HIMYF S2E7 Drops Hints about Father’s Identity & Sophie’s Endgame

How I Met Your Father season 2, episode 7 might have just confirmed the identity of the father and Sophie’s true aspirations.

The episode, titled “A Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Valentina’s Day” starts off as a usual slice-of-life episode where the gang tries to navigate through the various issue in their lives together. As the name suggests, the episode is a Valentine’s Day special episode, where the gang recollects their worst Valentine’s Days so that Ellen feels better about being away from her girlfriend on this day.

However, Sophie drops various hints throughout the episode, particularly at the beginning and in the end, about the identity of the father. She may also have dropped a hint about who she actually ends up with and it is almost certainly NOT the father.

Sophie’s Hints in the Episode

The episode opens with the older Sophie (who has been narrating the story to her son) dancing with a teddy bear. She reveals to her son that the father got her a teddy bear like that on their very first Valentine’s Day as a couple. She also mentions that the father always had a soft spot for Valentine’s Day even before they began dating.

This revelation is immediately followed by Jesse declaring Valentine’s Day is the worst, which is clearly meant to be ironic. In other words, just like in HIMYM, the one we expect the most to be the father, is never the one.

At the end, we see the younger Sophie having a heart-to-heart conversation with Jesse, where he finally admits that Valentine’s Day is not that bad. After this story, older Sophie mentions that “love feels good” especially on V-Day.

Now comes the most important part: When Sophie finishes telling the story for that night, the son says that his father “wasn’t even in the story.”

Sophie’s son: He wasn’t even in the story! Wait, did I miss something?

Sophie: Different Valentine’s Day. We’ll get there.

That’s a lot of clues for one episode, although at the end we all might turn out to be fools. Those who have watched How I Met Your Mother would know.

Who is the father in How I Met Your Father?

Now that we’ve laid down all our hints, let’s find out who the father is. As of now, if we go by those characters who have been introduced, we have Sid, Charlie, Drew, Jesse and Ian as the top contenders. Sophie specifically mentioned in the first episode that she met the father, and he was “in that room.”

However, she did not say that he was introduced in her story. In How I Met Your Mother, Ted had probably been in the same room with the mother quite a few times before they actually met at Farhampton station in season 8. The makers really love to play with us that way. So, Sophie saying “he was in the room” doesn’t really make things crystal clear.

In fact, Hillary Duff, who plays Sophie in the series, said something in the same lines in an interview. Read what she said below –

I don’t know if we’ve met him yet. Our writers are very clever; they’re never going to make it easy for us to guess. In the first episode, my character says, ‘I met your dad this night. He was in the room.’ But I don’t think we’ve necessarily seen all the angles of that room in the flashback. Our creators come from This Is Us, so they’re genius with timeline play.

Hillary Duff as Sophie

Simply put, it is possible that none of the five we just mentioned is the real father. Nevertheless, we can take a good guess from what we know so far. Perhaps, this time they are not going to follow the HIMYM trope and might have actually introduced the father.

After all, when Sophie finished telling the story in the pilot episode, her son says, “you guys didn’t even get together”. This could mean that Sophie actually did mention his dad in her story, which is why he asked such a question. Both options are possible.

If we go by Sophie’s hints in season 2, episode 7, Ian is most likely to be the father. He is the only one who has a soft spot for Valentine’s Day and does not appear in Sophie’s story. Jesse is definitely not the father, as he clearly hates Valentine’s Day and was very much in the story.

The same applies for Charlie, Sid and Drew. Sid and Hannah are clearly the Marshall and Lily counterpart of this series, so I don’t think Sid is even a contender, unless the writers have something extremely weird in mind.

Charlie is another contender, though Sophie’s son’s accent doesn’t sound very British! Jokes apart, Charlie seems to be having something going on with Valentina. He is less likely to be the father because of his current nonexistent chemistry with Sophie. Also, he does appear prominently in her story.

Drew was not directly a part of Sophie’s story, but he does appear indirectly through Sid’s. Although we cannot completely eliminate him as the father, I think Ian will get an edge as he ticks all boxes quite well.

Ian was not a part of Sophie’s story, he mentions that he does have a soft spot for Valentine’s Day and also the last time they met, he was willing to wait for her until she was ready. So, if at all we’ve already met the father, Ian is most likely to be the father.

However, Ian is only the father, he does not seem to be the one Sophie eventually ends up with. Another character seems to be the strongest contender for that. In Sophie’s words, we’ll get there, right in the next subhead!

Who does Sophie end up with in How I Met Your Father?

Now that we’ve figured out our most likely contender to be the titular father in the series, let’s talk about Sophie’s endgame, or who she actually ends up with romantically.

It is almost certain that the father and Sophie does not end up together and if they do, they drift apart. There’s no wedding ring in Sophie’s finger and she seems to be alone in her room. Now, they fooled us during How I Met Your Mother where we all thought the mother is just in another room.

But this time we’ve got to be vigilant. Sophie has confirmed that the father is still alive, so they aren’t pulling off a HIMYM on us again. However, it is very likely that the two are now separated or divorced.

If we go by all the hints dropped by Sophie so far, Jesse is certainly the one Sophie will eventually end up with. Jesse is a complete anti-thesis of Sophie’s description of the father, particularly his take on having a soft spot for V-Day. However, he’s also the one whose photo still hangs on Sophie’s wall.

Jesse and Sophie have an on and off relationship, but it is evident that they will end up being together someday, just like Ted Mosby and Robin Scherbatsky from How I Met Your Mother.

Jesse and Sophie have a track similar to Ted and Robin in terms of almost everything. Robin was nothing like Ted’s perfect “The One”, but they still ended up being together because people change with years. The makers of HIMYM have always tried to imply that after a certain point in life, we all become a Ted.

We do not fear an “I Love You” too soon, but rather being left alone forever. This is what happens to Robin in HIMYM, where she begins missing not Ted as a person but the comfort and support, she had from him.

In the context of HIMYF, Sophie is lot like Ted, although she is also afraid of commitment, which is similar to Robin. But our protagonist has had a warning from Robin herself that how she should not waste her time being scared.

Jesse wants a serious long-term relationship and Sophie is probably not ready for it. Probably It will again be too late by the time Sophie realizes that she actually wants to be with Jesse. She has already been feeling it for a while now. It is after her conversation with Jesse that she mentions to her son how “love feels good on V-Day”.

Jesse and Sophie’s track is progressing towards a potential endgame for sure, especially if we consider how Ted and Robin’s track moved forward. Even if we skip the HIMYM references, Jesse seems to be the one Sophie actually is in love with and Jesse reciprocates the feelings. It’s just a matter of time before they gear up the courage to give their love a shot.

But things will certainly go wrong for them, as they do not end up marrying each other. We’ll obviously hear about all of that in Sophie’s story. Maybe Jesse and Sophie will get back together after Sophie finishes her story just like Ted and Robin did in HIMYM.

Or there may be another angle to it – maybe they got together after Sophie’s divorce and are together now, as She is narrating the story. We’ll get there soon (wink!).

I am sure it’s going to happen sooner or later. So as of now, Jesse and Sophie are going to be endgame for me. Fingers crossed, let’s hope the makers don’t mess it up once again!

About How I Met Your Father

How I Met Your Father (HIMYF) is a spinoff series of the incredibly successful CBS show, How I Met Your Mother. The original show ran for nine seasons, from 2005 to 2014, quickly making its mark with a dedicated cult-like fanbase.

HIMYF was announced to start production in April 2021 with the Lizzy McGuire star Hilary Duff playing the lead called Sophie, narrating her journey to her children in the future.

The show’s flashbacks will start from Sophie and her close friends navigating love, life and struggles in the modern era of dating, paying bills and more, in 2021.

Created by writers Isaac Aptaker and Elizabeth Berger of This Is Us fame and directed by the original show’s director, Pamela Fryman, the first season of HIMYF is revealed to have 10 episodes. No further details have yet been released.