'How I Met Your Mother' and the Real 'Karate Kid'

The final season of "How I Met Your Mother" is, of course, going to be mostly about the mother of Ted's children, but that doesn't mean that the rest of the gang will be out of the picture for the entire season. Thanks to an apparently accidental revelation last week, we know now that Barney will develop a friendship with a character who appeared briefly last season.

EW reports that William Zabka, the nemesis of Ralph Macchio in "The Karate Kid," will appear in eight episodes of the series. He'll play himself, as he did in one episode last season, and he'll hang out with Barney (Neil Patrick Harris), who revealed last year that he considers Zabka to be the "real" karate kid.

Zabka will also, it seems, have a connection to Robin Daggers, the moody alter ego of Robin Schebatsky (Cobie Smulders). Zabka's guest stint of the show, which was reportedly meant to remain a secret, became public knowledge last week when Smulders Instagrammed a photo of herself (in her Robin Daggers guise) with Zabka, who was himself decked out in retro garb and wig, along with the caption "Would you buy this bands [sic] album?"

The ninth and final season of "How I Met Your Mother" begins on Sept. 23 on CBS.