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A: あの番組を見ましたか。
B: いいえ。見ようとしたら、息子が友達を連れて帰って来たんです。

I only know of ～て来る as an indicator that someone goes to do something and then returns, for example:

ちょっとたばこを買って来ます。

But recently my textbook has used this construction in several sentences where this semantics doesn't seem to fit perfectly. I don't know, what would you make out of this sentence above? It doesn't seem to make sense to me to say that someone "returns and then returns".

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来たんです

=> They came here.

帰ったんです

=> They returned to somewhere

帰って来たんです（「帰って」「来たんです」)

=> They returned to somewhere and the place is here.

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  • 帰ってくる = come back

  • 買いに行く = go and get/buy

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