'How I Met Your Father' Season 1 Finale Features Return of [SPOILER] From 'How I Met Your Mother'

The season one finale of How I Met Your Father is out now and there were quite a few surprises!

In the episode, “Timing Is Everything,” Sophie (Hilary Duff) gets romantic advice from someone who’s been through it all. Valentina (Francia Raisa) and Charlie (Tom Ainsley) face a tough crossroads. Jesse (Chris Lowell) makes a choice.

While Kyle MacLachlan and Laura Bell Bundy returned once again as The Captain and Becky, there was an original cast member from How I Met Your Mother that also made a special appearance!

Click inside to find out…

WARNING: THE REST OF THIS POST CONTAINS SPOILERS FOR THE HIMYF SEASON 1 FINALE!!

Cobie Smulders returned as Robin Sherbatsky!!

In the episode, Sophie tells Jesse that he told her “I love you, Sophie” in his sleep, and he told her that he turned down going on tour and getting back together with his ex for her. Sophie mentioned how that scared her and he told her to leave. She then decided to go downstairs to MacLaren’s, the regular hangout in How I Met Your Mother. If you remember, Jesse and Sid live in the old apartment from the original series.

Once Sophie walks into the bar and goes up to order a drink from Carl, the bartender from HIMYM, she also runs into Robin who is sitting and having a drink. After Sophie tells her she’s a big fan, Robin then says that she would love to hear about her problems and wants to offer advice.

“I once had a guy say ‘I love you’ on our first date,” Robin says, referencing Ted in the first episode of HIMYM. Sophie responds with, “Dude sounds like a real piece of work.”

“You have no idea,” Robin says. “But a good piece of work. Which brings me to my advice: Do not waste your time being scared, Sophie. Fear can make you run away from things that could be good — great even, things that are supposed to be a part of your story. So, really think about it: What did Jesse do wrong other than say everything you ever wanted a guy to say, just faster than you expected.”

Sophie then goes back upstairs to make things right with Jesse when she sees him kissing his ex Meredith (Leighton Meester). She goes back downstairs to the bar and tells Robin what happened. Robin then told her that timing is everything.

After that encounter, Sophie heads to the gallery to see her photo (which is of Jesse), and meets back up with the rest of the group. Sid and Hannah reveal they decided to skip the wedding planning and just went down to the courthouse and got married. Valentina reveals to Sophie that she and Charlie broke up.

Then, by quite a surprise, one of Sophie’s dates and perfect matches, Ian, from the first episode walks back in as he returns from Australia.

How I Met Your Father will be back for an extended second season.

In an interview about the finale, the showrunners opened up about the decision to bring back Robin.

“We started talking about it pretty early in the season. We always knew we wanted to play with bringing back characters from the original, but we were also very adamant that this was a show that forms its own set of characters and its own group of friends first,” Isaac Aptaker told Variety. “So we knew we didn’t want that to happen too early. We also knew that when we wanted to bring back characters, we wanted them to have something really important to do — to guide one of our characters on their journey.”

“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,” Elizabeth Berger added. “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.”