How I met your mother: “Look around, Ted. You're all alone.”

Throughout my journey consuming and enjoying cinematic content, be it series or films, there have been very few scenes that have impacted me as much as the one I will describe below. How I met your mother, in my opinion, is the best sitcom in history, it takes you on a journey through thousands of experiences of Ted Mosby, our protagonist, and his friends in the great city of New York.

The magic of this wonderful series lies in how genuine and sentimental it is, avoiding the exaggerations worthy of a sitcom, you really manage to connect deeply with each cathartic moment of the protagonists. From Barney reclaiming from his absent father all the lost years he wasn't there for him, to the scene where Lily tells Marshall of her father's death. And like these many more, it is a human, honest and direct series, which makes it impossible not to get attached to the characters.

However, there is a specific scene and dialogue within all of the aforementioned, that even the first time I saw it, transmitted such a sense of emptiness that I was astonished by the psychological seriousness that the series manages when reflecting the fears and traumas of its characters.

The shock of a past reality.
In episode 20 of season 8 of How I met your mother, entitled "The Time Travellers", we see throughout the episode a debate between Ted and Barney with their versions of distant futures recommending what to do or what not to do when faced with the decision to go to "Robots vs Wrestlers". As we move forward in this episode, we come to the exact point where one of the best scenes in this entire series occurs.

Ted: I think I’m gonna head home.

Barney. I understand.

Ted: What, you’re not gonna try and stop me?

Barney: And how would I try and stop you?

Ted: I don’t know, by telling me life is short, and if you ever come across a beautiful, exciting, crazy moment in it, you got to seize it while you can before that moment’s gone?

Barney: Ted, this moment already is gone. The whole Minnesota Tidal Wave thing happened five years ago. It's just a memory. And the rest of this never happened. Right now, Marshall and Lily are upstairs, trying to get Marvin to go back to sleep. Robin and I are trying to decide on a caterer. And you've been sitting here all night, staring at a single ticket to "Robots vs. Wrestlers" because the rest of us couldn't come out. Look around, Ted. You're all alone.

Ted becomes aware of everything that is really going on around him, the loneliness that floods him in every corner of a soulless bar. The camera, focusing on him, slowly zooms out to reflect his transmitted smallness, Ted is alone, next to a ticket, in a bar, with no one to turn to but his idealisation. After this, he leaves the bar, and Ted, the narrator of the story, tells us the following.

Ted: Kids, it's been almost 20 years since that cold April night in 2013, and I can safely tell you, if I could go back in time and relive that night, there's no way in hell I'd go to "Robots vs. Wrestlers".

No, I'd go home. I'd go to my old apartment, see all my old furniture, my old stuff. I'd see my old drafting table, where I sketched out my first building. I'd sit on that old couch and smell the Indian food cooking three stories below.

I'd go to Lily and Marshall's place, be back in that old living room where so many things happened. I'd see the baby. I don't know if you can picture me holding your six-foot-seven cousin Marvin over my head, but back then I could.

I'd go have a drink with Barney and Robin, watch them fight about their caterer or whatever it was they were fighting about that night. But none of those things is the thing I'd do first. You know the thing I'd do first?

After this dialogue, the screenwriters decided to write one of the most beautiful love scenes I have ever witnessed in my life along with a moving performance by Josh Radnor. I just wish I could take that extra 45 days.

Ted: Hi. I'm Ted Mosby. And exactly 45 days from now, you and I are gonna meet, and we're gonna fall in love, and we're gonna get married, and… We're gonna have two kids. And we're gonna love them and each other so much. All that is 45 days away. But I'm here now, I guess, because… I want those extra 45 days… With you. I want each one of them. Look, and if I can't have them, I'll take the 45 seconds before your boyfriend shows up and punches me in the face, because… I love you. I'm always gonna love you, till the end of my days and beyond. You'll see.

It is impossible for me to write this article without getting emotional watching this scene again, it is painfully beautiful. It is the representation of what human beings can yearn for just for love, everything we wish for one day as individuals, to feel loved, to feel wrapped up with the person we want to spend up to 45 extra days with before we meet.

To anyone who is still hesitant to watch HIMYM, I absolutely recommend you watch it, you will never regret that decision. This show taught me to take another approach to my life and to surround myself with the right people to live legendary moments together for years, every teaching, every learning, every laugh and every cry, I treasure it in my heart, because How I met your mother is the perfect example of life.