Another ho-hum week for ‘The Big Bang Theory,’ but hey, at least there are only 3 episodes left, and after tonight’s events, we may actually see them start getting into their own Endgame. Honestly there was a moment tonight where Sheldon and Amy went across the hall to talk to “the gang” and I was almost surprised to see the other characters in the episode, especially with the whole Nobel Prize storyline going on, it just feels like the writers have decided that Amy and Sheldon are the only characters with a story now, and everyone else can just sit around and relax until the finale.
Anyways, as stated above, this was a Sheldon and Amy episode, dealing yet again with their ongoing competition with Dr. Pemberton and Dr. Campbell for the Nobel Prize for their Super-asymmetry findings. It opens with Amy, Sheldon, President Seibert, Pemberton, and Campbell at a lunch trying to squash the feud, with Amy apologizing for her outburst a few episodes ago. The lunch, of course, does not go as planned, as Amy gets mad all over again when Pemberton and Campbell take her apology to mean she thinks they will most likely win the award.
The episode continues with Amy and Sheldon running into Barry Kripke, who knew Pemberton in college, and says he can provide evidence of Pemberton cheating on his thesis, which Sheldon and Amy know will destroy the man’s reputation and make him lose the Nobel. Yet they are torn over what to do, and despite half of their friends pushing them to take down Pemberton, they decide they would rather win the honorable way. Luckily for them, Leonard disagrees and gets the information from Kripke anyway, but not without Sheldon and Amy finding out because Penny and Leonard are terrible at keeping a secret.
Sheldon and Amy decide to give the evidence back to Pemberton at yet another lunch, during which Campbell is livid that Pemberton had cheated on the thesis, and starts making claims about how he knew the man’s dishonesty was going to bring him down. Soon enough, it comes out that Campbell is sleeping with Pemberton’s wife, hence how he was already suspicious of the man, and the two brawl at lunch. Later, Campbell releases the evidence to ruin Pemberton, and it looks like the pair are out of the running for the Nobel.
Meanwhile, Bernadette tells Howard that another waitress at the Cheesecake Factory had been interested in him back in the day (though she may have been messing with him), and Howard decides to investigate. After talking it over with Raj, who is a little creeped out that Howard remembers the names of so many waitresses from that many years ago, Howard visits the restaurant itself (off-screen, we don’t actually get to see it), and returns home to tell Bernie that he had no idea why he wanted to know, but that he eventually realized he was lucky to have her. She informs him the manager of the restaurant had called her to inform her about Howard’s creepy actions already, but of course, at this point in time they are just a schmalzy sitcom couple, so they laugh about it and move on. Never mind the fact that her husband was, potentially, looking for a woman who might have been a better option than Bernadette and was so interested in the idea that he spent the whole episode obsessing over it.
QUOTES OF THE NIGHT:
SHELDON: Hey that was my lemonade!
One would imagine that the final four episodes of a hit series that ran for 12 seasons would be the time to pull out all the stops and really make something special, but the fact that this week was yet another disappointing outing for the series makes me think they really do not have anything left even for the end. Which means the final three are going to be so sad. I am personally so tired of this drawn out Nobel story. It should have been sorted out or relegated to a B-Story at least 2 episodes ago. Also, I was very disappointed we did not get a moment of Amy and Sheldon flipping out as a couple, joining forces to yell at Pemberton and Campbell for being so inept. I understand the “growth” by Sheldon to control himself, but this is supposed to be a comedy, and it had the potential to be funny to see Sheldon and Amy on that same level, and also remind us why they are so compatible.
Ah well, I’m going to stop expecting good things from the show from here on out. Maybe with my expectations set substantially lower, I’ll be pleasantly surprised by the last 3 episodes.
