TBBT 6x17: The Monster Isolation

Raj went on a date with Kate Micucci last week. It did not go well. They went to get coffee, and while he waited at a table, she went to the bathroom and jumped out the window. When he found out she was gone, he became despondent, locked himself in his apartment and stopped answering his phone. So, his friends go to check up on him.

He's not in good shape.

After being humiliated by yet another woman, Raj has decided to retreat into seclusion. The guys don't think he can live like that forever, but he shows them that, thanks to Amazon, he can have anything he wants delivered, including live lobsters. They try to cheer him up, but it's not happening and he shuts himself in his room. With nothing else to do, his friends go out for Surf & Turf.

Elsewhere, Penny helps Sheldon with his latest episode of 'Sheldon Cooper Presents: Fun with Flags'. She's there to demonstrate that the show isn't just for flag aficionados, but also for flag virgins. While they work, she notices that Sheldon's a bit wooden and his delivery is a tad robotic. She uses her training as an actress to show him how to open up his body and invite the audience in.

He takes her a bit too literally.

Later, via video chat from her nicotine-addicted monkey study lab, Amy tells Sheldon that he should thank Penny for all her help. Since he tries his best to conform to social mores, he goes across the hall right away and tells her. Emboldened by his praise, she invites him to a performance her acting class is giving, but that sounds terrible, so he says no. Amy explains that was rude and that he should apologize. Slightly frustrated, he goes back across the hall and says he's sorry. He still doesn't want to go, but he will if it'll make her happy. She's still a bit miffed and doesn't want him to go unless he wants to, but they get bogged down in semantics and eventually she just orders him to go.

She's not sure how or why it worked, though.

That evening, at the comic book shop, the guys are browsing the stacks when Kate walks in. Howard tells her how devastated Raj is, but all she can do is apologize and ask him to give him her number. He takes it to him, but Raj is a proud man, and he has decided to renounce all worldly pleasures and live the life of a monk. He returns the number and tells Howard to take it away so he won't be tempted to stray from his true path: The study of the universe.

Like many monks before him, he strays rather quickly.

He calls Kate and she comes to his apartment to apologize for ditching him. When he asks her why she did it, she explains that she has difficulty being around people she doesn't know. She's a broken person and she doesn't think he should be around her. He's broken too, though, so he convinces her to go out on a date with him.

What I Liked
-Sheldon did an accurate, but wildly racist portrayal of George Washington Carver that will never see the light of day. The man's always trying to keep a physicist down.
-Flags taught Sheldon to go where the wind takes him... as long as he remains firmly attached to a rigid pole. I'm not sure if that's a gay joke or not.
-Raj wins Kate over by explaining that he has diagnosable psychological problems. That works on more women than you'd think.

What I Hated
-Penny's performance in A Streetcar Named Desire. Amy, Sheldon, and Leonard all fawn over how good she is, but her acting is just awful.

Her co-star played the silent, brooding guy pretty well, though.

Final Thoughts
They're finally admitting that the guys work at CalTech rather than a random university in California. I'm not sure what prompted the change, but it's a bit odd that it's come up in consecutive episodes after being ignored for six and a half seasons.

Kate Micucci's character still doesn't have an on-screen name. They call her 'Lucy' in the credits, but until someone actually says her name out loud, I shall refer to her as Kate. If her character lasts more than a few episodes, maybe it'll become a running gag that no one ever says her name.

As for their relationship, I have no idea how Raj and Kate will work as a couple. He has to be drunk to even speak to her, and she's apparently a super-awkward person. Having them sit around and not talk to each other might work for a single episode, but after that it'll get old really fast. I think at this point Raj needs to be able to talk to women without being drunk. Of course, if they do that then he'll lose one of his major character traits. They get around it pretty well by just having him hold random beers, but there are situations where it just wouldn't make sense or would be downright silly. Perhaps Kate can be the one who gets him to come out of his shell. Otherwise it's going to be really hard for them to interact in any meaningful way.

At any rate, this was an okay episode. It was more of a set-up for the future than anything else, I think.