How I Met Your Mother: "Last Forever"

Quick Review: At long last, Ted finally finishes his story.

Episode Synopsis: In the series finale, Ted tells his children the conclusion to the tale of how he and their mother finally became a couple. -tvguide

Spoiler Alert. Of course, this series began with a spoiler. It's even the title of the show. You know how it ends, so why should I bother with a spoiler warning? Am I irrationally clinging to tradition? Am I trying to make my reviews seem more important than they are? Do I really like writing in bolded, red font? Perhaps. But the truth is that all we know is the end result: Ted meets The Mother. We don't know the "How" part of the title, not completely. And if there's one episode you will forever curse yourself for getting spoiled on, it's the one you've waited nine years to see. And be careful with those curses, the last thing you want is to accidentally turn yourself into an undead horror forever cursed to stalk the night and consume the flesh of the photogenic. That would definitely put a crimp in your social life.

The Final Episode Moment

As you may know, How I Met Your Mother's final episode is less than a week away. (Unless you're reading this from the future. Hello to the world of the future! Do we have hover boards yet?) Final episodes are a bittersweet experience, especially if you've been watching the show since the beginning. You're sad to say goodbye, but if done right, you leave with a wonderful sense of closure.

One factor of a good final episode is that moment, the Final Episode Moment, that can't occur in any episode except the series finale. It's a moment that signals a definite end to one story, and perhaps the beginning of another one. It's a moment the show's been building towards, even if you didn't realize it. It could be something out of left field, something completely surreal, or even fourth wall breaking. There's no one rule for what makes a good Final Episode Moment, only that we know it when we see it.

So as we anticipate the Final Episode Moment of How I Met Your Mother, here's a list of eight other shows that had fantastic Final Episode Moments.(And sorry, Breaking Bad isn't on the list. Not because it didn't have a great final episode, but I'm still catching up and haven't seen the ending. My apologies, internet.)

Oh, yeah, spoiler warning.

Sleeping in Light

Jeff Conaway died a while back.

It got me thinking about the role I remember him most for. Many remember him from Grease, but for me, he'll always be Zack Allen on Babylon 5. And that brings me to one of the finest final episodes ever made: Babylon 5's Sleeping in Light.

While other epic science fiction shows have tried, and failed, to deliver the goods in their final episodes, Babylon 5 figured it out back in 1998. This was thanks in part to J. Michael Straczynski, the writer behind it all. JMS (as he often goes by) didn't simply make it up as he went along, he already had the endgame in mind, which is one of the reasons why the Babylon 5 series finale still holds up.

The basic rundown of the finale is this: (SPOILER ALERT)

Why do Lost clones fail?

The title sums up my thesis. Since Lost, television networks have been trying to duplicate the show's success, and most (if not all) of these clones fail. Shows like Threshold, The Nine, Flashforward, The Event, and my personal favorite Tower Prep all didn't survive past the first season. They all started out strong, and each show had viewers who were deeply disappointed that the story will not be finished. And why is it that none of these shows lasted? The answer, as I see it, is simple: Lost.

That's right, I posit that Lost not only inspired all these clones, but also is the reason they don't succeed.

Up, Up, and Away!

No, this isn't another entry about the Rapture. It's about endings. To books and television shows.

As a writer, the trickiest thing to pull off is the ending. Setting the stage is easy, and it's not that difficult to ratchet up the tension and build expectations for a fantastic climax and resolution. But eventually, you have to deliver, and that's when it gets tricky. You've made a deal with the audience: keep paying attention and I'll return the favor with a killer ending. It's the same kind of deal a joke-teller makes with an audience: stick with me during the joke, and I'll give you a laugh.

It's easy to stick with a joke. You've only lost a few seconds if the joke falls flat. There are cases where you have a Shaggy Dog joke, or any kind of joke in which the object is to waste the listener's time with a drawn out joke that's really a practical joke. Even then, you're not out that many moments in your life.

With books, it's different. There's more time, and often money, invested. Sometimes it's a single book, and the time investment is relatively short. Either the book pays off or it doesn't, and you can move on to the next. Then you get into the book series, and this is where a reader must invest carefully. While each book has an ending, the overall series is building somewhere and you have to choose whether to keep reading and continue to invest your time, money, and energy.