A Main "How I Met Your Mother" Cast Member Just Appeared On "How I Met Your Father," And It's So Perfect
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🚨 Warning: There are massive — and I mean MASSIVE — spoilers ahead for the How I Met Your Father Season 1 finale. 🚨
How I Met Your Father just wrapped its first season with a finale that I have been dying to talk about.
Starring Hilary Duff, Chris Lowell, Francia Raisa, Kim Cattrall, and more, the series is set in the How I Met Your Mother universe and follows Sophie (Duff), who is trying to find love in NYC in 2021, while older Sophie (Cattrall) is telling her son the story of how she met his father.
Now, since HIMYF is set in the How I Met Your Mother universe, there have been some pretty great references to the original series. First, we found out that Jesse (Chris Lowell) and Sid (Suraj Sharma) live in Lily, Marshall, and Ted's old apartment above MacLaren's.
And older Sophie also told us about The Captain (Kyle MacLachlan) and Becky (Laura Bell Bundy), and how their recent divorce connects to her own love story.
Heck, they even solved The Pineapple Incident, which was a mystery the OG series only solved in a deleted scene.
Anyway, in the recent Season 1 finale, How I Met Your Father delivered the best (and biggest) guest appearance by a HIMYM cast member to date.
In the episode, Sophie ends up going to MacLaren's Pub — yes, Carl is still working — following a fight she had with Jesse about their future relationship after Sophie found out he turned down going on tour with Meredith, his ex-girlfriend.
So, Sophie goes to the bar and soon strikes up a conversation with Robin Scherbatsky. That's right, Cobie Smulders reprised her role from How I Met Your Mother, and I'm not ashamed to admit that I started crying over it.
This marks the first time Cobie has played Robin since the series finale of HIMYM in 2014. At the time, she had played Robin in 208 episodes alongside Josh Radnor, Jason Segel, Neil Patrick Harris, and Alyson Hannigan.
So, Sophie strikes up a conversation with Robin, who she knows as being a famous news anchor. Sophie and Valentina (Francia Raisa) apparently loved the story Robin did about the bullfighters, which is also mentioned on HIMYM.
Eventually, Sophie and Robin end up in the iconic HIMYM booth as Sophie details to Robin her complicated relationship with Jesse and what just happened to her.
Robin even tells Sophie about Ted saying "I love you" on their very first date from the first episode of How I Met Your Mother, and it leads Robin to give Sophie some important advice.
Now, if you noticed Robin isn't wearing a wedding ring — yes, it's the first thing I looked for — that's because this comes during the period of her life after she and Barney get divorced and before anything happens with her and Ted again.
In the How I Met Your Mother series finale, Ted and Robin rekindle their romance in 2030, which means we haven't gotten there yet. If HIMYF is taking place in 2021, that means it's set three years before Tracy, aka The Mother, dies in 2024.
Speaking about bringing Cobie Smulders back as Robin, How I Met Your Father executive producers Isaac Aptaker and Elizabeth Berger told Variety that they always wanted to bring old characters back, and Robin showing up came at "an essential point in Sophie's life."
"We loved the idea of [Robin and Sophie] having this talk woman-to-woman and commiserating about their love lives and about timing. Once we started circling that idea, that became the winner early on," Elizabeth explained. She also said they do have ideas "for a little bit down the road" for Josh Radnor, Neil Patrick Harris, Jason Segel, and Alyson Hannigan if they decide to return for a HIMYF episode.
Elizabeth and Isaac also detailed how they created Robin's storyline by working with HIMYM creators Carter Bays and Craig Thomas. Isaac said, "We worked with Carter and Craig pretty extensively on that scene together. We gave out exactly the amount of information that we all felt when we were ready to give out about Robin."
He continued, saying, "I mean, we're coming back and doing 20 more. There’s a lot more to tell both of our gang’s story and tidbits about what the How I Met Your Mother crew is up to. Everything in that scene was very intentional and what we were ready to tell viewers at this point."
Basically, I am absolutely obsessed that Cobie took the time to reprise her role as Robin in HIMYF. I cannot wait to see what Season 2 has in store for Sophie and all of the new characters, and hopefully we get to check in with more HIMYM characters too.
How I Met Your Father is streaming on Hulu now.
More on HIMYF:
Hilary Duff And Francia Raisa Are Just As Close Off Screen As They Are On "How I Met Your Father," And Here's The ProofNora Dominick · Jan. 25, 2022
"How I Met Your Father" Welcomed A "HIMYM" Duo, Plus 14 More TV Moments From This WeekNora Dominick · March 12, 2022
"How I Met Your Father" Revealed A Cute Connection To "HIMYM," And 12 More TV Moments From This WeekNora Dominick · Jan. 22, 2022