Between Raj's romantic failures, Leonard's sidelining from the main cast, and Bernadette's
increasingly sharp tongue, some of the characters in "The Big Bang Theory" had disappointing
story arcs.
Keep watching to find out if your favorite is on the list!
In the final season of "The Big Bang Theory," Sheldon and Amy discover a brand-new branch
of physics relating to "Super-Asymmetry."
The only catch is that it will be decades before Sheldon and Amy's theory can be confirmed
with real-world results.
Then they discover that a couple of scientists named Pemberton and Campbell have already
found a way to confirm their theory.
At first, Amy and Sheldon are excited to meet them.
Pemberton and Campbell seem equally excited to meet Sheldon and Amy.
They freely admit that they do not even understand the concept of Super-Asymmetry.
The results of their own experiment would have been a mystery to them if a colleague
had not shown them Amy and Sheldon's papers.
"This whole thing is actually a gigantic accident."
And so, Sheldon and Amy think they will be teaming up with Pemberton and Campbell to
win the Nobel Prize for Physics.
But then the latter duo start claiming — in front of the media — that they alone are
responsible for theorizing about and proving Super-Asymmetry.
Sheldon and Amy then have to prove they were the ones who came up with the theory.
In "The Dead Hooker Juxtaposition", a new girl named Alicia moves into the same building
as Leonard, Penny, and Sheldon.
At first Alicia seems like a taller, blonder, better version of Penny, with a more successful
acting career and also flirts outrageously with the guys.
Unfortunately, it quickly becomes clear that Alicia is only flirting with the guys in order
to get them to do things for her for free.
The guys are too smitten with Alicia to realize her manipulative nature.
They are happy to spend all their free time running errands for her and fixing up her
apartment.
The only good thing about the arrival of Alicia was that she forced Penny to realize she shouldn't
take the guys for granted.
When Penny finally asked Alicia to stop emotionally manipulating them, the new girl showed her
true colors.
She insulted Penny and even got into a physical brawl with her.
Alicia didn't stick around after that one episode.
Few people watching were sorry to see her go.
In "The Wiggly Finger Catalyst" Raj was going through yet another bout of being single and
lonely.
Penny gets sick of hearing about how miserable he is.
She fixes Raj up with Emily, a girl who is deaf.
She figured that Raj's selective mutism wouldn't be a problem for a girl who couldn't hear
him.
At first the relationship goes well.
Emily seems sweet and understanding, and Raj quickly falls head-over-heels in love with
her.
After dating for a few weeks, Raj's friends begin to notice that he is spending huge chunks
of money to buy Emily presents.
Things get so bad that Penny has to tell Raj's parents about his reckless splurging.
Mr. Koothrappali and his wife confront Raj, and force him to choose between Emily and
his monthly allowance.
Raj chooses to stay with Emily, but she dumps him after learning that he can no longer afford
to buy her presents.
Once again Raj is left broken-hearted.
Emily returns in "The Emotion Detection Automation" where she tells Raj that his biggest problem
is that he allows his parents to dominate him.
She also informs him that she is now dating a fabulously wealthy man, indicating that
she has not given up on her gold-digging ways.
Amy Farrah Fowler had a lot of character growth throughout "The Big Bang Theory," and not
all of it was consistent.
In the beginning, Amy was basically a female clone of Sheldon.
She was a genius-level intellect who looked down on normal people and regular social customs.
At that time, Amy's mom Mrs. Fowler had a brief appearance at the end of "The Desperation
Emanation".
In that scene Mrs. Fowler was portrayed as a mild and well-meaning mom who just wants
her daughter to have a normal life.
As Amy's characterization changed over time, it was revealed that many of Amy's mental
neuroses are a direct result of her mother's strict upbringing.
When Kathy Bates was recast in the role of Mrs. Fowler for Season 11, her characterization
worsened.The show has revealed that Amy's mother forbade her from doing many normal
kid things, such as making friends and being in plays.
Mrs. Fowler believed such activities led to drugs and intercourse.
She would not let her husband utter a word, and she thought Amy wanted her to die so that
she could inherit the china cutlery.
While all the other characters on "The Big Bang Theory" settled down and found love,
the writers of the show could never seem to decide on a girl for Raj.
The one who got closest to the mark before everything fell apart was Emily Sweeney, who
first appeared in "The Friendship Turbulence".
At first Emily seems almost too good to be true.
She's gorgeous, funny, understanding, and seems genuinely fond of Raj.
She even accepts his many personal flaws instead of reacting to them negatively like so many
women before her.
But as Emily started appearing on the show more regularly, her perfect façade started
to crack.
She was revealed to have a twisted sense of humor that Raj often found disturbing.
Emily also initially and unnecessarily saw Penny as a rival for Raj's affections.
After she and Raj broke up, Emily tried to emotionally manipulate him until he put his
foot down.
When Emily made her final appearance in "The Emotion Detection Automation," she hinted
that she had dumped Raj because she did not enjoy his performance in the bedroom.
There are plenty of instances of bad parenting on "The Big Bang Theory," but Leonard's mom
Beverly makes all the other parents look like saints.
Unlike the other entries on the list, Beverly did not start out making a good impression
on the audience.
Leonard often told stories of his mother withholding love and affection at a young age.
This seems to have led to many of his emotional hang-ups.
When Beverly did show up in person, she reduced Penny to tears within minutes of meeting her,
and she constantly belittled her son's accomplishments.
"So no original research?
No"
Still, the episode ended with Beverly loosening up.
It seemed she and her son would have a better relationship moving forward.
Unfortunately, that did not end up happening.
Across her next appearances on the show, Beverly continued to be a cold and emotionally-distant
mother.
She looked down on Leonard for his emotional neediness.
Beverly also largely refused to accept responsibility for the way her son turned out as an adult.
In the end, Leonard realized his mother would never change, and that he needed to stop craving
her approval.
Let's add another name to the list of girls Raj struck out with.
Lucy was a fellow geek whom Raj met at the comic book store in "The Tangible Affection
Proof".
She was as awkward as Raj, but the two managed to strike up a conversation that turned into
a first date.
Like Raj, Lucy was shy and unconfident.
This seemed adorable at first, until Lucy ditched Raj on their first date.
It turned out that Lucy was not shy so much as pathologically avoidant to the extent she
had trouble developing new relationships or being close with another person.
At first Raj thinks his own neuroses are the perfect complement to Lucy's social anxiety
issues.
But no matter how hard Raj tried to make things work, Lucy proved again and again that she
was a flight risk.
She kept breaking up whenever Raj tried to take their relationship to new levels.
Finally, Lucy ended things with Raj for good.
His feelings of heartbreak over the situation were extreme.
Even the perpetually-peppy Penny was disgusted by how Lucy ended things with Raj.
She shouted at Lucy in public in "The Itchy Brain Simulation".
However, the whole situation did help Raj overcome his selective mutism.
Raj's sister Priya was yet another attempt by the writers of "The Big Bang Theory" to
give Leonard something to do in between breakups with Penny.
Priya was like a more competent version of Raj.
She was smart and empathetic, and she stood up to others when the occasion demanded it.
She was generally sweet and caring toward her loved ones.
One of the most impressive things Priya does in her time on the show is to thwart Sheldon's
will by employing his own "Roommate Agreement" rulebook against him.
"But-"
"There's no 'buts' Sheldon.
That's how the law works."
Even Penny can't help but feel jealous as Priya seems to be better than her at everything
and a better fit for Leonard.
Unfortunately, Priya's golden sheen begins to wear off over time.
Initially, she is ashamed of introducing Leonard to her parents.
She also tries to stop Leonard from being friends with his ex Penny, and is openly disrespectful
of Leonard's more geeky interests.
In one of the final times she appeared on the show, Leonard almost cheated on Priya
with another girl but was able to control himself.
That is when Priya admitted she cheated on Leonard by sleeping with an ex, and the two
broke up.
Raj started out in the series as simply an awkward guy who was too shy to talk to women,
but the show started making frequent gay innuendo jokes regarding Raj's relationship with Howard.
"It might explain why the two of you have created an ersatz homosexual marriage."
When Raj learns that getting drunk allows him to talk to women, he goes overboard and
acts creepily toward his dates in a drunken haze.
This was very out of character.
Raj was originally characterized as a smart, sensitive, self-made astrophysicist.
As the show went on, he seemed to become clingier and more dependent on his parents' money.
He remained single until the very last episode.
The character's actor Kunal Nayyar has his own thoughts on the disappointing end for
Raj, telling Metro UK,
"I find it quite poignant that the one character that believed in true love so much was the
one who didn't, in the end, find it.
It's beautiful!
It doesn't have to be so formulaic, that's what I loved about the show — it doesn't
have to be a certain way, you know?"
Perhaps the character with the most wasted potential on "The Big Bang Theory" was Stuart
Bloom, the owner of the comic book store.
When Stuart first shows up in the second season of the show, he is depicted as a rare nerd
who is actually socially competent.
In his very first appearance in "The Hofstadter Isotope" Stuart is introduced as a small business
owner and a talented artist.
"Is this me?"
"Depends.
Do you like it?"
"Wow, it's really good."
"Yes, that's you."
He draws a skillful sketch of Penny and successfully asks her out on a date.
Basically, Stuart is shown as a better version of Leonard without the insecurities.
He wears his "nerd" status confidently on his sleeve.
After Howard got married, Raj started getting paired with Stuart more often, and that was
when the latter character started going downhill.
He became as scared of approaching women as Raj, lost his business, and developed a bunch
of health issues.
From being a charming go-getter, Stuart devolved into another version of the needy and desperate
Raj, but with even less success in life.
And, also like Raj, the character's downward spiral is played for laughs on the show.
When Bernadette first showed up on "The Big Bang Theory," the biggest issue with the character
was that she was too low-key.
Bernadette was sweet and friendly and sympathetic, and the perfect foil for Howard, the would-be-lady's-man.
After the two got married, Howard became a more low-key and temperate character, which
seemed to bring out the worst traits in Bernadette.
Bernadette became more sharp-tongued, both with Howard and other characters.
The explanation given was that Bernadette used to be a babysitter who can be a strict
disciplinarian when the occasion demands it.
But gradually, that strictness turned into full-on bullying.
Her office colleagues are terrified of crossing her.
Bernadette is shown to be perfectly aware of the fear she invokes in her colleagues
and her friends, and she enjoys it.
The character also starts bragging about her high-paying job, and shading Howard for not
making as much money as she does.
Bernadette learns to calm down a bit after becoming a mom, but bits of her past aggression
still manage to leak out from time to time.
People might not remember it now, but there was a time when Sheldon was not the main character
on "The Big Bang Theory."
The show started out being about Leonard's hopeless crush on Penny, and his geeky friends
getting in the way of his attempts to woo her.
Over time Leonard and Penny started dating, and by the last few seasons they had gotten
married.
But having a happily-ever-after scenario for the two would not have made for interesting
television.
The characters continued to evolve within their marriage, but unfortunately not for
the better.
Leonard is shown to have become a complete doormat.
He lives in fear of offending his wife because he still does not believe himself worthy of
her.
He is afraid she might someday leave him.
This behavior is indicated to be a result of Leonard's troubled relationship with his
mom.
Penny now replaces his mom as the most important woman in his life.
Later seasons show much less of Leonard having fun, and more of the other characters making
fun of Leonard.
Sadly, Penny often leads the charge.
In the beginning of "The Big Bang Theory," Penny was set up as every man's fantasy.
She was beautiful, but not stuck up about it.
She was also genuinely kind and helpful to Leonard as he fumbled his way around asking
her out.
Despite their differences in personality and interests, Leonard and Penny ended up in what
seemed to be a loving marriage.
But that soon began to change as the marriage progressed.
Penny started making more money than Leonard as a salesperson for a pharmaceutical company.
Suddenly, Penny's attitude toward Leonard changed from loving and supportive to bullying
and overly critical.
She no longer even tried to hide her contempt for Leonard's nerdy hobbies, and threw away
his prized toy items without consulting him.
Penny was also revealed to have been a bully in high school, and that bullying nature seems
to extend to her current friends.
Many jokes are also made about Penny being a borderline alcoholic.
Many viewers did not like the way Penny proposed to Leonard once in a drunken haze.
She then became angry when he hesitated.
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