How I Met Your Father – The Reset Button

By: Gladys Luna

Present-day Sophie (Kim Cattrall) is sitting in her comfortable sofa, holding her glass of wine and continues to shock her son with her out of the ordinary stories of when she was younger. This time, for example, she begins to tell him how by the time she had turned forty years old she had managed to literally kissed all of her friends, but that was not the problem. The actual issue happened, in fact, when things started to get a little weird and just as she said, “Sometimes you have to hit the reset button.”

Next, we see a younger Sophie (Hilary Duff) as she excitedly talks to her apathetic boss Naomi (Tessa Auberjonois) about how thrilled she is that her photo was acquired by someone else. She is so happy that she asks her boss to pinch her but the woman immediately discards that possibility and instead she tells Sophie that the couple that decided to buy her photo has invited her to a dinner at their penthouse that same night so she could explain them a little further about the piece. Also, they have explicitly requested one thing in particular – they want her to bring her model which means she needs to ask Jesse (Christopher Lowell) to be her date for said dinner. As expected, Jesse rejects her offer as he thinks that the whole situation sounds like the plot of at least five horror movies since he does not trust the intentions behind that invitation and comes with the worst scenarios for that, but Sophie pleads him to join her and explains the importance of that for her career. Also, she plays the “friend” card and tells him how she thinks friends are supposed to support each other and to seal her request she says that if she has any points left with him, she would like to cash them in. So, Jesse ends up agreeing to her petition.

In the meantime, at Ellen (Tien Tran) and Charlie’s (Tom Ainsley) apartment he gives Valentina (Francia Raísa) a box full of the things she left at his apartment from when they were dating and she is surprised to see the number of items she had there. As they are talking, Ellen walks in the room and tells them that she had made a dinner reservation for her, Rachel (Aby James) and a couple of friends at the Bar Pacifica but it turned out that their friends got last minute tickets to go see “Flubber: The Musical” and bailed on them. This makes Valentina excited as she tells Ellen that if she manages to find a date for herself, she would like to join her and Rachel for dinner to what Ellen seems to be a bit skeptical. She accepts and Valentina happens to find a match in just a blink of an eye on the dating app she is using. Charlie seems to be uncomfortable with that realization and tries to hide his disappointment while pretending he can find a date as fast. He starts to search on the same dating app until Ellen calls him out saying that the phone he is using is actually hers.

Sid (Suraj Sharma) and Hannah (Ashley Reyes) are working on their long-distance relationship logistics and getting disappointed by the minute with the traveling costs when they are interrupted by a very unsettled Charlie. He tells them he has found a date for that same night, something his friends are happy to hear about. Unfortunately, he desperately asks them to join him for a double date since he is terrified that it might go wrong and they accept to help him out. Back to Jesse and Sophie, they finally had arrived to the penthouse they were invited to and are welcomed by a very happy host named Warren (Michael McDonald) who greets them and invites them in. Soon they are joined by Megan (Jessica St. Clair), his wife, who shows up with a tray filled with raw meat that Sophie is ashamed to decline as she thinks it would give her a bad reputation and all she wants is for her career to take off. They exchange a very particular conversation about the meat until Megan says that she would go and prepare some beverages for her husband and Jesse and then leaves, but then, Warren tells Jesse that he would go and supervise her since she might make a mess and goes after her leaving Jesse and Sophie alone. The pair hasn’t even been able to swallow the piece of raw meat they were offered a few minutes ago and spit it inside a wooden box placed on the table. Next, Jesse tells Sophie how he thinks that the couple is crazy and even dares to call them cannibals, but the woman thinks they are just eccentric or at least that’s what she wants to believe.

Meanwhile, Hannah and Sid had arrived at the bar where they would have a double date with Charlie and his companion. They see a woman walk in and ask for a reservation under Charlie’s name, so they immediately assume that she is Alice (Morgan Smith), Charlie’s date. They approach her and introduce themselves to the woman who begins to ask weird questions. Sid asks her to tell them a little about herself and what she does for a living. She says that she runs an airline rewards program where she is in charge of giving free miles and calls herself “The Wizard of the Sky,” something that really draws the couple’s attention since a few hours ago they were just trying to figure out how to reduce the costs of their flights in order to see each other and keep the relationship going. Alice leaves them for a moment as she goes to find some bread to calm her hunger and the couple agree that she would be the solver of their problems if they get her to date Charlie and add her to their group. They agree on telling Charlie that she is great. Right in that moment Charlie arrives all dressed up in a black suit and evidently nervous and tells Sid and Hannah that he is not ready to date yet. She asks them to tell Alice that he is sorry, but his friends convince him that the woman is wonderful. Alice returns eating a piece of bread and claiming that she will not share it with them.

Back at the penthouse Jesse, Sophie, Warren and Megan are there chatting when the conversation starts to take a very particular turn. The older couple begins to praise Jesse, referring to him as the typical American male. By the time Jesse realizes this he is in the middle of Warren and Megan who seem to have an appeal for him while Sophie is completely left out. It becomes evident that their sole interest is directed to the young man.

On the other hand Ellen, Valentina and Rachel arrive at the Bar Pacifica where Rachel and Valentina get along pretty well but that is soon to be tested. Valentina’s date arrives and we hear present day Sophie saying that they just don’t remember how he looked like or even his name, so they decided to call him Rando (Derek Yates). He appears with a different smiley covering his face all the time depending on the situation at hand. When the three girls and Rando are finally having dinner, Valentina makes a comment about his horoscope. Rachel goes off saying that since she is studying to be a psychologist, she does not believe so much in that. This ideological difference begins to cause some kind of ambiance of discomfort that Ellen tries to dissipate but with no luck at all. Meanwhile, Jesse and Sophie wait for the other couple to serve dinner but the man cannot take it anymore and wants to leave the place as soon as possible. However, Sophie convinces him to stay once again, and he makes her promise him that she will get him some pizza and a coke later. The other couple show up offering to give a penthouse tour to Jesse and he reluctantly accepts.

Charlie, Hannah and Sid are some sort of surprised (and not in a good way) about Alice’s conversation topics but they keep praising her in an attempt to make her like them. Suddenly, the woman says that the banana daiquiris she has been drinking has caused an effect on her and excuses from the table to go to the bathroom and Hannah decides to go with her. Charlie confesses to Sid that he does not see or understand what they see in Alice as he does not seem to have a very good chemistry with her. Warren leads the tour around the penthouse as Sophie is eager to know where her photo has been set. They arrive to the man’s office where the photo has been hanging on the wall and Warren expresses that the photo fits well with the content he makes for his streaming channel where he enjoys to talk about defending men’s rights as he believes that in his country, men are constantly under attack.

Rachel and Valentina continue to discuss about whose ideology is better and they ask Ellen to decide who she supports but the woman does not know what to say. Valentina explains that knowing Ellen she would not be capable of making a decision on her own, a comment that is supported by Rachel. All of a sudden the conversation becomes about Ellen and they are back to agree on a subject. Jesse and Sophie realize that Warren’s behavior and beliefs don’t fit with theirs and are determined to steal the photo from their penthouse as they don’t want the photo to be used as a symbol of the movement he defends. Alice and Hannah return from the bathroom and Charlie gathers the courage to confess that he is not ready to go back to dating. He shares that even if he were, he is not certain he and Alice would be a good fit.  He also wants to know why his friends are totally convinced that they should end up together and Alice ensures him that she knows that Sid wants her miles and that is why he is acting that way something that offends Charlie but Alice does not seem upset by that since she believes she has found her new best friend so she and Hannah decide to leave the men at the restaurant and go to hang out together.

Sophie tells Warren that he has inspired her so much that she wants to quit her job and find a husband that tells her what to do. This gets Warren very excited and asks her to be his next guest at his podcast but the one condition is to wear a bikini. Megan is happy that Sophie feels that way and she ends up confessing that before she met Warren that she used to be the Mayor of Baltimore – something that truly offends Sophie making her to drop her game and saying that Warren is disgusting. In the meantime, Jesse tries to steal the photo from the office wall, but he doesn’t know how to do it. Sophie says that Jesse is not the image of the typical American male since he does not even know how to get a photo off of the wall. Warren is so offended that he asks them to take the photo with them. In an attempt to avoid conflict, Ellen tries to keep the conversation focused on naming her flaws since she has realized that is a common ground for Valentina and Rachel. At some point she confesses that while trying to avoid any issues, she almost felt that she was going to faint – something that draws the women attention. Valentina suggests her to go see a psychologist.

Present day Sophie tells her son that although Rachel, Ellen and Valentina never hung out together again as a trio. It seems that night Ellen was able to find herself a good therapist. Charlie is at the bar when Hannah and Sid enter and apologize to him and then, as a way to make amends, give him as a present – what they consider to be the perfect outfit for when he is ready to date again. Sophie and Jesse recap about the experience they just had and laugh about it. The woman tells him that she is happy to see they were able to work together as friends. Jesse tries to explain about the time Sophie saw him kissing Meredith (Leighton Meester), but she stops him and tells him that she knows that he is the love of her life, and he needs to give it a shot. Right then Meredith calls him, and he walks away to take the call. Meanwhile, Sophie lets the painting on the trunk of a taxi while she takes her phone out of her purse. The taxi leaves taking the painting with it. Back in the present day Sophie’s son asks her how it is possible that the photo is now hanging on her wall if she had lost it. She explains to him that it is a story for another time. Back at her apartment Sophie arrives and has a conversation with Valentina. Sophie shares that her day was just the usual and her friend says the same. Rando comes out of the bedroom naked and Sophie asks Valentina what she does to get over people so quickly. The woman confesses that she knows that she and Charlie will end up together even though now they are taking separate ways. But she is certain that he won’t date anyone for a while. However, in the meantime, we see Charlie at Sid’s bar when he suddenly spots a girl and introduces himself to her.