How I Met Your Mother
Left to right: Neil Patrick Harris as Barney, Cobie Smulders as Robin, Josh Radnor as Ted, Jason Segel as Marshall and Alyson Hannigan as Lily CBS

*** WARNING: Season Nine Final Episode Spoilers Below ***

After nine seasons US TV network CBS' hit sitcom How I Met Your Mother has finally come to a close.

It will undoubtedly be a divisive episode that will prove impossible to sit on the fence about (Personally I despised it with all my heart).

In the episode we see Ted finally meet the mother, as well as the next few years of his and his friends' lives. Barney and Robin's marriage lasts just three years (covered in ten minutes of TV time) and the mother – called Tracy – dies off-screen.

It is then revealed that the whole story that Ted has been telling his kids over the last nine years has been to set up him asking them (six years after their mother's death) if he can ask Robin out on a date.

How I Met Your Mother started in 2005 and stars Josh Radnor as Ted, Neil Patrick Harris as Barney, Cobie Smulders as Robin, Jason Segel as Marshall and Alyson Hannigan as Lily. Cristin Milioti joined the cast as The Mother in the season eight finale.

Here are some of the reactions from fans on Twitter.