By Devlin Francis ’15 | Staff Writer

Now kids, in the fall of 2005 CBS aired a new sitcom titled ‘How I Met Your Mother’ that took hold of millions of fans before ending on a high note nine years later.

When Ted Mosby, played by Josh Radnor, first sat down in the year 2030, he told us this story was going to be a long one; nine years later it definitely was. But it was a journey worth every step. And it’s hard to not be happy with the way it ended in Monday’s series finale.

The actors and actresses have all been great throughout the series as a whole.  Alyson Hannigan, Cobie Smulders, Jason Segel and Neil Patrick Harris all did incredible jobs creating the characters of Lily Aldrin, Robin Scherbatsky, Marshall Eriksen and Barney Stinson, respectively.

One thing that I really enjoyed was the overall progression and maturity of each character individually throughout both the series and the finale. The overall change of each character was evident in the finale, as the young, drinking buddies grew up into spouses and parents.

Along with Radnor as Ted, they brought ‘The Gang’ to life, and made me, and I’m sure millions of other fans, feel like I was with them at MacLaren’s every Monday night.

The symbolism of key moments throughout the series was also a unique twist. I liked how the episode  incorporated motifs from the entire series, as it helped send the series off as a whole, rather than as a final season.

The final episode was very appropriate for the series, and the writers did an excellent job fitting every character’s life, past, present, and future, in just as the pieces of a blue french horn fit in each other.

After the entire final season up to this point was spent taking place during a three day span, the final episode took an interesting turn. Just like the maze of pieces that is a blue french horn, the finale jumped around, going from the current period, to flashbacks from past episodes, to events that supposedly occur in the future of ‘The Gang’s’ lives.

And, just like all those pieces of a blue french horn, everything came together at the end to make something truly beautiful.

However, beautiful is not the right word for the episode. After countless nights spent suiting up, the highest of fives, thousands of pickup plays, daddy jokes, and slaps, the series finale of HIMYM can only be described by one word: Legen-wait for it-dary.

Grade: A+