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The Big Bang Theory Season 12, Episode 7 Recap: Bernadette Hides From Her Kids


At the start of this season of The Big Bang Theory, executive producer Steve Holland told Glamour.com that the writers were working on an episode about the challenges of parenthood. And in tonight’s episode—”The Grant Allocation Derivation”—we saw just how far some (hi, Bernadette!) are willing to go to escape the chaos.

The bulk of the story was devoted to Leonard having to choose which colleague to distribute extra grant money to for their work project. The assignment—by President Siebert, who shockingly still has a job—put Leonard in a hard place, as friends and colleagues made his life miserable demanding they receive the grant money. Personally, I kind of checked out for most of this one. Bring back Inspector Gadget Leonard and then we’ll talk.

That’s because the real highlight of the episode was Bernadette using Halley and Michael’s playhouse as a hideaway from her kids. Sure, the plot seemed a little redundant (example A), but it also rang true. Most parents, babysitters, even grandparents have wanted to escape the rigors of childcare at one point. It’s exhausting.

Some parents look at their office job as somewhat of a breather, but that’s hardly the equivalent of “me” time. The work/home life cycle never ends, so it’s understandable if you suddenly find yourself eating a Twinkie and drinking boxed wine in a four-sided plastic playhouse. When Bernadette returns home from an overwhelming day at the office and hears Howard freaking out with the kids, she takes action. The solution is simple: call her husband from the playhouse and tell him she’s stuck at work. “He deserves better,” she tells herself after hanging up the phone and putting her feet up.

The next day at work, though, Bernadette tells Penny she’s worried she’s an awful person for lying to Howard. “It’s just work has been crazy and sometimes I don’t want babies pulling my hair and pinching my baby fat,” she says. “I love my kids, but that hour to myself just makes me feel human again.” How can you argue with that?

Penny doesn’t, because the next day she’s so stressed out by Leonard (who’s stressed out by his grants responsibilities) that she joins Bernadette for wine time in the playhouse. Then, in a scene we’ve seen over and over again—but who cares, because Mayim Bialik is genius—Amy suspects Penny and Bernadette are hanging out without her and nabs an invitation.

PHOTO: Michael Yarish/Warner Bros. Entertainment

At the end of the episode, Howard puts the kids to bed and joins Raj in the outdoor hot tub; Raj hears a noise and is alarmed someone’s in the playhouse. Of course, Howard knows it’s Bernadette but doesn’t have the heart to burst her bubble. “She’s been hiding out in there all week,” he tells Raj. “She’s overwhelmed at work, and frankly me and the kids are a lot. She needs downtime.”

He tells Raj that he purposely pretends he’s none the wiser because that’s how marriage works. In fact, Howard lied about getting life insurance three years ago, so now he think they’re even. Seems to me that lying about life insurance is a much bigger deal than playing hooky in a toddler’s playhouse, but then again, kids haven’t made me crazy…yet.

Related: The True Story Behind That Costume Showdown on The Big Bang Theory



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The Big Bang Theory Season 12, Episode 4 Recap: More Penny and Bernadette, Please


The Big Bang Theory hyped its latest episode as a Young Sheldon-type crossover—thanks to the appearance of Sheldon’s childhood best friend Tam—but that wasn’t even best part of the episode. That honor goes to Bernadette and Penny’s mission to befriend Raj’s new fiancé, Anu.

To be fair, the Sheldon/Tam/Leonard storyline in “The Tam Turbulence” was classic Big Bang, but it was Melissa Rauch and Kaley Cuoco who stole the episode with their buddy-cop humor and deadpan delivery. It’s that reason why I believe Big Bang could still live on as a spin-off should it choose to; the Bernadette/Penny show more than proved that.

But let’s get back to the episode. Penny and Bernadette go on a mission to dig up info on Anu, and in the process exhibit Bachelor-level behavior not endorsed by yours truly (though, TBH, it was hysterical). Penny tells Bernadette that she’s “really worried about this Raj getting married thing.” Bernadette agrees. After all, it’s not like they make marriage to their respective spouses look that great.

Here’s where they really go off the deep end: Penny suggests that because her deep-dive social media search on Anu has turned up empty, it’s time to call in reinforcements. Bernadette phones her dad—a retired cop—to see if he’ll run a background check on Anu. No, he says. Of course, that’s not good enough for Bernadette and Penny. If he won’t help, they’ll just go to the hotel where Anu is a concierge and do the work themselves.

PHOTO: Michael Yarish/CBS

The whole scene that follows (including Bernadette’s story of how she can fit her entire body into her dryer) is brilliant, but if I ever have friends that pull the same shtick on a future boyfriend of mine, please tell me to get new friends. Bernadette and Penny introduce themselves, but Anu is five steps ahead of them, knowing Raj’s friends have just come to get the dirt on her. Doesn’t matter—she’s happy to go along and suggests an ultra-trendy restaurant they all have dinner at later that night. Penny’s impressed; she’s been trying to get into this restaurant forever, to no avail. “Oh, please, getting into impossible places is my super power,” Anu says. And with that, Penny divorces Leonard and marries Anu. Kidding!

Later at the restaurant, Bernadette wants to know why Anu would marry someone she just met when she seems like such a smart, successful woman. Fair question, Anu says, before adding that in her 20s, she tried dating the “normal” way. “I met a guy, fell in love, we moved in together, I put him through culinary school, screenwriting classes, and finally dumped him when he wanted to become a midwife,” she says. “Then I realized, my parents are happy, they had an arranged marriage, why am I fighting this?”

Penny and Bernadette are still skeptical, saying they both married for love and it turned out…well, fine, they guess. In other words, maybe Anu has a point.

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PHOTO: Michael Yarish/CBS

Over the course of the evening, Anu turns the tables and gets Bernadette and Penny drunk in hopes of getting gossip out of them about Raj. It works. They spill about Raj’s love of Britney Spears and that he takes baths with his dog…while they both wear swimsuits. Oh, and he snot-cries every time Hugh Jackman sings. Exactly what a girl you just met wants to hear. But he sounds better than half the guys I keep meeting in L.A., so maybe don’t write him off too fast, Anu.

Of course, this all gets back to Raj and he is livid—rightfully so. “Do me a favor and stay away from [Anu],” he yells at Penny and Bernadette.

They feel bad for a minute before coming to the conclusion that they should do damage control and take Anu out again, especially if they can use her to get them into Soho House. “We owe it to Raj to try,” a sly Bernadette reasons.

I can’t wait to see this unfold. Bring it on, Benny.



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'The Big Bang Theory' Season 11 Episode 4 Recap: Howard and Bernadette Are Having a Boy


In what was perhaps the quickest reveal in The Big Bang Theory history, it took less than five minutes for the show to announce the sex of Bernadette and Howard’s second baby: a boy! The Wolowitz’s, who welcomed baby girl Halley into the world last December, find out they’ll be having a son come 2018; but prior to the reveal, they tell their doctor they don’t care. (“For the first one, we really wanted a girl, but this time around we don’t have a preference,” Howard says; “yeah, boy [or] girl…as long as it’s healthy,” Bernadette adds.) Their real feelings, however, are made clear as soon as the ultrasound indicates they’re having a boy. “Oh,” they say—and that’s it.

The scene definitely felt like a stark contrast to the way other shows have handled the “is it a boy or a girl?” question. For those shows, the episodes are usually cute in nature but never really amount to much. The audience waits 20 minutes into the program before finding out whether subsequent episodes will feature a pink or blue nursery. And then, TV kids generally don’t have much of an identity until later seasons, if at all. Of course, The Big Bang Theory has already bucked that trend altogether by never even showing us baby Halley, though we did notice she has her share of “Daddy’s Little Girl” outfits and red tutus in tonight’s “The Explosion Implosion.”

But that’s why Howard and Bernadette’s reaction was so interesting. When Raj comments that they can’t be that disappointed to have a boy, Howard opens up the conversation with this gem of a line, “I barely know how to be a man myself! Now I have to teach someone?”

PHOTO: Monty Brinton/CBS

I haven’t conducted any scientific surveys, of course, but aside from having a healthy baby, it seems like many parents want either what they’re familiar with (the “mini-me” syndrome) or a re-do of the childhood they never had growing up. But it’s frustrating to see parents basically decide on a child’s personality before the kid has a chance to form their own. Tonight’s Big Bang, however, at least got us a little closer to resisting that trend.

Howard admits to Sheldon that he’s scared to have a son because his own father abandoned him, and he never had a masculine influence in his life. As the two work to build a rocket (the same one that Howard never got to work on with his dad), Howard says, “Sheldon, help me. What do I know about raising a boy?” Sheldon’s response: “What do you know about raising a girl?” I’ve been hard on Sheldon this season, but his answer was brilliant.

See, that’s the thing. You don’t raise a gender; you raise an individual. To break down a child by ‘boy’ or ‘girl’ stereotypes is to limit who your individual child could become. No one fits into a box, yet society gives us extremely limited options during those early months pre-birth.

But let’s get back to the episode. Bernadette asks Raj if it’s wrong that she wanted a sister for Halley, considering she grew up with all brothers. “Of course it’s wrong,” Raj exclaims. “You don’t know what this little boy is going to be like! Maybe he’ll be rough and tumble, or maybe he’ll be sweet and sensitive, or maybe he’ll be all those things like me!” In the span of 20 seconds, Raj just became my favorite character. As long as a child grows up to be a good human being, it doesn’t matter if they’re into sports, fashion, a combination of both, or neither. And note to Bernadette: I love my sister more than anything, but we fought and argued so much growing up that our cat had to go on anti-depressants because we stressed her out so much. Be careful what you wish for.

Before the episode concludes, Howard ends up coaching Sheldon as he drives on a long stretch of road back home (remember, Sheldon got his driver’s license a while back and then didn’t tell anyone). In the moment, Howard nails what a great father is: being supportive and knowledgeable. “You’re a good teacher,” Sheldon says sweetly. “Your son is going to be lucky to have you as a father.” “Thanks,” Howard says. See, no sports knowledge required.



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'The Big Bang Theory' Season 11 Episode 2 Recap: Bernadette and Amy Battle Over Their Successes


PHOTO: Richard Cartwright/CBS

Tonight’s Big Bang Theory tackled a topic that seems to come up a lot lately: what it actually means to support other women. We’ve all read articles about the value of lifting each other up and been told to follow “girl code,” but it’s easy to be there for your peers when things are going well. The real work comes in the hard times—when your colleague bypasses you for a promotion or a friend constantly humblebrags about her many accomplishments, for example.

It’s especially difficult to be supportive when you’re not feeling supported yourself, something Amy and Bernadette faced on tonight’s episode. Amy was already dealing with her fiancé, Sheldon, acting like a jealous child when she confided that she got special lab equipment at work, when a conversation with Bernadette turned into an uncomfortable battle of who’s more successful. Yikes.

But let’s back up and talk about Sheldon and Amy first: As much as we’d like to see them start planning their wedding, they’ve got bigger problems to figure out than what kind of card stock to use. Amy might be used to Sheldon’s childish and obnoxious responses to her success—he was downright awful at her work dinner last week—but we’re not. It’s nice that Amy doesn’t want to brag about her recent funding, knowing that he’s struggling a bit with his own career, but she shouldn’t have to completely hide it from him, either.

But Amy’s not alone in this: Bernadette confides to Amy that she often hides aspects of her success from Howard. (Seriously?!) When she went on a company retreat to Tahiti last year, she told Howard it was to Boise instead. For the sake of a sitcom joke, it was funny, but in the real world it’s frustrating. Bernadette also admits she kept last year’s bonus check a secret from her husband—and here we thought raising two children under two was going to be their biggest issue.

PHOTO: Richard Cartwright/CBS

In an attempt to find a temporary solution to their problems, Bernadette and Amy agree to tell each other about their own successes because apparently telling their significant others is out of the question. (Yet in one moment of clarity, Amy notes that “the guys are never shy about bragging.”) With that, the ladies start sharing their achievements, but the whole thing goes off the rails within seconds:

Bernadette: “There’s so much money in pharmaceuticals, we don’t even wash out our old test tubes. We just throw ’em out and get new ones!”
Amy: “I just got a brand new state-of-the-art fMRI machine!”
Bernadette: “Wow, those things are so expensive!”
Amy: “I know! Sometimes I just lie down in there and take a nap. It’s like a million dollar bunk bed!”
Bernadette: “At the office, I have two assistants! I don’t even know their names. I just call them thing 1 and thing 2.”
Amy: “I don’t have assistants.”
Bernadette: “I guess that’s one of the benefits of being in the private sector. That and all the money I make!”
Amy: “Yeah, you’ve got that. I’ve got my integrity. Hard to say which one is better without making you feel bad. I may not be making as much money as you, but at least I’m doing something that I know makes people’s lives better.”
Bernadette: “Hey! My work makes peoples lives better. Especially if you have moderate to severe eczema and don’t mind if you lose teeth.”
Amy: “You’re right. We both do important work. I’m trying to map the structures of the brain and you’re trying to convince people that itchy hair is a real thing.”
Bernadette: “It is a real thing! It happens to be a side effect of our cholesterol drug.”
Amy: “I’m just saying that my research may actually change the world forever.”
Bernadette: “I hope it does. ‘Cause I’m going to see that world from a yacht so big you could land a helicopter on it!”

So…not only do we have two successful women who can’t tell the men in their lives about their accomplishments, but now they can’t even figure out how to be excited for one another without turning it into a game of who’s living their best life? At a time when women really do need to stick together and support each other in life and in work, this was a missed opportunity. Same for their partners, who have turned into mopey, outdated stereotypes of men who can’t handle a woman’s success. Then again, maybe I’m hoping for too much from a bunch of guys who basically got drunk on mouthwash in the same episode.



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