TVoholic.com: Full episode reviews of your favorite TV shows & news about television

The Big Bang Theory: The Monopolar Expedition [season finale]

By fred | May 12, 2009

(S02E23) For the last episode of the season they put Sheldon back in the center of the episode, while taking good care to involve all of the other characters into the story (except maybe for Penny, a little on the side on this one). As a result, we got an episode that was simply hilarious, including what might be my favorite and the funniest scene I’ve seen in a long time.

Season finale often involves some kind of cliffhanger and changes of situation, or at least the appearance of it as we all know that in reality, changes aren’t welcome on TV. But we can only witness that, while the main dynamic remains the same, things have changed a lot from what things used to be back when the show premiered. The most obvious changes are certainly in Sheldon and Penny.

She was not one of the group, she was as far away from being a nerd as one can be, but over time she’s come to know and like those guys, and she really belongs with the rest of them. In fact, she’s having a crush on Leonard these days, even though she’s too scared too admit it, and while Leonard knows it (he knows she said his name while with another guy) he can’t find it to man up either, so they both stay silent and go their separate ways.

He’s not gonna meet anyone during the next three months, while she probably will, so I’m guessing things aren’t going to move forward on that one any time soon. I’ll say that I don’t see that as a bad thing, we’ve been there and I’m not sure it’s really worth going over it again, especially if they don’t intend to turn them into a couple and they probably won’t, as that would be a major change in the entire group dynamic.

But she’s not the only one who evolved, look at that Sheldon! He wasn’t just able to score perfectly and correctly identify emotions when he saw them, he actually couldn’t stop pulling some pretty good – and funny – pranks. In fact, they’re even better/funnier because they come from him and you wouldn’t expect it. Sheldon has evolved in the past two years, but he’s also the same, thank God, because that’s what makes this show so funny.

I have to say, though, one thing I really didn’t like too much was the trip in freezer to “prepare.” Sheldon is a genius, we all know that, and to have him not able to think at the obvious “let’s get out stuff ready and then go out in the cold” was idiotic. That he wouldn’t consider that doing all the work would be done inside, limiting outside activities to what really requires to be done outside is just a non-sense, and not just because I’m sure he has plenty of detailed procedure that go over this or how obvious it is.

Adding to that how none of the others actually thought of that, until they were inside the freezer, was just lame. I liked the Star Wars reference and even more Howard willing to cut-open Sheldon, but that was too out of character, forgetting about the basis for a cheap joke, I didn’t like that.

What I absolutely loved, however, was Penny vs Sheldon by the door. When Sheldon came and knocked at her door as usual, and she hilariously knocked back at him saying his name as he said hers, that was the funniest thing I’ve seen in a long time. Seriously, it was just brilliant, so much that I actually wished they kept going at it for a few more seconds. Often going for too long can kill a joke, but this one was so good I really felt it was too short — so of course I rewinded and watched that a couple of times, rolling on the floor.

Going to the North Pole is an odd choice to end the season, and it’s odd how the fight between mothers didn’t led to anything really, but with an episode as funny as this one, who cares. Now the boys are stuck there for a few months, let’s just hope that when they’ll return they won’t have killed anyone…

What did everybody else think?

Posted in Reviews
Shows: The Big Bang Theory