****WARNING!  CONTAINS SPOILERS!****

After nine years, the show that included every possible scenario of a few friends hanging out in a bar in NYC finally came to an end. Two hundred and eight episodes after the pilot, the ending successfully captured the plot, characters and everything in between, and left viewers without questions as the endless slaps, “legendarys!” and all-night bar scenes concluded.

In a plot-twisting hour special, it seemed as if all the characters ultimately got what they were looking for in life. Marshall and Lily remained a happy married couple, and after the earlier year long-trip to Rome to fulfill Lily’s artist dream, Marshall got a call declaring he would finally be able to be a judge (and in a late flash-forward, mentions on how he plans to be a senator.) They decide to move out of the famed apartment and find a bigger house for their growing family with three kids (Marvin, Daisy, and one on the way.) Barney and Robin, who get married in a weekend that lasts the entire Season 9, flash-forward three years and end up divorcing (after being honest and realize that it just isn’t working out). Robin, a news reporter, continues to travel internationally daily and gets worldwide recognition. Barney, on the other hand remains a playboy until his 40’s, and after getting a girl pregnant, doesn’t know what to do with his life. Yet, upon seeing his newborn baby in the delivery room, he finally finds his one true love—his daughter. The show portrays Barney as a fatherly figure who somehow grows out of his boyish ways and becomes a deeply caring dad.

And finally, Ted finds the woman of his dreams; Tracy McConnell who he marries (and has two kids Luke and Penny) and finally finds endless happiness with. The show concludes with Ted sitting down in front of his kids and their realization that his real purpose of telling the story of how he met their mother is to ask their permission to start dating Robin again (their mother got sick and Ted has been widowed for six years.) His kids, who love “Aunt Robin,” shout “yes!,” and just as the show ends, Ted spontaneously brings a blue French horn to Robin’s apartment; except this time, he’s many years older. And like that, the show ends the story of how Ted meets “the mother.”

Over the years, I’ve watched each episode at least twice, and all are filled with endless laughs, suspense, romance and more endless laughs. The twist at the end of how Ted is actually telling the story of his relationship with Robin is the one perfect ending that fits such a complex story. Critics inaccurately claim the show “twists love,” yet that idea is possibly the furthest thing from the truth; it’s the only way the story could have sufficiently ended. Barney, who was a womanizer his entire life, and Robin, a reporter who traveled daily throughout her job, just weren’t meant to be. But Ted and Robin are. Although Ted clearly cares for the actual mother, when she passes away, Robin and Ted’s lives are meant to cross.

A few seasons back in the show, Robin and Ted made a bet that they would get married if they were both 40 and single. And in the end, after several breakups, one divorce, two kids, a death, and a gang of loyal friends that include the “perfect family” and a single devoted dad, the deal ultimately becomes true.