How I Met Your Father – Season 2 Episode 12 “Not A Mamma Mia” Recap & Review

Sophie Looks For her Father

Episode 12 of How I Met Your Father begins with an older Sophie telling her son that it’s time for him to hear about how she met her father. Back in the present, Sophie has decided to look for her dad and asks her mom, Lori, to tell her everything she remembers about him.

Sophie shows Lori a photo from the Lollapalooza festival and asks her to look for clues. Lori notices Sophie’s father’s arm which is partially seen in the picture, and in particular a barbed wire tattoo on his bicep. Sophie sees a badge and figures he was working at the festival, while the latter half of his name seems to be visible — “ick”.

Sophie and Val join the rest of the gang in the bar and reveal that they have three potential candidates for Sophie’s father. Val goes into a long-winded story that includes blackmail to explain how she found the list of employees from the festival. She did so to avoid her fiancé, the young Swish who is still keen on marrying her.

Sophie delegates tasks — she and Val will find Nick Foster, Sid and Jesse are assigned Rick Graham, and Ellen and Charlie must look for Dick Webber Morris.

Sid and Jesse head out to the gym where Rick works. Sid keeps smiling at his phone, having continued his conversation with Taylor, the girl he met on the plane. Jesse notices it but assumes Taylor is a man when Sid calls her his new buddy. Rick turns up but he’s Asian, making it clear that he’s not Sophie’s father.

Charlie and Ellen meet Dick, who runs a strip club. When they figure he’s lying about not having been to Lollapalooza, they hire him to strip at Ellen’s ‘bachelorette party’ so they can see if he has the wire tattoo.

The boys join Sophie and Val on a boat to Staten Island as they head out to meet Nick Foster. They reach his place of work which is a hot dog restaurant but learn that the owner, Nicholas Foster, is dead. They even sing by his grave when another man turns up to visit. A man with a barbed wire tattoo on his arm!

Sophie’s friends tell her that this man must be her father while the dead man could be her grandfather. They follow him back onto the boat and all the way to a different hot dog restaurant in New York, where he works.

At Ellen’s fake bachelorette, Dick turns up dressed as a pirate. Despite Ellen’s awkward egging on, he removes pieces of clothing in a painfully slow manner. It’s going to be a long bachelorette.

At the restaurant, Sophie is unable to introduce herself to her father because she’s worried about what kind of person he is. The group decide to conduct some dad-tests to find out if he’s worthy.

The first test is on compassion for which Sid pretends to fall down. Not only does the man help him up he also gives Sid his own pair of shoes that are skid-free.

The second test is on how fun he is, for which Jesse asks him to toss some ketchup packets. The man does so and they even turn into a baseball-style game.

The third is to check that he isn’t creepy, for which Val pretends to be an exhausted grad student who is considering starting an OnlyFans. Not only does the man offer her encouragement to keep studying, he also tells her that she has the right to do what she wants with her body. Ticking off not just the non-creepiness but also the feminist tick box!

Sophie decides to introduce herself to him after his shift is over. She tells the others to inform Ellen and Charlie about this, but clearly, they forget to do so.

In the middle of his performance, just as Dick is about to take his shirt off, he breaks down and cries. He’s upset about his late partner Dale who was recently murdered. Stripping just isn’t the same without him. Charlie and Ellen offer him comfort and encouragement and he finally takes off his shirt. Ellen and Charlie are dismayed to see no wire tattoo.

Later, Sophie is about to introduce herself to her father but hears him cheering the Mets. This seems to change her mind and she leaves.

Meanwhile, Sid keeps texting Taylor. They share jokes and anecdotes and he’s always grinning at his phone, incensing Jesse who is jealous of this new buddy. Jesse brings a bunch of things home to get his spark with Sid back but Sid assures him their friendship is forever. Jesse then realises Taylor is a woman.

Sid explains how they met and Jesse wonders if this behaviour is okay. But if Sid claims it’s innocent then of course it’s fine and Jesse dismisses the whole thing. Taylor then asks Sid to join her and her friends for karaoke the next Saturday. Sid thinks about Jesse’s comment and tells Taylor he doesn’t think they should keep talking.

Sophie joins her friends at the bar and talks about how she got overwhelmed by how much she and her father didn’t know about each other. Which is why she left. The gang insist that she can still tell him one day when she’s ready. She agrees only to have her father enter the bar at that moment. He goes up to her and says hi.

The Episode Review

After a long break, it’s good to be back in the HIMYF world again. It’s easy to slip back into this quirky group of friends. The three-dad storyline was a hoot and handled really well. The dad-tests were definitely a highlight — amusing, wholesome and quintessentially HIMYF.

Clark Gregg is the perfect person to play a caring father and I’m eager to see more of Nick’s interactions with Sophie!

The storyline with Ellen, Charlie and the rest wasn’t quite as entertaining as the rest of the episode. It probably would have had a sharper impact if it was a bit shorter.

Sid’s straying feelings and attraction towards Taylor is an intriguing plot point and a good set-up for his story during the rest of the season. Val’s predicament with her ‘fiance’, while ridiculous, is another amusing bit where the show’s hitting the right humour. Overall, a great return to the series!