Spoiler Warning: How I Met Your Father Season 1 & How I Met Your Mother FinaleBack in January 2022, How I Met Your Father premiered with many critics being pretty unimpressed with the sequel series. Almost instantly, comparisons to its predecessor, How I Met Your Mother, created by Elizabeth Berger and Issac Aptaker, began. Now, with the series’ first season officially wrapped, the consensus seems to have shifted, with many agreeing that the cast did have some fantastic chemistry that has evolved during the course of the season.

There’s a lot to talk about regarding the show’s first season, in general, and with the cast. However, there’s one thing we just have to talk about, and that is the return of a beloved cast member from the original series. Yes, How I Met Your Father’s season finale saw a special cameo from Cobie Smulders, a.k.a. Robin Scherbatsky. Fans believe that her cameo also fixed a major problem from the original series. So, let’s talk more about this and whether we’ll be seeing any of the original cast return.

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How Robin’s Appearance Fixed a Major Problem

     CBS

How I Met Your Mother is known for having one of the most controversial TV series endings. For those who don’t remember, the show killed off the title character “Tracy” just to have Ted (Josh Radnor) and Robin end up together, which didn’t sit well with many viewers. But that’s not the only thing that didn’t sit well with viewers. In the last two episodes of the original series, it goes to show that after Robin divorces Barney (Neil Patrick Harris), she becomes more aloof towards the gang and distances herself over the years. Even in the scene when the gang gets together for the birth of Ellie, Barney’s daughter, in 2020, Ted mentions that he bumped into Robin on the street, and to this, Lily (Alyson Hannigan) responds that that was a “genuine Scherbatsky sighting.”

However, with Robin’s appearance in the How I Met Your Father’s season finale, it tries to amend this problem by showing her feeling happy and nostalgic about the years with her close friends and the time she spent at MacLaren’s, proving that she truly misses those days and still loves her friends. The cameo does a great job at fixing Robin’s character by showing her as someone sympathetic in the future timeline as well.

Cobie Smulders Immediately Agreed to a Cameo

     Hulu

After the season finale aired, director Pam Fryman and co-creator Isaac Aptaker recall how excited they were to have Smulders come back to the role of Robin, as mentioned in an interview with TVLine. Both agreed that her willingness to come back as Robin only showed how much love and respect she has for that character. Aptaker also discussed how he had envisioned the scene as a passing of a torch moment between Smulders and Duff.

In the interview, Fryman goes on to say,

Will Other Original Characters Return?

With Cobie Smulders’ cameo on the show, it’s only fair to expect the remaining four from the original cast also to make an appearance. To which showrunner Elizabeth Berger said to Variety,

“[Original series co-creator] Craig [Thomas] reached out to Cobie first, and she was like, When do you need me? She said yes immediately. She couldn’t wait.” Aptaker continues, “She had no sort of hesitation. She has so much love for Robin. We had that idea that she would be, sort of… passing the torch and giving some wisdom to the next generation, and I think she really loved the idea of that dynamic with Hilary.”

Robin Wasn’t the Only Surprise

Robin wasn’t the only surprise on the How I Met Your Father season finale. We also finally saw the iconic MacLaren’s pub in this episode and the bar owner Carl from the original series. Fans were constantly questioning why we hadn’t seen MacLaren’s in the entire season, considering the two members of the gang live upstairs where some members of the original group lived. The show also finally addressed the “The Pineapple Incident” mystery, something that fans of the original show never got the answer to.

“There were absolutely discussions, and there continue to be discussions about who else would be fun and what way they’ll be utilized. This sort of clicked in very early and felt right. We loved the idea of them 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, and we decided we’ll save all those other ideas for a little bit down the road."

There are a lot of cliffhangers in the season finale, which will make for an epic season 2 of How I Met Your Father. While there’s definitely a wait for the next season to arrive, you can binge on season one on Hulu.