‘How I Met Your Mother’ season 9 spoilers: More on Lucy Hale’s return

It has been a very long time since we’ve seen “How I Met Your Mother” have Lucy Hale on as a guest star. How long? Let’s just put it this way: The last time that the actress was on the show, “Pretty Little Liars” was not even yet a thing. She was not anywhere near the same sort of star then, and we expect that now, she will actually be promoted as more of one when the promos for her appearance in “Vesuvius” are first released.

This episode is going to air a week from Monday on March 3, and while Hale’s Katie is not mentioned in the synopsis, we still have a feeling that Robin’s little sister is still going to have an important role:

“On the morning of the wedding, Lily and Robin have a fight and Barney freaks out about which suit to wear. Meanwhile, the gang watches a movie Ted has forbidden them to see.”

Given that Chris Kattan is also slated to return to the show as “Jed Mosby,” we have a feeling we know what sort of movie that this episode will at times be a callback to. Without giving everything away, let’s just say that it traces back to Ted’s time when Stella was in his life, and a certain something that came out and subsequently publicly shamed him.

All in all, this should be fun; but for those curious, there is still no indication just yet that Hale’s “Pretty Little Liars” co-star Ashley Benson is going to return as Barney’s half-sister Carly. But, given that she was never as close to Barney and did not even know he existed seemingly for most of her life, that’s a little bit of a different situation.

Click here if you want to watch the first promo for “Rally,” which is the new “How I Met Your Mother” episode airing next week. Also, sign up now for our CarterMatt Newsletter if you want to get some more updates from us sent straight to your email.

Photo: CBS