“Whenever we talk about bringing back a member of the original crew, you want it to serve two purposes: You want to give some tidbits about what is going on in their lives, where they’ve landed and where they’re at, but it’s also about how they impact the How I Met Your Father story, and how they send one of our characters in a new, unexpected direction,” Aptaker told TV Line. “Similar to Robin last year, we’ll learn some more about where Barney’s at, but it’ll also have a major impact on the trajectory, and main narrative, of our season.”

Berger agrees, adding that this was a long time coming. “We wanted to bring him back, and we wanted him to be true to his character and to the fans that loved Barney so much. But we also wanted him to exist on our show, in our time, in a way that made sense, so all of that Zoom was spent talking about how we could blend all those things and service him and the show in the best way possible. We are very excited for people to see the way that it turned out.”

Aptaker also confirmed this is not the last we’ll see of Barney this season. “That car crash becomes a major turning point in Sophie’s life and in her season-long arc. Once we catch up to that, I think people will be pleasantly surprised by how her story turns via Barney.”

Naturally, folks on Twitter had a lot of feelings about seeing their fave return to the screen, and they did not hold back

“Crying, screaming, shaking, throwing up, pulling out my hair”

“@PopBase”

“@PopBase OMG OMG OMG”

“@PopBase yas yas yas yas”

“@PopBase MANIFESTING WORKED”

Or course, the fans are hoping that Barney’s return will finally rewrite their biggest HIMYM beef: Barney and Robin’s break up.

“@PopBase great let’s get cobie back and just make the show about their long con endgame https://t.co/WaDxLZiEno”

“@PopBase SWARKLES ENDGAME IS HAPPENING”

How I Met Your Father is streaming now on Hulu.