Summary
Sophie tries to take her perfect shot as her relationship with Drew comes under pressure.
This recap of Hulu’s How I Met Your Father season 1, episode 8 contains spoilers.
Read the season 1 review.
Last week I wrote about how How I Met Your Father has done pretty poorly showing Sophie’s passion for photography, and while having more grounding in that would make this week’s episode stronger, it’s a lot better at exploring that part of her. Mostly because “The Perfect Shot” actually digs down towards something truthful about the nature and compromises of creative work, and how the people in your life can make or break that.
How I Met Your Father season 1, episode 8 recap
The big setup involves some awards show (“the Oscars of public education”) which remains firmly in the backseat, as do most of the other characters that aren’t Sophie or Jesse. The former is now concerned with finding what could be her gallery submission but ends up needing emergency dental care.
The dentist’s office and the dentist himself is probably the single funniest situation/character in the show so far (it’s not a high bar), calling her “Sofa” and saying, “come in the back and I’ll give you a haircut.” But in the waiting room, they encounter an old writer who counts the years he’s been struggling to get published all the way back to Reagan.
This is painful to hear not only for the struggling photographer but for Jesse too, who turns down a full-time teaching job because he still thinks he can make it, despite spending all his money on recording. Little does he know that since the break-up, Meredith, his ex, has achieved his own dream and is back in town to tell him. After waiting for him to show up she eventually tells Sid and Ellen, who hold off on informing Jesse (to cap things off his car also needs to be repaired).
The ending
This all leads to a moment where Sophie realizes Drew considers her own artistic ambitions to be nothing more than a pipe dream, so she breaks up with him (look, all I’m saying is that from what we’ve seen of Sophie’s work, I don’t think he’s completely wrong).
As far as emotional encounters go it’s pretty sparse, but Drew has never been a real romantic prospect for Sophie, but an impediment towards her falling for the one man who believes in her dream. It all goes back to one emotional truth — find the people in your life who support your dream. And finally, after eight episodes, Sophie and Jesse kiss. And boy is it a good kiss!
Additional notes
- The other subplot involves Valentina stealing a handbag to use as a charity auction item after her boss is mean to her — which means Charlie eventually has to steal it back and the two reaffirm their love.
- Valentina’s boss is a tonally misjudged character in my opinion; horribly abusive and crude, it’s far too nasty and real to be funny (despite what the laugh track would suggest).
- “The only way to get cheaper dental care is to date a dentist, but then you gotta date a dentist”
- “We couldn’t even handle an impossible burger because it was too real.”
What did you think of Hulu’s How I Met Your Father season 1, episode 8? Comment below.
