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WARNING: The following contains spoilers for How I Met Your Father, Season 1, Episode 5, “The Good Mom,” now streaming on Hulu.
Like every episode, How I Met Your Father’s fifth episode, titled ‘The Good Mom’ starts with older Sophie, this time talking about parents and their flaws. Other people’s parents, of course. Not her. We quickly jump back to the present, where she’s planning another date with Drew — this time game night with his friends. This is about the time when her mom shows up.
She’s there to celebrate Sophie’s birthday, except, you know, she’s a week late. Sophie still takes her to meet her friends, which is super weird as she keeps hitting on Charlie. It’s also super weird because Sid makes it so, but no one really wants to go ask Sid what’s going on.
The show has already established Sophie’s mom is not the ideal parent, so it’s easy to understand why Valentina is upset Sophie would be so quick to change her plans to go meet her mom’s new boyfriend. They all decide to go with Sophie to meet the boyfriend — except Jesse, as the guy’s band is playing in the same place as his proposal fail, and Sid, as he’s still being weird.
Later, however, Charlie declares to Jesse and Sid that he’s found his calling. He’s going to help people suffering from trauma, starting with Jesse. Though Charlie’s reasoning that his years in therapy make him qualified is misguided at best, dangerous at worst, he is right that Jesse still hasn’t processed his issues steaming from the infamous proposal fail. His suggestion? Start with exposure therapy, aka watching the video.
Ellen, meanwhile, ends up somehow going from a rotten tomato to a flirty conversation at a wake. And then to leaving said wake with the granddaughter of the deceased, who happens to live across from her.
Sophie and Valentina meet up with the mysterious boyfriend, only to find a young, handsome musician. Emphasis on the young, as he’s a few years younger than Sophie. Sophie thinks there’s a catch, there’s gotta be. Valentina just wants her to head to game night. But they stay, as Sophie is determined to prove her point.
While this is going on, the guys watch the proposal fail video, and Jesse confesses it’s not as bad as he thought. He’s ready to head to the “scene of the crime,” the bar where it all happened. Where Sophie and Valentina are. Except Sid doesn’t want to come, because he actually does know Sophie’s mom. She took his “masturbation virginity.”
Sophie is actually impressed by the boyfriend. The problem is, her mom is cheating on him, with his manager. Not as big a problem as Sid’s trauma’s surrounding Sophie’s mom, but Charlie is determined to heal that too. They’re all heading to the bar.
Once they get there, Charlie and Ellen discuss their dead neighbor and discover the granddaughter is a fraud. Or, at least, they think she is, until Ellen confronts her and they realize Charlie got the names wrong. Which means Ellen just blew up a good thing, and this woman’s going to be her neighbor.
Later, Valentina has to break the news to Sophie that her mother might not be “picking bad guys,” she might be the bad guy. Sophie has an understandable hard time processing this. But Charlie’s whole “helping” thing is going great, as he helps Sid talk to Laurie and start to get over his trauma. Which leaves Jesse.
Sophie is left to confront her mother and perhaps, see her for who she is, for the first time. Her mom is a mess, yes. But she loves Sophie, calls her the best thing she’s done. And Sophie has spent her entire life being there for her mom, even when it means putting her over herself. But that ends now.
As Sophie heads to game night, Jesse tries to get back out there with a song, but ends up getting into a bit of a tiff with a patron, and quits while he’s ahead. He took a step forward, though, so he’s happy. And so is Charlie, who has found his calling. Except, you know, becoming a psychiatrist takes too long, so he’ll settle for being a bartender at Pemberton’s.
The episode ends as older Sophie talks about she would have never gotten to the Father if she hadn’t confronted her issues with her mom, as younger Sophie meets up with Drew and gets ready to meet his friends.
Follow Sophie’s journey to the Father by catching How I Met Your Father on Hulu. New episodes available Tuesdays.
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