How I Met Your Father season 1, episode 3 recap – trouble with Tinder

This recap of Hulu’s How I Met Your Father season 1, episode 3 contains spoilers. 

Read the season 1 review.

“Back in 2022, having the perfect profile photo was a very big deal.” And with Cattrall’s wise words we get an episode mostly structured around apps. I love 2022. 

How I Met Your Father season 1, episode 3 recap

Firstly, we have Jesse, who’s having trouble with Tinder. He’s hesitant to put himself out there, still embarrassed by his unfortunate viral video. Sophie, despite having eighty-eight dates that went nowhere, convinces him to get back out there and offers to take a new profile picture for him.

She brings her camera to the school where he works and does her best to get a good shot, shooting down every terrible idea he has (I tried bringing hummus in my backpack once and by lunchtime it was disgusting). When the kids come outside to talk to him Sophie realizes it would make a great photo opportunity, until they’re interrupted by the school’s vice-principal, a charming Drew (Josh Peck). He and Sophie bond over making fun of Jesse, and Drew asks where they’ve met before, but Sophie replies that she just has one of those faces.

Later that handsome vice-principal asks for her number, but Sophie prioritizes getting Jesse laid, taking him to a bar, and watching as he attempts to approach an attractive woman. She seems to actually like him until Jesse goes to the bar and Sophie overhears her voice-texting her friends (another thing nobody actually does), laughing at the “proposal fail” video guy. Sophie being Sophie, launches into her trademarked “eighty-eight dates” monologue, using the opportunity to talk about herself. Not only does she reject the woman’s attempt to relate, but worse,  she turns her off of Jesse. Nice job Sophie!

At the very least, this plotline leads to a sweet moment between the two, where on the train Sophie confides with Jesse about her childhood. She found herself in an older sister role to her own mother, and that’s why she loves to fix things, and why she’s so enamored with the concept of a soulmate. To cheer her up, Jesse repeats her catchphrase back to her. “Today will be the first chapter of her next great love story.” It’s a generally touching moment to cap an underwhelming episode. In the end, she calls Drew (why don’t you text first?). It turns out they met at the engagement party, and Sophie takes the bold step of asking him out. Although she didn’t help her friend, Sophie’s dating life seems to be going well.

Unfortunately, none of the other plotlines have as nice an ending, and in fact, their very premise is even shaker than Sophie and Jesse’s.

Learning Charlie and Ellen are both looking for apartments, Sophie tries to set them up — but Ellen rejects Charlie, says she’s not a “roommate person”. Charlie pretends not to be hurt, but when he finds Ellen at the same open house with a different roommate (one she found on craigslist), he starts to take it personally.  Ellen confesses she needs a roommate who knows her way about New York.

Trying to get back at her, Charlie makes an offer on the apartment she’s signing for, which just proves to Ellen that they would not make a roommate. Things don’t end up well for either of them; Charlie’s money gets stolen and Ellen’s Craigslist roommate stole her identity to open a line of credit. They apologize to each other, not really acknowledging that now neither of them has the material means to rent an apartment anyway (and something tells me the show won’t either).

The ending

Finally, we have Sid, who’s struggling with his long-term relationship. He retrieves a package that Valentina recognizes as an app-based, long-distance sex toy, and while Sid initially feels uncomfortable, Valentina convinces him it’ll help his relationship. She coaches him through the — in my view terrifying — process, but during the actual call he can’t go through with it and ends up flying to LA to see his fiancé in person. In summary, his way to solve long-distance woes is to fly across the country whenever he wants. Seems reasonable.

It’s a pretty underwhelming episode with some nice moments, which unfortunately seems like it’s going to be the norm for How I Met Your Father.

Additional points

• Ditto with unboxing videos.
• The creepy subway guy joke is pretty bad the first time, but much funnier when it happens again.
• Man the jokes in this episode stunk, so much about masturbation, Charlie feels wordily written, and the firefighter punchline is directed with a whimper. The subway guy is bad the first time but works later at least.
• They’re trying to make Sid’s NYU bartender seem cool but also he has a podcast? Didn’t they get the memo, podcasts haven’t been cool since 2014!