How I Met Your Father – The Welcome Protocol

By: Gladys Luna

The episode opens with the gang while they are at Sid’s (Suraj Sharma) bar giving their best effort making planks in order to win the pleasure to be Val’s (Francia Raísa) plus one at the premiere party of “Flubber, The Musical.” Everyone tries desperately to get the ticket but, in the end, Sophie (Hilary Duff) is the one to beat them at it. Val is very excited that her job promotion is now giving her the chance to style Broadway celebrities despite her very first experience at it with the star of the aforementioned musical has not been as good as she expected. The woman they refer to as Daphne (Wendie Malick) has made this task a living hell for her. Sophie begins to wonder what she should wear to attend this party with her friend so they leave the place in order to get ready for it. With having nothing left to do, Sid proposes the rest to the group to find something fun to do themselves. To start, he decides to give a free drink to each one of them to what Ellen (Tien Tran) makes a comment that implies that they had never paid for a drink since they started going to his bar. Jesse (Christopher Lowell) asks his friend to give him the chance to invite a girl named Dana (Jessy Hodges) whom he recently met through a dating app. Sid does not feel so comfortable with his request and reminds him that they do not introduce anyone new to the group unless they have been dating for at least two weeks. However, Jesse calls to use the card of “The Welcome Protocol” which consists in having a full rehearsed number of situations in which each one of them play a different role in order to make the friend in question to look more appealing to the person they intend to impress. They even recall the time when they used the same protocol with Rachel (Aby James) before she became Ellen’s girlfriend as it is explained by future Sophie (Kim Cattrall) to her son. In the end, the trio accept to help Jesse and set the protocol in motion.

In the meantime, Sophie and Val arrive to the high-anticipated premiere party without imagining of the adventure that was waiting for them right ahead. Val offers to go find them some drinks while Sophie is in charge to find the food. As the last one is fixing herself a plate, a man named Robert (John Corbett) shows up out of nowhere and intends to stop Sophie from eating her food alleging that is still raw. Unfortunately, the interaction between them is not the ideal but it seems that none of them are bother by it. They make a brief and funny introduction to each other and then Sophie leaves to meet with Val. While they are discussing about the drinks, Daphne abruptly interrupts them with her sarcasm and rudeness pushing Sophie to the side. Despite all of this, the woman expresses her astonishment for Val’s accomplishments at her work as she managed to find her a dress that everybody loves. She even pays her compliments to the woman and then leaves to greet her ex-husbands that she had devilishly invited to the party. Val is satisfied by her work and Sophie congratulates her, but unfortunately that excitement does not last long given that as soon as they turn their look to the other way they spot a woman named Jill (Diane Yang Kirk), wearing exactly the same dress as Daphne. They know they have to do something before the actress finds out about it.

Back at the bar Jesse and Dana make their big entrance and he awkwardly introduces her to the other three who are already set on their stands and ready to play their roles. Sid offers her a drink while sharing a brief conversation with her where apparently she is the only one to actually understands his bar decoration movie references making her to instantly gain his liking. Moving on to Ellen, she is happy that Dana has shown genuine interest in getting to know more about her and her hobbies which made her feel special given that not even her own friends have shown the slightest concern about getting to know her in a deeper way. Last, but not least, comes Charlie (Tom Ainsley) who is delighted to know that Dana was not scared by his awkward and random remarks as everyone always is. Everybody had seemed to enjoy the girl’s presence so they decide to tell Jesse, who is now at the other side of the bar talking to his date, and confess that they actually approve Dana as part of the group. Unfortunately for them, Jesse does not feel the same way as he believes there is no chemistry between them. He asks again for their assistance except that now he needs them to active “the emergency protocol” in where they play the fake call move in order to get him out of the situation. While he is in the middle of a conversation with Dana,  we see Ellen call him from the bathroom to tell him their mother has been in an accident. He explains Dana that he has to leave immediately but right then the woman’s sister (Taylor Foster) enters saying that their grandmother is at the hospital and Jesse foolishly believes that she is pulling the same trick on him. He confronts her but much to his dismay, her story is actually true making her feel mad and disappointed for his behavior.

Sophie and Val make a plan to make Jill to change her dress so Sophie begins to serve herself a bowl with sauce which leads her to another random encounter with Robert as he makes sure that she knows what she is serving herself. The woman returns to her friend’s side who is now excitedly talking to Jill and intentionally throws her sauce at the woman’s dress as she pretends to laugh at Val’s comments and then offers her to wear her red coat saying that it used to be Kerry Washington’s. Jill has no other choice but to accept it. Just when they thought they had solved the problem, they see another woman Nance (Annie Heller) wearing the same dress. So, hey are forced to do the unexpected…they execute the same technique on her, but this time Sophie offers her to wear her own dress instead. She goes to the pantry to undress herself while Val promises that she will get her a new coat to wear. First, she has to take the dress to Nance who is now convinced that she won’t change her outfit as she just realized that she is wearing the same dress as Daphne. Jill overhears her and decides to proudly do the same and takes her coat off.  As a twist of fate, Daphne realizes what is happening and swears she will end Val’s career for making her wear the same dress as the other two women. Sophie is still waiting for the coat when Robert opens the door and almost sees her half-dressed. After she explains the situation, he decides to give her a hand by lending her a chef uniform. As it turns out, he was actually the chef at the event so he lets her hide in his kitchen. They spend some time cooking together and share a fun conversation while her friend is out there trying to save her job. Val tries going to Daphne to apologize and when they are all alone the older woman confesses all she has been through due to her behavior, which is the sole reason why she accepted a role in the play. It was simply just to clean her reputation as much as she could. Val sees here an opportunity to help her change and Daphne skeptically agrees. Daphne has now taken the stage and acts according to Val’s plan. She invites Jill and Nance to share the stage with her as she praises their dresses and make jokes about the situation, which causes everyone to think she is actually very nice and completely different to what they initially thought. Then, she announces that she will be performing a song called “My Heart Flubs For You” to entertain all the attendees.

In the meantime, Robert has prepared a number of dips for Sophie to taste. While they are talking about it, he suddenly asks her out on a date to which she responds in an unexpected way. Meanwhile, at the bar Ellen confronts Jesse by saying that the only reason he has been rushing into dating is simply because he is desperately trying to get over Meredith but she ends up taken aback by his confession about the person he is actually intending to forget.