How I Met Your Mother Alum Colbie Smulders Returned to Her Character for How I Met Your Father

How I Met Your Mother fans, the moment we’ve been waiting for has finally arrived: An O.G. cast member from the original series has made an appearance on the Hulu spinoff How I Met Your Father. No need to guess who—we’ll tell you. Everyone’s favorite news host and Canadian pop star, Robin Scherbatsky, played by Colbie Smulders, stopped by MacLaren’s Bar to give some sage advice to Hilary Duff’s love-confused Sophie Tompkins.

(Warning: Spoilers for the season finale of How I Met Your Father, and some of How I Met Your Mother, ahead. But at this point, if you haven’t watched the latter…that’s on you.)

Smulders’s and Duff’s characters had two scenes together during the show’s season-one finale, and Robin gave some insight into her own relationship history that fans of HIMYM know all too well.

“Do not waste your time being scared,” Robin says to Sophie, after they meet by chance at MacLaren’s Bar. “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, I have been married, I’ve been single, I’ve been everything in between. And the only decisions I regret making are the ones I made out of fear.”

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This advice was given after Robin reminded the audience of the disastrous way main character Ted Mosby (Josh Randor) told Robin that he loved her…on the first date. Big yikes—but as many know, it ultimately led to a good ending.

It seems the creators are keeping continuity in mind with the flash-forward timeline used in both the original series and the current series. Parallel to the plot on HIMYM, in which Robin had to navigate her feelings/friendship with Ted, Sophie is trying to figure out how to handle her feelings/friendship with Jesse (Chris Lowell), who accidentally expressed his love to Sophie while he was sleeping—because of course he did.