How I Met Your Mother: Ted's Relationships Ranked
Who should Ted have really ended up with?
As the world welcomes its spinoff, How I Met Your Dad, it's worthwhile to revisit the original series off of which HIMYD spun, How I Met Your Mother.
The series ran for nine seasons on CBS and follows Ted Mosby as he recounts to his children the titular story of how he met their mother. The story takes place starting in 2005, and sees Ted and his friends, Marshall, Lily, Barney, and Robin, as they face the challenges of being in their late twenties in New York City, looking for love.
Since the show reveals from the start that Ted does find love, the writers have fun playing with the audiences' expectations. They introduce so many love interests for Ted, knowing that the audience knows any one of them could have been the mother. Across nine seasons, Ted has fallen in love countless times, performed more grand romantic gestures than anyone can count, and even proposed to three different girlfriends. Ted has more serious relationships than anyone who regularly complains about his love life as often as he does should.
Here is every one of Ted's serious relationships ranked.
7. Jeanette
Upon meeting Jeanette, The late Bob Saget's future Ted warns the audience that this is the final girl he dates before settling down and going out with the Mother. After Ted's experience with Jeanette though, it's surprising he'd ever consider dating ever again.
Jeanette and Ted first meet when they happen to be reading the same book on the subway, but Jeanette leaves before Ted can get to know her. Coincidentally, Jeanette then shows up at Ted's school as the fire alarm goes off, and they just happen to bump into each other. However, this meet cute isn't all that cute once we learn that Jeantette started a fire in order to meet Ted, and she had been stalking him for some time, which is how they had the same book.
This would not be the only fire Jeanette causes in her brief tenure on HIMYM. Throughout their relationship, she accuses Ted of being in love with Lily (then proceeds to describe a woman who is nothing like Lily), steals his dead grandmother's ring (with which she was buried), and trashes his apartment, culminating in the destruction of Barney's playbook by means of fireworks.
Both the fans and the characters in HIMYM weren't too upset to learn that Jeanette would not be the mother.