The Big Bang Theory: The Viewing Party Combustion (9x21)

Ugh I hated this episode. I hated almost every single thing about it. This show can really get on my nerves sometimes. Let's take a look.

Cons:

The basic premise here is that everybody is supposed to gather to watch Game of Thrones, but various fights break out which separates the party into two. Leonard, Amy, and Howard stay over at Sheldon and Leonard's place, while Penny brings Sheldon, Raj, and later Stuart over to her place. This premise is actually quite solid, which is why it pisses me off that they fail to do anything good with it.

First of all, Leonard and Sheldon's fight is over the roommate agreement. Leonard doesn't want to go to a meeting, and he puts his foot down, despite the fact that the meetings are mandatory in the agreement. Penny takes Sheldon's side, because she knows how important it is to him, while Amy admits that she always hated the meetings that went along with their relationship agreement, and she takes Leonard's side.

This argument was founded on exactly nothing. Leonard has always been affably annoyed at Sheldon's quirkiness. They've had serious fights before when Sheldon went too far or seriously impeded Leonard's life in some way, but for the most part, Leonard goes along with Sheldon's idiosyncrasies. His entire reason for putting his foot down in this situation was "I don't wanna." But since he'd always been willing to go along before, what caused this abrupt switch? There was no justification whatsoever!

Then you've got Howard and Raj. Apparently, Raj has been dating both Emily and Claire, and he brags to Howard about the experience of dating two women. Only, he doesn't actually brag - he fake-complains about how hard it is. Howard calls him out on it, and they get into a fight.

All I can say is: Raj is a complete dick. I hate him so much! Seriously. First of all, he wasn't in a casual relationship with Emily before. They had been dating for quite some time. And now suddenly he's seeing her and another woman at the same time? The episode strongly implied that these women don't know he's seeing more than one person, which makes him just a complete monster. He is so unbearably smug and sexist and just... ugh. I don't think Howard went far enough in his anger, honestly. Raj is the WORST.

Pros:

The one good thing in the fight between Sheldon and Penny on one side, and Leonard and Amy on the other, is that it allowed us to examine the Penny and Sheldon relationship. Both of their significant others admit to feeling a little jealous of their brother/sister bond, and how they can confide in each other in certain ways more than they can with their partners. That was a really interesting point to bring up. I just hope they continue to address it instead of letting it drop.

As the episode ends, Howard ends up in the hospital due to eating a sandwich that has nuts in it. Everybody's arguments are forgotten as they wait at the hospital to hear if he'll be okay. I liked that resolution, and I would have liked it even more if the arguments had been less infuriating. Seriously. I want to smack Raj so bad.

That's where I'll stop. I don't know why, but for some reason this episode really got me steamed up. It was so aggravating!

4/10