How I Met Your Father – Season 2 Episode 7 Recap & Review

The Worst Valentine’s Day

Episode 7 of How I Met Your Father begins with Future Sophie dancing to a song played a small, mechanical teddy bear holding a heart. She tells her son that his father gave that to her on their first Valentine’s Day as a couple. Even before that, he had a soft spot for the day.

In the present, Jesse exclaims that he hates Valentine’s Day. Everyone is surprised because of how romantic he usually is but he thinks it’s just a hallmark holiday made for the sale of cards and cakes and gifts and so on. Sid says that Hannah’s on her way to the city so they can spend Valentine’s Day with him. Sophie and Val spent it together each year, calling it Svalentine’s Day.

Ellen enters the bar with an ice sculpture of Rachel, declaring that she hates this stupid holiday. Rachel’s aunt broke her hip so she had to go and help, leaving Ellen alone. Sophie claims it’s not as bad as one of her terrible Valentine’s Days and offers to tell the story to make Ellen feel better. She starts off saying that she was 8 when Ellen interrupts her and says that pre-puberty stories don’t count. Sophie moves on to another story of when she was 13. A clip shows a young Sophie on the phone with someone arguing about who should hang up first (it’s really a clip from Lizzie McGuire). Ellen dismisses the story once again.

Charlie takes up the challenge and begins to narrate a story from 2012 when he and his family had gone on a hunting trip and he was meant to meet his girlfriend Jacinda Astley. When he goes on and on about the hotel room’s curtains and their ‘delightful dance’, Val makes him stop. He tells her to narrate one of her stories instead but she claims all her Valentine’s Days have been bangers. Sophie reminds her about Brendan. It was freshman year when she and Sophie hadn’t met yet. She was about to knock on her boyfriend’s door when Sophie appeared. Turns out, they both had gifts for someone inside the room and that someone was Brendan. Furious, both of them decide to take revenge on the guy. They grabbed bats and went to town on his bike only for Brendan to see them and inform them that that wasn’t his bike. Anyway, that’s how the two girls became “best friends for this life and the next” and spent every other Valentine’s Day together.

This meet-cute story doesn’t help Ellen. She says she needs something gut-wrenchingly pathetic and so, turns to Jesse. They talk about Valentine’s Day when he was 10 (this one Ellen allows because Jesse went through puberty in third grade). Mariah More was Jesse’s first crush and he went up to her in the middle of her presentation to give her a gift and say that he loved her. They all make fun of his tendency to say those three words way too soon.

Turns out, it happened again in middle school. A flashback shows a little Jesse playing the French horn for a girl in front of her locker and then tells her he loves her. She thinks his name is Jerry. Sid says it happened in college too. A flashback shows the two of them at a wall street protest. Jesse get son stage to make a speech but calls out Clarissa Yang instead and, wait for it, tells her he loves her. On hearing all these stories, Sophie seems a bit annoyed with Jesse.

Charlie is ready to tell his story succinctly but once again goes too much into Jacinda Astley’s esteemed family’s many scandals. Sid interrupts him (no one was listening anyway) to say that Hannah’s flight has been diverted because of a passenger’s heart attack. He’s upset because Valentine’s Day is really important to them because of their worst one even. Ellen eggs him on to tell the story.

This was when they were in med school and were dating but weren’t exclusive. A flashback shows Sid convincing Jesse to go to this party where Hannah is as well. He claims Hannah isn’t his girlfriend because he’s a playboy and can’t be tied down. A ping on his phone shows him that Hannah’s having fun with some other guy and all of a sudden, Sid needs to tell her how he really feels.

He and Jesse reach the party to see Hannah dancing with Drew. Sid’s annoyed that she’s enjoying and wants to show her that he can have fun without her as well. To prove it, he gets Jesse to dance with him. It soon becomes a dance-off until Drew’s leg cramps and Hannah checks it out. Sid tells her to stop massaging his leg because he wants her to be his girlfriend and wants to be her boyfriend himself. Hannah gives a victorious whoop and says she knew it. She and Drew made him jealous on purpose. After Drew leaves, Sid gets angry with Hannah for setting him up and they end up having a big fight.

Meanwhile, Jesse was making out with someone and telling her he loves her. Back in the present, Sophie is exasperated and Jesse says this one doesn’t count because someone had given him molly at the party. And in any case, he’s also said ‘I love you’ to a cab driver, a pigeon and a trash can.

Sid continues his story. That night he and Hannah both don’t sleep well and realise they just really want to be together. In the morning, he goes to Hannah’s place with a heart made of Everything Bagels because she’s his everything. They make up.

Sophie taunts Jesse about saying ‘I love you’ to everybody again. He asks her why she’s still mad about it. She says she’s irked because she did freak out when he said it but it also made her feel special. Realising how intimate this was to say out loud, she gets up and goes to the bar.

Hannah makes it to the bar in time and tells Sid she pulled a Home Alone and cried till she got on a flight. Charlie has finally figured out a 4-sentence version of his story. He was going to surprise his girlfriend by wearing nothing but whipped cream but he lay there all night and she never showed him. The only thing he got was a yeast infection. Everybody agrees that this was a pretty good story.

At that moment, a pizza delivery man comes in with a double cheese pizza order for Ellen. Rachel calls and tells her she ordered it so they can eat the same thing at the same time.

Jesse goes up to Sophie and tells her that he used to throw out the ‘I love you’s all the time but then it stopped. And after Meredith, he didn’t think he’d say it to anybody again, but then he met Sophie. This makes Sophie feel better. He asks her what her Valentine’s story was. She tells him that there was a father-daughter dance at her school, so she had put up flyers all over town in the hopes that her father would see it and come. In the end, a pervert saw the flyers and came to the dance but, thankfully, was arrested immediately. Jesse says she has a real reason to hate the day so how does she stay so positive about it? She says that chocolate helps. Jesse has one and says that maybe the day isn’t so bad.

As Future Sophie narrates about love feeling especially good on Valentine’s Day, we see flashes of Drew, Sid, Charlie, Jesse and even Ian. When the son asks why Ian was there, Future Sophie says it’s from a different Valentine’s Day. She’ll get there.

A short clip shows Charlie waiting with all the whipped cream on while his butler waits on the side.

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The Episode Review

There are a few things about this episode that make it clear that the makers really know their target audience — the joke about Jesse’s take on V-Day being a Hallmark Holiday, the surprise Lizzie McGuire clip and the Home Alone reference. This series knows how to make its audience smile and laugh and each of the Valentine’s Day stories was entertaining in its own way.

Sid and Hannah’s was the best by far, not only because of the higher stakes but because of the dance off and the bagel heart, both of which made me smile. Jesse’s was a close second, again not only because of its humour but also because of the implications on his and Sophie’s relationship. Ellen and Rachel’s was, of course, a super sweet watch.

There’s also the teasing regarding the father’s identity. Now that the show has limited it to these few men, I’m wondering exactly how long they can drag the tantalizing hints before it gets frustrating. Luckily, we haven’t reached that threshold yet. Overall, a good episode!

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Expect A Full Season Write-Up When This Season Concludes!