How I Met Your Father – Season 2 Episode 14 “Disengagement Party” Recap & Review

Difficult Choices

Episode 14 of How I Met Your Father season 2 opens with the older Sophie telling her son that every once in a while you need to go to your best friend’s rescue.

Back in the present, Sophie instructs the gang about Val’s upcoming engagement party and how they need to make sure the engagement is dead by the end of it. She even tries making a presentation. When Jesse suggests Val break up with Swish, like a normal person, Sophie says she did try. But every time she looks at Swish, she sees a (literal) puppy instead and can’td bring herself to break the news.

So now, the plan is to make Swish break up with Val. Ellen will play the bitter divorcee, Sid and Hannah (who are spending their first weekend together in a while) will play the unhappy married couple. When Sophie instructs Charlie to remind Swish of the joys of casual sex, he says he won’t be able to since he’s bringing Julia to the party.

Julia’s name brings out a terse response from Ellen, but we don’t know why. The role goes to Jesse instead. Meanwhile, Sophie will be playing the ‘old person’ card to remind Swish of the age difference between him and Val.

The party begins and Val tells Sophie that she told Swish her parents are in India because he wanted to meet them to get their blessings. When Swish arrives, Sophie gets in the zone and plays up her back pain. But Swish isn’t bothered and says he thinks older women are beautiful.

Jesse tries to talk to Swish about casual sex with women but makes a mess out of it and needs to be dragged away by Sophie. Next is Ellen, who bemoans marrying young. But Swish turns it around by appreciating all that Ellen’s made of her life since her divorce. He seems to win over everyone! Ellen says as much to Sophie, saying she feels like being his mom. This gives Sophie an idea.

Elsewhere, Sid and Hannah practice their fake fight but it turns real when a notification on Hannah’s phone reveals that she is looking at houses in LA. Seeing as they always planned to settle in New York, Sid is annoyed and the two argue about it.

Charlie and Julia arrive and get a very cold greeting from Ellen. Val goes up to Sophie, complaining that nothing has worked yet. Sophie says she has a plan but asks Val to not be mad at her. Behind Val, her parents enter the bar. Sophie figured that if they refused to give their blessing to Swish, he would back down. Swish comes up to meet them and Sophie sends the three of them away.

Jesse asks Charlie what is going on with Ellen. He reveals that when Julia stayed over in their apartment, he woke up and went to the kitchen in the night. And mistook Ellen for Julia, inadvertently making her aware of some of their roleplay in the bedroom.

Meanwhile, Sid and Hannah continue arguing about which city is better. Hannah insists that plans can change. Sophie pops her head in to say that she doesn’t need them but their fight sounds very realistic.

As Val’s parents share their ‘concerns’ with Swish, he shows them a five-year financial plan and his undeterred devotion to Val. Naturally, they change their minds and end up high-fiving him. Sophie and Val see this and groan.

Later, the parents tell the two women that Swish is much better than any of the other men that Val’s dated. Sophie argues with them but Val ultimately agrees to marry him.

Jesse tries to fix the issue between Ellen and Charlie. He narrates a similar incident between him and Sid where he walked in on Sid in the shower. The latter, mistaking him for Hannah, made a reference to their cop roleplay before noticing Jesse.

They were both scarred and also awkward around each other until Jesse found a book — Joe Pesci’s 101 New York Musts. The two men did every single item in the book until they buried that dreadful memory under all the new ones.

Charlie and Ellen decide this is a good plan and head off to do all the book’s activities immediately. Julia, searching for Charlie who has been ignoring her all night, decides to leave him for good.

Sophie asks Val if she’s serious about Swish. Val replies that while she’s not in love with Swish, she still does love him. And he is a really nice guy. Maybe she was wrong about Charlie being her endgame.

Sid meets Val’s parents outside the bar, where they’ve been made to stand on a time-out by Sophie. He asks them for advice on his relationship. They counsel him that sometimes there is no right answer and you have to choose between one or the other.

Sid goes up to Hannah and shows her a video from the night they got engaged. It shows the rest of the gang at his apartment while Sid speaks to the camera, saying Hannah was called to the hospital. He tells her, in the video, that they can make it through anything. Sid stops the video and tells Hannah that he’s officially open to the idea of LA.

After the couple head inside, Sophie sees Sid’s tab lying on the bar. She takes it and shows Val a clip from the same video, of her and Charlie wishing Sid and Hannah while also being incredibly lovey-dovey. She reminds Val that she has felt real love before. Val tears up but decides that she’ll break up with Swish and wait for true love.

Older Sophie narrates that Val did break up with Swish. We see him walk out of the bar disheartened. Val sees a small puppy trotting away. Older Sophie continues that he got married in the next few weeks anyway.

Ellen and Charlie come back from their NYC tour, now successfully able to look each other in the eye. Sid asks Jesse why the book looks familiar and then his eyes widen. They head out to Times Square immediately.

The Episode Review

This is one of those episodes of How I Met Your Father where we get a good balance of light humour and poignant moments. While the shenanigans with Swish and his unbeatable niceness are hilarious, it is nice to see the storyline end on a more emotional note. Val deciding to take the more difficult path and not settling for a lesser love is a lovely moment of the episode.

The entire deal with Ellen and Charlie’s mishap, followed by Jesse’s own experience and the Joe Pesci book is written so well! The comedy of this series continues to be absolutely on point and this plot line is a prime example of that.

Sid and Hannah too go through something big in this episode. It’s safe to say that we all saw this coming. Their relationship was never going to get easier. And even as a lot of HIMYF fans begin to root for Sid and Sophie, it is still heartwarming to see him decide to fight for the relationship. Coupled with the lighter scenes of the episode, this story is executed well. The video at the end is a great way to tie everything together.