How I Met Your Father – Season 2 Episode 6 “Universal Therapy” Recap & Review

Everyone’s a Fixer-Upper

Episode 6 of How I Met Your Father season 2 begins with Future Sophie and her son talking about healthcare in America. Her son knows it as something that’s free for everyone, thanks to President Ariana Grande. Future Sophie describes that it wasn’t always so, which is why she had to get creative sometimes.

Most of the gang is in Sophie and Valentina’s apartment playing a board game. Val talks about how busy she is and then Sophie comes in, looking upset. She was on a date with Oscar and it was going great till they kissed at the end and something poked Sophie in the chest. Oscar reveals it’s a giant diamond necklace under his shirt.

The group try to weigh in. Charlie flounders trying to make a pun. Jesse narrates a story about a girlfriend whose hoop earrings he didn’t like. The issue sorted itself out when he caught her cheating on him. Ellen says its situations like this where therapy helps her. Sophie asks Ellen to ask her therapist on behalf of her and Ellen, a people pleaser, is unable to say no.

Sid comes back to his bar after a visit to Hannah and finds that Charlie bought multiple cases of flavoured rosé wine. He got swindled by a hot saleswoman. And the wine is really, really bad.

Jesse turns up at Val’s workplace, saying that he was sent by a temp agency (since he quit his job for the tour and then quit the tour). While leaving his job, he didn’t end things well with Drew, who predicted he would return. Val’s boss comes out of his office and tells another employee off in a really mean way. Jesse says he still needs the job and proceeds to get coffee for Val.

Despite finding it really difficult, Ellen brings up Sophie’s problem to her therapist. She later tells Sophie that she’s self-sabotaging, using the necklace as a reason to jump ship before getting hurt. When Sid and Charlie wonder what to do with the wine, Ellen says they should attach a celebrity’s name to it and it’ll sell out in no time. They come up with Judge Judy and name the wine Judy Juice.

After another good date with Oscar, Sophie asks him what the deal with the necklace is. He says the necklace is his mom. After she died, he turned her ashes into a necklace.

At the bar, Sophie is concerned about this. As Judy Juice gets more popular, Sophie convinces Ellen to ask her therapist if this necklace makes Oscar a freak or not. She does and the therapist says that people grieve in different ways, so, not a freak.

Sophie ends up having sex with Oscar and it’s incredible. Meanwhile, the rosé is selling out so Sid and Charlie order more.

At Val’s workplace, her boss continues to treat her badly, calling her a dipshit. When Jesse makes a mistake, Val berates him and calls him a dipshit too. Behind her, her boss nods his head.

Oscar brings Sophie breakfast in bed. He asks her if the necklace thing is weird and Sophie repeats the therapist’s words, that this is a way of grieving and maybe at some point he won’t need it anymore. Oscar thinks about it and then removes the necklace. They have sex again but this time, it is decidedly not incredible.

Val berates Jesse at work again and he points out that she is becoming more like her boss while he is losing what’s left of his self-worth. Along with Sophie, the two of them also bombard Ellen with questions for her therapist. She tells them this is the last time.

The actual Judge Judy turns up at the pub and confronts Sid and Charlie about the rosé. They tell her that everybody’s having his terrible wine because they’re blinded by their love for her. She takes the rest of the crates and leaves.

Ellen gives each person their respective advice — Val needs to quit her job, Jesse needs to be around people that make him feel good about himself, and Sophie needs to communicate about her sexual needs. When they ask more questions, Ellen reveals her therapist realised what was going on and dropped her.

Meanwhile, Judge Judy advertises the Judy Juice as Sid and Charlie watch online.

Sophie, Val and Jesse have a surprise for Ellen; they got her therapist back! A flashback shows the three of them pleading with the therapist, practically screaming at her. They then reveal that her advice worked well too.

Jesse went back to Drew for his job, admitting that teaching students is when he felt best about himself. Val stood up to her boss and told him she was quitting, which made him give her a promotion. Sophie, on the other hand, tried to incentivize Oscar to wear the necklace while having sex. When she told him what she was really thinking, he dumped her on the spot. Sophie still believes it’s a magic sex necklace.

Future Sophie’s son dismisses this but she insists that the same thing happened with Oscar’s other girlfriends — or so she likes to think.

The Episode Review

How I Met Your Father Season 2 is on a roll. The last couple of episodes were quite well written and Universal Therapy is no different. Not only do all the characters’ individual stories come together smoothly but the humour is also absolutely on point. The crisp dialogue and editing continue to be a feather in the show’s cap. Ellen’s character also seems to be getting funnier, with wittier rather than childish humour.

The rosé wine debacle leading up to the Judge Judy cameo was also well done. It says a lot that the episode didn’t cover any major plot points — the only mention of romance was Sid coming back from his stay with Hannah — and was still an entertaining ride from start to finish!