Someone Call Maury, Because The People Need To Know Who Bluey’s Baby Daddy Is

There were lots of surprises in the Season 3 finale of Bluey appropriately titled “Surprise.” From the game Bluey plays with Bandit, to her compassionate about-face in helping her dad take care of Bingo’s toy babies, to the surprising flash-forward where Bluey drops by her childhood home for a surprise visit. It was the charming, sweet, funny throughline that tied the episode together. But the biggest surprise of all is the fact that we saw Bluey’s future child! A cheeky little pup, who looks quite a bit like Bluey, mirrors the game she herself was playing earlier in the episode. But that of course prompts the all important question: who is the father of Bluey’s child? Whither Bluey’s baby daddy?

Here are the main theories I’ve come across...

Is it Mackenzie?

From what I’ve seen, this seems to be the most popular theory, and I get it. Mackenzie is Bluey’s friend from school. He moved to Brisbane from New Zealand and has been pals with Bluey from Season 1. Many people think he’s Bluey’s baby daddy because “Bluey Jr” has the same floppy ear, same fluffy coat, and looks a lot like Mackenzie as a toddler, which we saw in the Season 3 episode “Space.”

Team Mackenzie has plenty of support on social media.

“THE BABY LOOKS LIKE MACKENZIE ... AHHH,” squealed @RanchLovr in a tweet.

Others pointed to the fact that, in Australia, the Season 2 episode “Barky Boats” aired immediately after “Surprise.” The episode revolves Bluey and Mackenzie, who are spending the day with their “buddies,” older kids getting ready to go to “big school.” It explores themes of tweens developing crushes on one another after years of friendship, and even includes Winton teasing “Oooh! Bluey’s gonna marry Mackenzie!”

My personal favorite, however is this fan, who was floored by a different Mackenzie revelation: “YOURE TELLING ME THAT THIS WHOLE TIME, MACKENZIE FROM BLUEY IS A BOY.” (I get, TBH. Pretty much all kids sound gender neutral before puberty and Mackenzie is a pretty unisex name.)

The jury is still out, but the folks who have their proverbial money on Mackenzie are pretty convinced and lay out a compelling case.

“Sorry that baby is like a perfect mix of Bluey and Mackenzie,” offers @upsidedwnbronco. “What do you mean it’s jean luc's?”

This brings us to the other primary contender...

Or could it be Jean-Luc?

Jean-Luc has only appeared in one episode of Bluey, but it’s a memorable one: “Camping” in Season 1. When Bluey’s family goes camping in the bush she meets Jean-Luc, a French Canadian labrador retriever visiting from Canada. Jean-Luc doesn’t speak English, and Bluey doesn’t speak French. Despite the language barrier, the pair form a sweet, meaningful friendship over the next few days. One morning, Bluey wakes to discover that Jean-Luc and his family have left, something Jean-Luc did not have the language to communicate to her. Years later, as we see a seed the two planted grow into a tree, a teenaged Bluey and Jean-Luc are reunited. We even learn on the Bluey website that Jean-Luc specifically learned English to be able to talk to her again.

Needless to say, seeing their sweet reunion as teens really had some folks hoping theirs would one day turn into a love story, one that would adorably mirror the one Bandit tells about him and Chilli meeting at a campsite in the ‘80s when they were kids in Season 3’s “Fairy Tale.”

This theory seems to hinge mainly on the fact that we know Bluey and Jean-Luc reconnect when they’re older and it would be pretty adorable. Others point to the fact that Jean-Luc has floppy ears (so maybe their kid got one of Bluey’s pointy ears and one of his floppy ones). Moreover, the coloring on Bluey Jr. also looks pretty dark, much like Jean-Luc’s.

But, if you think about it, we never actually got confirmation that this was Bluey’s child. And so, Theory #3...

Maybe it’s not Bluey’s kid at all?

Based on the dialogue leading up to the appearance of Bluey Jr., we hear that Bingo is also at the house. Maybe the child is hers and they’re just running around being a menace while their mom takes some time with Bandit and Chilli. After all, if Chilli (a red heeler) had a baby with blue heeler coloring, why couldn’t Bingo?

Others pointed out that the little one also looks a lot like Bluey’s chaotic younger cousin, Muffin. Who’s to say Muffin Jr. isn’t hanging out with her auntie for the day...?

Of course, the fact that the kid shows up around the time Bluey does does strongly suggest that its her child, especially when you remember that “Surprise” opened with Bluey asking Chilli whether she’ll have children when she grows up, which would make the flash-forward a nice little callback coda.

That said...

Bluey don’t need no man...

Who’s to say Bluey is married or even partnered. Maybe Bluey is a single mum? After all, she shows up at the house by herself, and we know from the series that she’s a sassy, independent gal. Maybe she decided to go into parenthood on her own. Or maybe she has a female partner for all we know! (Was she, perhaps, inspired by her single mum aunt, Brandy?)

But here’s what I think...

We have no idea. And I don’t even mean that in the sense that, based on the information we have that it’s impossible to say for sure. I mean, even if Joe Brumm ascended from Down Under and informed us, we wouldn’t know who the character was, because I think Bluey’s baby daddy is someone we haven’t met yet.

Seriously. Think about it: how many of you had a baby with someone you knew when you were six? If you were forced to choose someone from that time in your life to procreate with could you even choose? I married someone I knew back in high school and that blows people’s minds more often than not because it’s pretty unusual.

Presumably, the Bluey of present day hasn’t met everyone she’s going to meet in her life already. As she grows up, she’s going to have new experience that bring her in contact with new people — new schools, travels, jobs... If what we love about this show is how true to life it can be, then probably Bluey will have a more realistic ending.