Last night's finale left a very bitter taste, and would have worked MUCH better if it were open-ended. I just did not feel any emotional weight behind anything that happened, with the lone exception of Barney's love child. Barney and Robin ending up divorced after spending an entire season on their wedding weekend just didn't work. If they were going this kind of twist, the wedding should have been limited to the very beginning of the season, and the rest of the season should have been the wrap-up, maybe with each episode covering a different year leading up to the mother's death.
And speaking of her implied death, how horribly was that handled? You hype this woman up for the entire series, only to give her a scene with her on her death bed, and BAM Ted is going after Robin? I know that in regards to the timeline, 6 years is probably enough time for Ted to mourn and move on, but for the viewer who's witnessing this in the span of 10 minutes, there's no time for us to mourn, no time for us to accept it and see things through Ted's eyes. In the grand scheme of things, it does make sense for Ted to end up with Robin, but was it necessary to show? Not unless you've been building towards it. The entire season was basically about Robin and Barney getting married, and Ted's eventual ability to move on from Robin so that he can meet his future wife. Why throw all that out only to have them get together anyway?