Why Some HIMYM Fans Think They Found An Important Pattern In The Show

[TMC]

https://www.looper.com/948599/why-so...n-in-the-show/

HIMYM uses the 'Hi' exchange to mark major moments

In a Reddit post titled "Never [realized] this was a thing," u/ReliqueOz posted three different screen grabs depicting a very specific kind of character interaction, one used numerous times in "How I Met Your Mother." Each image shows a partner from one of the show's main couples saying "Hi" to the other partner, and the latter responding to the former with the same simple greeting — as in, "Hi" (period) met with "Hi" (period). One scene shows Lily's flashback to meeting Marshall for the first time, another, Barney and Robin greeting one another before taking their vows, and another, Ted meeting Cristin Milioti's Tracy (his future wife and the show's titular mother) for the first time.

Although the subsequent thread dissolved occasionally into users sharing their favorite "HIMYM" episodes, a number of fans commented on the original poster's discovery. As u/Verano_Zombie points out, "when Ted imagines going to Tracy's house in the Time Traveler episode, the first thing he says is 'Hi'." Though a few comments displayed skepticism that this was, indeed, "a thing," at least one fan got to the heart of what makes the simple exchange so relatable: "Kind of a way to break the nervous tension," they wrote, keying in on the exchange's necessary but unspoken acknowledgment of the emotion of the moment (via Reddit).

It's a small but important observation. The exchanges' use of The Unsaid and The Implied functions, in-world, in much the same manner it functions with regard to the series' real-world impact and effect — a functionality that, in some ways, redeems and explains the series' finale.