How I Met Your Father Review: 2x03 "The Reset Button"

 This video is largely focused around dates, but first, we get an interesting tidbit from future Sophie. She tells her son that she will have kissed all her friends by the time she's 40. That's not largely surprising considering that the show will want to keep everyone guessing about who the father is, but it's interesting nonetheless.

She also refers to Ellen as Aunt Ellen when talking to her son. That doesn't really mean anything. Ted's referred to Lily and Robin as their aunts in How I Met Your Mother, so Sophie's son could be doing the same even if Ellen isn't technically his aunt, but it's interesting all the same. (Something about his "Even Aunt Ellen?" when it could just have been "Even Aunt Valentina?" does strike me as a bit curious though.)

Towards the start of the episode, Valentina invites herself along on a date with Ellen and Rachel. Valentina's date ends up being a man with an emoji for a face who doesn't talk the whole time, which was a bit amusing.

Valentina and Rachel fight before then bonding over talking about Ellen's flaws, which I didn't love. It's pretty cruel to start going on about how annoyed someone makes you like that. She and Rachel haven't even been together that long, so the fact that she's talking about Ellen like that to her friend didn't feel so great. 

Towards the end of the episode, Sophie also mentions that Rachel, Ellen, and Valentina would never hang out as a trio again. That makes me think Ellen and Rachel aren't going to hang out again. If Rachel was sticking around for a while, I don't think the show would make such a definitive statement, since who knows what would end up happening in the future. I'm kind of hoping the way Rachel talks about Ellen will be part of what leads to their break up.

Meanwhile, Charlie finds a date because he's jealous of Valentina. He recruits Hannah and Sid to come with him, and they spend the entire time trying to get airline miles off of the date, which Hannah does end up successfully doing.

The date goes disastrously for Charlie, and it doesn't seem like he'll go on a date again anytime soon. When Sophie and Valentina are talking, Valentina even declares that she and Charlie will be together one day and that she's not worried about him finding someone. However, he does, in fact, meet someone who I assume will be significant at the end of the episode.

I do think that the show will eventually pair Valentina and Charlie together, even if it's not happening right now, but I'm curious to see how this new relationship for Charlie goes.

While all their friends are on dates, Sophie and Jesse have dinner with the couple who bought Sophie's picture. Jesse is worried about them being rich people, but it turns out that the bigger problem is that the husband is some kind of men's rights influencer person. I'm kind of surprised the show went there. Of course, everything is played as comedy, but I have to say that the wife in this episode is just really sad. I'm assuming we'll never see her again, but I sure hope that somewhere out there in fictional land she gets some help.

They do end up giving Sophie and Jesse the picture back, which is great, but Sophie ends up losing the picture when a taxi drives off with it. Somehow, she'll apparently get it back, but I feel like that's a story that won't come for a while.

Book Review: Network Effect (Murderbot Diaries #5) by Martha Wells

Published: May 5, 2020
Publisher: Tor.com
Received: Christmas present
Read from January 15 to February 4, 2023
Synopsis from Goodreads:

Murderbot returns in its highly anticipated, first, full-length standalone novel.

You know that feeling when you’re at work, and you’ve had enough of people, and then the boss walks in with yet another job that needs to be done right this second or the world will end, but all you want to do is go home and binge your favorite shows? And you're a sentient murder machine programmed for destruction? Congratulations, you're Murderbot.

Come for the pew-pew space battles, stay for the most relatable A.I. you’ll read this century.

—

I’m usually alone in my head, and that’s where 90 plus percent of my problems are.

When Murderbot's human associates (not friends, never friends) are captured and another not-friend from its past requires urgent assistance, Murderbot must choose between inertia and drastic action.

Drastic action it is, then.

Review:

Network Effect is the fifth installment of The Murderbot Diaries (if you don't count the short stories), but it's the first novel. I was interested to see how that would change things. The novellas are quick reads where everything happens too fast to be dwelled on for long. Sure enough, the novel did give the story time to really dig deeper than it had before.

While I loved the novellas, the length of the novel did have me fully sucked into the story in a way that novellas didn't manage. By the second half of the book, I didn't want to put it down. I spent the entire time trying to work out all the answers, and it was one of those satisfying books where I didn't completely figure it out until Murderbot did. But once I did figure it out, everything snapped into place.

I'm also more attached to the characters than I was before, and that's saying something. The novel brought the return of all of my favorite characters from the series, from Dr. Mensah to ART. We even get to see a number of them interact with each other for the first time, which was so much fun! 

ART in particular felt more fleshed out in the novel than in the previous novella it appeared in. We learn a lot more about it and what it's capable of. Murderbot, too, goes through more character development in this book than possibly all the previous novellas combined (though there absolutely was character development in the novellas). There was just so much in this novel that I don't think could have been done in a novella, and I loved every second of it.

What I want to say next will involve spoilers, so stop reading here if you don't want to see.

Along with seeing old characters, we also meet some new ones. We meet ART's crew, who all seem lovely. But the character I'm move intrigued by is a SecUnit whose governor module Murderbot 2.0 helps override.

This was something that I was curious to see, so I was very excited. I can easily imagine how confused they are. While I have no idea what they'll do next, I'm hoping we see them again at some point.

The ending had me on the edge of my seat wanting to know what happens next. I'd love another story that centers around ART, and it sounds like we could definitely be getting that. At the same time, I'd miss the Preservation characters just like Murderbot would. I wish there was a way for them to all be in every story, but obviously, I recognize that that's not going to happen.

I still have one novella that's out, but from what I understand it's a prequel that takes place before the novel. So we still have to wait and see about what comes next for Murderbot technically.