WARNING! This article contains SPOILERS for How I Met Your Father season 2, episode 1!Barney’s return in How I Met Your Father means one character connected to him from How I Met Your Mother can be fully introduced on-screen. How I Met Your Father’s season 2 premiere teased that HIMYM’s Barney Stinson (Neil Patrick Harris) will make a cameo in a future episode, with the series already revealing the context of his return and connection to Sophie. With Barney and Robin, two of HIMYM’s main characters have now appeared in the spinoff, leaving Ted, Lily, Marshall, and potentially Tracy to still reprise their roles.
While Ellen’s new job at Goliath Market seemed to be setting up Barney’s How I Met Your Father cameo, the season 2 premiere revealed his return would be quite different. At the end of How I Met Your Father season 2, episode 1, Future Sophie remarks that her younger self hits rock bottom later that year, with the HIMYM spinoff then cutting to Sophie accidentally rear-ending Barney’s car. It’s unclear how extensive Barney’s cameo will be, but it seems his return goes beyond just getting into a car accident, with Barney – as a new dad and someone who grew up without a father – likely helping Sophie through her complex situation with her unknown dad.
Ted’s flash-forwards in HIMYM’s series finale revealed that a few years after divorcing Robin, Barney had a daughter with an unnamed woman in 2020. Barney looked at his infant daughter and dedicated himself to her and realized he would never love anything more than her, with the iconic HIMYM character also revealing that fatherhood changed his perspective on his womanizing ways. While HIMYM did show Barney holding his infant daughter, Ellie hasn’t actually been fully introduced as a character, which could finally happen if she appears alongside Barney in How I Met Your Father season 2.
Since How I Met Your Father season 2 appears to be set in 2023, Ellie will be about three years old when Sophie meets Barney. It’s unlikely that she’ll be in the scene where Sophie hits Barney’s car, as he would have been more worried about checking on Ellie than his bumper, but she could still appear if the characters meet up or speak again after the incident. Seeing Barney actively be a father and interact with Ellie would be a truly fulfilling moment for his character’s return, expanding on the details of his life Ted didn’t include in HIMYM’s finale.
How I Met Your Father reveals quite a few changes in Barney after HIMYM’s ending, as he has now conquered his fear of driving and may have even moved to the suburbs to prove his dedication to fatherhood. Barney notably hated the idea of driving cars, which became a plot point in HIMYM’s season 2 episode “Arrivederci, Fiero,” but now he finally got his license to be able to drive his daughter around. Barney’s car is also an Audi SUV that isn’t as flashy as HIMYM’s character would have liked, so his choice was clearly based on prioritizing his family – though he did fittingly make his license plate “LGNDRY.”
When Sophie crashes into Barney in How I Met Your Father season 2, it appears they’re in a neighborhood of a New York suburb. In addition to the reveal that Barney is no longer afraid of driving and has his own car, the spinoff is suggesting that may have moved out of the city and into the suburbs to raise his daughter. Although Barney’s mother Loretta sold his childhood home in Staten Island in How I Met Your Mother season 6, it’s possible that he later bought the house for his own family sometime before How I Met Your Father.
