13 Couples That Didn't Get Their Happy Ending

How can a show called How I Met Your Mother kill off its titular character and so flagrantly backburner the relationship that the whole series was supposedly based on? Still trying to wrap my mind around that one. The Mother (Tracy) was unseen and unnamed for the vast majority of the show, but once she was introduced in the final episode of the penultimate season, viewers fell hard and fast for her relationship with Ted. The flashforwards showed their wonderful, loving relationship, and filled in all the blanks between present-day Ted and future-narrator Ted. Their love story was cut short when it was revealed that Tracy had died years prior to future-Ted telling the story of their meeting to their kids, leaving viewers to wonder why the showrunners had made their romance so lovely if it wasn't "endgame" after all.

April and Leo represented an instance of an initial, relatively popular pairing of two characters being overtaken once a third, really enigmatic character makes his way between them. In this case, Dom and April's earlier relationship was shoved to the wayside after the introduction of the potential Leo relationship, and the Leo/April pairing (initially full of sparring and banter) gained tons of traction very quickly. They even made their way down the aisle! In the end, though, it wasn't meant to be -- Leo died suddenly in his sleep, leaving newlywed April completely blindsided.

"Finchel" was a heart-breaking example of real-life tragedy informing fiction. When Finn's portrayer Cory Monteith unexpectedly died, there was actually no way for the Finn/Rachel pairing to continue (barring a recast of Finn, which would have been completely abominable). It was clear from the beginning of the series that laid-back football star Finn and highstrung musical theater nerd Rachel were meant to be. Throughout their separations (both emotional and physical), it was always clear that their hearts belonged with one another. When Finn's character was killed off in an unnamed incident, his pending reunion with his true love Rachel was cut short.