Some random thoughts, not sure where to start
We were told that this re-telling of the Ted-mother story was about the kind of love that very few can find. It was supposed to be the Romeo and Juliet love not the best friends love that so many couples have. Midway through they poke at that when Lilly is watching Ted on the phone breaking the 3 day calling rule, its something different this time. But as the episode moves on we learn an important fact, even after kids and huge life changes they haven't married, Ted never commits, BS about life getting in the way. The timeline gets a little bit muddied for me to follow. How far after or before the Mom getting sick do they marry? Finally the kids push Ted out of the home to find Robin, noting that they've noticed Ted has the hots for Aunt Robin. Perhaps we find out that Ted and this whole story is a bunch of bullshit. Look at the end of the story, the kids tell Ted to go find Robin to be happy. What does Ted do at the very end? He reveals the Blue French horn. The Same horn which Ted initially used to woo Robin at the beginning of the story. So step back and process that, the beautiful love that Ted has 'found' with his wife he always kept the horn, took forever and a day to marry his wife (do we know when she first got sick? honestly don't know) and never let go of the artifacts from Robin. Instead of coming off as him finding happiness we are left with a Ted who bounced back to his first one and only love after the death of his "soul mate". So Ted comes off for me as they same whiny bitch we've known for 5 seasons, always pining for the next girl who could be the one, instead fully loving the woman he is with. In fact, the more I think about it, Barney is the one who comes off at the character who has come the most full circle in the show. He moves from womanizer to woman protector after the (SHITTY) introduction of his daughter which causes real, transcendental change in one of the main characters. Ted is still the guy chasing after the woman, treating each relationship as a placeholder until he finds "the one" and I feel lied to by the story, the Mom couldn't have been Ted's "one", because he never left Robin.