'HIMYF’ Fans, This Viral Reddit Theory Might’ve Revealed Who Sophie Ends Up With

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This story contains spoilers from season 2 of How I Met Your Father.

We're officially three episodes into How I Met Your Father season 2, and it looks like the show is already setting up plot points for future episodes. While the overarching storyline is how Sophie Tompkins (portrayed by Hilary Duff and Kim Cattrall) meets the father of her future son, a tiny clue is causing fans to speculate over his identity.

In the most recent episode, viewers saw Sophie and Jesse (Chris Lowell) dine with a couple who bought the photo she took of him back in season 1. But when they realize the husband is a member of the Men's Rights movement, they devise a plan to steal back the picture for Sophie to keep. Things unfortunately don't go as planned when a taxi drives away with the portrait, leaving the photographer sad about the prospect of losing something which held much importance to her.

But as folks know, when an older Sophie tells the story to her son, he asks her an interesting question: "But if you lost the photo, how did it end up back here?" Her answer is succinct, but telling: "It's a story for another time, kid. But trust me — I'll get to it." This conversation left fans with one major thought. Exactly how did she get the picture back, and is it the father who she ends up with?

Soon after the episode aired on Hulu, fans took to Reddit to investigate this conundrum. Turns out a few names came up with some potential suspects, and they all match the show's current storyline.

"Theory — the photo will end up with Ian [Daniel Augustin], who instantly recognizes it, bringing him back to Sophie at a time that she is ready for him," wrote user @grupgorrk, referencing the first guy she went out with and left for Australia in the beginning of the series. Given that he showed up at her art gallery when her love for Jesse continues to be a guessing game, this could be a possibility.

Another option Reddit users thought of about who might bring the picture back to Sophie? How I Met Your Mother character Barney Stinson (Neil Patrick Harris), who starred in the season 2 premiere. What's more, Sophie teased he will be back.

As user @AndySkibba noted, "I bet Barney ends up with the picture," with @patronaa12 agreeing, "Barney ending up with the picture is what I thought!" While it's not clear how the two will cross paths again, this could set up the perfect scene for them to discuss the importance of an object (like the yellow umbrella in the original iteration) in a love story. Or maybe it's setting up a potential romance we haven't considered ...

The final person folks guessed could bring the photo back to Sophie? The woman herself. As user @happycharm pointed out, "I don't know why the son was so curious about how the lost photo ended up in Sophie's home ... she could have just reprinted it. It's a digital photo, not a unique painting."

With this seemingly unnoticed detail about her career, she could easily make another copy for herself and eliminate her future partner completely from the equation.

If the writers of How I Met Your Father know what they're doing, they'll breadcrumb viewers until the final episode to figure out exactly who retrieves the photo and whether they'll end up with Sophie. Either way, it looks like we'll have to tune into Tuesday's episode to find out whether this theory tracks!

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