The Time Traveler’s Wife – Episode 6 Recap, Review & Ending Explained

The Wedding

What happens to Henry before his wedding to Clare?

Episode 6 of The Time Traveler’s Wife begins with 28-year-old Henry traveling briefly to the future. Clare’s voice rings out, asking Henry–her Henry–if he’s back. Henry disappears before she can find him.

This is just the beginning of Henry’s frequent travels before his wedding to Clare, and they are all caused by his stressful feelings about the future.

What is Henry’s relationship with his father like?

Henry struggles with the fact that his dad is going to be at their wedding. Their relationship is strained because of the loss of Henry’s mom.

He introduces Clare to his dad, and they hit it off. Later, Henry goes to his dad for help. He’s been traveling so often; he’s worried he’s going to disappear from his own wedding. He mentions needing drugs to help himself calm down.

Where/when does Henry time travel to?

In the weeks leading up to the wedding, Henry time travels almost every night, and mostly to the future. He sees his future home with Clare several times. At one point, he sees an older Clare watching their wedding video and reaching for a tissue.

He also sees himself and Clare house hunting. 30-year-old Henry is telling Clare that this is the house they’re going to choose.

At another point in the future, he hears Clare sobbing alone in bed, clutching an ornate box.

Later, Henry asks her about the box he saw, and she says her mom gave it to her to hold her precious jewelry. It’s currently empty.

Does morphine help Henry?

The day before the wedding, Gomez catches Henry meeting up with a drug dealer, who apparently knows about Henry’s time traveling. He gives him a morphine pill to help him calm down.

Henry decides to try it out then and there and quickly passes out. He then travels to the future, where he and Clare are fighting. Clare yells at Henry that she won’t ever forgive him. He travels again, and sees himself sitting in a wheelchair.

When he travels back, he briefly sees Gomez, but not before traveling again to see the obscured form of young Clare. And again, to see Clare grieving with Gomez at a funeral. He then travels back to his fight with Clare, and then back to Gomez, who has called his dad to help. Still, Henry doesn’t stop traveling.

What is in Clare’s box?

During his travels, Henry again finds Clare’s ornate box with several positive pregnancy tests in it. 29-year-old Clare is there, crying. This is right after their major fight.

Henry then hears himself talking on the phone about how Clare thinks he’s a murderer. He asks his older self why his wife is crying, but older Henry says they aren’t married. “You tried,” he says. “But you couldn’t stick the landing.

About the pregnancy tests, he says, “I make time travel babies, and guess what? They time travel right out of the womb.”

Clare now hates him because he had a vasectomy without telling her. Henry then punches his older self, who disappears.

When Henry returns, Gomez calls Clare to say he’ll get him to the church. But it’s the wrong Henry.

Younger Henry stays with future Clare, who says she’s not ready for this. She’s not ready for shoe polish day.

Do Henry and Clare get married?

36-year-old Henry tells the men that he needs shoe polish. He then suits up and gets ready for the wedding.

His dad can tell Henry is looking at him like he hasn’t seen him in a while. He tells him his mother would be proud of him, and so is he.

Henry asks if marrying his mom was worth losing her. He’s aging faster than he should and knows he won’t live a long life. His dad says, “it wasn’t easy, but it was worth it–because of you. Give her a child,’ he says. “If you can’t stay, do that.”

In the future, Clare shows Henry their wedding video. Henry says he hates what his older self has done to her. Clare says she wanted his children more than anything in the world, but he gave up after five tries. She would never have given up.

He asks if she’s going to forgive him. “I guess I’m gonna have to figure that one out.” Henry is still flabbergasted. He was supposed to make her happy.

Clare laughs. She tells him they’re not supposed to make each other happy. That’s not the point. They’re getting married, not going on a vacation.

But they cling on anyway, knowing they won’t last in the long run, because this is as good as it ever gets. And if he forgives her when she hurts him, she’ll try to do the same for him.

She tells him she misses “young, angry, asshole” him. She hopes she didn’t make him change and asks him to come see her sometimes.

Both versions of the couple kiss at the same time, as Clare and Henry of different timelines get married.

How does ‘The Time Traveler’s Wife’ end? Do Henry and Clare have children?

The finale of The Time Traveler’s Wife concludes with a cutscene. In it, 28-year-old Henry tells 29-year-old Clare it’s a weird thought–his coming to see her more often.

“I’m just him,” he says. “I’m just basically the guy who got a vasectomy.”

“Not yet, you’re not,” she says, smiling.

Clare and Henry may have a child yet.

The Episode Review

Despite the fact that the couple’s hope for children has been barely (if at all) previously discussed, HBO’s The Time Traveler’s Wife concludes disingenuously by centering this very desire. The statement of Henry’s father goes so far as to make having a child the entire purpose of Henry’s and Clare’s marriage. Way to suck out any lingering romance out of their relationship. 

But it’s another blatant message that rounds out the entire narrative of The Time Traveler’s Wife. Essentially, it’s that marriage is hard–like, really, really hard–but you have to stick it out for the good times. And that is supposedly meant to be profound.

The plot points of the finale tie together extremely sloppily. The morphine pill had zero significance to the plot. Neither did the lottery ticket. And the allusion to Henry’s death in the first episode never comes back, except for the implication that Henry does die young. Still, when I see the protagonist’s severed feet in the first episode, I expect the series to go somewhere with that tidbit of information, specifically.

Several bells and whistles distract from the glaring inconsistencies in this finale. Truly, much of the episode is an enjoyable watch, and it’s great to finally see Henry resolving his doubts and fears for the future.

Still, the overarching message of the show sours in one’s stomach. The self realizations and romantic resolutions just simply aren’t enough to make up for that.