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The Season 1 finale of Hulu’s How I Met Your Father — a tale inspired by and set in the same universe as the hit CBS sitcom How I Met Your Mother — saw a multitude of changes coming for Sophie (Hilary Duff), Valentina (Francia Raisa), Jesse (Chris Lowell), Ellen (Tien Tran), Sid (Suraj Sharma), and Charlie (Tom Ainsley) when the series returns for a 20-episode Season 2. Going into the series’ first finale, no twist and turn could have been expected, and the writers definitely delivered with finale-worthy material. Let’s break down this finale and where it leaves the characters as they head into Season 2.

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Sophie and Jesse


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Image Via Hulu

After the cliffhanger in Episode 9 where Sophie showed up late to the bar for her first date with Jesse, who had not yet arrived after spending the day with his ex, Meredith (Leighton Meester), it seemed like Jesse was going to be standing Sophie up after she ended things with Drew (Josh Peck). But, Jesse did show up, informed Sophie about Meredith, and the two decided to enjoy their first date… which quickly wound up with them in bed together. Then, all was well… until Jesse sleepily confessed his love for Sophie. And, from Sophie’s immediate reaction, you could tell this wasn’t going to end well… which it did not. After her quick escape in the morning, Sophie later decides she should talk it out with Jesse and make sure they’re on the same page. However, this just leads to a fight, where he explains that his feelings have been building over the time they’ve been friends and it’s not that crazy that he’s already feeling this love for her. Then, he abruptly asks her to leave.


Retreating to the bar near Jesse and Sid’s apartment, where Sophie winds up after the fight, eager for a drink, she bumps into the famous Robin Scherbatsky (Cobie Smulders). Sophie’s bad day and need for a whiskey piques Robin’s interest, thus Robin uses her hefty experience from How I Met Your Mother to help unpack what had just happened and be Sophie’s voice of reason. Unfortunately, Sophie comes to the realization that Jesse just told her everything she’s wanted to hear from a guy (just faster than she expected) too late. She goes back to his apartment to find Jesse in Meredith’s arms, planning to go on tour by her side.

It’s a little frustrating to see Jesse go back to Meredith after he spent too much time moping over her rejecting his proposal, especially with how obvious his feelings for Sophie were by the time they slept together. It’s a pointless prolonging of Jesse and Sophie really exploring what’s between them and holding them both back from finding other, possibly better relationships. Plus, given the duration of streaming shows nowadays, it’s not like we can expect How I Met Your Father to run for nine seasons like How I Met Your Mother did in order for the writers to fully explore various dynamics and what works.


Sid and Hannah


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Image Via Hulu

Things aren’t looking bright for Sid and Hannah when they’re forced to deal with Hannah being offered a cardiothoracic fellowship that would keep her in California for a year longer than already expected. Another year of paying for two apartments in separate states, living separate lives, and hardly seeing each other. It’s a lot for the two to handle, and it’s only made worse by their wedding planner giving them the estimated costs of their two weddings (as they had decided to do a wedding at home and an Indian wedding). Sid and Hannah are stuck, and consider whether getting married is even something they’d like to do, so… they get married at the county courthouse and surprise their friends afterward. There’s a lot of potential for this relationship, if only the writers would allow them to be in the same state for more than a weekend.


Ellen


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Image Via Hulu

After a challenging job interview, Ellen comes back home, defeated. However, she stumbles upon a lost cat outside the building and thinks it is a sign from the universe, a cat to help heal her emotional wounds. Only, the cat kind of hates Ellen and does everything in its power to get away from her. Finally, Ellen gives in, ready to return the cat to where she found it. On her way out, though, she runs into Rachel (Aby James), the granddaughter of the occupant across the hall that passed away, whose memorial Ellen attended a few weeks back. Now that Rachel knows who Ellen is, and Ellen isn’t pretending to be best friends with Rachel’s deceased grandmother, they decide to give things a shot and go on a date. And, Ellen gets a call back and realizes she didn’t tank the job interview after all. Out of everyone, Ellen’s life seems to be in the best place by the end of the finale.


Valentina and Charlie


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Image Via Hulu

Sadly, Valentina and Charlie aren’t quite as lucky as Sid and Hannah in this finale episode. After Valentina confessed her wish to someday become a mother, Charlie begins to spiral. Throughout his life, Charlie has known he hasn’t ever wanted to become a father because of the way he was raised. As he tells Ellen, his narcissistic personality makes him the most likely candidate, but he’s fully aware of that and understands that he wouldn’t be a good parent. But, with how much he cares for Valentina, he decides to not hold her back from the life she’s always dreamed of having, effectively ending their relationship.

Time will tell if the two come back together, though it seems likely. However, this wrench into their romance wasn’t timed very well. It’s been 10 episodes, and for most of those, Valentina and Charlie’s relationship has been happening off in the wings. We’ve barely gotten to know the characters, and they have just really gotten to know each other. Except Charlie, who feels like a complete outsider in the group. This should have been held for a later episode for a more dramatic punch once fans had gotten to fall in love with Valentina and Charlie’s relationship, and so Charlie had a clear connection to the group even without Valentina.


The Captain and Becky


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Two returning players from the original series, our brief glimpse at Becky (Laura Bell Bundy), The Captain (Kyle MacLachlan) and their ongoing divorce proceedings has surprising consequences. Turns out, when Ian (Daniel Augustin) left town in the pilot episode for work involving his biology skills, he headed to The Captain’s boat. Because of Becky’s severe disdain for her now ex-husband, she wanted to hit him where it hurt, so she took the boat, ended the project, and presumably sank it. So, with things over (for now) between Sophie and Jesse, Ian’s unexpected arrival to the gallery where Sophie’s photo is being shown seems like destiny working its magic, giving the two another chance to see if there’s potentially something more between them than they were able to see on their Tinder date.

While it’s great to see Sophie and Ian get the second chance that everyone knew would be coming, it’s a bit disappointing to see how poorly things were done with Sophie and Jesse right beforehand. Overall, 10 episodes wasn’t enough time for the major steps forward in this finale, as we’ve barely had the chance to warm up to the core group. The Sophie and Jesse stuff really could have waited. Sophie could have had something happen with Drew instead that left her open for Ian’s return, for instance, since she was dating Drew for the majority of the season. We’re left with an interesting door to Season 2, but the show really needs to step up its game and make us completely fall in love with these characters (or most of them), like the original did.

The first season of How I Met Your Father is streaming on Hulu.



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