If it is a series by the makers of HIMYM, there has to be a serious cliff-hanger at the end of every episode. Episode 9 of Season 1 of How I Met Your Father did not take a different route. I am not even surprised at this point, because the show is literally (not figuratively, I literally mean literally) just a gender reversed HIMYM.
Anyway, that is not going to stop me from analyzing every other detail that the show drops. As Episode 9 ends, we can see Sophie’s “perfect click,” a photo of Jesse fixing his car, on future Sophie’s wall. Now, what was that supposed to mean?
Knowing the makers of the sitcom, it could mean a lot of things. Jesse has been teased as the father since Episode 1 and Sophie and Jesse’s dynamic is almost about to replicate Ted Mosby and Robin Scherbatsky’s on and off relationship from How I Met Your Mother.
To sum it up, Jesse’s photo on future Sophie’s wall is not enough to assume Jesse is the father. It just indicates that Jesse is probably still a part of Sophie’s life in a way, or her photography career did take a good start, considering the photo in question was selected for an exhibition.
Here is what I feel the photo on Sophie’s wall could mean, just in case one of them turns out to be true, dibs on that!
Is Jesse the Father?
Future Sophie having a photo of Jesse on her wall does not really prove that Jesse is the father in the story. Having said that, Jesse is my most favorite contender to be the father and there’s a high chance that he might be. But the photo cannot be taken as a confirmation is what I mean.
First of all, the photo in question was the first photo by Sophie to have caught the attention of Naomi Weisberg, a photographer who seemed to be a big deal. Towards the end of the episode, Sophie receives a call from Naomi who tells her that her ‘perfect shot’ has been selected for an exhibition.
So, if at all Sophie did end up becoming a photographer, this ‘perfect shot’ of hers would remain a landmark in her career since it was the first photo of hers to make it to an exhibition. Maybe that is the reason the photo is still on her wall in the future.
Another probability is that Jesse is still an integral part of her life, if not the father, he might be a good friend even today. This brings me to back to my Ted-Robin parallel once again. Though in the OG series, Ted’s story was about how he met the mother of his children, the mother barely featured in the show. However, Tracy McConnel aka The Mother was actually dead when Ted was narrating the story.
So, even if there is a mother, she was not Ted’s endgame. Ted ended up with Robin, who was confirmed to not be the Mother in the Pilot episode itself. So, Jesse’s presence in Sophie’s life could suggest that even if he is not the titular Father, he may be the potential endgame.
Sophie and Jesse already have a number of people rooting for them, at least from what I have seen on Twitter. So, if the makers do not have a particular ending planned like it was for HIMYM, they can consider the Sophie-Jesse route for sure.
So, in short, Jesse still may or may not be the father. There is a 50-50 chance. For now, I am actually more interested in whom he will end up choosing in the next episode: Sophie or Meredith.
Did Sophie become a successful photographer?
The “perfect shot” of Sophie definitely made it clear that Sophie’s ambitions regarding photography were here to stay. In HIMYM, Ted Mosby’s career played an important role in shaping his life and decisions, since he ended up having a connection with the future mother of his children in a class he mistakenly began lecturing as a professor.
So, the makers are pretty interested in dropping small hints in initial episodes which end up becoming a big deal later on. Nevertheless, coming back to the shot, as I already elaborated above, its presence in Sophie’s wall could mean Sophie’s career as a photographer actually took off.
Also, even if she did not end up becoming a photographer, this shot was her first ever shot to make it to an exhibition. So, it is not strange that the click remains special to her even today.
Frankly speaking I think it was just a small touch on the part of the director to connect Sophie’s story with the future and hint at the fact that her past has always been an integral part of her life. There also may be a purpose behind narrating this story to her son over video chat, so that is there as well.
Is the Father dead in HIMYF?
One question that always came to my mind when I began watching HIMYF is whether the father is actually out there or if he is dead, like in HIMYM. In HIMYM, it was revealed in the finale (though we got various hints over time since Season 8) that Tracy aka the Mother died six years prior to when Ted is narrating the story to his children.
Though Sophie has not clearly given such a hint, you must have noticed that Sophie is not wearing a wedding ring. Both HIMYM and now HIMYF seem to be talking about the tragedy of modern contemporary relationships in general. So, Sophie not wearing a wedding ring could mean two things: she is not together with the father anymore or the father is dead.
There may be a chance that the father is no longer in this world, but that would make things too obviously like the show’s predecessor and also prove extremely disappointing for fans who may be already unknowingly shipping Sophie with the father (who has apparently been introduced already).
Most likely, Sophie is probably no longer together with the father. Jesse’s photograph in her wall in the future therefore can also mean that she kept it as a memory, in case Jesse ends up being the father at all. Maybe the makers are trying to portray a relationship that may have seemed like a forever happily ever after one, but in reality, things change over time.
What a young Sophie may have been looking for at that age definitely is not the same as what an older Sophie would want from life. Perhaps the father and Sophie are no longer on the same page.
It is clear that there is no bad blood among them though, considering how enthusiastically Sophie is seen narrating the story of how she met the father to her future son. So, maybe a divorce (or being separated) is not always a bad idea and need not be bitter.
If you ask me, they’re probably making up for the mess they made with Barney and Robin by dedicating an entire season to their marriage and breaking them up in one episode by announcing their divorce.
Naturally, with the backlash the makers faced after not making Barney and Robin endgame, they had to make a case in favor of divorce, isn’t it?
Nevertheless, coming back to point, Jesse is probably still in Sophie’s life and if he is not the father, he may just end up being the one Sophie actually ends up with. Let’s see.
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.
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