“Oh, Emily wouldn’t do that. She’s deaf.” – Penny
Story One! Raj finds a girl he can talk to when Penny introduces him to her friend Emily, who’s deaf. Since she can’t hear him, his nerves don’t take over. Unfortunately, Howard has to translate for their first few dates, but they hit it off and date for several weeks. Raj learns sign language and buys her all sorts of gifts… and that makes Leonard, and then Penny, wonder if maybe she’s a gold-digger. Eventually, his parents make him choose between the money and the girl. He chooses the girl, but she chooses the money and breaks up with him, hence the picture above.
Meanwhile, Sheldon has turned over all his incidental daily decisions to the randomness of dice.
This was a mostly-Raj episode, and as such, it’s both sweet and kind of embarrassing. He’s a good guy, but he’s also naive and falls in love far too easily. We can tell, right from the beginning, that it’s not going to go well, but it’s still sad when it falls apart. It’s also funny, but mostly it’s sad.
The Sheldon part of the episode is kind of like the train bit from last week–there’s no greater meaning to it, and there’s no resolution in it, but it’s fun as hell and it’s nice seeing Sheldon being something other than a self-important jerk. It’s where a lot of the silliness in this ep happens, since Raj’s story is busy being heartwarming and then sad.
It’s getting a little beyond belief that Raj can’t get a break at all, though. If I was writing on this show, I’d introduce someone that he discounts, who later becomes the perfect girlfriend for him, after many misunderstandings and BBT-style awkwardnesses, because the guy is starting to come across as more pathetic than I think they intend him to be. And he’s the only one of the boys without at least a foil, so there’s a space in the cast.
Overall, this was a pretty balanced episode, even if it was focusing mostly on one person. Everyone had lines, and everyone was involved, with no one off-screen. I call that a win!
More thoughts on “The Wiggly Finger Catalyst”:
* “I don’t think I want to play anymore.” “Because you don’t have a girlfriend? If that becomes a reason not to play, this game is in big trouble.” – Raj and Sheldon
* “I’ve decided to make all trivial decisions with the dice, thereby freeing up my mind to do what it does best: enlighten and amaze.” – Sheldon
* “So Bernadette, how are the wedding plans going? And I ask this with no intention of being a bridesmaid. Pick me! Pick me!” – Amy
* “I don’t want to show any more of your friends how I can fit in the booster seats.” – Howard
* “When I was six years old, I tried to start a boy band called Frankie Goes to Bollywood.” – Raj
* “We didn’t mean for it to be an ambush, but it’s kind of impossible not to sneak up on a deaf person!” – Penny
This review originally appeared on TV Geek Army.