How I Met Your Father Season 2 is currently streaming on Hulu with new episodes dropping every Tuesday. The How I Met Your Mother spinoff follows Sophie Tompkins as she, much like Ted, tells her child the story of how his parents met. Although Sophie spends a large part of the season dating Josh Peck's Drew, she eventually comes to realize that she's been harboring feelings for her friend, Jesse. Yet, in what is likely a nod to Ted's slip of the tongue in the original series, Jesse confesses his love to Sophie while half-asleep. This leads to a fight between the new couple, eventually resulting in Jesse's reconciliation with his ex-girlfriend.
Just because Sophie and Jesse aren't together now, doesn't mean they won't ever be. Throughout the first few episodes of Season 2, How I Met Your Father has worked hard to maintain the notion that any of Sophie's love interests could still be the titular character. With Jesse and Meredith back together, Sophie's journey in the second season sets itself up to be one of self-reflection, rather than romance.
Stars Hilary Duff, Chris Lowell, and Tien Tran chat exclusively with Screen Rant about Neil Patrick Harrison's cameo and Barney's role in Season 2, Jesse's feelings for Sophie, and Ellen's anxiety around conflict.
Hilary Duff, Chris Lowell & Tien Tran Talk How I Met Your Father Season 2
Screen Rant: At the end of the premiere, Sophie admits that she needs to find out why she ran from this potentially great relationship with Jesse. What could this journey of self-discovery look like for her?
Hilary Duff: I think it looks really messy, and I think it looks confusing for her. She's having to face a lot of things that she's avoided for most of her life. But I do think she's finally getting to the root of why she runs from that stuff. And lovely Neil Patrick Harris, who so graciously came back on our show, is one of the forces that pushes her towards fixing some of her issues, so she can have a little bit of growth. I don't think anyone wants her to have too much growth, so we can have a show, but she's making moves at thirty. We're proud of her, you know?
Jesse only got back with Meredith under the impression that Sophie didn't want to be with him. Now that he knows she went back to the apartment, how might it change things going forward?
Chris Lowell: I don't know that he does know that she came back to the apartment, which is a big way that we go into the second season. I think he feels very much like this brief tryst with Sophie was short-lived and a disaster on his part. I think it, if anything, cemented his pessimism about love, and has made him almost further away from personal growth. I think he also has a lot of mistakes to make before he can grow up. Thankfully, a lot of those mistakes are very funny.
We learned something new about Ellen in Episode Three, which is that she grows anxious around any type of conflict. I really appreciated that incorporation because a lot of people feel the same way. Is this something that the season might explore more?
Tien Tran: For her character, in particular, being a child of divorce, I think it's an interesting detail to share—that she has seen her parents fight and so to see friends and people that she cares about fight is very anxious for her. You learn that she actually gets to see a therapist, which is an insane episode. But I also think it's so important. I think we all should be taking care of our mental health. So to see that in a sitcom is really exciting. I'm excited for those scenes.
Sophie's photo was carried off by a taxi in Episode Three. Is it possible that there's a parallel there to either the blue french horn or the yellow umbrella? Are we going to learn more about that this season?
Hilary Duff: Oh my God. So I don't love this question for me, because I didn't watch How I Met Your Mother in its entirety. I've seen many, many episodes. I feel like I should call my husband. Can I phone a friend? He was such a fan, but I don't know. Of course, we're going to get it back and of course, they're going to do it in a clever way.
Chris Lowell: We see it established in older Sophie's apartment. So we know at some point, it comes back around. I don't know if or when we answer that question. There are so many Easter eggs that they planted. They answer so many of them, but so many others are still left unanswered, which I think is really exciting for us to see how they do those callbacks down the road.
Hilary Duff: Their story tree must be psychotic. They've got to go so far in the future to be like, "Oh, we planted that seed for this thing to come to fruition."
Chris Lowell: And so far in the past! It's insane.
Hilary Duff: But they also came from This Is Us, so they're good at that.
Do each of you have a favorite episode from this season that you're excited for people to see?
Tien Tran: There's one episode with Hillary and I. Ellen and Sophie haven't gotten to spend that much time [together] and I had so much fun. We shot a little bit of a teeny tiny music video, and it's a dream come true.
Hilary Duff: I don't think it was a teeny tiny music video. It was a big production.
Tien Tran: It was a big production, and it was honestly a dream come true for me, and it was one of my best days on set.
Hilary Duff: It was one of my best days on set too. We had a lot of fun. It was a wild concept, but it was a lot of fun. And then I have to say the last episode was very satisfying. We had a live audience and things get buttoned up at the end of this season. But it's kind of a heart-wrencher too.
Chris Lowell: I think my favorite, the one that just popped in my head, aside from the two that you guys just mentioned—there's this episode called "Rewardishment" and it's one of the more absurd episodes on the show which we get to do more because we have twenty. We don't have to fit so much plot in, and we can have kind of crazy high-jinks episodes. That was one where each one of the actors on our show has to do something beyond belief absurd. Watching each one of us tee up to be like, "Okay, your turn to do your ridiculous batsh*t crazy thing," was really a joy to see and so funny.
About How I Met Your Father
In the near future, Sophie is telling her son the story of how she met his father: a story that catapults us back to the present where Sophie and her close-knit group of friends are in the midst of figuring out who they are, what they want out of life, and how to fall in love in the age of dating apps and limitless options.
Check out our other How I Met Your Father interview with Francia Raisa, Tom Ainsley, and Suraj Sharma.
How I Met Your Father Season 2 is currently streaming on Hulu.