Last week, a Game of Thrones fan theory popped up online that was inspired by the show’s season eight teaser. If you haven’t watched it 2,000 times, like we have, here’s some quick context: Toward the end of the trailer, we see statues made in the likeness of Jon Snow, Sansa, and Arya, but there’s a catch. The Sansa and Arya figures portray the characters as they are now—young—while Jon’s depicts him as an older man. Some fans took this as a sign Arya and Sansa die early on in the season and Jon Snow is the only one who survives once everything concludes.
But not so fast. It turns out we can’t use this teaser to predict anything about season eight—because this footage doesn’t actually appear on the show. The Game of Thrones fan site Winter Is Coming unearthed an interview Sophie Turner did at New York Comic-Con from October 2018 where she confirms the statue promo has “nothing to do” with what happens in the final season.
“We did this promo for season eight where —I don’t know if I can say this, actually. Well, actually, no. It’s got nothing to do with the series; it’s just a promo,” she said. “It was this big kind of statue of me, of Sansa, and I wanted to have it in the garden of my new house. But they obviously wouldn’t ship it from Belfast to New York, so…”
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It’s important to note that anything is still fair game with Game of Thrones season eight. Jon Snow could live, or he could die—and the same goes for Arya and Sansa. We just can’t look to this promo as an indicator of plot. Hopefully fans aren’t deceived by this, though. After all, it’s not uncommon for Game of Thrones teasers to have footage that isn’t used in their accompanying seasons. Remember the Long Walk trailer? That was all just a song and dance (…and walk).
Game of Thrones season eight premieres on April 14, so it’s not that long before we start getting some concrete answers.
After last week‘s weird episode, The Big Bang Theory is back on track with the return of “Fun with Flags,” no mention of Leonard donating his sperm, and Sheldon powerfully sticking up for Amy (you tell ’em, Dr. Cooper). The episode also introduces Sean Astin and Kal Penn as physicists who could make or break Shamy’s Nobel prize hopes, though the Muppet’s Statler and Waldorf, two cranky obnoxious dudes, could have easily played the same parts.
Anyway, “The Confirmation Polarization” starts out on a high note when Amy receives an encouraging email from Dr. Pemberton (Astin) and Dr. Campbell (Penn) during a taping of “Fun with Flags.” They seem to confirm Sheldon and Amy’s theory about Super-Asymmetry, which sends Sheldon and Amy into a state of delirium. (They’re so excited that Penny, Leonard, and the rest of the gang hear them from across the hall and assume they must be having sex.)
Sheldon and Amy tell Professor Siebert their news, and he suggests they could be looking at a Nobel-winning achievement. If they do win, they’ll be the 39th and 40th Nobel Laureate winners from Cal Tech. Surprisingly Sheldon doesn’t ask for a statue of himself immortalized on the campus, but you know that’s coming. Later, Shamy meets with Drs. Pemberton and Campbell, who reveal this happened so fast because their experiment accidentally confirmed Super-Asymmetry. Sheldon and Amy are not amused. Pemberton and Campbell don’t even understand Super-Asymmetry, but they don’t care. They’re just excited to be in Los Angeles and have tickets to a taping of Ellen. “Look at the four of us,” Dr. Pemberton says, “changing the face of physics!”
Um, “the four” of you? Yep, apparently Pemberton and Cambell need to attach themselves to Sheldon and Amy’s theory if there’s any hope to win a Nobel.
PHOTO: Michael Yarish/Warner Bros. Entertainment
Later, Sheldon meets up with Leonard, Howard, and Raj to complain. Raj says he shouldn’t worry because, “Super-Asymmetry is your paper. Everyone knows you discovered it first.” Raj is right, Leonard says, but the Nobel committee has often favored scientists like Pemberton and Campbell. Either way, the whole thing is infuriating. (Not as infuriating, of course, as Leonard thinking of donating his sperm to Penny’s ex-boyfriend.)
Sheldon then tells Pemberton and Cambell not to steal his idea; they can come up with their own. Campbell’s all, “Yeah, that’s not gonna happen.” Pemberton snidely says, “Wouldn’t that be something though!” Forget what I said about these two acting like Statler and Waldorf. They don’t belong in a nice theater balcony. They deserve to live in Oscar the Grouch’s trash can.
They eventually say they understand where Sheldon is coming from, but they’re going to be part of this submission anyway. Sheldon’s not thrilled—but if that’s what it takes to win a Nobel, he’s not going to say no. But that’s when Pemberton and Campbell drop another bombshell: Only three of them can be named to the discovery, not four. (Side note: When did this thing turn in to a ride at Disneyland, where there’s only room for a set amount of people in a row? Glad I never had Nobel ambitions.)
Sheldon wants Pemberton or Campbell to leave their name off the discovery, but neither’s willing to budge. They reason that they’re all physicists; since Amy is a neuroscientist, she doesn’t belong. Sheldon storms out, but first he makes Pemberton and Campbell think he’s on their side. Little do they know there’s still 10 minutes left in the episode, and Sheldon’s not going down without a fight.
Sheldon returns home for dinner with Amy and reluctantly tells her that only three people can share a Nobel prize. He explains that Pemberton and Campbell’s university is recommending the two of them and Sheldon, and they want Cal Tech to do the same. If they present a united front, they’ll have a better shot at winning. Amy reacts as if she’s had the wind knocked out of her. “That makes sense,” she says, still in shock.
Sheldon says he won’t leave her off the submission, but Amy says maybe he should. Now Sheldon’s shocked. “This has been your lifelong dream, and maybe you won’t get another chance,” she says. “I don’t want to be the reason you don’t win a Nobel.”
Then, in the blink of an eye, Sheldon turns into Mr. Romance and tells Amy she’s the only reason he even deserves a Nobel. Amy is touched but says if his best shot is to partner up with those idiots (my words, not hers), he should take it. “I just want you to be happy,” she says. Amy, we do not deserve you.
Sheldon makes it seem as if he’s going to move forward with this plan, but there’s one more surprise left. In the next scene he storms into Professor Siebert’s office and demands that Amy’s name be included on the submission. “I will not be part of an award that does not recognize the value of her contributions,” he says. “You either include both of us in the recommendation letter or don’t bother writing one.” More of this Sheldon, please!
PHOTO: Michael Yarish
Surprisingly, Siebert doesn’t stand in Sheldon’s way. Siebert acknowledges that it might cause a fight with the other team, but he also respects Sheldon’s decision. “You and Dr. Fowler have my full support.”
Sheldon’s shocked, but also impressed with himself. I’m impressed with him, too. Amy can fight her own battles, but Sheldon’s looked up to superheroes his entire life—it’s nice to see him kind of turn into one, too.
The season one finale of Netflix’s You was bonkers, to say the least. After nine episodes of stalking and murder, Beck finally became privy to Joe’s behavior and tried to GTFO. Of course, this didn’t happen: Joe managed to kidnap Beck and keep her locked in that weird glass box in the basement of his bookstore. She almost successfully escaped, but unfortunately evil and toxic masculinity prevailed: Joe murdered Beck, or so we think, and he framed her therapist, Dr. Nicky, for the crime. He then sent the manuscript Beck had been working on to a publisher, thus turning her into the bestselling author she always wanted to be—all posthumously, mind you.
But what if Beck isn’t really dead? After all, Joe’s ex-girlfriend Candace popped up unexpectedly in the season finale, and we were convinced she died too. Plus, we never actually saw Beck’s dead body, just a body placed inside one of those crime-scene bags. Is it possible that Joe completely staged Beck’s death and she’s still down in his God-awful cage?
That’s what a few fans seems to think. “For anyone who’s watched the #Netflix series You, my theory is that Beck isn’t dead and she’s still down stairs in Joe’s weird-ass box,” one fan wrote on Twitter. “Beck isn’t dead. Joe just has her in the cage, and he reads to her every night, feeds her and tells her how much of a successful writer she is,” posted another. (That’s a very…bleak image.)
“I am so convinced Beck isn’t actually dead and is just in that horrific glass box forever now,” tweeted someone else. Check out some more reactions from viewers who are also on this train:
There are a few issues with this theory, though. For one, the world thinks Beck is dead. For her to suddenly reappear would require an ironclad explanation from the show-runners, which might not be possible. Also, Elizabeth Lail, who plays Beck, told Vulture she knew Beck was going to die before she signed on to the project.
“I thought it was gonna be some heroic justice at the end, but it’s more true to life that she does die, unfortunately. It’s more likely that someone would die in that situation,” she said.
Looks like we’ll have to wait until the season two premiere to receive any definitive answers.
For the first time ever, The Big Bang Theory has left me speechless about a scene and it has nothing to do with science, physics, engineering, or Super Asymmetry. Nope, it’s all about relationship—Penny and Leonard’s, specifically. Next week’s episode better reveal that this one—”The Propagation Proposition”—was all a bad dream; otherwise, I’m not going to make it through the rest of the season.
But before we get to that, let’s rewind a bit: This episode is a continuation from last week, when Raj and Anu fought over a doorbell camera and an ex-boyfriend. OK, so their issues might have been bigger than that, but the whole thing escalated beyond reason. In tonight’s episode, Raj tries to win Anu back by showing up at her door Love, Actually style with sweet notecards. To make a long story short, the two decide to get back together and start over without rushing things.
Michael Yarish
There’s only one problem: Raj never bothers to ask about Anu’s ex-boyfriend, the guy who instigated this whole misunderstanding in the first place. And Anu never brings him up! So we still don’t know who the hell this guy is, whether she still has feelings for him, or why he’s in her life. I think that’s pretty important to talk about.
Anyway, moving on to more important matters… Penny runs into her ex-boyfriend, Zack, and he tells her he sold his company, made a bunch of money, and got married. Zack’s not the brightest, but his life choices sound pretty smart. He tells Penny she and Leonard should come over for dinner on his new boat. When Leonard hears about this, he’s understandably not too excited to dine with Zack and his wife. He’s right. There’s no reason to be excited to dine with your wife’s ex-boyfriend and his new wife on their expensive boat.
But this being a sitcom, it’s never that easy. Leonard and Penny go to Zack’s boat for dinner and trade eye rolls all night over how two these two have managed to live the high life despite being, well, dumb. Before they can figure that out, though, Zack drops a bombshell: he and his wife want a baby, but they can’t on their own…or at least Zack can’t. Since Leonard is the smartest person they know, they want Leonard to donate his sperm for their baby. (What? I can’t, you guys. I just can’t.)
Leonard is flattered, but Penny is dumbfounded. Then Leonard says he doesn’t know what to say. “Really? You don’t know what to say?” Penny responds. “I think we should talk about this,” Leonard says. Uh, Leonard, the answer is “no.”
But of course, Leonard doesn’t say that. Instead, they apparently tell Zack and his wife that they’ll think about it, because in the next scene, Penny tells Amy and Bernadette about the absurdity of the situation. “Leonard just stood there with a big dumb smile on his face like he was watching a puppy and a monkey make friends,” she says. “We got into a huge fight about it. He said if I don’t want to have his baby then why shouldn’t someone else be able to?”
So now Penny is being punished for not wanting to have kids? And does Leonard not understand that donating his sperm doesn’t really make him a dad? Zack would be the father of this baby.
While Penny is talking to Amy and Bernadette, Leonard tells Sheldon he doesn’t see why Penny is so against donating his sperm to Zack and his wife. Sheldon, the voice of reason, tells Leonard he hasn’t considered the emotional toll of knowing there’s a child out there who’s biologically his but not actually his to raise. “Wow, that’s really insightful,” Leonard says. Seriously, Leonard? You didn’t realize that for yourself?
Uh, what just happened on tonight’s The Big Bang Theory? It appears Raj and Anu have called off their engagement after three-plus months of dating, but their storyline ended so abruptly that I can’t say for sure. (And I re-watched the scene three times…) What I do know, though, is that they hit their biggest speed bump to date, and the whole thing raises a lot of questions.
Let’s go through this together, shall we? The episode—titled “The Paintball Scattering”—begins with Anu and Raj chatting about floral arrangements for their wedding. A chime goes off on Raj’s phone, and Anu says, “Is someone texting you?” Raj tells Anu that it’s his doorbell camera, and it’s one of the greatest inventions ever because that’s how he found out a raccoon was eating his monthly cheese delivery. Alrighty then.
Anu says she has a doorbell camera as well, but she’s just never bothered to install it. Raj says it’s super easy, and she’ll love it, so he’s happy to do it for her.
Then, later in the episode, Raj is at Howard and Bernadette’s for dinner when the chime goes off on his phone. He tells them it’s Anu’s doorbell camera, which he helped install. (Side note: In this age of non-stop smartphone alerts, why is everyone so concerned about this chime? It’s like they’ve never heard an alert before.)
PHOTO: Michael Yarish/Warner Bros. Entertainment
I have no idea the protocol on these doorbell cameras, but I suppose you can have it connected to more than one phone. Otherwise, what’s the point of Anu having it if she can’t see who’s at her door? But I don’t think it’s that strange for Raj to keep the app on his phone. This is his fiancé—the woman he’ll be living with—so it makes sense to share access. It’d be one thing if I got the feeling he didn’t trust Anu, but he really hasn’t given off that impression. Then again, he’s never quite been the most mature boyfriend either.
Anyway, all this to say Raj notices a guy at Anu’s door carrying plastic bags. Anu gives him a hug—and not just any hug. It’s more like a, “I’m really happy to see you” hug. She then invites him into her house; understandably, Raj is confused and upset.
The next day, while the entire gang decides to play paintball (Anu included), Raj decides not to say anything—for now. While I don’t think he needed to apologize to Anu for what he saw, he should have brought it up right away. Anu knew he was installing her doorbell app; it’s not like he did it without her permission.
Minutes into their paintball outing, though, Raj blurts out that he saw a strange man going into her house. Anu is appalled and wants to know why he was “spying” on her. Raj says that’s not the point. I think he should have simply said that he wasn’t spying on her, because he wasn’t: When the chime went off, he looked. Of course, it’s never that easy on TV, is it?
Anu admits that it was her ex-boyfriend at the door, and he was there to pick up some stuff that he left at her house. Raj implies that “stuff” means sex (oh no), but Anu says that wasn’t the case. But when Raj asks if she’s still talking to her ex-boyfriend on a regular basis, Anu says yes and she won’t apologize for that. I get that she and Raj have only been dating for a few months, but they are engaged. Isn’t that something she should have told him about? That’s fine if she wants to have a friendship with her ex, but she didn’t handle that revelation too well. And clearly, neither did Raj.
Anu tells Raj to delete the app from his phone, but he says, “Why? Is it because you’re hiding something from me?” Anu says no, it’s “because you should trust me.” What both of them don’t understand is that trust takes time; Anu may want Raj to trust her, but the first step is opening up about an ex-boyfriend. In Raj’s case, he should have come to Anu right away without jumping to conclusions. Instead, Raj responds by asking how he can trust her when he barely knows her.
Ouch.
The fact is though, he has a point. While you can learn a lot about a person in three months, you can’t know everything. Anu asks Raj what they’re doing if they can’t trust each other. “Why are we planning a wedding?” Raj’s response? “I don’t know.”
In the next scene, Anu says she’s going home but he shouldn’t worry…she’ll wave to the doorbell when she gets there. (OK, that was actually funny.) He urges her to at least let him drive her home, but she says that’s OK, she’ll Uber. Meanwhile, Amy and Sheldon—who have had their own spat now that Super-Asymmetry is a thing again—offer to drive her home. And that’s the end of that.
Except it isn’t, because there are more questions than ever. Is the wedding called off? Postponed? Is their relationship over or just on pause? And who is this ex-boyfriend of Anu’s? Does she still have feelings for him? Him for her? And why do I have as many questions as I did after This Is Us‘ fall finale?
Welcome to 2019, you guys. It’s going to be a ride.
TV crossover events are usually just a ratings ploy, but tonight’s Big Bang Theory proved to be the exception. The episode delivered a satisfying—and emotional—arc and moved the story forward, something that’s all-too important as Big Bang approaches the last half of its final season.
This episode, titled “The VCR Illumination,” was also the perfect promo for anyone not watching Young Sheldon (the smart, charming spin-off starring Iain Armitage as the pint-size prodigy). In tonight’s episode, young Sheldon pays grown Sheldon (Jim Parsons) a visit via VHS tape, but it’s the appearance of Lance Barber’s George Cooper Sr. (as Sheldon’s dad) that brilliantly links the present with the past.
The episode begins as a continuation from the most recent episode—”The Citation Negation”—when Sheldon and Amy discovered that Super-Asymmetry is inherently flawed and “does not bear the weight of further examination.” It was devastating news for the newlyweds, who had spent the better part of the last year working on their theory.
The passage of time hasn’t helped either, at least when it comes to Sheldon. In the days that have passed, he’s understandably still mourning the loss of this scientific breakthrough. It’s shaken him so much that he starts questioning everything about himself. Asparagus? Maybe he likes it after all. Jazz music? Perhaps it is music to one’s ear. When Amy points out that these are all things he hates, he says, “I thought so too, but I also thought Super-Asymmetry was a good idea, so what else am I wrong about?” (To be honest, I kind of like this Sheldon.)
Amy worries that if he’s re-thinking everything, how long will it be until he re-thinks her? (Don’t be silly, Amy; you’re still the best thing ever to happen to him).
PHOTO: Bill Inoshita
That’s when Leonard remembers that Sheldon has kept an emergency VHS tape in the safe with a pep talk from his younger self. Leonard gives it to Amy, who plays it for Sheldon; and for the first time, viewers see young Sheldon and older Sheldon in the same scene. On the tape, young Sheldon says he’s guessing something bad happened, otherwise why else would he be watching this (“I’m so smart!” grown Sheldon remarks). But as soon as young Sheldon begins to dish out advice (“Never forget, no matter how bad things seem….”) the tape switches to one of George Sr.’s football games. Yep, “taping over syndrome” is a struggle that ’80s kids will never forget. Sheldon is angry; when Amy asks what she can do to help, he barks that she can build a time machine to go back and tell his younger self to give up because nothing is going to work out how he wants.
Leonard and Penny, realizing their friend is full in crisis mode, call in back-up in the form of Dr. Beverly Hofstadter. She says Sheldon needs to grieve and suggests they throw a funeral of sorts. Sheldon thinks it’s a ridiculous idea…until he finds out Beverly made the suggestion.
So Sheldon, Amy, Leonard, and Penny all head to the bathroom for a weird makeshift funeral and end up catching the shower curtain on fire. Prior to that, Sheldon gives a moving eulogy in which he says, “I know this is just a scientific theory, but it was more than that. It described the universe in a new and beautiful way. I want that to be the universe we live in. But I guess it’s not.”
PHOTO: Bill Inoshita
Later that night, Sheldon wakes up to the sound of Amy in the living room re-watching the old VHS tape. She wants to see if she can find anything further from young Sheldon’s speech, but adult Shelton says it doesn’t matter. It turns out he remembers everything he said in the tape. Amy wonders why he can’t just rely on that. “It would have meant more coming from me,” he says in total seriousness. (Can’t argue with genius, I suppose.)
But then, in a miracle equivalent to figuring out a Rubik’s cube, the tape also has a recording of George Sr.’s pep-talk to his players during halftime. On it, George Sr. says, “I know we’re down by a lot, and we’re probably not going to win this one. In fact, we’re definitely not going to win this one. But we’re not going to quit either. And if we do lose, that doesn’t make you losers. You learn as much about who you are and what you’re made of from failing as you do from success. Maybe more. So you can spend the next half feeling sorry for yourselves or you can get out there and give ‘em hell.”
Sheldon’s older brother Georgie (another fun cameo, this time by Young Sheldon‘s Montanta Jordan) makes an appearance as one of the football players and yells, “Yeah, give ’em hell!” But George Sr. says, “You watch your mouth, your mother’s watching!” Sheldon just so happens to pause the tape at the exact moment George Sr. is looking straight at the camera; it’s almost as if George Sr. is telepathically sending a message to his now-grown son.
PHOTO: Bill Inoshita
But just as Amy is prepared to write off George Sr.’s speech as a nice pep-talk that didn’t really work (Sheldon points out that his dad’s team lost that day), Sheldon says maybe it did. “I’ve been acting like the game is over,” he says. “But maybe it’s only half time. There’s a lot more physics left to play.” Amy is impressed. I mean, it is the first time Sheldon’s ever used a sports metaphor, but that’s not all.
”It’s interesting,” he continues. “I always thought that my father’s journey and mine were so different, but he also faced failure and setbacks. Maybe our lives mirrored each other more than I thought.”
This is the point in the show where the sweeping movie soundtrack would start to take over, but we’re not there yet. Amy remarks that from one viewpoint, Sheldon and George Sr.’s lives are asymmetrical; from another vantage point, they’re symmetrical. “Sheldon, what if symmetry and asymmetry are observer relative?” she asks. “That would mean the Russian paper was right…”
By the way, if you’re still following all this science talk, you’re much smarter than I am.
Sheldon realizes that Amy’s on to something big. The Russian paper may have been right—that Super-Asymmetry is inherently flawed—but Sheldon notes that’s only from one perspective. If they look at it from a deeper view with more dimensions, their theory still stands. Not only does it still stand, Amy notes, but, “it might be a bigger idea than the one we were originally proposing.”
Sheldon—overcome by an enormous sense of urgency—tells Amy to run and get her laptop. “We have a paper to fix!”
Then, in perhaps the series’ most touching moment to date, Sheldon looks back at the TV screen—still paused on the image of George Sr. looking straight into the camera—and says, “Thanks, dad. We’re going to give ’em hell.” In just those two lines, Jim Parsons manages to both break your heart and put it back together. And then, in absolute silence, Sheldon turns off the light, walks to the bedroom, and the scene fades to black.
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