On the whole, I liked the finale. Barney's arc (sans the divorce) was very satisfying, and it wouldn't surprise me if he's the dad in How I met your Dad. Marshall and Lily has been mostly played out for a few years now, but it's good to have supreme fudge. It doesn't surprise me that the mother is dead theory prevailed, but it doesn't give you much of a chance to enjoy their relationship before she's taken in the end. Finally, Robin. I saw someone make the point that they made an agreement that if they were 40 and single then they'd get together, so the ending wasn't exactly out of the realms of possibility. BUT, it does undermine the journey that Ted went through on this last season. We had him literally let go off Robin and let her float off like a balloon, and even last week he had a chance to take Robin from Barney before the wedding. Given the rest of the season, it was a little disappointing that was the route they went with. All in I preferred it to the end of Friends, but it didn't match up to the satisfaction from the endof 30 Rock.