Robin dropped a "How I Met Your Mother" pregnancy bomb a few weeks ago. Was she or wasn't she? If she was, then who was the daddy? The episode "Symphony of Illumination" answered viewers' questions. No, she wasn't pregnant, and she never slept with Kevin, so Barney would have been the daddy. Robin wasn't pregnant after all, but was that really good news?
The episode was narrated by Future Robin instead of Future Ted. Like Ted, she spoke to her future son and daughter. First she explained "daddy's" response to her pregnancy news: "Looks like nobody told your boobs." Like Ted, Robin apologized when she said inappropriate things, such as, "I don't want kids.... never in a million years do I ever want kids."
Barney wanted a baby, then he didn't
Barney's pregnancy enthusiasm puzzled Robin. He lost that daddy feeling when they went with Lily to the We Be Babies store. He ran into his former buddy, Insane Dwayne. He'd been a player like Barney until a quickie turned into a wife and a bunch of kids. It wasn't a pretty sight.
Robin never wanted a baby
Lily helped seal Robin's anti-baby conviction with casual talk of the problems that come with being a mom. (Post pregnancy was a rough road.) When the doctor told her the test was negative, Robin, Barney and the doctor broke into a wild examination room dance. Robin and Barney celebrated with cigars and scotch.
Then she did
Later the doctor cut Robin's celebration short when she told her she could never have children. Babies became cute again. A maple leaf adorned onesie sent her rushing from the baby store. It was Christmas time, but Robin slipped into a funky mood. She told the gang she was sad because she could never be a "pole vaulter.....It's what most women want...in Canada." It was nice to know the door was always open. Now it was closed.
Barney told jokes to cheer her up. Ted offered to take her home to Cleveland for Christmas. Lily cried because she'd been a bad friend. Marshall asked legal questions to help solve her pole vaulting problem. Robin refused to be comforted and wandered the snowy streets sipping eggnog from a carton. When she returned to the apartment, Ted had decorated everything. He spelled out "Merry Christmas Robin" in lights, blasted AC/DC's "Highway to Hell" and held her while she cried.
So was the pregnancy news good or bad?
That depends on how you look at it. Future Robin's fake kids faded away, then Future Ted explained the wonderful things Robin accomplished during her life. She became a famous journalist and traveled the world. She even became a bullfighter, but she never became a pole vaulter.
Does that mean she never had kids? He didn't say that. Does it mean she and Barney never got together? Viewers will just have to wait and see.
