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The fifth episode of How I Met Your Father Season 1 is titled “The Good Mom”. It is written by series supervising producer Christopher Encell and directed by Morenike Joela Evans.
Plot Summary
Episode 105 kicks off with an unexpected visit from Sophie’s (Hilary Duff) mother, Lori (Paget Brewster) one night in 2022 and interrupts Sophie’s (Hilary Duff) plans to see Drew (Josh Peck) that night. Meanwhile, Charlie (Tom Ainsley) helps Sid (Suraj Sharma) and Jesse (Chris Lowell) confront past traumas.
Didactic Dynamism
Despite the episode centering around Sophie’s (Duff) relationship with her mother, viewers can expect to be treated with a more decentralized storyline this time around, similar to what we have seen in previous episodes. This is where the show’s strength lies and it is where How I Met Your Father really differentiates itself from its predecessor. However, unlike previous episodes, this episode, specifically with Sophie’s arc, presents us with a more didactic than what we have seen previously.
While How I Met Your Father follows the precedent set by How I Met Your Mother by using retrospective narration and didacticism, this episode of How I Met Your Father does present us with a lesser, or not-so-dynamic didacticism. However, this is not to say that this instance of superficial didactic dynamism does nothing to move characters forward or increase their depth. While we have been given hints that Sophie’s mother was less than perfect in the pilot and in Episode 103, we, along with Duff’s character, are further forced to confront her childhood which tarnishes the bust that Sophie created of her mother. This is something that all of us at some point in our lives experience.
Leaving behind Sophie’s story in this episode, let’s reorient ourselves and check-in with Charlie (Tom Ainsley), Jesse (Chris Lowell), and Sid (Suraj Sharma). Here, we are provided with a healthy dose of well-balanced and much-needed comedic relief. Unlike Sophie’s arc in this episode, there is no dynamic didacticism to be found in the boys’ misadventures. Instead, we are treated to an awkward comedic arc in which both Sid and Jesse slouch toward redemption.
Final Thoughts on This Week’s How I Met Your Father
Thus far, previous episodes in How I Met Your Father have been almost explicitly didactic, which gave each member of the gang more depth in a shorter span of time, the writers pull back in “The Good Mom.” Didacticism is relegated solely to Sophie while other members of the gang roamed freely in comedic arcs of redemption and defeat. While the comedy does well enough to balance out some rather heavy character development and realizations with Duff’s character, the development that she goes through in this episode is to be expected; I think it comes too early in the series at the fifth episode of the first season.
While the character development so far has been very enjoyable, this would have been best saved for a later episode in this season or even a later season in this series. However, this is not to say that characters are maturing too fast here. If the rest of the gang’s non-dynamic didactic arcs indicate anything, it is that there are plenty more misadventures and maturing to be had by the gang, and I look forward to what the writers put have in store for us in the future.
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