WARNING: The following article contains spoilers for How I Met Your Father‘s Season 1 finale, “Timing Is Everything,” streaming now on Hulu.
How I Met Your Father creators/executive producers/writers Isaac Aptaker and Elizabeth Berger have opened up about the Season 1 finale’s major How I Met Your Mother crossover cameo.
The 10th and final episode of How I Met Your Father Season 1, “Timing Is Everything,” sees Cobie Smulders reprise her role as Robin Scherbatsky, who she played throughout How I Met Your Mother‘s nine-season run on CBS. Robin, who is now a famous reporter, offers some advice to main protagonist Sophie (Hilary Duff), who thinks Jesse (Chris Lowell) was taking their newfound relationship too fast. What’s more, this exchange happens in the iconic HIMYM locale of MacLaren’s Pub.
“I once had a guy say ‘I love you’ on our first date,” Robin says, referring to Ted Mosby (Josh Radnor), to which Sophie replies, “Dude sounds like a real piece of work.” Robin continues, “You have no idea… 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?”
While speaking with Variety, Aptaker and Berger were asked how they decided that Robin would be the one to make a comeback. “We started talking about it pretty early in the season,” Aptaker said. “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. So we knew we didn’t want that to happen too early.”
He continued, “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. Robin is coming into our show at an essential point in Sophie’s life and helping to point her in one direction. So it felt really organic that in our finale when Sophie’s at this romantic crossroads, that she would cross paths with with Robin and get some advice from this wiser character who’s in a different point in their life.”
Addressing whether or not cameos by the likes of Radnor, Jason Segel, Neil Patrick Harris or Alyson Hannigan were on the table, Berger said, “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.”
In HIMYM‘s 2014 series finale, “Last Forever,” the mother of main protagonist Ted’s children is revealed to be Tracy McConnell (Cristin Milioti), who dies tragically young. The finale also reveals that Robin’s marriage to Barney Stinson (Harris) ended in divorce. Following these revelations, the Ted of the year 2030 attempts to rekindle his romance with Robin with the permission of his children. Robin appears to reciprocate.
In How I Met Your Father‘s Season 1 finale, however, Robin is not seen wearing a ring, nor does she ever mention Ted by name. “Yeah, it’s all very deliberate,” Aptaker said regarding these decisions. “We worked with [original creators] Carter [Bays] and Craig [Thomas] 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. I mean, we’re coming back and doing 20 more [episodes]. 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 team was very intentional and what we were ready to tell viewers at this point.”
All 10 episodes of How I Met Your Father Season 1 are streaming on Hulu now. The show has been renewed for a 20-episode second season.
Source: Variety
About The Author
