How I Met Your Father – Parent Trap

By: Gladys Luna

Sophie (Hilary Duff) is excitedly informing her friends that she has arranged a Parent Trap style meeting with her parents in order to make them fall in love with each other and finally get to be the family she didn’t get to have. Although this seems to be a bit unrealistic for her friends, she doesn’t let herself be discouraged by them. Even Jesse (Christopher Lowell) and Ellen (Tien Tran) recall of a time when they tried to do something similar with their parents but that just failed miserably. Sophie is so excited by her plan that she asks Val (Francia Raísa) to go with her and support her on this and her friend is more than glad to do it.

Later, Ellen is at her apartment hanging a sheet as an attempt to have more privacy since she has no room and her bed is practically in the middle of the living room. Since her and Charlie (Tom Ainsley) became roommates they have been taking turns to use the only room they have. While she is in it Sid (Suraj Sharma) walks in not exactly knowing about how to talk to her but the woman can figure out in a blink of an eye that he has definitely something to tell her. She encourages him to do it and that is how he confesses that since Hannah (Ashley Reyes) will be moving within a few weeks to New York he needs for Jesse to move out of their apartment so he can have the privacy he needs and says that he has been indirectly trying to tell him that but it seems that Jesse does not get it. Ellen takes the opportunity to tell him that she is trying to do the same with Charlie since she believes that she can now afford to live on her own but nothing she has said or done has worked. S0, together they come up with a plan to “roommate trap” Charlie and Jesse and to accomplish their goal they decide to lure them into making a sleepover.

Back to Sophie and Val, the two friends are at the restaurant making sure everything is ready for Sophie’s parents to meet again, but what seems to be the first obstacle shows up as Sophie believes that their waiter (Adam Hollick) might be too attractive and distracting for her mother. Therefore, she asks him to find someone else but before he leaves Val gives him her phone number to call her and hang out. Sophie is losing her nerves at the thought of having her parents back together in the same room after such a long time but then she and Val spot them making out outside of the restaurant and that gives her more confidence that this might actually work. A few minutes later Sophie’s parents Lori (Paget Brewster) and Nick (Clark Gregg) walk in separately pretending that nothing has happened, but Sophie confesses that she just saw them so they don’t have to lie. Nick and Lori say that they have been dating for a couple of weeks now, mostly since Lori decided to show up at Nick’s shop to make sure he was a good guy given that he and Sophie have been hanging out a lot together.

Meanwhile, at Sid and Jesse’s apartment the second has decided to spend the night reorganizing his records alphabetically when Charlie walks in asking if he can stay the night claiming that Ellen was not feeling well and wanted to be alone for the night. Jesse agrees without a problem. Charlie informs Jesse that he’ll be in the couch reading and the other tells him that he’ll be busy with his records. Little do they know that Ellen and Sid have set a hidden camera near the kitchen to watch them interact. So far, they are not so pleased with the results given that both of them seem to be in their own world so they come up with an idea which is to throw a bonding game through the window in order to play together and make them realize how good roommates they will be for each other. And fortunately for them, it is working as Jesse and Charlie are immediately trapped by the game while Sid and Ellen watch from the bar how they are bonding very quickly. Back at the restaurant Lori and Nick tell a story about how they went to Coney Island a few days ago and Lori threw up after they rode one of the attractions, something that bothers Sophie since she has the feeling that she has been left behind by them. She also does not mind to show her disappointment as she asks them for a moment to get some air. Nick is surprised by his daughter’s reaction, but deep inside he believes that she might make amends with it when Val tells them that it seems that Sophie is running away. Next, we see future Sophie (Kim Cattrall) as she tells her son how she escaped from her parents that night and he seems to be incredulous by her confession but the woman immediately reminds how he also ran away when her and his father told him that he couldn’t go to the Olivia Rodrigo’s farewell tour.

Back at Charlie and Jesse’s place the two of them seem to have been getting along very well just as Ellen and Sid had planned. In fact, they appear to be so close to each other now that Sid and Ellen are jealous of the dynamic that their roommates are having. Therefore, they decide to go and interrupt them and it is at that time when they realize that Charlie and Jesse have been pretending from the moment they heard them talking about their plan. Charlie questions Ellen about the reasons why she wants him to move out and the woman confesses that is all because she can afford her own apartment now. Charlie believes that the fact they were sharing a room was not because of money but because of love. On the other side of the room Jesse and Sid are having the same conversation that ends up with the first going to his room and slamming the door behind him. While the tension is still very present in the environment, Sophie bursts in saying that her parents are together and she just does not want to see them anymore. Nick and Lori follow her to the apartment and Sophie hides under a desk in Jesse’s room. Given that she has decided not to confront them, they scream their apologies at her and tell them that if she still wants to hang out with them they will be waiting for her at the restaurant while enjoying a tiramisu. Sophie gets so excited at this that she bumps her head with the desk. She takes the opportunity to talk to Jesse about her current situation with her parents and complain about what she dislikes from all of this but then she is reminded by Jesse that to judge by the sound of all of it, it seems that she finally has the family she always wanted. Then, she notices the throw blanket that the man has on his bed and he confesses that he got it that while they were still dating just to impress her and they show a nostalgic gesture while talking about it. Later, both of them leave the room and Sophie says that she has decided to go and meet her parents. The rest of the group is still there and then Jesse uses one of the game’s questions to apologize to Sid about how he reacted earlier and tells him that he is truly happy for him and he will move out so he can have the privacy he needs and then they hug. Meanwhile, Ellen apologizes to Charlie and tells him that she was wrong when thinking that the only reason to share a place with someone was money and she wants to continue living with him.  Sophie goes back to the restaurant where her parents are happily talking and apologizes for disappearing like that on them. They apologize once again for seeing each other behind her back. Sophie wants to know more about it and they confess that they didn’t want to say anything before they were sure about what it meant for them given that the first time didn’t exactly work. However, it seems they have realized that this time their relationship might have some potential and they are willing to try. Right that moment Sophie receives a text from Val saying that they are having a game night at Sid and Jesse’s and she excuses herself so she can go and meet them. Just then Val sends a picture with Parker (Meaghan Rath), Jesse’s girlfriend, in it and decides that she better stay and have dinner with her parents claiming that she hates games.