While How I Met Your Mother is inevitably a big influence on the style and humor of How I Met Your Father, season 2 of the sitcom spinoff should avoid recreating one of the earlier hit’s worst storylines. Like any successful sitcom, How I Met Your Mother had its fair share of hated plot lines. Whether it was Zoey cheating on the Captain with Ted or the infamously divisive series finale, How I Met Your Mother made plenty of story decisions that annoyed and frustrated viewers.
One of the earliest examples of this issue was the ending of Ted and Victoria's (first) relationship, which lasted for much of How I Met Your Mother season 1. While the show’s spinoff has won over critics and fans alike after a shaky start, How I Met Your Father season 2 needs to avoid recreating this plot to ensure that the show’s heroine, Sophie, remains more likable than How I Met Your Mother’s ostensible hero Ted. The handling of his breakup with Victoria was a big part of what made a vocal portion of the show’s fanbase turn against him and ended up damaging support for the pairing of Ted and Robin right through to How I Met Your Mother’s finale.
Ted’s relationship with Victoria culminated in one of How I Met Your Mother’s most brutal breakups and one of the protagonist’s least redeemable moments, something that Sophie’s Ian plot risks repeating in How I Met Your Father season 2. Like Ted, Sophie appears to have met her perfect match in season 1. How I Met Your Father's Sophie’s commitment phobia kept her from successfully telling Jesse how she felt about him, but her seemingly perfect date, Ian, returned to New York in the season 1 finale and led the duo to rekindle their romance. However, this is already looking a lot like Ted’s storyline with Victoria, which could be terrible news given how much that How I Met Your Mother plot damaged Ted’s standing among fans.
How I Met Your Mother's Victoria Story Explained
Victoria was the How I Met Your Mother love interest with whom Ted had a deeply romantic one-night adventure, resulting in the pair dating throughout most of season 1 after he finally worked out her mysterious identity. However, Victoria and Ted broke up pretty brutally when they tried long distance and Robin caught Ted lying about breaking up with Victoria to sleep with her. How I Met Your Mother’s Ted was supposed to be much more of a hopeless romantic than his How I Met Your Father counterpart Sophie, which was part of what made this betrayal so frustrating. Ted’s claims that he believed in fate, his incessant claims that wanted to find “the one,” and his desire to experience old-fashioned romance all fitted his relationship with Victoria, while none of these qualities lined up with the practically-minded, level-headed, and distinctly un-romantic Robin. Despite this fact, Ted still lies about breaking up with Victoria to sleep with Robin, resulting in him eventually losing both love interests.
How I Met Your Father Season 2 Risks Repeating This Plot
In How I Met Your Father's season 1 ending, Sophie narrowly missed a potential relationship with Jesse — who seems to be her long-term endgame love interest — when Ian returned in the spinoff’s final. Sophie and Ian’s attempts at long distance failed without her cheating on and lying to him, but their second attempt at a relationship may not be so lucky. For one thing, Jesse, as a member of Sophie’s friend group on whom she has an unrequited crush, has a lot of similarities with How I Met Your Mother’s Robin.
For another, Ian’s status as a seemingly perfect romantic rival whom viewers haven’t seen as much of brings to mind How I Met Your Mother season 1’s Victoria, particularly when Sophie and Ian attempted and failed to make long-distance work — like Ted and Victoria. While How I Met Your Father is no clone of its predecessor, there are still a lot of similarities between these love interests. As a result, it wouldn’t be a shock if How I Met Your Father season 2 borrowed a lot of elements from this plot, with Sophie hedging her bets by dating Ian while Jesse is reunited with his ex Meredith, but always holding out hope that they would break up and being ready to cheat on Ian and lie to Jesse if the opportunity comes up.
Why How I Met Your Father Can’t Reuse This Story
It might be tempting to recycle this plot for How I Met Your Father season 2, particularly when there are enough differences between How I Met Your Mother’s Robin, Victoria, and Ted, and the spinoff's Jesse, Ian, and Sophie to make the similarities less egregious. However, the story of Ted lying to Robin about breaking up with Victoria so that he could sleep with her was a pivotal moment in the character becoming the unlikable protagonist that How I Met Your Mother viewers proceeded to complain about until the show ended. Unlike Ross’s insistence that he and Rachel were on a break on Friends, there is no doubting who was in the wrong between Robin, Victoria, and Ted, meaning How I Met Your Father viewers won’t want to see Sophie repeat this cycle. While How I Met Your Father has avoided borrowing too many elements from How I Met Your Mother so far, one of the most important things for the spinoff to steer clear of recreating is the lead character’s least likable moments.
How I Met Your Father Can Fix This How I Met Your Mother Plot
While How I Met Your Father should not simply recreate this How I Met Your Mother plot in season 2, the spinoff could fix the earlier, unpopular sitcom storyline and give Sophie some character growth in the process. If Sophie told Ian that she was interested in someone else before trying to book up with Jesse, this would result in How I Met Your Father’s heroine staying trustworthy and commendable for longer than the spineless Ted managed. While a lot of ink has been spilled about the value of unlikable female protagonists, a female version of Ted from How I Met Your Mother is hardly the sort of revolutionary representation that the medium needs. What made Ted’s storyline with Victoria and Robin frustrating was the character’s weasely decision to try and hold on to both of his love interests at once, something that was always guaranteed to end in tears. As such, How I Met Your Father season 2 shouldn’t send Sophie down this doomed path and repeat How I Met Your Mother's weakest storyline.