10 Surprising Twist Endings (In TV Shows You Wouldn’t Expect)
5. How I Met Your Mother - Robin's Children Aren't What They Seem
In 2005, TV viewers saw Ted Mosby (Josh Radnor) sit his two children down on the couch and begin to tell them the story about how he met their mother. It was a story that spanned nine seasons and documented Ted's single years and the misadventures he enjoyed with his friends: The happy couple Marshall (Jason Segel) and Lily (Alyson Hannigan), the sleazy suit-wearer Barney (Neil Patrick Harris), and his on-again/off-again love interest Robin (Cobie Smulders).
Robin took centre stage in the seventh season episode, Symphony of Illumination. For the first time, an episode didn't open with Ted in his future living room speaking to his two future kids but with Robin in her future living room speaking to her two future kids. She begins to tell them the story of how she met their father. Thankfully, this story doesn't take 200+ episodes to tell. Far from it.
During the episode, Robin finds out that she is unable to have children. Those two kids we saw her speaking to don't exist. She was imagining them while sitting in the park, numbed by her medical news.
Why it's surprising: How I Met Your Mother was renowned for its twists however, it's the heartbreaking simplicity of this one which is a surprise. No elaborate layers of detail, just a troubled woman imagining something that isn't there.
The sight of Robin's make-believe children and home slowly fading to nothing, leaving her sitting alone in the snow is the mother of gut punches.