How I Met Your Father Makes HIMYM’s Pineapple Incident Explanation Canon

WARNING: This article contains spoilers for HIMYF‘s season 1 finale.

How I Met Your Mother’s reveal for the Pineapple Incident mystery never actually made it into the original show, but How I Met Your Father’s season 1 ending finally makes The Captain’s explanation canon. The single greatest mystery in HIMYM (aside from the mother’s identity) began in season 1, episode 10, “The Pineapple Incident,” in which Ted woke up after a night of hefty drinking to find a pineapple on his bedside table. The indecent was frequently referenced throughout the series with no explicit answer by the season 9 finale. However, HIMYM did actually have a solution to the Pineapple Incident mystery; it was just in the technically non-canon deleted scenes.

The HIMYM season 9 episode “Daisy” came with a deleted scene that many wish had made it into the final show, where The Captain (Kyle MacLachlan) finally solved the Pineapple Incident mystery. After The Captain warned Ted about stealing too many things from him, the pair walked onto his porch where Ted spotted a pineapple. The Captain explained that placing a pineapple on one’s doorstep was an old sea captain’s tradition signifying hospitality, with The Captain revealing he kept one at his Farhampton house as well as his townhouse in the city. HIMYM’s episode then had Ted flash back to 2005, revealing that he had stolen the pineapple from The Captain’s porch on his very drunken night back in season 1.

For those who didn’t watch HIMYM season 9’s deleted scenes, the Pineapple Incident remained a mystery after the finale episode. Thankfully, for those who did, The Captain’s explanation was finally written into the universe in an official manner during How I Met Your Father’s season 1 finale. As Future Sophie tells the story of The Captain and Becky’s divorce, the boat-loving millionaire reflects that he hasn’t been hurt this badly since “someone stole that pineapple off [his] front doorstep in ‘05.” Since Ted had never actually told The Captain that he stole the pineapple, How I Met Your Father reveals that who stole the pineapple is still a mystery to George van Smoot.

Alongside The Captain and Becky’s cameos actually serving a further purpose in Sophie’s How I Met Your Father story, their appearances work to finally make the Pineapple Incident explanation canon for HIMYM. As the original show’s biggest mystery, it’s a major sigh of relief for fans that the story behind the pineapple can now be included as the official in-universe explanation. However, part of the reason why HIMYM never included the scene in season 9 may have been because Future Ted narrated in the season 1 “The Pineapple Incident” episode that they “never found out where the pineapple came from.” Since How I Met Your Father makes the deleted scene canon, Future Ted’s season 1 line may now just be interpreted as either a lie to his kids, a misremembering, or just a fib to cover up his embarrassment of having stolen it.

Since The Captain is now officially part of Sophie’s How I Met Your Father story due to him and Becky owning the boat that Ian was working on in Australia, it’s possible the popular HIMYM character will return for future episodes in the spinoff. If so, Sophie may eventually reveal if The Captain ever actually finds out that Ted stole his pineapple. Even if Sophie and How I Met Your Father’s characters know nothing about How I Met Your Mother’s iconic Pineapple Incident, at least fans of the original show can rest knowing the mystery is officially solved within its universe.

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Jordan Williams
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Jordan Williams is a Movie/TV Feature Senior Staff Writer for Screen Rant. She graduated from the University of Oregon in 2020 with a B.A. in Psychology and a minor in Media Studies.

Jordan is based in Seattle, Washington and enjoys exploring the natural beauty the PNW has to offer. She runs on coffee and classic movies, taking pride in having watched every film on AFI’s 100 Greatest Films list and every Best Picture Oscar winner.

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