Visiting The Big Bang Theory on Its Deathbed, Week 20

The Big Bang Theory is a CBS sitcom about a group of geeky adults that has run for 12 staggeringly long years. In that time period, it has attracted critical ire, many Emmys, and earned its stars million-dollar salaries. But now this show is dying and I, a pop culture critic with a heart made of onyx who has never even seen a single episode, have decided to watch the program weekly to pay my respects—and also roast it to death one last time.

Season 12, Episode 21: The Plagiarism Schism

Summary: Amy apologizes to Dr. Pemberton and Dr. Campbell for her outburst, in which she called the two of them frauds, but then Amy and Sheldon learn Pemberton might have plagiarized his thesis. They go to the group and ask if they should leak the information and the group is divided. This is insane to me because it’s a fucking Nobel Prize we’re talking about! Amy and Sheldon decide to take the high road, but Leonard and Penny decide to take the low road for them and collect information on Pemberton. Amy finds out and ultimately decides, along with Sheldon, to hand over the information to Pemberton and Campbell to make sure it never gets out. Again, why? Expose the man! But upon being confronted with this info, Campbell freaks out and leaks it himself, costing Pemberton his career. He tells Amy and Sheldon they can both continue the Nobel journey together, but I’m not so sure either of them want to do that.

While talking about bad stuff they’ve all done, Bernadette admits to Howard that there used to be another waitress at the Cheesecake Factory who had a crush on Howard. I did not know Bernadette worked at the Cheesecake Factory until now, as I’ve gone to great lengths to be as uneducated as possible writing about this show (lmao, great lengths my ass) much to the distress of several readers. Anyway, she told this mystery waitress that Howard had every kind of Hepatitis to get her off his case. Howard, being a complete creep, becomes sort of obsessed with finding out who the woman was, admitting to Raj that back then he knew all the waitresses names, what kind of car they drove, and if they had boyfriends. Is this supposed to be endearing? I’m really glad I got to this show by the time most of these doofuses are settled down, because I truly don’t think I could handle a show about bumbling, creepy men incapable of interacting with women that’s apparently funny because they’re “nerds.”