Although How I Met Your Father could easily have used guest star Leighton Meester’s famous Gossip Girl role as the basis for her character, the How I Met Your Mother spinoff instead subverted viewer expectations with her part. Throughout How I Met Your Father season 1, Leighton Meester’s Meredith has been a frequently discussed but never-seen presence. As Jesse’s ex, she is spoken of in resentful tones and referred to as a thoughtless, callous figure by much of the cast.
As such, How I Met Your Father fans could have been surprised when the How I Met Your Mother spinoff finally introduced Meredith on-screen. Borrowing a trick from How I Met Your Mother, How I Met Your Father cast Meester against type, with the actor playing Meredith as an unexpectedly reasonable and likable character. Although she had a sneaky tendency to charm people with compliments, Jesse’s ex was far from the monster many viewers may have expected from her actor’s screen CV.
Until now, How I Met Your Father has cast iconic late ‘00s teen stars such as Hilary Duff and Josh Peck in roles whose personalities mirrored their earlier hits (Lizzie McGuire and Drake & Josh, respectively). Duff’s Sophie has kept many of the qualities that made Lizzie McGuire a lovable anti-heroine, from an idealistic outlook to a charming streak of moral ambiguity, while Peck’s How I Met Your Father love interest Drew is a grown-up version of his precocious, sheltered Drake & Josh character. At first, it seemed as though Meester’s role as Meredith, Jesse’s successful musician ex, would be another rehash of a famous earlier role. Meester made a name for herself by playing the delightfully catty, spoiled Gossip Girl anti-heroine Blair Waldorf, and judging by the way Meredith was spoken of by Jesse’s friends, the character was seemingly cut from the same cloth as this iconic role.
However, Meredith turned out to be genuinely sweet and repentant about the pair’s break-up, subverting viewer expectations. In “The Perfect Shot” (season 1, episode 8) she seeks out her ex so that she can warn him that her music career is taking off and tell him her debut single is clearly based on their relationship, attempting to spare him the discomfort and embarrassment of discovering this himself. While How I Met Your Mother miscast some important guest stars, this guest spot proved that How I Met Your Father could do more than merely bring back famous faces in new versions of their old roles.
Now that Sophie and Jesse kissed in the episode’s closing scenes, it seems unlikely that Jesse will reunite with his ex. However, Meester’s Meredith would make for a much more welcome addition to How I Met Your Father’s regular lineup than fans may have expected, and could still appear again in the future. Since How I Met Your Father subverted the expectations of Gossip Girl fans in her first appearance, there is no reason to think that the character couldn’t come back to the How I Met Your Mother spinoff for another successful guess spot.