The following contains spoilers from Monday’s season finale of How I Met Your Mother.

On the Season 7 finale of CBS’ How I Met Your Mother, a bride was revealed (It’s Robin!), a bride (Victoria!) ran away and a former bride (Lily!) gave birth. Here are six things you need to know about the big episode and what it means for Season 8, from executive producer Craig Thomas.

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WEDDING BELLS WILL RING | Yes, the Barman and Robin will get hitched. And lest you think that’s a huge giveaway, “That wedding day is going to be full of enough other surprises,” Thomas reassures. As the EP previously told TVLine, it won’t be a smooth affair. “There’s going to be twists and turns built into that day,” he teases. As for when the momentous occasion will occur, he’s keeping mum because it would give away too much about the show’s endgame. “There’s a lot of fans that think that’s the end of the show – Ted meets the mother [at the wedding], and that’s the [series] finale,” he explains. However….

THE MOTHER’S DAY MAY COME SOONER THAN EXPECTED | For those hoping to meet the show’s titular momma and fall in love with her alongside Ted, Thomas is leaving the possibility for that option too. “There are people who think it could keep going, and there will be more story after [the wedding day],” he continues. For example, “What are Barney and Robin like married? What happens with that marriage?” But for the time being, Thomas says Season 8 will be about the onetime couple’s journey to “not only getting back together, but deciding to take this enormous leap.”

QUINN WILL BE BACK | Although Thomas can’t say how much or how little we’ll be seeing of Barney’s fiancée next season — perhaps they break up? — he does reveal that Newton, who stars on his and fellow HIMYM EP Carter Bays’ new Fox comedy The Goodwin Games, will appear in the first episode back, which picks up on the same day as the finale. “There’s a lot of great stories to tell just in that one day,” he says. “Episode 2 will leap ahead to September, and we’ll see where everybody is four months later.”

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ROBIN WON’T BE PINING | “We’re going to introduce a new love interest for Robin right away,” reveals Thomas, who calls the romance a “significant” arc. “It’s not going to be Barney and Robin together immediately, because they’re too tangled up in other things. … We’ll show you how that [new] relationship ends up leading her back to Barney.”

TED IS ON THE LAST LEG OF HIS JOURNEY | Thomas and the writing staff brought back Victoria in the beginning of the season knowing that she would return at the end, with a greater purpose. “Ted Mosby [is] closing the last couple doors in his mind that he has to close to really be ready to meet the mother,” explains the EP. “One of them was Robin, and the other door is Victoria.” As such, yes, we are getting very, very close to the Mother. In fact, even though the Victoria relationship will inevitably end, don’t expect Ted to fall into a romantic funk again. “It is going to lead to the best thing in his life,” counters Thomas. Until then, he’ll have to deal with his guilty conscience when he learns in the Season 8 premiere that Victoria didn’t leave a note for her jilted fiance, and he turns the car around to rectify that. “The episode shows all of the ramifications of that decision.”

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A NEW MYSTERY…. | In addition to the mother and how Barney and Robin eventually get married, another big puzzle will plague next season: “How do [Marshall and Lily] still go down to the bar and get drunk with their friends?” Thomas poses with a laugh. Like most busy parents dealing with the major time commitment of a newborn, they’ll find that their relationship with their pals might suffer a little. “We’re going to see them figuring out what it means to be parents and still try to be great friends.”