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The Big Bang Theory Storylines That Never Paid Off
The Big Bang Theory Storylines That Never Paid Off
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0:00
12 seasons, 279 episodes, and more
0:03
bazingas than anyone could count. Yet,
0:05
The Big Bang Theory still never found
0:06
the time to wrap up these storylines.
0:08
It's arguably the biggest question The
0:10
Big Bang Theory ever posed. What on
0:12
Earth is Penny's last name? The show
0:14
never gives us an answer to that
0:16
question, however. And when Penny
0:17
marries Leonard near the end of the
0:18
show, she takes on his surname.
0:20
>> I I know there's a D in there, but it
0:22
keeps moving every time I try and write
0:24
it.
0:24
>> It might be fair to say that to many
0:26
fans, Penny Hofstadter is an
0:27
unsatisfying solution to the puzzle. No
0:30
surprise then that they've argued for
0:31
years over what her maiden name might
0:33
be. Some claim to have found that answer
0:35
when they saw a package bearing the name
0:36
Penny Teller hidden in the foreground of
0:38
season 2's The Work Song Nanocluster.
0:41
But, this was later revealed to be
0:42
non-canonical by executive producer
0:44
Steve Molaro, who told TV Line, "We
0:46
didn't sanction it. We didn't write it,
0:48
and we didn't intentionally put it
0:49
there." While Penny may have had a
0:51
maiden name at one point during the
0:52
show's production, it was never used on
0:54
screen. As it turned out, the producers
0:56
were too worried about riling up the
0:58
show's fan base to pick one later.
1:00
It just wouldn't be The Big Bang Theory
1:02
without Raj's long-lived quest for
1:03
romance.
1:04
>> I make it a rule to only fall for one of
1:06
my friends' girlfriends at a time.
1:08
>> Over the course of the show, Raj dates a
1:10
number of girls in spite of his shyness
1:12
and inability to speak to women.
1:13
Eventually, he lets his more traditional
1:15
folks pick a lady for him. But, this
1:16
arranged liaison also goes bust. Raj
1:19
ultimately ends the show as a single yet
1:21
proud dog parent to his beloved Yorkie,
1:23
Cinnamon. And he seems somewhat content
1:25
with the way things are going for him.
1:27
But, it's clear from his behavior in The
1:28
Stockholm Syndrome, specifically [music]
1:30
toward an uninterested Sarah Michelle
1:32
Gellar, who comes to the Nobel Prize
1:33
ceremony as Raj's plus-one, that he's
1:35
still hoping to find the right person.
1:37
It's possible that the show's producers
1:39
left that loose end unresolved so that
1:40
Raj's love life could become a major
1:42
plot point in a future spin-off. Or
1:44
perhaps it felt more realistic for at
1:46
least one member of the gang to stay
1:47
single. When all is said and done,
1:49
though, Raj's failure to find love still
1:51
feels like an open thread by the end of
1:52
the show's finale.
1:54
Remember when Sheldon revealed his fear
1:56
of public speaking in season 3's The
1:57
Pants Alternative.
1:59
>> Oh, dear.
2:01
>> This was definitely a character trait
2:02
that evaporated with time and without
2:04
any sign that Sheldon's phobia had been
2:06
resolved. In The Pants Alternative,
2:08
Sheldon's terror ends in embarrassment
2:10
when Penny tries to cool his anxiety at
2:11
an award ceremony. She gives him
2:13
multiple alcoholic drinks and by the
2:15
time it's his turn to speak, he's
2:16
thoroughly drunk.
2:18
>> A neutron walks into a bar and asks,
2:19
"How much for a drink?" The bartender
2:21
says, "For you, no charge."
2:24
>> The night ends with a sing-along and
2:26
Sheldon losing his trousers as he
2:28
ultimately moons the entire crowd.
2:30
Sheldon wakes up the next morning
2:31
confused and in his underwear as the
2:33
whole thing goes viral. Yet, when
2:35
Sheldon is required to speak in front of
2:36
much larger audiences later in the
2:38
series, most notably during his joint
2:40
Nobel Prize acceptance [music] speech
2:41
with Amy, he never wavers once. Instead,
2:44
he manages to be both eloquent and
2:45
reflective. Of course, it probably would
2:47
have taken something away from that
2:49
final episode of Sheldon and experienced
2:50
a full-blown meltdown in the show's
2:52
final moments, but that doesn't mean
2:54
they couldn't have addressed his
2:55
progress somewhere else. Still, maybe
2:57
this is the least we can expect from a
2:59
show that once totally forgot that
3:00
Sheldon is supposed to be allergic to
3:02
cats.
3:03
Did you know that at one point Penny had
3:04
a sister? While Lisa is mentioned
3:06
multiple times during The Big Bang
3:08
Theory, she never shows up to engage
3:09
with Penny in the flesh. And yet, Lisa
3:11
clearly lingers in her sister's mind
3:13
judging from the many stories Penny
3:15
tells about her.
3:16
>> My sister shot her husband, but it was
3:18
an accident. They were drunk.
3:19
>> Penny apparently finds these factoids
3:21
amusing, though she's close enough to
3:22
her nephew to buy him a comic book in
3:24
season 2. Despite that implied fondness,
3:26
however, Lisa is nowhere to be seen
3:28
during Penny's wedding in The Conjugal
3:30
Conjecture and her absence doesn't even
3:32
merit a throwaway explanation. It's as
3:34
if she's been erased from the narrative,
3:35
Chuck Cunningham style, along with her
3:37
husband and son. Perhaps the drama that
3:39
her brother Randall brings to the
3:40
ceremony is too much for her family to
3:42
deal with and Lisa simply slips their
3:44
minds. But until we learn where she's
3:46
gone or if she even exists anymore, her
3:49
status remains is
3:51
In The Tenure turbulence, the never-seen
3:53
but notoriously ancient Dr. Tuperman
3:55
dies. Raj, Sheldon, and Leonard enter
3:57
into fierce competition for the
3:59
guaranteed tenure spot he left behind,
4:01
with Barry acting as a spoiler
4:02
candidate. Only one of them will get the
4:04
vaunted promotion, and they all find
4:06
themselves doing some truly shameless
4:07
things to get it. The episode ends with
4:09
the news that Raj, Leonard, and Sheldon
4:11
are all in the final list for the role,
4:13
but there's one big problem [music] with
4:14
this. We never found out who won. This
4:17
is exactly the kind of plot line that
4:18
should have carried season six. So, it's
4:20
incredibly frustrating that it never
4:22
comes up again for the rest of the
4:23
show's run. Making one of the gang a
4:25
tenured professor would have thrown
4:26
quite the wrench into their social
4:28
lives, not to mention heavily disrupting
4:29
their work space camaraderie. Why
4:31
introduce such an interesting notion
4:33
only to immediately abandon it?
4:36
Alex Jensen proves to be a truly
4:37
bewildering presence on The Big Bang
4:39
Theory. Introduced as Sheldon's
4:41
assistant, she's mainly seen doing
4:42
chores for her boss while struggling to
4:44
cope with his friends. She has a brief
4:46
flirtation with Leonard during season
4:47
six that makes Penny jealous, but this
4:49
leads nowhere. [music]
4:55
Mainly, Alex's purpose is to be
4:56
competent where Sheldon is incompetent,
4:58
either socially or with Amy. She also
5:00
frequently irritates him by doing things
5:02
like wearing corduroy pants. This
5:04
culminates in a sexual harassment
5:05
complaint when Alex misunderstands
5:07
Sheldon's whining about women in
5:09
science. He sends to a seminar, which he
5:11
then forces Alex to attend in his stead.
5:13
Alex makes one more appearance before
5:15
[music] disappearing completely. Her
5:16
relationship with Sheldon firmly
5:18
mothballed, the show never tells us
5:20
where she's gone. For a long time, The
5:22
Big Bang Theory struggled to create
5:23
compelling female characters. In the
5:25
case of Amy, Bernadette, Penny, and even
5:27
Leslie Winkle, they just about managed
5:30
it. In the case of Alex, however, they
5:32
completely failed, and her presence on
5:34
the show will forever remain a wasted
5:35
opportunity. One could only imagine her
5:37
becoming Sheldon's superior or making
5:39
friends with Amy, but ideas like these
5:41
were never explored by the show's
5:43
writers.
5:44
Penny admits to quitting community
5:45
college during season two of The Big
5:47
Bang Theory, [music] but in the show's
5:48
sixth season, she rejoins the halls of
5:50
academia. She's initially proud of
5:52
herself for taking a history class and
5:54
is determined to broaden herself
5:55
intellectually in The Extract
5:57
Obliteration. She encounters some
5:58
difficulty, however, when Leonard
6:00
commandeers her first paper and decides
6:02
to rewrite it so she'll get an A. Penny
6:04
tells him that she has to sink or swim
6:05
on her own merits [music] and wins a B
6:07
minus as a reward when she turns in her
6:09
original paper.
6:10
>> That's right, on my paper, not yours,
6:12
mine, you punk-ass elf.
6:14
>> Here's a question, though. Did [music]
6:16
Penny finish her history course? Did she
6:18
ever take on more classes? Did she even
6:20
graduate? She may have rejected the
6:22
notion of signing up for a degree
6:23
program when Leonard brings it up, but
6:25
would her success change her mind? We
6:27
simply never found out, a fact that adds
6:29
another frustrating layer of inertia to
6:31
Penny's character development.
6:33
During their various guest appearances,
6:35
The Big Bang Theory makes a big deal
6:36
about how Mary Cooper and Beverly
6:38
Hofstadter are single and on the prowl
6:40
for new men. Mary confesses to dating at
6:42
least two other guys during her time on
6:44
the show, even expressing romantic
6:45
interest in Leonard's father, Alfred,
6:47
when they share a cab together. Beverly,
6:49
meanwhile, has a flirtation with an
6:50
admiring Barry. In the end, though,
6:53
neither woman ends up finding a
6:54
permanent partner. This is especially
6:56
tough in Mary's case because we watched
6:58
her grow, change, and suffer as a result
7:00
of her widowhood on Young Sheldon. If
7:02
anyone deserves a fresh start, it's her,
7:04
but The Big Bang [music] Theory denies
7:05
her that chance. We can only hope that
7:07
one day a flash forward in Georgie and
7:09
Mandy's first marriage might give her
7:11
the happy ending she deserves.
7:13
Several episodes of The Big Bang Theory
7:15
involve Howard's relationship with his
7:17
absent father, who abandoned him when he
7:18
was a child. [music] In The Closet
7:20
Reconfiguration, an especially poignant
7:22
episode from the show's sixth season,
7:24
Howard finds an old letter his dad sent
7:25
him when he was younger and burns it in
7:27
anger. After Sheldon tells everyone what
7:29
it said, Howard's friends agree and make
7:31
up stories about it, with just one of
7:32
them bearing [music] the truth about its
7:34
contents. They all give Howard kind
7:36
messages except for Sheldon, who claims
7:38
his dad sent him a treasure map leading
7:39
to One-Eyed Willy's Boon.
7:41
>> Nice try, that's the plot for Goonies.
7:44
Fans still speculate about the contents
7:46
of that letter to this day, leaving
7:47
behind an unfinished plot line inside an
7:49
incomplete character arc.
7:52
That's not all though. Howard encounters
7:53
more family trouble when he unexpectedly
7:55
gains a half-brother, an oceanographer
7:57
named Josh in The Fortification
7:59
Implementation. The two meet for the
8:00
first time when Josh delivers some news
8:02
about Howard's father in the wake of his
8:04
mother's death. Josh thinks it's time
8:06
they meet and get to know each other,
8:07
but Howard freaks out and runs off,
8:09
leaving Bernie there to entertain him.
8:11
As it turns out, Howard is furious about
8:13
Josh's entire existence, but before he
8:15
can throw his brother out, Josh
8:16
expresses his admiration of Howard's
8:18
accomplishments and they finally begin
8:20
to bond. [music] But Josh is never seen
8:22
again. He doesn't even send a postcard
8:24
when his niece and nephew were born. As
8:25
[music] with Penny and Lisa, a potential
8:27
family connection is ignored in favor of
8:29
other storylines, leaving a
8:30
disappointing hole in the show. For a
8:32
while, all of these developments and
8:34
near misses surrounding Howard's family
8:35
seem to be building up to something,
8:37
perhaps Howard encountering his father
8:39
by mistake or some kind of dramatic
8:40
whole family reunion, but nothing
8:42
happens and this whole arc is left in
8:44
the dust.
8:46
In The Work Song Nanocluster, Penny
8:47
launches a hair accessory brand called
8:49
Penny Blossoms. The venture is a huge
8:51
success at first, but the whole thing
8:53
goes awry when the boys abandon their
8:54
efforts to help her keep up with [music]
8:55
supply and demand.
8:57
>> Sorry.
8:59
My apologies to the gay community of
9:01
East Rutherford, New Jersey.
9:03
>> Viewers can infer from this disastrous
9:04
incident that Penny Blossoms went the
9:06
way of the dodo, but that's never stated
9:08
out loud and the website still open when
9:10
the episode ends. So why don't she stop
9:12
selling her blossoms? Starting up
9:14
[music] her Penny Blossoms business
9:15
wasn't the only time Penny decided to
9:17
switch careers either. In The Bus Pants
9:19
Utilization, she tells Sheldon about her
9:21
idea for a phone app that combs the
9:22
internet for websites selling certain
9:24
types of shoes. Sheldon thinks it's a
9:25
dumb idea, of course, but helps Penny
9:27
put together the interface anyway,
9:29
brooding all the while over a fight with
9:30
Leonard. In the end though, the show
9:32
never gets around to telling us how it
9:33
all turned out. Sheldon is last seen in
9:36
the episode creating an algorithm for
9:37
the site, but we never found out if the
9:39
website thrived or failed. And yeah, you
9:42
can probably chalk this one up as a
9:43
classic case of the sitcom style reset
9:46
to the status quo, but surely this could
9:48
have at least warranted a throwaway line
9:50
in a later episode.
