How I Met Your Father: Season 2 Episode 1: Sophie found Ian right after she saw Jesse kissing Meredith. It certainly was a good time for her, and Season 2 was about to resolve that cliffhanger finally. We were also about to see the Sid and Hannah situation, as the former understood that two weddings were quite costly. Valentina and Charlie had broken up, with only a few knowing about it.
This episode felt like the actual conclusion of Season 1 rather than the beginning of Season 2.
How I Met Your Father: Season 2 Episode 1- (Cool and Chill) Recap
The episode began in 2050, with Sophie’s son highlighting the fact that it has been a year since her story progressed. Old Sophie even informed him that she made Spaghetti Pomodoro and took a power nap. She touched on how telling such a long story was exhausting. It could have been a dig at Ted from How I Met Your Mother, as he narrated the entire story in one sitting without food, sleep, or a lengthy pause.
In the present day, Ian saw Sophie’s post about the gallery and decided to surprise her by dropping in. When he asked her if something was happening in her life, she replied that there wasn’t. Valentina heard that and pulled her away to introduce her to “reality.”
Sid and Hannah spilled the details of their wedding that took place at Town Hall. It was a formality with no ceremony or personal touch to it. The official even asked them who they were after marrying them. When Sid asked Valentina and Charlie to do a couple’s roast, they informed the group that they were no longer together, as they wanted different things.
Jesse rushed to the gallery to congratulate his roommate, and things got awkward as the group knew about Ian. He and Sophie diffused the situation as they spoke about them realizing it wasn’t the best for them to be dating at that moment.
Sid took control of the discussion and invited everyone over to Pemberton. Only once he declared an open bar the whoops came out. Ian missed the window and whooped on his own before inviting himself to Sid and Hannah’s reception. Sophie smiled awkwardly as she couldn’t refuse it.
Sophie wanted everyone to avoid mentioning how she went through Drew and Jesse in the last 48 hours. Hence, she urged everyone to be “Cool and Chill” like her.
Jesse narrated the bed “I Love You” and Meredith’s stories to his sister. Ellen focused on the path where Jesse would leave her to go on tour after she moved halfway across the country to be with her and made it about her.
The camera then cut to a backroom where former couple Charlie and Valentina tried to make a video photo album for Sid and Hannah. There were still sparks between them, and they had sex.
Back in the bar, Ian noticed Jesse staring at him in the bar and mentioned it to Sophie. She sent Ian to get drinks, and whipped out her phone to photograph the event. While capturing the impromptu reception, she asked Jesse to stop weirding Ian out. Jesse replied that he was trying to process things as Ian literally came out of nowhere.
As Sophie finished addressing Jesse, Drew showed up and called Sophie the woman who broke his heart. Hannah invited him – so he wasn’t stalking her.
Drew was a wreck who roamed around the city and got a spray tan. Ian came with the drinks, and Drew introduced himself as Sophie’s ex. This was just the thing Sophie was looking to avoid.
Ian asked Sophie when he and Drew ended things as it seemed quite fresh. As Jesse and Drew converged on her, Sophie caused a distraction by announcing Sid and Hannah’s first dance. Her caveat was that everyone would watch it silently.
The song that Sophie volunteered to sing was – When a Man Loves a Woman. She messed up the lyrics in a bad way. Drew sang a few lines but bungled it up as well.
Jesse insisted on talking and asking Sophie what she meant, and she told him about how she witnessed his kiss with Meredith as she “came back.”
Sophie was overwhelmed and walked out of Pemberton to get some air. Ian joined her on the footpath outside and told her things had been messy for him as well. She looked surprised that he wanted to be with her. Sophie identified that she ran away from what she wanted and claimed that until she understood that, it wouldn’t be possible for her to be in a long-term relationship. Ian used one of Sophie’s lines of maybe someday and headed off into the night.
Inside Pemberton, Sid and Jesse discussed him going on tour with Meredith. Jesse wondered whether Sophie was complicated, as she blew things up when they got together. He also reckoned that perhaps she wasn’t complicated but just wasn’t into him. Sid then brought up the point of him subletting their apartment while Jesse would be in Europe. However, Jesse assured him that it would only be for a month. Ellen looked relaxed and relieved that the trip would be a short one.
Sid and Hannah finally got something from the wedding. Their photo album played on screen, and they looked at it with nostalgia. It turned to shock, amusement, and disgust as the pictures had way to a video of Charlie and Valentina having sex. The former couple clarified that it was their last hurrah and that they were just friends.
Sophie had enough and asked everyone to line up to perform the electric slide- something Sid wanted, but Jesse voted against due to an embarrassing college incident. As the patrons at Pemberton shook a leg, Drew was asleep on a sofa.
How I Met Your Father: Season 2 Episode 1- (Cool and Chill) Ending Explained
Sophie danced the electric slide and touched on how she had lost three men in 48 hours. Was that to be her rock bottom? No. Future Sophie revealed that it would come later and we got a flash forward to Sophie urgently trying to contact her mother. As she was on the phone, she drove straight into a car in the front.
The nameplate had a word, and Neil Patrick Harris got out of the car, stared at Sophie as the bumper fell off, and just said, “Dude.”
Is Neil Patrick Harris back as Barney Stinson?
The car Sophie drove into had the word ‘LGNDRY’ written. Barney Stinson made that phrase famous in How I Met Your Mother. With crossovers from Barney’s ex-wife, Robin, The Captain, Becky, and the story entering McLaren’s, How I Met Your Father is in the same universe, and crossovers are definitely a possibility. The word “Dude” is also a giveaway that it is Barney Stinson.
Barney Stinson’s story will intertwine with Sophie’s story in some way.
Did Sophie drive into her father’s car?
That theory can be tossed into the trash immediately, as Sophie, who became 30 in 2022, was born in 1992. Hence, her father would have to be way older than Barney Stinson, who was a young man in 2005 when How I Met Your Mother began airing. Also, Hulu taking that direction with Sophie’s father would be a bit distasteful.
What will Sophie do next?
Sophie felt guilty about sharing a forbidden kiss and ended things with Drew. She then tried to get with Ian but got alarmed at the speed at which he progressed and missed the bus there as well. She even turned down Ian, but one can sense that her issues won’t be resolved quickly.
Ian is the recurring cast member who will appear at finales and premiers. Hence, it will be Sophie with Jesse once more once the story takes its eventual leap to allow them to account for a main character going to Europe.
They could even write Jesse’s absence in and let Sophie heal with some distance from him. As Valentina also recently broke up, she could hang out with Sophie for a bit as they look to focus on themselves.
An immediate talk with Jesse to avoid awkwardness, a time jump, and putting herself back out there to set her on the path to the impending rock bottom – these are ways the story can proceed. It will be interesting to see what happens next week in Episode 2: Midwife Crisis.
