One small detail in How I Met Your Mother season 9 connects Robin and Barney’s divorce to her big breakup with Ted, which helps explains why their marriage ended so suddenly. While Robin and Ted began the sitcom as the will-they-won’t-they couple, this slowly shifted to Robin and Barney. After Ted finally let go of Robin, she married Barney in How I Met Your Mother’s series finale, which seemed to be the perfect happy ending for the couple. However, How I Met Your Mother’s flash-forwards shockingly revealed that Barney and Robin got divorced just three years later, with Ted and Robin reuniting after another 15 years.
The common denominator in Robin’s breakups with Barney and Ted is Argentina, which ultimately symbolized unhappiness in her relationships and differing views on their futures. In HIMYM season 2, Ted told Robin he didn’t want to raise kids in Argentina, while Robin said she didn’t want to raise kids in Argentina. They tried to compromise, but split up after realizing they wanted different things out of life. This situation was repeated when Robin and Barney broke up in HIMYM season 9, which happened to occur in Argentina. Despite being controversial and unexpected, Barney and Robin’s trip to Argentina emphasized the inevitability of their divorce.
How Argentina Influenced Barney & Robin’s Quick Divorce
After the hypothetical role Argentina played in her split with Ted, HIMYM placing Robin and Barney’s breakup in the country likely exacerbated her realization that they would never change for one another, so divorce was the better option. Robin and Barney’s trip to Argentina featured too many similarities to the underlying reasons behind Robin's breakup with Ted, such as the detail in which the former couple wakes up in a hotel room with a random crying baby. It almost appeared like Robin and Barney lived out Ted’s suggestion of raising a family in Argentina, which would have emphasized to Robin that this was still not the life she wanted to live.
Robin and Barney’s last fight in Argentina was potentially what made her realize that she was still in love with Ted. While Robin likely would have been fine still being married to Barney even though they weren’t entirely happy, Argentina’s role in her breakup would have made her understand even sooner that she couldn’t stay with Barney if she was still in love with Josh Radnor’s HIMYM character. Argentina would thus be the deciding factor for the end of Robin’s big relationships, and seemed to be the greatest signifier of an impending breakup. Robin and Barney’s marriage survived when traveling around the rest of the world, but Argentina was what finally made them confront their issues.
Why Robin & Barney’s Divorce Is So Divisive
In addition to Ted and Robin’s reunion, the decision for Robin and Barney to get divorced in How I Met Your Mother’s ending is incredibly divisive. The reason is that Barney and Robin had been set up as two people who continually failed at relationships and felt that they couldn’t get them right, but were finally able to do so with one another. By HIMYM’s ending, Barney and Robin’s chemistry was greater than her chemistry with Ted, so their happy ending made complete sense. Not only was this all undone in the finale, but it was completely unraveled in only a matter of minutes.
How I Met Your Mother season 9’s present timeline was set over the weekend of Barney and Robin’s wedding, with many of the conflicts surrounding their worries or hurdles in walking down the aisle. Ultimately, they both happily said “I do,” which is why their quick divorce was so unexpected. Ted letting go of Robin before the wedding ended up amounting to nothing, with the divorce leading Robin to fall back in love with Ted while Barney returned to his womanizing ways. Whether Ted and Robin should have gotten back together remains controversial, yet How I Met Your Mother’s execution of Robin and Barney’s divorce was undoubtedly worse.