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KJMackley Since: Jan, 2001
#526: May 10th 2015 at 12:15:54 AM

I find it funny because I've seen some comments that Emily's morbid sense of humor clashed with the rest of the show, but considering her and Penny's dislike of each other and now this development in the finale it seems like that might have been intentional.

And I wouldn't call it Character Derailment for Raj, but full-fledged Character Development. The entire 7th season was him learning that beyond his selective mutism his desperation for companionship drove off almost any potential love interest. He has been dating Emily for over a year, her dark sense of humor apparent almost from the beginning, and now he's realizing he is just not as invested as he would like to be. It doesn't make him a horrible person (it's certainly not a Toilet Seat Divorce), but is actually a legitimate concern to have about a relationship. When Emily assumes he is about to break up with her she reacts rather maturely, the actress even plays it like Emily's been through this before.

Brandon Deadly Vu! from Between Thanksgiving and Christmas (4 Score & 7 Years Ago) Relationship Status: Don't hug me; I'm scared
KJMackley Since: Jan, 2001
#529: Sep 22nd 2015 at 9:55:20 AM

Raj realized Emily's dark sense of humor wasn't really appealing to him, and wimped out of going through with a break-up.

Truth is that his story had a conclusion and we weren't Left Hanging. It's not going to end well for him in the long run but there was no immediate questions that needed a follow-up on the next day. The premiere was not exactly short on plot to begin with.

Not an especially hilarious episode as it has the same melancholic tone as the finale, but has a couple nice bits. Penny's improvised vow was the highlight, Kaley's comedic timing on that was flawless.

TheSpaceJawa Since: Jun, 2013
#530: Sep 23rd 2015 at 9:47:04 PM

At least Sheldon didn't go out and get himself half a dozen cats this time.

Thought I can't say for certain if it's a genuine sign of character development or if it's merely because the writers knew they couldn't pull off something like that over the course of more than one episode.

Brandon Deadly Vu! from Between Thanksgiving and Christmas (4 Score & 7 Years Ago) Relationship Status: Don't hug me; I'm scared
Deadly Vu!
#531: Sep 29th 2015 at 12:02:56 PM

BTW, anyone find it almost Harsher in Hindsight that the season began with Penny and Leonard having issues with marriage so soon after the wedding.... and soon after the episode aired, Penny's actress announced she's getting divorced, after essentially a short marriage?

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Lawyerdude Citizen from my secret moon base Since: Jan, 2001
Citizen
#532: Sep 29th 2015 at 12:22:12 PM

I didn't know about that, but it seems a Hollywood stereotype that celebrities get married and divorced on a whim, or for the publicity. After all, a high profile divorce gets you another cover story in People.

Maybe I'm just being cynical, but it seems a celebrity's celebrity needs to be fueled by things like weddings, divorces, sex tapes, court appearances, "coming out" and so on. Whatever gets the ink and the clicks.

Thinking back on Emily, it seems that she didn't have much of a character other than "pretty girl with a fascination for the macabre". I mean, I enjoy horror and dark stuff as much as the next person, but I like to think that I have multiple interests and aspects to my personality.

edited 29th Sep '15 12:23:59 PM by Lawyerdude

What we obtain too cheap, we esteem too lightly.
unknowing from somewhere.. Since: Mar, 2014
#533: Sep 29th 2015 at 1:37:55 PM

thing also is that if Raj break with her for creepying him out would be quite hipocrite seen one of the reason Raj dosent have a girlfriend is because he creepy them or drove them out with his needness.

[up]Maybe but the gang where pretty one dimensional at first dosent it? Sheldon was very anti-social, leonard try to be "Normal", Howard the pervert and Raj the mute.

"My Name is Bolt, Bolt Crank and I dont care if you believe or not"
Lawyerdude Citizen from my secret moon base Since: Jan, 2001
Citizen
#534: Sep 29th 2015 at 1:59:32 PM

Those were their distinguishing characteristics at the outset, but we also saw them engaging in leisure activities, having conversations and so on. So we got an idea about their common interests. And of course as the series went on we learned about each character's background, job and outside interests. Of course, I'm not saying that Emily should have 8 seasons worth of characterization right at the gate, but maybe one or two other distinctive character moments would have been nice.

What we obtain too cheap, we esteem too lightly.
KJMackley Since: Jan, 2001
#535: Sep 29th 2015 at 10:04:43 PM

There are a lot of reasons divorce seems high among celebrities, but the biggest factor is actually the random and demanding schedules. You could not see each other for months at a time, all the while knowing the pitfalls of celebrity gatherings and paparazzi doing their "expert speculation."

On Emily, her sadist streak didn't manifest until well into her and Raj's relationship. Beforehand she seemed like a normal girl, not even a doctor. Several episodes of season seven was dedicated to exploring what girl Raj should start dating, one of them hinted at was the veterinarian.

On this latest episode, I'm not that big of a fan. Most of the jokes didn't land very well, including Leonard's Catapult Nightmare of Penny and Sheldon making out. Jim and Kaley obviously threw everything they got into the joke, but I think it was telegraphed way too far ahead. The one bit I actually liked was Leonard's talk with Mandy about their kiss. The actress just nailed the character type they were going for. And Leonard using her as a free psychiatrist was a funny joke too.

Brandon Deadly Vu! from Between Thanksgiving and Christmas (4 Score & 7 Years Ago) Relationship Status: Don't hug me; I'm scared
Deadly Vu!
#536: Oct 7th 2015 at 4:47:46 PM

The bachelor party episode was the first really good episode this season, and to me a good "back to basics" episode.

Wild Mass Guessing: Penny's father made up the whole " I accidentally killed your pet" thing as retaliation for not having a more formal wedding.

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ZheToralf Floating Advice Reminder from somewhere in Germany Since: Dec, 2009
#538: Oct 13th 2015 at 1:36:14 AM

Dammit, the writers have no balls.

Status Quo Is God needs to be hung, shot, gutted and run over.

You lost!
Brandon Deadly Vu! from Between Thanksgiving and Christmas (4 Score & 7 Years Ago) Relationship Status: Don't hug me; I'm scared
Deadly Vu!
#539: Oct 13th 2015 at 3:15:42 PM

Interesting that Emily apparently still is on the show, and her actress now has her name in the opening credits.

Kinda strange it took four episodes for her to show up with no mention in between.

I kinda related to Sheldon's rant towards the end of the episode. And, this coming from someone who views him as a self-centered Jerkass.

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KJMackley Since: Jan, 2001
#540: Oct 14th 2015 at 11:21:19 AM

The thing about Sheldon is that he isn't just a Wacky Guy with all sorts of unrelatable quirks, but he is someone who has ten times more difficulty navigating a normal life.

His rant about friends leaving him and only seeing them at big events is a major concern for a lot of people. It's also been made clear that Sheldon is emotionally dependent on Leonard, to the same degree as his own mother. Whatever happens to Leonard is a big concern for him.

TheSpaceJawa Since: Jun, 2013
#541: Oct 14th 2015 at 10:07:44 PM

It's part of why the joke about just imagining like he's their dog works so well and why they've been able to reuse it at least a couple times.

Brandon Deadly Vu! from Between Thanksgiving and Christmas (4 Score & 7 Years Ago) Relationship Status: Don't hug me; I'm scared
Deadly Vu!
#542: Oct 20th 2015 at 10:52:40 PM

Fridge Logic regarding last night's episode: How did Barry get Amy's phone number?

Also, when Barry said "retreat", I kept thinking he was saying (due to his speech impediment) "re-tweet" at first.

Disappointing thing: A few TV guide entries stated that one of the plots involved Amy, Penny, and Bernadette helping Stuart with making himself not be creepy with women anymore and get a girlfriend. Ok, that sort of came up in the episode, but was barely touched upon, and nothing came out of it. Damn you, false advertising!

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KJMackley Since: Jan, 2001
#543: Oct 20th 2015 at 11:50:03 PM

Amy is part of the university. Her personal cell phone is likely on file, not to regular students but to other personnel.

That synopsis of the episode is basically where the plot line was headed, but was not apparent from the start. I see that kind of technically false advertising a lot in places like Netflix, where the B story listed in the synopsis only happens in the last quarter of the episode.

Lawyerdude Citizen from my secret moon base Since: Jan, 2001
Citizen
#544: Oct 23rd 2015 at 8:03:27 AM

As somebody who's been taking fencing for several years now, I think they missed out on a good opportunity for humor.

Since sport fencing comes from the French school, nearly all of the moves are named in French, which lacks the hard "R" sound. Since Kripke's Rhotacism keeps him from pronouncing the hard "R", I thought it would have been funny if he spent half the lesson switching into French with perfect pronunciation of words like "degage", "un-deux", "coupee", "touche", and so on.

What we obtain too cheap, we esteem too lightly.
Brandon Deadly Vu! from Between Thanksgiving and Christmas (4 Score & 7 Years Ago) Relationship Status: Don't hug me; I'm scared
Deadly Vu!
#545: Oct 27th 2015 at 9:01:37 AM

Pet Peeve I have regarding TV shows. They depict finding love or matches on dating services or dating apps, far too easily. Now, Stuart isn't unattractive (at least from my point of view, and I'm heterosexual, but the fact that he apparently got two "likes" so quickly was too far-fetched. In real life it can takes weeks, months, or even a couple years before someone catches someone's interest in a dating service.

That should be a trope: Unrealistically Efficient Dating Service, or maybe simply Magic Dating Service

edited 27th Oct '15 9:02:22 AM by Brandon

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KJMackley Since: Jan, 2001
#546: Oct 28th 2015 at 5:13:26 PM

That's common with any story taking place in relative real time. When it comes to a major story like Howard's trip into space, they prepared ahead of time and gave a realistic time frame for him to go through training and passing qualifications. For the needs of a single episode, things that should take months or years are condensed into days or weeks.

In the episode's defense, Stuart isn't shown signing up and getting connections immediately. We're told retroactively that he's gotten some success from the app, giving enough vagueness that he could have signed up months ago. Not to mention that the time between episodes isn't always relative to when they air. Consider that the first two episodes of the season and the prior season finale all took place in the same week at most.

edited 28th Oct '15 5:26:47 PM by KJMackley

Peteman Since: Jan, 2001 Relationship Status: You spin me right round, baby
#547: Nov 6th 2015 at 7:54:34 AM

Leonard cheating on Penny isn't all that surprising with me. He already did it to Pria.

I don't know enough about Leonard's other relationships to know about them.

ZheToralf Floating Advice Reminder from somewhere in Germany Since: Dec, 2009
#548: Dec 11th 2015 at 4:27:17 AM

Great episode, I loved that they brought back Stephen Merchant, he is a blast.

You lost!
3of4 Just a harmless giant from a foreign land. from Five Seconds in the Future. Since: Jan, 2010 Relationship Status: GAR for Archer
Just a harmless giant from a foreign land.
#549: Dec 11th 2015 at 5:43:46 AM

seeing him (he's about a cm or so taller than me) standing there at the end made me realize again just how damn tiny everyone in the world is...

edited 11th Dec '15 5:46:05 AM by 3of4

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KJMackley Since: Jan, 2001
#550: Dec 12th 2015 at 9:17:39 PM

For me the best joke of the episode was Bernadette's line "It's kind of like taking your drivers license test in a school bus." It avoids the obvious joke while still implying it. Plus in the fourth season we met Glenn, one of Bernadette's exes who was 6'7.


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