‘The Big Bang Theory’ season 10, episode 8 review: Sheldon’s baby demand; Raj’s new date
Tonight on “The Big Bang Theory,” what we learned — yet again — is that Dr. Sheldon Cooper loves to make things all about himself. It doesn’t matter if it is something so silly and stupid as a bathroom schedule, or the beauty and wonder of welcoming a child into this world.
After an experiment with Amy that showed that the two, when combining their powers (so to speak), could create a perfect brain-baby, Sheldon proceeded to gloat about it to Bernadette. You know, the person having an actual baby. He thought that this was the greatest achievement in the history of humanity, and he therefore was quick to brag to anyone who’d listen. This was vintage Sheldon, as was him determining as a result of this that he and Amy should just get to work having one of their own moving forward. Sure, it’s completely irresponsible for the two of them, given that Sheldon cannot even take care of himself … but what else do you expect from him? This is a guy who refuses to wake up himself, and sees welcoming a child as a key to scientific achievement more than someone to care for and nurture.
Amy did not take that suggestion well, making it clear to him that she just wasn’t ready to be at that point in her life with him. Following this, he tried to seduce her — probably the funniest moment of the whole episode just because he’s so terrible at it. Yet, at the same time, Amy is into the sort of stuff from him. This was all so completely random and ridiculous, but we like episodes of the show where we can have characters stay true to themselves, while at the same time stretching beyond that. When Sheldon wants something, he’s willing to do anything that he can to get it — and that includes trying to be the stereotypical Romeo that Amy’s probably wanted for most of her relationship.
Raj’s new “romance” – What we learned over the course of this story is that Raj really does want to find someone, and he is a guy without judgment — which is great, given that for the most part this is a show that is all about judgment. Characters make generalizations on here all of the time! In some ways, you can get frustrated by the show using the stereotypical Hispanic cleaning-lady trope here, but they did right in expanding beyond that and fleshing out the character of his prospective love Isabella. She was working two jobs to help put her son through college, and she didn’t have a whole lot of time to date other people. Also, she was Cuban, which was a trait that the show used to make fun of itself later in the episode.
While Raj was without judgment in terms of his job, he still was afraid of what others would think — therefore, he wasn’t quick to clue in his friends about what it was that she really did for a living. He lied, and that came out when Howard met her later. He was able to win her back, and the storyline ended with her calling him Pakistani, and getting him back for his own incorrect assumption about her heritage.
Grade: B. The Raj storyline was convoluted since you’re throwing in such things as potential stereotypes and class into the mix, but we do think it was well-intentioned and meant to show where Raj is at his life right now. As for Sheldon’s latest efforts, it was all just stupid and fun. While not the best episode of the season, our big takeaway here was mostly that this episode allowed some of the main characters to evolve. Also, it was nice for Raj to finally have a feature storyline for the first time in a while.
Next week – Want to get some details about it? Then be sure to head over to the link here! Let’s just say that this could be a key episode for Raj, and that Sheldon is going to be jealous of one of the show’s recurring characters for a specific reason. (Photo: CBS.)