The Big Bang Theory: A Vengeance Not as Sweet

Ever wonder what happened to Bernadette, the girl that Penny reluctantly set Wolowitz up with from episode 5? Well, apparently the two have since gone on a second date because this week’s episode joins in on the after hours of their third.

Howard Wolowitz gets denied the convention of third date sex when he has to decide whether or not he wants to pursue an actual relationship with Bernadette. For someone who is usually desperate about the opposite sex, he has high hopes that he’ll eventually land Megan Fox, so he decides to forgo a real-life relationship. It takes Battlestar Galactica’s Katee Sackhoff, guest starring as herself in one of Howard’s bathtub fantasies, to make him realize real life is at least more than fantasy.

It takes some convincing, but Howard eventually wins Bernadette over via an impromptu open mike performance at The Cheesecake Factory (last time I checked, they didn’t have a stage for open mikes).

The episode title “The Vengeance Formulation”, however, comes from Sheldon’s part in the episode, when they bring back Barry Kripke and his annoyingly overpronounced rhotacism.

To his excitement, Sheldon gets invited on National Public Radio as a guest speaker only to be mocked and sabotaged when Kripke sources helium into Sheldon’s office during the interview. Leonard then tries to console Sheldon, with the ineffective help of Raj, by suggesting a plotted revenge.

Things backfire when Sheldon’s prank befalls not only Kripke but also the university president and the board of directors. Of course, Sheldon takes his due credit by activated video and audio pre-recordings that incriminate both Raj and Leonard. But I wouldn’t expect the repercussions of this episode too soon since Big Bang’s storylines don’t always pick up where they left off.

Overall, the episode was pretty entertaining. And it seems like there will be more development to Howard’s character now that he has a girlfriend. Raj has gotten most of the funny lines in this episode, so I wonder if his character’s story will be next. As the only non-citizen of the group, he faces the biggest threat from Sheldon’s prank. As for Sheldon, you wonder if this prank is going to lead to some kind of suspension similar to season 1.

Season 3, Episode 9:  The Vengeance Formulation (Originally aired November 23, 2009)

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Mondays 9:30 EST on CBS

Photographs courtesy of CBS and Cliff Lipson