Warning: Contains spoilers for How I Met Your Father episode 9.
In How I Met Your Father episode 9, the show repeats another How I Met Your Mother storyline, revisiting Ted Mosby’s most awkward moment. How I Met Your Father has made several nods and more direct allusions to the original How I Met Your Mother throughout its first season. These have served to update stories, address controversies, and help to provide a sense of continuity between the shows.
In How I Met Your Father episode 9, Sophie (Hilary Duff) is managing the fall out from her kiss with Jesse (Christopher Lowell) at the end of the previous episode. Having established that she and Jesse want to date, Sophie realizes that Drew (Josh Peck( truly isn’t the one for her as he doesn’t have any true belief in her creative passion. However, when she arrives at his apartment unexpectedly, Drew’s parents are already there and make the process much harder. Despite being in a difficult position, Sophie does eventually manage to come clean with him that they need to break up because she’s not the one for him (carefully omitting her kiss with Jesse).
In How I Met Your Mother, season 5, episode 16, “Hooked,” the gang are discussing the notion of keeping someone on you “hook” where they believe you might date one day, but you are really just using them for something and enjoying the attention. Ted (Josh Radnor) has it pointed out to him that Henrietta (Catherine Reitman) is on his hook, and when he eventually realizes this is true he goes to explain to her that they will never be together. When he arrives a ring falls from his jacket and Henrietta thinks that Ted is proposing to her and says yes before it is then revealed that her parents are also there. After considering the possibility of marrying Henrietta out of awkwardness, he finally, brutally, tells her that they will never be together and leaves. All of this was borrowed heavily for How I Met Your Father, but there are a few important changes made.
While How I Met Your Father’s version of this How I Met Your Mother scene is still awkward, it is still more positive than the original. The closest that it comes to fully mocking Drew is to have him whine that all of this is happening on his half-birthday. The original scene in How I Met Your Mother not only fully mocks Henrietta for being so needy, it also laughs at the idea that anyone would ever want to be with her and after Ted says that he doesn’t ever want to be with her has her pathetically respond “but we’re still getting married, right?” making the whole scene ultimately cruel.
How I Met Your Father’s take on the scene is all around better in part because Drew is a much more fleshed-out character than Henrietta who was only introduced in that episode. Not only that, his parents are given more background. Henrietta’s parents are never named and are only defined by a lack of faith that their daughter will ever get married. By contrast, Drew’s parents have some colorful backstories that make their less than stellar treatment of Sophie make sense within the context of How I Met Your Father.
How I Met Your Father releases new episodes Tuesdays on Hulu.
