How I Met Your Father – Rewardishment

By: Gladys Luna

The episode opens with future Sophie (Kim Cattrall) as she tells her son that it is never too late to learn a new skill and he immediately mocks of her by addressing her inability to whistle. After a few fail attempts to prove him wrong that only result in showing how right he was in the first place, she quits and decides to continue with her story. She talks about a time when she and her friends were faced with a few obstacles in order to acquire a new ability which take her to that moment in the past when most of the gang members were gathered again at Sid’s (Suraj Sharma) bar sharing some time together. Sophie (Hilary Duff) rushes in practically dragging her photography equipment while looking exhausted. Soon she lets everybody know about the epic journey she had to embark herself on just to attend a kid’s party at the other side of town where she was hired as a photographer. She talks about how after a taking a few taxis, subways and uber rides she ended up completely worn out. Her friends suggest she should learn to drive but then Val (Francia Raísa) interrupts them by saying that they did take a few driving lessons while they were in college, but they found it to be boring. Plus, they were not to be able to drink or do anything else because of it. It seems that for her even seat belts are hideous. In addition to all that, Sophie confesses that she finds left turns to be a very dangerous thing to do and has always been a headache for her. This confession causes some kind of ripple effect where we learn each one of the friends’ fears. For example, Charlie (Tom Ainsley) is afraid of shaving himself given that back at home there was always someone who used to do it for him and since he moved to New York that Ellen (Tien Tran) has been the one in charge of helping him with such task. Following that line Ellen confesses that she can no longer share a desk with her co-worker Rhonda (Tara Karsian) as apparently she knows nothing about personal space or boundaries and is always hoarding her side of the desk and she is afraid to confront her and let her know how uncomfortable she feels about it. Sid tells them that he does not feel capable of chugging a beer because is tickly for him and Jesse admits that back when he was a kid there was a hooping trick he was not able to accomplish that stopped him from reaching the next level of a competition and it seems that has been haunting him ever since. After all of their confessions Sid comes up with an idea that would help them to defeat their fears and explains how while he and Jesse (Christopher Lowell) attended college they had a motivational technique that always worked so well for them and that they used to call “Rewardishment.” The aforementioned method consisted in reward themselves with something nice whenever they accomplished their tasks or punish themselves if the opposite happened. Everybody agrees on it and the rule is simple… they will have 48-hours to accomplish each of their goals and none of them should fail. If one does, then they will all be punished by drinking out of the dripping mat of the bar. However, if they win then they will have a group sleep over. With this said, the group of friends is quickly set in motion.

Jesse and Sid try to teach Charlie how to shave himself, but when he is right in front of the mirror with razor in hand and ready to do it his hand begins to shake terribly making his friends stop him before he hurts himself. This doesn’t help much given that later on he decides to practice again and ends up cutting his groin and leg, which starts to bleed uncontrollably to the point that Sid has to take him to the hospital in a rush. Once there the pair suddenly hears that the patient (Jean Glaudé) next door is about to go into surgery soon and needs someone to shave him. Charlie disguises himself as a doctor and goes for it.

Val and Sophie go to take a driving test where it is revealed that Val needs glasses. Although she has known about it all along, she has been refusing it to wear them because she believes it doesn’t suit her. Her friend suggests she use contact lenses instead, something that Val seems to be afraid of and that now has become her new task to achieve. After a number of fail attempts she ends up at Sid’s bar and it seems he hasn’t been able to complete his goal. In his first try he almost throws up and has been trying all day long with no luck. Charlie returns from the hospital looking all triumphant and chanting that he has finally learned to shave and to celebrate he wants to drink a glass of champagne with his two friends there. Sid is completely unaware that Charlie has added some pepper in the drink forcing him to chug a glass of beer and indirectly helping him to achieve his goal. Val is still having a hard time putting her contact lenses so Charlie offers his assistance forgetting that he has some pepper left in his finger and making Val’s eyes burn so now, they have to rush to the hospital.

In the meantime, Sophie is in the middle of her driving test and still very much afraid of taking left turns. All of a sudden her driving instructor Phyllis (Jan Hoag) begins to have a heart attack after scolding a young couple (Peyton Degruise and Angelie Carmen) in the backseat as they can’t seem to be able take their hands off of each other. So, Sophie is forced to drive to the hospital in a haste as well.

On the other hand, Ellen has been practicing her speech to Rhonda. When she thinks she could finally face her, the woman shows up carrying an “office snake” and taking much more space of Ellen’s side of the desk than before. In a desperate attempt, she seeks out her brother’s help and asks him to show her to express her anger. Jesse accepts and in order to do so he suggests a role play where he pretends to be Rhonda. Unfortunately, his embodiment of the other woman it is not good and Ellen cannot truly focus on what to say. Therefore, she takes Jesse to her office where she dresses him with her colleagues’ clothes to practice. While they are doing this Rhonda enters the place to feed her snake which it has escaped from her cage and ends up biting Jesse. While the man is on the floor desperately asking for medical attention, Ellen suddenly gathers the courage she needs to confront Rhonda.

Almost everybody in the group has managed to succeed at reaching their objectives except for Jesse and Sophie. So, they commit to support each other. Sophie feels confident having him as a driving instructor since he patiently and kindly teaches her to drive and helps her to finally learn how to easily take left turns. Jesse was so sure she would make it that he took sparkling cider with him to celebrate so they make a stop and share a drink. Sophie tries to return the favor and assist him with his hooping trick, but he is certain he won’t make it and explains what he believes it was the reason why he wasn’t able to perform. It is associated to not having any member of his family there with him to cheer for him. The two share a very special moment that it is abruptly broken by the sound of a dating app notification on Jesse’s phone. They return to the bar and there Sophie encourages her friend to try again and do his trick saying that they will be there for him; he finally takes the courage he needs and gives it a try finally accomplishing his goal, but unfortunately for the group the time had run out long after he finished so that means that now they must be punished. Jesse offers to take the punch for them but Sid decides to pour a drink for each one out of the dripping mat that gets them directly to the hospital and giving them a bacterial infection.