How I Met Your Father – Season 2 Episode 9 Recap & Review

Bad Timing

Episode 9 of How I Met Your Father begins with most of the gang doing a push-up competition until Sophie’s the only one standing. She wins Val’s plus one ticket to the premiere of Flubber the Musical, all thanks to Val’s promotion. Val admits it’s flattering to be styling a Broadway star like Daphnee Dupree but she’s a nightmare — she rejected 200 dresses before she found the right one!

Meanwhile, Sid consoles the others and says they’ll have fun tonight as well. Jesse mentions bringing over his new lady friend, Dana. Ellen argues that he’s only known her a day and it’s too soon for meeting friends. But Jesse really likes her and invokes the welcome protocol — a method of dazzling a new love interest where each person plays a specific role. For example, when Rachel first mingled with them Sid and Jesse were the hype men who hyped Ellen up, Val was the bathroom bestie who had deep conversations with her in the loo, Charlie was the human fodder who gives everyone a common reason to bond, and Sophie was the giggler who laughed at all of Ellen’s jokes. Charlie says the Welcome Protocol was exhausting and he had to sleep for three days after the last one, but Jesse claims it can’t be uninvoked.

Sophie and Val arrive at the glamorous party, ready to enjoy all the food and drinks. Sophie serves herself from a buffet table but an older man insists the food she picked isn’t ready and puts a dollop of sauce on her plate before returning it. Sophie is annoyed but asks him for ranch when he says he’s the chef at the event. Val brings drinks and Daphne Dupree turns up, appreciating Val’s choice of dress. A moment later, they see another woman wearing the same dress as Daphne.

Jesse brings Dana to the pub and the others kick the Welcome Protocol into action. Sid starts off by telling Dana Jesse saved five baby birds but he grows to like her when she notices a bottle wearing a suit and recognises it as a reference to The Shining.

Val realises she was so exhausted showing Daphne all those dresses, that she forgot to tell the designer to not sell the final dress to anyone else. Sophie pours sauce into a bowl. The chef catches her at it and, to her annoyance, asks her to leave some for the rest. She heads back to where Val is telling a joke to the woman wearing Daphne’s dress. As Val cracks a joke, Sophie ‘accidentally’ spills the sauce on the woman and offers her own coat to cover it up. Just as they breathe a sigh of relief, Val sees a third woman wearing the same dress.

Back at the pub, Ellen and Charlie are equally enamoured with Dana as Sid is. They all tell Jesse they love her but he shrugs and says he changed his mind, he realised they don’t have that spark. He makes them move from the Welcome Protocol to the Fake Emergency Protocol.

Sophie and Val orchestrate the sauce spilling on the other woman as well but she doesn’t seem keen on changing her dress. Still, Sophie changes out of hers and hides in the pantry while Val brings her a coat. Before Val can do anything, the two women wearing the same dress find each other and Daphne realises the same. She tells Val off and walks away. Meanwhile, the chef walks in on Sophie in just her innerwear in the pantry.

Val brings Daphne a drink and apologises to her. She is visibly angry and vents about losing her stardom after 40 years in the business and being cast off to a junior designer and a bad movie. She talks about how her agent thought the film would make her seem like a woman of the people. Val promises to make her come across exactly that way if, in return, she won’t ruin Val’s career.

Ellen pretends to call Jesse with the news of their mom being in a car accident. As they play the fake emergency out, a woman enters and tells Dana her grandmother is in the hospital so she needs to go. Jesse laughs and calls out Dana’s own fake emergency but it turns out to be very real. Dana storms off.

Sophie is now in the kitchen wearing a chef’s coat. The chef gives her a bowl of something to stir. Sophie explains herself, saying this was a big night for her friend. They discuss how they googled each other and he found out Sophie was the woman who fell in a sinkhole on Cinco de mayo. They admit to having been thinking about each other. He makes her taste the dip she’s stirring — it’s ranch.

Daphne puts Val’s plan into action and goes on stage, even inviting the two women wearing the same dress as her. She makes some casual jokes and successfully comes across as funny, down to earth and a woman of the people. She then sings her song from the movie.

The chef tells Sophie about all the different kinds of ranch sauce they have in the kitchen. She asks him if this is his move with all the girls he finds in his pantry.

Ellen goes up to Jesse and says she knows what’s going on. He tried to fast-track things with Dana because he’s still not over Meredith. Jesse says it’s not Meredith but Sophie, in fact, he still feels a spark with her sometimes. Ellen tells him to just go for it. He agrees.

The chef asks Sophie to go out with him for dinner despite their obvious age gap. She kisses him in response.

The Episode Review

A good and hearty HIMYF episode, though maybe not one that ranks in the greats. Val and Sophie’s party escapades were entertaining as ever but clearly the setup for Sophie’s new, and older, love interest. I’m actually interested in how they’ll be addressing the age gap factor, particularly considering how the story and the jokes of the series have so far remained predominantly unproblematic.

The welcome protocol was so quintessentially a HIMYM concept, it feels right at home in this series. The twist with everyone taking a liking to Dana and its leading up to the revelation of Jesse’s real feelings was well done. Like everything in the show, it was not too on the nose and executed in a way that makes you smile. Of course with Sophie’s new beau, I think the two will confront their feelings for each other towards the end of season 2.