The Big Bang Theory: The Comic Book Store Regeneration (8x15)

Wow! An episode with actually funny jokes and some more serious character relationships being explored? What universe have I fallen into? I shouldn't over-sell it, because this wasn't anything remarkable, but I actually felt like this was a rather solid episode of this show.

Sheldon is upset to find out that Amy helped Barry Kripke with some string theory research, since Amy never helped him when he was studying it. Sheldon goes to Penny and complains about Amy, but Penny says that maybe he needs to let it go. She helps him with techniques for getting over his anger. Sheldon tells Penny that Amy has been secretly testing her intelligence against the monkeys in her lab by making Penny solve puzzles. Penny feels insulted and hurt. Leonard realizes that Sheldon had been doing the same thing to him. They confront Sheldon and Amy about it, but they're pretty unapologetic about the whole thing.

Meanwhile, Stuart is ready to re-open his comic book store, thanks to the money that Howard's mother gave him for that purpose. Everybody comes together to congratulate him on the opening, but Howard still can't get over the weirdness of Stuart living with his mother. Howard and Stuart argue over some furniture that Stuart took from Mrs. Wolowitz's house to use in the store, and things get more and more heated. However, at this point Howard gets a call from from Florida, where his mom was visiting family, and learns that his mother has passed away.

Everybody is immediately sympathetic, and they all comfort Howard as best as they can. Howard and Bernadette go to Florida, while the rest of the gang sit around reminiscing about Mrs. Wolowitz. The episode ends with Leonard toasting to her as a great woman and a great mother to them all.

So... the only complaint I really have is that the whole intelligence testing plot sort of gets tossed aside when bigger things come along. So too does the idea of Amy helping Sheldon's rival. In a way, this imitates real life. Somebody dies, and everything else ceases to matter. But for an episode of a TV show, it felt strange to introduce these potentially comedic possibilities in an episode where they necessarily have to be pushed aside for other concerns.

Other than that, though, I really did enjoy what I was seeing.

The whole "let it go" conversation between Sheldon and Penny had a lot of funny moments. Penny tells Sheldon to imagine his problems as a pen, and then drop the pen. The only problem is, Sheldon has imagined the pen as a really nice one with his initials engraved on it, and so he has trouble letting it go. That was hilarious.

There's actually a Nathan Fillion cameo in this episode. I almost put this under "cons" because it felt completely and totally random and forced. Usually this show does something really creative and clever with its cameos, but this one was pretty run-of-the-mill. However, despite that, I liked seeing him. Basically, Raj and Leonard run into him at a cafe and say hello to him. He denies being Nathan Fillion so that he can eat his lunch in peace, but later admits the that he is in fact Nathan Fillion. However, Raj then decides he doesn't believe him, and he goes back and forth as to whether or not he's really Nathan Fillion. Leonard and Raj get a picture with "guy who looks like Nathan Fillion but is a little more annoyed than Nathan Fillion usually is." We're never told for sure if it's really him or not. So, even though it felt out of place, the moment itself was pretty funny.

And then there were a lot of slightly more serious moments in this episode. Even though we didn't see it manifested as much as we could have, I liked how Penny felt hurt and insulted by Amy's actions. She probably has some issues with being the "dumb" one of the group, and for Amy to exploit that was actually pretty horrible.

Then of course there's the whole Howard and Stuart fight, which has oddly not really been played for laughs the whole time it's been going on. There's actually a lot of tension and drama between these two friends, which I find very interesting.

Of course, the death of Mrs. Wolowitz is the main event in this episode. I think the end of her character's run on the show was a lovely way to honor the passing of the actress, Carol Ann Susi, who voiced her so wonderfully over the years. Sheldon's comforting words to Howard were actually very lovely - he told Howard that when his own father passed, he didn't have any friends to help him through it. Howard has friends. He'll be okay. The sweetness of Sheldon's words is compounded by the fact that we're lead to believe he's going to tell Howard to "let it go," as he has been doing to everybody all episode.

I think that's where I'll stop. Surprisingly, this episode was a real winner. For years, I've disliked this show overall. Occasionally, though, they do something like this. When this show takes itself seriously and tries to add in some actual drama alongside the comedy, it usually hits its mark. Now, if only we could get some consistency!

9/10