‘The Big Bang Theory’ season 8 episode 12 review: Sheldon’s ‘torture’; Raj’s waiting game

The final episodes of “The Big Bang Theory” season 8 in 2014 were particularly awesome. Not only were they funny, but they brought out some of that great heart that we’ve seen on the series over the years. Sheldon telling Amy that he loved her, in particular, was a great one.

As for tonight’s “The Space Probe Disintegration,” this one seemed on the surface to be a moderately funny, but also rather unimportant half-hour. The premise on paper was simple: Raj was forced to wait to find out if his space probe mission from years ago was a success, and at the same time, Sheldon and Leonard decided to do something nice for the women by taking them dress shopping. As it turns out, Sheldon was unhappy.

What ended up coming out of the latter story was way more important than just a visit to the clothing store, as Leonard and Sheldon were forced yet again to confront an issue that has been dormant since the end of last season: Whether or not Leonard and Penny should actually be living together. He wants to, but Sheldon has been pushing against it in the middle of a lengthy argument about the compromises the two parties make for each other.

In the end, a plan was in place here for Leonard to live for with Penny once a week, and for this to be a gradual progression so that Sheldon feels pretty comfortable with it. The moments here for the two were genuinely touching, and showed that underneath the cynicism are two guys who care about each other, and Sheldon really is afraid of losing his longtime roommate.

As for Raj, he had a near-meltdown before learning the truth about his probe turning on; to think, he was about to fight an old man outside of a Hindu temple, where he was going to pray for success.

In the end, this episode was pretty fun. Nothing in here is so memorable that we’ll look back at it at this time in season 9, but it did surge past our expectations like a probe heading to Pluto. Episode Grade: B+.

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