The How I Met Your Father season 2 midseason finale featured Neil Patrick Harris as the one and only Barney Stinson. After Sophie’s fender-bender with the HIMYM star, these two sat down for a hilarious and honest conversation.
Barney isn’t the first character to show up in How I Met Your Father, and he certainly won’t be the last. Upon Barney’s return, you might be wondering: where are all the other How I Met Your Mother characters? HollywoodLife has all the latest updates about the beloved characters as HIMYF continues.
Barney Stinson
At the end of the How I Met Your Father season 2 premiere, present-day Sophie thinks she’s finally hit rock bottom. However, older Sophie says that “rock bottom wouldn’t come until later that year.” On her way home, present-day Sophie frantically tries to get a hold of her mom. “I think I’m dating my dad!” Sophie says.
Suddenly, Sophie crashes her car by accidentally rear-ending the car in front of her. She gets out of the car to assess the damage. The driver of the other car also steps out, and it’s none other than Barney Stinson. “Dudddeeeee,” he says to Sophie. In the future, Sophie’s son asks who Barney is. “We’ll get there soon enough,” she quips.
The season 2 midseason finale picks up where the premiere scene left off. Barney reveals that he now wears an STD shock therapy device on his leg that shocks him every time he utters problematic words and phrases. There’s still the fender-bender situation, and Barney tells Sophie that she doesn’t have to pay for the car if the story about her possibly dating her dad is a good one.
They have a frank discussion about their fathers. Barney also shows Sophie a picture of his daughter. He gushes that Ellie is the “best thing to ever happen to an idiot like me.”
By the end of How I Met Your Mother, Barney and Robin had called it quits for good. He had a daughter Ellie by an unknown woman. In How I Met Your Father, Barney seems to be doing just fine.
Robin Scherbatsky
Sophie crosses paths with Cobie Smulders’ Robin at MacLaren’s Pub in episode 10 of HIMYF’s first season. Robin buys Sophie a drink and gives her some prized relationship advice while they sit at that booth. “Do not waste your time being scared,” Robin tells 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.”
Robin continues, “I have been married, I have been single, I have been everything in between, and the only decisions I regret making are the ones I made out of fear.” How I Met Your Father is currently set in 2022. This means Robin is still 8 years away from reuniting with Ted (as we saw in How I Met Your Mother). As for Ted, we haven’t gotten an update on him in How I Met Your Father.
Marshall Eriksen & Lily Aldrin
While Jason Segel and Alyson Hannigan have not appeared on How I Met Your Father yet, they have been referenced. In the series premiere of How I Met Your Father, Jesse and Sid’s apartment is the same apartment that Ted, Marshall, and Lily lived in. Jesse said they got the place “from this old married couple who posted it on the Wesleyan alumni group.” That “old married couple” is Marshall and Lily. The couple moved out of the apartment as they awaited the arrival of their third child.
Carl The Bartender
Carl the Bartender pops up on How I Met Your Father in the season 1 finale. He’s at the bar in MacLaren’s when Robin and Sophie meet. Joe Nieves appeared in 19 episodes of How I Met Your Mother.
The Captain & Becky
Kyle MacLachlan reappeared on How I Met Your Father as George Van Smoot a.k.a. The Captain in episode 9 of the first season. The Captain had last been seen in season 9 of How I Met Your Mother, and he was engaged to Becky (Laura Bell Bundy) at the time. She catches him cheating when they show up on How I Met Your Father. They go through a divorce settlement meeting with their lawyers in episode 10. Becky tells The Captain that she only wants his boats. He agrees to her demands, with the exception of the one in Australia.