Within the two-part mid-season finale, Hilary Duff’s Sophie begins courting an older man and begins suspecting that he could also be her father. In a frenzy, she runs away from his home and crashes right into a automobile with the license plate LGNDRY. Out of that automobile comes out Neil Patrick Harris’ Barney. 

He’s nonetheless very a lot his outdated self, making crass and lewd feedback at Sophie, however we do get the sensation he is modified a bit or is at the very least attempting to. He begins by apologizing to Sophie, introducing himself as a “recovering serial womanizer” and assuming she is somebody he slept with who’s in search of revenge, itemizing off a few of the lots of of schemes he is carried out through the years. Additionally, he says he’ll remedy. 

After all, that is “How I Met Your Father,” which already illustrated this very season that remedy does not magically clear up all of your issues — particularly if you’re not really going to remedy however asking your pal with insurance coverage to ask their therapist for recommendation in your issues as a substitute. 

As for Barney, he explains that he now has an STD: a shock remedy system. Each time he says one thing problematic, he’s blasted with “sufficient electrical energy to energy Staten Island.”

That is the best-case state of affairs for a Barney return. The electro-shock system offers the present a chance to have Barney nonetheless be the hilarious character followers fell in love with nearly twenty years in the past (!!!) whereas additionally lastly making him pay for each gross factor he says, relatively than simply excuse his habits with the shrug emoji like each character did within the unique present.