the show to fit a plan that no longer makes sense. So they filmed that scene in 2006. They didn't have to air it. It's not a very good argument. I've written a lot of short stories that I never sent out to be published, and those selfies on Instagram? Never a first draft. The fact is that the show changed. It changed in a lot of ways, some good, some bad. But if this was always the plan, why make those changes? Why have Ted and Robin break up so convincingly? Why have her absurdly float away into the stratosphere?
If Ted and Robin was always the endgame, then why waste three years convincing us she's the one woman who can change Barney Stinson? By all appearances the plan had changed. Only it hadn't. Marshall is supposed to become a judge, but he goes to Italy because he loves his wife. He changes the plan because it's better for his relationship in the long run. Bays and Thomas are in a relationship with the television show they created. They're going with: screw it, I wanna be a judge now!
All I'm saying is that "the plan" isn't always the best idea. Perhaps the plan should have been to release the original ending as a DVD extra so we could all chuckle at how ridiculous that ending would be after everything else that's happened. But as for me, I'm off to the travel agent to book my trip to Gaul. I'm going to study alchemy and get rich turning iron into gold. Excited!
Share This Article
