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HBO Series 'The Time Traveler's Wife' Ending Explained: What Happened To Henry On Their Wedding Day?

The drama series is based on the 2003 novel of the same name by Audrey Niffenegger.

Source: HBO

The Time Traveler's Wife is a sci-fi romantic drama series based on the 2003 novel of the same name by Audrey Niffenegger. The series was developed and written by Steven Moffat and directed by David Nutter. This is not the first adaptation of the book which was previously adapted into a film as well in 2009. In 2018, HBO secured the rights to the book to make the series that premiered on HBO on May 15, 2022.

Source: HBO

The series had a weekly release and the first season concluded on June 19, 2022, with the sixth episode. The season ended on a huge cliffhanger, teasing the possibility of more to come. Here's what went down in the first season: (Spoilers ahead!)

The Time Traveler's Wife Synopsis

For those who have already read the book and watched the movie, the series would have been familiar. The story follows the love story between Clare (Rose Leslie) and Henry (Theo James) in a tale across the expanse of time. Henry is an ordinary man with a rare genetic disorder that allows him to travel through time involuntarily. Claire, his wife, finds it difficult to cope with his ability.

Source: HBO

Clare meets Henry for the first time when she is just six years old. She is unaware at the time that he is the future love of her life or that he is a time traveler and is actually visiting from the future. He lets her know the dates he will be reappearing and asks her to be prepared for him. During one of these visits, he reveals that they will be married in the future. Fourteen years later, a beautiful redhead wanders into the library where Henry works, claiming not only to have known him all her life but to be his future wife. That is how their magical and complicated romance begins.

Source: HBO

Henry's Time Travelling

The season has six episodes over which we see the two become a happy couple, set to get married. We also learn that Henry's condition is triggered by stress. He vanishes from the present and may end up at any point in his life. He tries to remain calm and does everything in his power to get the condition under control. Leading up to the marriage, Henry is worried about a lot of things. He is worried that he will disappear during the ceremony and finds that the frequency of his time traveling increases. In an attempt to find a solution he takes a relaxant that proves to be a wrong idea as he ends up time-traveling into the future. In these drug-induced time-traveling trips, he also happens to witness something of a hopeful future. 

Source: HBO

The Time Traveler's Wife Ending Explained

In the final episode, Henry and Clare are set to become man and wife. The marriage is happening between these time-crossed lovers. But it soon becomes clear that their married life will not be as beautiful as they thought it would be. In the end, we see Clare's desperation for a child seemingly override Henry's desire to spare her harm. Henry disappears from his wedding and finds himself at various points in time including one time where he finds Clare crying as she watches their wedding video and his wheelchair sits unused. Henry is well aware of the fact that he needs to go to the ceremony to get married to Clare.



 

So he arrives on the day of the wedding as his older self. And post-wedding the couple has trouble conceiving. She goes through several miscarriages. It is mostly because Henry's genetic disorder is passed on to the baby that also ends up time traveling and because it is not fully formed, it is unable to return to the womb. To spare Clare the pain, Henry gets a vasectomy against her wishes.

There is still much of the story left from the book that will probably be taken up in a possible second season. But just before the episode ends, it is revealed that Henry at 28 has actually not yet had a vasectomy.