The Big Bang Theory

The Big Bang Theory

Episode 11: The Speckerman Recurrence

By: Carlos Uribe

The Big Bang Theory is about a group of nerds and the girl next door.

Spoilers Ahoy!

This week, Leonard gets contacted by an old acquaintance of his. It turns out that this person was one of his numerous bullies, who did things such as stapling his privates (ouch!) and throwing him naked into the lady's locker room. In other words, they weren't exactly the best of friends. Leonard is a bit confused why this bully would contact him after this whole time but he decides to do it anyways. He doesn't do it by himself, as he has his group of friends to come along as backup. He planned to confront his high school bully, to tell him what he built up over the years. Confronting bullies can be very rewarding, as it can bring closure to a chapter of his life in which he was terrified. It can make one feel like their free from the bully, free from the past. It's an idea that I guess many people who have been bullied would love to do in the future and that is to confront the people who made their childhood life on hell.

Leonard doesn't exactly confront his bully the first time. To his surprise, the bully acts like their old pals from school. The bully didn't want to make Leonard miserable, as instead he had a great, albeit unrealistic, business plan of having glasses that can convert any movie into 3-d. He hopes to use the smartest kid from his school to his advantage. Leonard is actually surprised by this, as if it's a good thing. Sheldon decides that the bully, in his compliments, is still a bully and decides to give the bully a piece of Leonard's mind. It was a pretty great scene and it shows Sheldon having his friends back. Granted, part of the reason Sheldon decided to speak up is because he is a vain individual who can't comprehend the idea that people might actually think Leonard is smart. Still it was an action that had a surprise effect.

That effect being that the bully shows up drunk to Leonard's apartment and apologizes. He apologizes for everything that he did that ended up on a list Leonard made. It was all a very nice scene, but he was also drunk. When he woke up in the apartment, having slept over, he came back to his usual self. He started to pick on Leonard. He started to be a bully again as if his character had never actually developed. That was a bit annoying, but it does lead to Leonard actually standing up to himself. He does this and then runs away to avoid getting beat up. It was a decent plot-line of trying to confront your old high school nemesis.

The girls spend the whole episode almost completely separately, although their plotline began thanks to the main plot. After Bernadette and Amy tell stories of how they were bullied, Penny comes upon a realization. That realization being that she was the bully. Penny, having befriended the nerds, realizes she was in error. She tries to apologize to all her victims but they all refuse to hear her out. Feeling guilty, it's decided that charity would be the best course of action. This leads to Penny donating some of her clothes but then it leads to Penny stealing the cute clothes from the donation bin. Eventually Penny feels guilty and stops, but overall it was a plotline of attempting to redeem oneself by doing good things.

The episode was a pretty funny and good one. It had some problems in that the ending with the bully ending up being the same wasn't exactly the right choice for the writers. I get that this is a cynical world that Chuck Lorre lives in, but I felt like it would have been a better episode if the apology was sincere.