How I Met Your Mother

How I Met Your Mother returns Monday with three weeks of new episodes and they're all bound to be doozies. Why? Remember when Victoria (Ashley Williams) told Ted (Josh Radnor) that living with Robin (Cobie Smulders), aka his ex, was complicating his search for The One? And remember when Ted saw Barney (Neil Patrick Harris) cleaning up the rose petals in Robin's room and kept it to himself? They're both going to come up the next few weeks. "The month of February will answer a lot of questions and sort of resolve a lot of things that have been simmering on the surface," Mother boss Carter Bay says. So what else can we expect? Bays and co-creator/co-executive producer Craig Thomas give us the scoop.

How I Met Your Mother boss: There are more twists and turns for Robin

The bottom line: Victoria was right about Ted and Robin's weird living situation, and her words will come back to haunt him when he brings up Barney's rose petal-cleaning spree and addresses his own unresolved feelings for Robin. "There's going to be some fireworks involved," Thomas teases. The two will also reassess their five-year plans — a callback to their Season 2 breakup. "When Ted and Robin broke up was because they asked 'Where do you see yourself in five years?' Robin thought she was going to be living in Russia or Afghanistan or wherever," Bays says. "It's five years later. We made it. It's just interesting exploring why is it that Robin is still in this apartment exactly where she was when Ted asked that question."Barney will have his hands full with Quinn ( Becki Newton ), a blind date who first appears in the Feb. 13 episode and will be sticking around. In the same episode, while on a Valentine's Day getaway, Robin and Kevin ( Kal Penn ) hit a crossroads in their relationship. "The waters don't run as deep with Kevin as they do with, say, Barney or Ted [for Robin]," Bays says. Is that code for "split"? Even so, with Quinn in the picture, it means Barney and Robin will be on different paths for a little while with Robin focused on her career after coming through in the clutch on World Wide News' New Year's Eve broadcast. "But those two characters and two actors have this huge, crazy chemistry that I can't say that we're done exploring," Thomas says. "They inform each other's lives. Before the series ends, we'll have to address that."Marshall ( Jason Segel ) and Lily ( Alyson Hannigan ) officially moved to the 'burbs on Long Island last month, but their kitchen table isn't the new MacLaren's booth. "That's not a permanent living arrangement," Thomas says. "It's pretty fun the shifts that happen in terms of where Marshall and Lily end up and how it sets up the next season."

Becki Newton suits up for How I Met Your Mother

Don't worry. Bays and Thomas haven't forgotten about the flash-forward from last season of Ted in a green dress during Lily's pregnancy. That means we will see Ted in a dress before Lily gives birth in the season finale. "I think it's satisfying when we do pay [those things] off," Bays says.Barney's bride, that is. Bays and Thomas are still keeping mum on when and how they'll introduce Mrs. Mosby, but, as promised, we will learn the identity of Barney's bride this year — and it'll come at the end of the season. "Fans have always had moments where they fall on one side or the other of some big swing that we've taken, and that will probably happen," Thomas says. "We will answer a big question: Who's Barney marrying? People will have very strong opinions about [who she is]."Last year, Conan O'Brien won a walk-on role on Mother at a charity auction, which hasn't happened... yet. "Keep your eyes peeled because it's gonna come up," Thomas says. "Conan paid good money for this cameo shot and his only caveat is that he doesn't want to be featured at all. So you'll either see him or you won't."How I Met Your Mother airs Mondays at 8/7c on CBS.Additional reporting by Natalie Abrams