How I Met Your Mother Boss: There Are More Twists and Turns for Robin

Be warned,How I Met Your Mother fans: You may want to have some Kleenex nearby for Monday's episode. "I think it's fair to say that the episode is different than anyone had imagined coming into it," co-creator/co-executive producer Craig Thomas tells TVGuide.com. "It's one of those where while we're shooting it and editing it that you see people tearing up. It's very funny, but it's very emotional too. The very end of the episode seems like it's made a lot of people cry, but it's a good cry." The episode picks up moments after Robin (Cobie Smulders) told Barney (Neil Patrick Harris) that she's pregnant and it is chock-full of more surprises, Thomas says — including, as the logline teases, some "bad news" for Robin. What could that be? Read on to see Thomas' hints about this revelation, why he and Carter Bays wrote the pregnancy, and what's next for the rest of the season.
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When and how did you decide Robin will get pregnant?
Craig Thomas: We knew coming into the season that we wanted Robin and Barney relapsing. ... And we wanted to explore what it is like for Robin — this woman who swore she never, ever wanted kids — when she's confronted with the possibility of having children. The next episode picks up literally right at that moment that Episode 11 ended with. We see Barney's response to the news. A lot of unexpected things happen in it. People's responses to this news aren't what you think it would be. There's a great forward momentum. This is our midway point — our 12th episode — and it spins into the rest of the season.
So everyone else finds out?
Thomas: I don't want to ruin that, but the whole episode is about Robin's habit of keeping things bottled up inside. Robin's not touchy-feely. She smokes cigars, she drinks scotch, she goes to the gun range, she was raised as a boy. She, in many ways, is a more rugged dude than Ted (Josh Radnor). ... We really stay true to that part of her of not sharing her feelings and news in general.
We know Robin gets bad news. Does this have to do with the baby?
Thomas: Well, all I can say is she gets this huge piece of news and there are more revelations in the episode that are definitely things that she would want to talk about with a friend, but she just can't quite bring herself to. The episode becomes an exploration of Robin as a character and what happens when you keep stuff inside instead of telling your friends. I think Cobie Smulders deserves an Emmy for this episode. She's really, really fantastic in it.
Since she's never wanted kids, will she wrestle with whether to keep the baby?
Thomas: No, we don't go to that place. It's more of her wrapping her mind around what she thought her future would be. I'm interested in what people will think after this episode airs. We've always tried to be a show about these characters who are essentially straddling between childhood and adulthood. ... This definitely hits our main theme of them moving toward adulthood. This is a big crossroads for Robin.
There's also the paternity question, and we know Kevin (Kal Penn) is sticking around.
Thomas: Yes, Kevin will be sticking around. The paternity is addressed in the opening scene. There are more twists and turns for Robin, but that gets settled quickly. Barney will be the only person Robin's told and she wrestles with whether or not to tell everyone else. ... There's such a deep connection between then. That's the reason we keep coming back to them. ... We debated a lot in the writers' room [about whether Robin should dump Kevin for Barney]. But ultimately, if Robin had jumped to Barney in that episode, for her, it would've been a relationship built on a crime. It was such a mistake [sleeping with Barney] and she felt so terrible about it. Kevin is such a nice guy that, I think in that episode at least, Barney represented the darker side and Kevin represented this hopeful, lighter side.
[Spoiler Alert: The paternity is revealed in the clip below. Watch at your own risk.]