(S04E24) It's been an interesting season for How I Met Your Mother, hasn't it? The ratings for the show have never been better, but longtime fans (me included) have been concerned about its inconsistency this season. Episodes that would be considered in the pantheon of Mother classics -- ones that mess with timelines and talk about the "mother mythology" and the stories of the rest of the Scooby gang -- were mixed in with standalone plots that were sometimes funny but other times were contrived and sitcommy.

I knew that the standalones would be more prevalent this season -- Carter Bays has told me and others as much -- but as I watched this season, I wondered why they were trying to make the show more accessible. Now that I've seen the fourth season finale, I completely understand why the show is going in that direction. And I'm not sure how I feel about it.