Back Into The Sea

For a season finale, that felt very…tame. When my east coast sources (no, not my parents, stop looking at me like that) told me that it would leave me hanging, visions of How I Met Your Mother season 9 danced through my head. Little did I know I would contend with Boxcar Kid Sheldon and the gang.

Though the writers did seem to have it out for everybody.

Penny and Leonard got engaged! Woohoo! And the audience rejoices. Then they pull out their calendars to bet on how many times the wedding will almost fall through.

Raj has, as Sheldon would call it, coitus! Woohoo! And then no one brings it up again after the first ten minutes!

In the midst of Leonard and Penny’s avid discussions, they happen to bring up their living arrangements with our favorite, Dr. Sheldon Cooper. On top of being forced back into String Theory research, he didn’t take the prospect of living alone well; and not for lack of ease. Venting to Amy, he seemed to express he would do well alone. Not with Amy, yet again. If they form a committed relationship they’re going to be the kind to sleep in separate twin beds.

But Sheldon isn’t resting his head anywhere new once he sees refuge from Change in the comic book store…and finds it burnt down. Stuart’s income finally went up in flames for good and Sheldon doesn’t know how to deal. In response, he fled to the train station and took the midnight train going anywhere.

Leonard and Penny, inevitably, let him go. Penny made a good point: Leonard does baby him. He knows FULL well what he does and doesn’t like—and how to use a credit card. If he doesn’t end up in Texas by the next season premiere, he’ll come back to Pasadena. We sent the boys out to the North Pole one finale. He can make it home again.

Stuart, to help Howard and Penny, ended up taking on nursing duties for Howard’s heeling mother. A little odd. A little unnatural. But we’re not sticking around long enough to think about why.

The Inevitable

May the Fourth be with you.

Just keep your wits about for the Revenge of the Fifth.

Professor Proton, Sheldon and Leonard’s boyhood icon, passed away shortly before May Fourth. To Star Wars fans, the date creates a play-on-words they can only manipulate one day a year. See? Funny.

Instead of marathoning all six Star Wars films, however (in a few years, they’ll need to add a seventh to their programming), Leonard and Penny opt to go to Professor Proton’s funeral. They attend the wake and reflect during the service with respect, care, and sympathy. Then they make the event about themselves. Penny play-proposes to Leonard to “even their score” and Leonard “pretends” to wheedle over the decision. Methinks Penny doth protested too much. It’s also May—I smell a season finale on the horizon. Penny But we don’t know what reservations she still holds, and won’t until the end of the month draws to a close.

Sheldon, ever not the funeral kind, still took Professor Proton’s death hard. So hard, in fact, his brain buckled under the emotional turmoil and brought the man back to Sheldon in the form of his “Obi Wan,” the dream-sayer. Professor Proton didn’t seem jazzed about the wardrobe change…but he got a cool light saber!

He eventually imparted rather useful advice about appreciating those you have left on this Earth, while you can. Because everybody knows that everybody dies. And nobody knows it like the Doctor.

To be clear, the last two sentences were Doctor Who references, and the title character is called the Doctor, not the “Doctor Who.” Writers. Get it together friends.

Howard, Raj, Amy, and Bernadette’s roles paled in comparison, but they both tackle important current events of their own. Howard and Raj attempt the made-viral Star Wars order theory, a theory that advocates watching the franchise in the following order: 4, 5, 1, 2, 3, 6.

Bernadette and Amy represent those poor unfortunate souls looped into movie marathons by their uncaring friends. But hey—we’ve all been there.