How I Met Your Father – Season 2 Episode 13 “Family Business” Recap & Review

A New Relationship

Episode 13 of How I Met Your Father season 2 picks back up from the previous episode’s cliffhanger, where Nick turns up at the bar and reveals to Sophie that he knows he’s her father. When she asks how, he explains that a camera outside his shop caught Sophie practising how to tell Nick she’s his daughter.

She also mentions her friends and Pembertons, which is how he found her there. Sophie, rather nervously and in a roundabout way, explains about her mother and Lollapalooza which Nick remembers. They decide to meet for lunch at his shop the next day.

In the morning, Jesse approaches Charlie and via bro speak they decide to go out drinking in order to meet women. Just then, Val enters and happily claims that Swish is cheating on her. She caught him texting someone named Ally and then lying about it. Ellen says they should celebrate by going to a massive open house. Apparently, the house has a walk-in wine fridge!

Charlie and Jesse do indeed go out for drinks but all the girls are attracted to Charlie’s accent, pushing Jesse onto the sidelines.

Sophie meets Sid at his bar and describes how the lunch with her father was a bit awkward as they didn’t really have anything in common. Sid tells her to give it some time. Sophie then says she did find one thing. We see Nick tell Sophie that his business has been slow since the bar across the street closed down. So, Sophie suggests that they do a pop-up at Sid’s bar to help.

Jesse is annoyed at being rendered invisible next to Charlie, while the latter is mad about the women not seeing beyond his accent. Inspiration strikes and the two men decide to switch accents, immediately attracting the attention of two women.

As for Ellen and Val, they pretend to be rich and sophisticated at the 5,000-square-foot open house they’re attending. They soon realise the house belongs to a famous singer named Missy Moritz.

Meanwhile, Charlie manages to invite the two women they met at the bar the previous night, Julia and Angelina, over to the apartment. But the problem of their fake accents persists. Jesse and he think of ways to switch back since they really like these women.

Ellen and Val are having a gala time trying on Missy Moritz’s many hats in her walk-in closet when Missy herself catches them and shoos them out.

At Sid’s pub, the hot dogs are a huge success and Sophie and Nick make a great team making them together. Sophie suggests that they could expand the pop-up to other bars and how it could be ‘their’ thing.

Back at the bar now, Val realises that she must have dropped the engagement ring Swish gave her in Missy’s closet. Since it was his grandmother’s real diamond ring, they have to go get it back.

Once the women arrive at their apartment, Jesse pretends to get a call. He tells them all that the ‘play’ he and Charlie were practising their accents for is now cancelled. Unfortunately for them, Julia asks to see them perform a scene from the play.

When the hot dogs get sold out, a tough-looking guy storms in and argues with Nick for encroaching on his territory. He’s Gio, the Polish hot dog king and his threats mean that Nick won’t be able to sell hot dogs at pop-ups anymore. Nick tells Sophie that selling hot dogs used to be a mean business until the five hot dog families divided the city into territories.

The story of the play gets too out of hand with Jesse and Charlie wearing sock puppets and trying to act out a scene. Needless to say, it’s a disaster and the truth comes out. But Charlie insists that he and Jesse didn’t expect to like the women so much.

The women then confess that they actually approached the men due to a scavenger hunt as one of the tasks was to pick up a British man. And it was a scavenger hunt for Angelina’s bachelorette party. But then Julia really liked Charlie, which is why they met again. And she still does.

Ellen and Val go back to look for the ring at Missy’s house and find her wearing it instead. She refuses to accept that it’s Val’s ring and not hers.

Sophie heads out to confront Gio the Polish hot dog king in order to help her father, followed by a concerned Sid. She storms up to him but ends up in tears instead and Gio is forced to admit that he was only pretending to be Gio for his uncle Nick, as a favour.

Val and Ellen go back to Missy’s house and show her a photo from her closet, featuring a can of red paint — solid proof that she paints the back of her heels, making them knock off Louboutins. Missy protests that she only does so because the brand doesn’t have shoes in size 13. She then agrees to return the ring in place of Val deleting the photograph.

Sophie confronts Nick about the whole thing and he admits doing it because he didn’t want to move around the city. He’s comfortable working out of his shop.

Sophie understands but is upset because she wanted something common between them. Nick says that they don’t need anything in common for their relationship. He’d anyway thought it was too late to have a family, so meeting Sophie has been a welcome surprise. Sophie then realises that they do have something in common after all — concocting elaborate stories in order to avoid difficult conversations.

Later, as the group convenes at the bar, Sophie thanks Sid for all his help. Swish comes up to say something to Val. She expects him to break up with her but Ally turns out to be a party planner with whom he has organised an engagement party the coming weekend. Val is still very much engaged!

The Episode Review

It is quite lovely to see Sophie and Nick bumble over their newfound relationship, particularly since they have a similar nervousness and tendency to ramble. Clark Gregg and Hilary Duff share an adorable dynamic as father and daughter, which is a pleasure to watch.

I did notice that Sid and Sophie exchange a ‘moment’ in this episode. Considering Sid’s already straying attention, it’s plausible. So far, their interactions seem natural enough so it’s interesting to see where they’re taking it.

The adventures of Ellen, Val, Jesse and Charlie are all entertaining in their own respect. HIMYF continues with spot-on humour and amusing escapades.