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The penultimate episode of Isaac Aptaker and Elizabeth Berger’s How I Met Your Father Season 1 is titled “Jay Street”. It is written by series staff writer Ama Quao along with Ally Thibault (This Is Us, Love Victor); and directed by executive producer, Pamela Fryman (How I Met Your Mother).
Plot Summary
This week’s episode of How I Met Your Father picks up almost immediately after the previous episode.
The plot primarily centers around Sophie (Hilary Duff) attempting to navigate rough waters after getting into a fight with Drew (Josh Peck) and kissing Jesse (Christopher Lowell). While Sophie attempts to clean up her mess, she is confronted with an awkward situation and an unexpected family reunion at Drew’s place. Sid (Suraj Sharma) breaks the news to Jesse about Meredith’s (Leighton Meester) new single all the while, Charlie (Tom Ainsley) tries to get the gang to watch soccer with him at The Pemberton.
Analysis
This episode of How I Met Your Father marks a dramatic shift in tone compared to Episodes 107 and 108. Like the last two, the writers have taken a more microscopic approach this week by having this episode pick up almost immediately after the previous, but unlike the last two, there is a sense of urgency this week. With a potential relationship blooming between Sophie and Jesse, we see both characters race to confront the two obstacles stunting their romantic growth. As usual, the writers confront and guide us through these misadventures with a blend of comedy and severity. However, the levity we are used to seeing in sitcoms and from HIMYF’s originator, How I Met Your Mother is off-kilter.
Sophie, being the primary protagonist of HIMYF, treats the situation more severely. Duff conveys the building tension and frustration with severity. Meanwhile, Jesse takes a more lighthearted approach to his situation. What this says about the pair is that for Sophie, this budding romance between her and Jesse is something to take very seriously. On the other hand, Jesse’s lighthearted approach to the whole situation diminishes the severity of the situation. Sophie’s approach to this potential romance is in line with the arc that the writers set her on from the pilot and given Jesse’s situation, one would think that he would treat the situation more seriously given the trauma he had to overcome after being publicly humiliated by Meredith.
Jesse’s aloofness here may be attributed to a few things: (1) The writers decided that a little levity here is important. (2) This aloofness is something of a defense mechanism for Jesse. (3) The budding romance with Sophie is something, but not something that Jesse takes as seriously as Sophie does.
Being privy to spoilers, I’ll keep out of it and let the readers/ viewers decide. It would be very interesting to see how all of you interpret how Jesse and Sophie handle their current situation.
Final Thoughts on This Week’s How I Met Your Father
Outside this primary arc, let us return to the start of the episode. Charlie (Tom Ainsley) attempts to get everyone to watch a game of soccer with him. Now, as we must know by now, watching a sports game as a group either as a family or as friends is something of a ritual worldwide. We’ve had our fair share of similar plot devices in How I Met Your Mother where the gang watched Robots vs. Wrestlers or when they would attempt to avoid knowing who won the Superbowl until they could all see it.
We have something of a similar arc here this week but unlike the aforementioned events in How I Met Your Father, which served more as settings and situations that set up the rest of the plot for those episodes, the writers use this soccer game in HIMYF to further Charlie (Tom Ainsley)’s character development, it also foreshadows the tone and direction of the season finale of HIMYF. Avoiding spoilers, I will leave you, dear readers, with this. This episode not only marks a shift in pace and development for the overall story, but it also marks a dramatic shift in tone which we will see culminate in the season finale of HIMYF Season 1.
Stay tuned, we’re in for a ride next week.
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