Popular HIMYF Dad Theory Reveals Major Twist After Season 1 Finale

One popular fan theory for the identity of the title dad in How I Met Your Father would mean a major twist for Sophie’s story after the season 1 finale. The HIMYM spinoff is already subject to plenty of theories about the identity of the father of Sophie’s son, though How I Met Your Father has already revealed the key detail of when Hilary Duff’s character met the dad. At the end of How I Met Your Father’s pilot, Future Sophie revealed that the night of Sid and Hannah’s engagement party was the night she met her son’s father, which so far means the candidates for How I Met Your Father‘s dad are Jesse, Sid, Charlie, Ian, and Drew.

While the first few episodes of How I Met Your Father set up the chemistry between Sophie and Jesse (Chris Lowell) as a parallel to HIMYM’s Ted and Robin, the two characters didn’t admit they had feelings for one another until toward the end of the season. Nonetheless, Jesse has been seen as the most obvious choice for the dad in How I Met Your Father, though the season 1 finale episode complicated his romance with Sophie. When Jesse pulled a Mosby by accidentally letting an “I love you” slip early, Sophie got scared, but after a chat with HIMYM’s Robin Scherbatsky in MacLaren’s, she was ready to go back to Jesse and progress their relationship. However, once she walked back to HIMYM’s old apartment, Sophie saw Jesse kissing his ex-girlfriend, Meredith. This seemingly put an end to their romance (for now), especially since the final moments of How I Met Your Father season 1 saw her romantic interest Ian return from Australia.

Related: Did How I Met Your Father Just Reveal Who The Dad Is?

Viewers didn’t meet Ted’s future wife until HIMYM’s season 8 finale, but How I Met Your Father suggests the dad is already in the cast. As such, one of the most popular theories for How I Met Your Father suggests that Jesse’s best friend Sid (Suraj Sharma) will be the dad. However, if this turns out to be true, a major twist is coming soon after the events of How I Met Your Father’s season 1 finale in terms of Sophie’s reunion with Ian, Jesse’s feelings for Sophie, and Sid’s own marital status.

Sid has been one of the most popular guesses for the father’s identity since the pilot, partially due to the fact that How I Met Your Father hides Sophie’s son’s identity. HIMYM only showed Ted’s kids during the future storytelling timeline, whereas How I Met Your Father only shows Kim Cattrall’s Future Sophie. How I Met Your Father’s creators have revealed that this change was intentional, as showing her son would be a major hint to the father’s identity due to his physical attributes. If Sid truly is the father, then depicting Sophie’s son in the future timeline would immediately give away the identity because he would be half Indian.

Moreover, many viewers began to believe that Sid will be the father after How I Met Your Father’s season 1 episode “Stacey,” which saw Sid and Sophie having a personal chat about relationships in a hallway. Sid and Sophie were shown as having noticeable chemistry during this scene, whether platonic or not, though nothing would come of it due to Sophie’s relationship with Drew and Sid’s relationship with Hannah. Additionally, since the series has also established that Jesse is the most obvious choice for the dad, it’s commonly believed that the real father will be a less-expected character. Sid and Charlie both began the series in relationships, with Sid being engaged to his long-distance fiancée Hannah (who’s theorized to be The Captain’s daughter) and Charlie having just entered a relationship with Valentina. Sophie getting together with either of these characters would mean plenty of twists and turns along the way, which many fans think would make more sense for the road to revealing the dad than the obvious choice of Jesse.

While How I Met Your Father season 1 had been continually hinting that Sid and Hannah’s engagement would come to an end, the finale introduced a huge twist when they revealed that they had privately gotten married. This threw a wrench into the theory that Sid was the title dad, but didn’t make it impossible. Hannah and Sid are still going to be in a long-distance relationship during How I Met Your Father season 2, with many believing that the distance will continue to be a problem between the two, especially since they already exhibited a lack of trust with one another before getting married. If Sid turns out to be the dad in How I Met Your Father, a major twist will have to happen by the end of season 2 or 3 wherein he and Hannah get divorced.

Related: How I Met Your Father: Future Sophie Reveals A Secret About The Son

Although audiences have cited that they see better chemistry for Sid with Sophie or Valentina than with Hannah, others enjoy the fact that Sid and Hannah being How I Met Your Father’s resident married couple means they repeat Lily and Marshall’s HIMYM dynamic. Without Sid and Hannah staying together, How I Met Your Father would be lacking a stable relationship throughout the series, because even though Marshall and Lily had their ups and downs, they were still an endgame couple once they got back together in HIMYM season 2. As such, How I Met Your Father making Sid the dad would introduce another major twist by removing him and Hannah as the series’ only secure relationship.

Not only does the theory that Sid is the dad indicate a twist for Hannah, but it would also introduce a significant conflict with his best friend Jesse. Jesse and Sid have been set up to parallel HIMYM’s Ted and Marshall dynamic, which was made stronger by the notion that the two were never competing romantically. If Sid turns out to be the father, he, Sophie, and Jesse would begin repeating HIMYM’s Barney/Robin/Ted love triangle. This would mean introducing significant drama between Sid and Jesse, as the latter character has just professed his love for Sophie at the end of How I Met Your Father season 1.

Jesse and Sophie’s romance seems to be far from over in How I Met Your Father, as the two have yet to even launch into an official relationship. Since How I Met Your Father’s season 1 finale seemed to indicate that season 2 will begin with Sophie dating Ian and Jesse getting back with Meredith, it’s unlikely that the duo will become a formal couple until at least halfway through the season. If Sid is the father, this means How I Met Your Father’s Jesse and Sophie will break up relatively soon thereafter, perhaps repeating the season-long relationship of HIMYM’s Ted and Robin.

Sophie and Sid’s romance would have to be a slow burn throughout How I Met Your Father, with the pair likely not getting together until toward the end of the show. This would also mean that Sophie and Jesse remain amicable after their breakup, which is already proven to be true since Future Sophie has her picture of Jesse still hanging up in her home. While many figured this meant Jesse was the dad, it still would make sense for his picture to be up if Sid is the father due to Jesse being his best friend and the picture being Sophie’s first gallery piece. Still, if Sid truly does end up being the dad as theorized, his romance with Sophie won’t develop until much later in How I Met Your Father’s timeline.

Next: How I Met Your Father Theory: Future Sophie Already Spoiled Her Twist Ending