Warning: Contains spoilers for How I Met Your Father episode 2.

In How I Met Your Father episodes 1 & 2, the audience are introduced to a huge cast of characters very quickly, but Sid and Hannah promise to bring back the best aspect of the original How I Met Your Mother. While the couple has very little screen time together in the opening episodes, their story is clearly going to be a central part of the backdrop for Sophie’s narrative. How I Met Your Mother has been off the air for several years now, but it developed a huge following and has left big shoes for its successor to fill.

In How I Met Your Father episode 1, Sophie (Hilary Duff) meets Sid (Suraj Sharma) and Jesse (Christopher Lowell) as they are on their way to a surprise occasion where Sid will propose to his girlfriend, Hannah (Ahsley Reyes). Sid’s proposal goes well and the couple become engaged, but Hannah is quickly called away to her job in LA, leaving the newly engaged pair in a long-distance relationship. This clearly mirrors the storyline between Marshall (Jason Segal) and Lily (Alyson Hannigan) in the early seasons of How I Met Your Mother which saw the two engaged, with Lily traveling to LA before returning, getting back together with Marshall, and then eventually marrying him, from which point the two stayed happily married for the rest of How I Met Your Mother.

Related: How I Met Your Father Cast & Character Guide

It is unlikely that the Hannah and Sid relationship will follow the same breakup-reunited narrative that Lily and Marshall went through as this would be too close to the original. However, it seems probable that the two will become a happily married couple at the center of How I Met Your Father’s new cast of characters. After the initial two seasons, Lily and Marshall were able to serve this role in How I Met Your Mother and the dynamic was crucial to the success of the original show as it gave a reliable grounding point for the audience that, regardless of what drama and crises were going on around them, would always ultimately be okay and return to a form of status quo.

Sid and Hannah kissing in HIMYF

The similarities between the How I Met Your Father couple and the original How I Met Your Mother duo are hammered home in a scene at the end of episode 1. When Sid shows his new friends his apartment, it is revealed to be Lily and Marshall’s old apartment from the original series, with Sid mentioning that they got it from the previous couple and that they even were able to keep the swords on the wall as an additional easter egg for fans of the original show. This not only cements the connection between the couples but means that as well as being a good central couple for the rest of the characters to be rooted around, the apartment provides the group with a secondary home base outside of Sid’s bar (the new stand-in for the original show’s McClaren’s Bar).

None of this is to say that Lily and Marshall, as the central couple, were without their disagreements. The importance was that the two could always be assumed to find a resolution, even if there was some pettiness along the way. They also provided the writers with characters who could get into non-relationship-driven hi-jinks while simultaneously demonstrating one of the more healthy relationships that appeared in the original series. The fact that the sequel has clearly identified this as a positive element from How I Met Your Mother and emulated it in the new show is a promising sign for How I Met You Father.

Next: HIMYF: Who We Think The Father Is

How I Met Your Father releases new episodes Tuesdays on Hulu.