How I Met Your Father creators explain how Robin cameo fits Into timeline

The creative team behind explains what Robin Scherbatsky is up to at this point in the HIMYM timeline. As of Tuesday, the first season of Hulu's HIMYM spinoff has come to a close, and it has left its core characters in some surprising places.

How I Met Your Father tracks the romantic and professional obstacles of bright-eyed Sophie (Hilary Duff) and her NYC-based friend group, while in the future, a grown Sophie (Kim Cattrall) recounts the story of how she met her son's dad. The season 1 finale didn't give any answers on who that dad might be, but it still offered plenty of twists.

One such twist involved the return of a key How I Met Your Mother character: Cobie Smulders' Robin Scherbatsky.

When it comes to the HIMYM timeline, this How I Met Your Father episode takes place after Robin's divorce from Barney (Neil Patrick Harris), but years before she gets back together with Ted (Josh Radnor).

Following the finale, How I Met Your Father director Pamela Fryman and co-creator Elizabeth Berger explained where Robin is in her life at this point.

Berger revealed that HIMYM creators Carter Bays and Craig Thomas had some input on Robin's scenes and that they agreed that while "Robin is between romances at this moment in time, she doesn’t seem sad, she doesn’t seem depressed." Still, Robin comments on how "timing is everything," and Fryman agreed that has something to do with Ted. She said:

"More than anything, I think when she walks into that bar, there are ghosts of her past. She’s sitting at the bar, and she takes that glance over to that booth… and she talks about how somebody said that he loved her on their first date. It’s all of that. We all walk into places where we’ve been in different times of our lives and say “What if I went this way? What if I went that way? Should I call that person?” That’s life, and that’s what is so special about this to me. We get to see Sophie on this new journey and we get to see somebody that we’ve known and loved for so long reflecting on hers — and she’s not done yet. I mean, clearly! She’s getting together with Katie Couric and Savannah Guthrie!"

- Pamela Fryman