How I Met Your Father – Season 2 Episode 15 “Working Girls” Recap & Review

Office Drama and Psychics

Episode 15 of How I Met Your Father season 2 begins with Sophie bursting into Ellen’s apartment to tell her that Goliath Market (the place where Ellen works) is hiring a food photographer! Ellen is excited at the prospect of Sophie joining her at work but asks her if she’s ready for a 9-5 job.

Sophie claims she is, as the freelance life simply does not pay her enough. She asks Ellen for a recommendation at work to help her out. Ellen agrees but warns that jobs like this can be quite competitive. We cut to Sophie rushing into the bar to tell everyone she got the job! Everyone is pumped for Sophie’s full-time employment (and the health insurance that she finally has now). Sophie even joins in on Ellen’s going-to-work song.

Meanwhile, Jesse enters the bar to see Val in a deep discussion with her psychic, Madam Deborah. Charlie too got a reading from her and was told prosperity is around the corner. He even finds some cash as he rounds the corner of the bar! Jesse is sceptical of it all, though. Val says he’s afraid of what he could hear and challenges him to speak to the psychic.

On the other end of the continent, Sid surprises Hannah in her hospital. He’s truly giving LA a chance and wants to explore it with her. But she has to attend a graduation party for one of her colleagues, Eli. Sid agrees to go with her as he really wants to see her life here. Eli enters the room and he and Hannah share some inside jokes that Sid doesn’t understand.

Madam Deborah leaves the bar after making a dark prediction of Jesse’s death, set to occur that very night. He laughs it off but Val and Charlie are not sure. Their suspicions are confirmed when Jesse leaves and a light fixture falls right where he was standing.

At work, Sophie and Ellen are ecstatic at being able to work together. But a wrench is thrown in their plans when an interaction with the boss reveals that Ellen never sent Sophie’s recommendation.

Sid insists that he’ll be comfortable hanging out with Hannah’s nerdy doctor friends. But when they play a game of diagnosing fictional characters with medical conditions, he tries to join in and fails miserably.

Ellen tells Sophie she forgot to send the recommendation in the midst of all her work. Their boss then teams up the two women for a pitch to rebrand cabbage and make it hip, to attract youngsters.

Val and Charlie turn up at Jesse’s apartment with his favourite food and he realises they genuinely think he’s going to die. He seems a bit more convinced when a sword hung on the wall falls down, narrowly missing him. He agrees to make a bucket list of things he wants to do before he dies.

At the hospital, Hannah talks up Sid’s bartending skills. He gets up to get some whiskey from the store across the road to make them all a drink but the other doctors warn him about the rain. Ever a staunch New Yorker, Sid says he can handle it and heads out only to promptly slip and fall.

As Sophie and Ellen work on their pitch, the argument about the recommendation comes up again. Ellen bursts out that she didn’t think Sophie could hold down a real job. When everyone comes in, their pitch inevitably turns into an argument about Ellen’s selfishness and Sophie’s anger. The boss angrily calls Ellen to his office.

Back in LA, Sid is now in a hospital gown but Eli tells him he has no broken bones. But the injury will prevent him from doing any lower body movement for a while. Sid responds in a rude way and Hannah nudges Eli out of the room to talk to her husband. She asks him what’s going on and Sid admits he feels excluded from the life she’s built in LA. Hannah then says that she’s decided to move to New York anyway. She loves LA but loves Sid more.

In the meantime, Val and Charlie try to fulfil Jesse’s wishes but a lot of them — going to Helsinki, being interviewed by Terry Gross, starring on SNL — don’t work out.

Sophie barges into her boss’ office and blames herself, asking him to not fire Ellen. He says he’s only doing a wellness check for Ellen. When he reconsiders Sophie’s job, Ellen jumps to her defence too and he ultimately tells them both to just go work on the pitch. Just as Sophie promises no more drama, Jesse stumbles in and gives them both a tearful hug.

Back in his apartment, Jesse dresses up in a suit. Val and Charlie hug him from either side as they count down to midnight. Sophie and Ellen look on but have no idea what’s actually happening. At the stroke of the clock, nothing happens and Jesse’s confidence returns. When everybody leaves, Jesse nearly chokes on a pretzel and then runs after the group.

The next morning, Sophie and Ellen see everybody on the street eating or buying cabbages as a result of their campaign. Future Sophie’s son scoffs at this but she insists it is what happened.

The Episode Review

Another stellar episode from How I Met Your Father. Sophie and Ellen’s story plays out the classic dispute between friends but both of the characters’ signature quirkiness is what makes it shine. We haven’t really gotten to see this pair interact on their own but despite that, their interactions felt natural, making this pairing a pleasant surprise.

Jesse’s entire deal with the psychic is absolutely hilarious. What cinches the humour is how he goes from a total sceptic to a forced believer. A shout-out to the specific joke about Charlie’s therapist/psychic/sorcerer who gave him ADHD medication. That entire conversation is really a clever bit of writing. It’s quips and witticisms like these that really form the best part of HIMYF’s humour, more than the antics themselves.

With Sid and Hannah though, I’m a bit on the fence. While the entire story of episode 15 is written well with equal parts humour and sentiment, I can’t see where their overall direction is going. The show has hinted at Sid’s straying attention but that disappeared quite suddenly.

After the previous episode’s skirmish about which side of the country to live in, it’s pretty convenient for Hannah to just suddenly change her mind. These aren’t necessarily bad things, it just depends on where the story ends up and if it moves to its destination in a natural way.