11.8 The Tesla Recoil At this point in The Big Bang Theory’s life, it’d be hard to build a solid defence of any of the characters. At one point or another they’ve all acted like terrible people, and for once The Tesla Recoil sees the show really lean into that and exploit it not just for laughs, but also for drama. I can see how this episode might be infuriating for a certain quadrant of the audience, but for me it felt more honest and – as a result – funny than a more traditionally light-hearted instalment. The opening scene in which the gang watch a documentary about the two rival scientists allows this joke to make sense, but as a concept it’s probably a little hard to grasp for the average audience member. The entire time I was thinking – who is this joke for?? The Big Bang Theory viewership is more made up of Pennys that it is Sheldons at this point, so the endless nerd banter probably gets a bit lost. Regardless, Amy coaxes Sheldon into realising that he’s more upset that he’s offended his friends than he is about the insult, which leads to one of my favourite little moments of the episode. Sheldon believing he’s changing for the better when really he’s completely misunderstood puts a nice lampshade on the show’s propensity for having him learn a Very Important Lesson each week. Eventually Leonard and Howard recruit Kripke to help them do the maths on an even better project than Sheldon’s, and quickly regret it when this third party steals it from under them. Colonel Williams is right – these two don’t have any leadership skills, and it serves them right. So I’d wager that’s the end of the military storyline, but I said that last time. Meanwhile, Bernadette is becoming suspicious of Ruchi as she remains on bed rest. After a slightly passive aggressive visit, Bernie decides that her co-worker is actively trying to steal her clients and position in the company in her absence – a worry that turns out to be warranted. She asks Raj to investigate and, after some creepy pillow talk, he tells his friend that she’s being a hypocrite. Of course, this is precisely why I’ve been a fan of Ruchi as a girlfriend for Raj, but that looks like it’s over too. Overall, despite the terrible behaviour from pretty much every character, this episode at least managed to maintain a consistent theme across both it’s A and B stories. Based on The Tesla Recoil, the show could stand to do that more often. Read Caroline’s review of the previous episode, The Geology Methodology, here.
