Robin Scherbatsky (Cobie Smulders) served as a core member of the friend group throughout How I Met Your Mother, but she distanced herself in the show's future timeline. Despite focusing on a primary timeline of events, a future version of Ted Mosby (Josh Radnor) from 2030 was retelling the story of how he met his future wife. His epic tale tended to feature various flashbacks and flash-forwards, particularly in the show's ninth and final season. By then, Robin had greatly drifted from the group for understandable reasons.
Though Robin was one of the lead characters for all nine seasons of How I Met Your Mother, she was the last member to join the friend group. Growing up in Canada, Robin moved to New York City in 2005 shortly before the events of the series. At the time she met Ted, Robin was working as a news anchor at Metro News 1. Not long after, the pair met and went on a date, but Ted scared her away for moving a bit too fast with his romantic feelings. While Ted and Robin would eventually enter a relationship for only a short time, she was accepted into his friend group that consisted of Marshall Eriksen (Jason Segel), Lily Aldrin (Alyson Hannigan), and Barney Stinson (Neil Patrick Harris).
As the years went on, the gang of five grew an extremely strong bond. They experienced countless milestones in addition to several major life moments, both good and bad. Even after Ted and Robin broke up, they made every effort to remain friends so the group could stay intact. As the years continued to pass by, Marshall and Lily weren't the only members of the group to marry. The final season of How I Met Your Mother not only put the "Mother," Tracy McConnell (Cristin Milioti), into the spotlight, but it also documented Robin and Barney's wedding weekend. Unfortunately, their marriage only lasted three years. To make matters worse, Robin began distancing herself from the group in the years that followed. The separation, however, wasn't the only reason that Robin drifted from her closest friends.
Robin Explained Her Distance In The How I Met Your Mother Series Finale
By 2016, Robin and Barney announced their divorce to the rest of the group. Lily made them promise that it wouldn't affect the friend group, but more importantly, that they would be there for the big moments. Robin agreed, but she started to forgo get-togethers, which she explained in a 2016 flash-forward during the How I Met Your Mother series finale. After not showing her face for months, Robin elected to attend Marshall and Lily's Halloween party. Upon leaving early, Lily confronted her long-time female best friend about her absence. Robin explained that she had trouble fitting in with a married couple with multiple kids on top of facing her ex-husband and Ted, the man she probably should have ended up with.
According to other flash-forward scenes, Robin grew more distant in the years that followed. In 2020, she ran into Ted and the two caught up after years apart. Though she never re-married or settled down to start a family, Robin admirably expanded her professional career as a news journalist. Not only did she become famous as part of a major news program, but Robin became a successful businesswoman, world traveler, and bullfighter.
Robin eventually came to terms with her life, allowing her to reunite with her old friends in time to attend Ted and Tracy's wedding. While the distance may have remained due to the group's respective personal lives, they stayed in each other's lives. In 2030, years after Tracy's tragic death, Ted rekindled his romance with Robin, so it was likely she never fully separated herself from the group after the events of How I Met Your Mother.