It was really touching when the group reassured Amy by telling her that she had changed him for the good, and that Sheldon included her picture in his rolling screensaver, much to her utter joy and pleasure.Įven without much Sheldon, he still managed to have some great lines, including surviving his nephew's birth: 'If you can make it through the Green Lantern movie, you can make it through this. I do hope he finds some form of happiness eventually though.ĭespite Sheldon's absence, he appeared via FaceTime throughout the episode. His heartbreaking sigh at the end of the episode as he ate cake alone was deliciously dark in its humour. His attempts at inserting himself into everyone's story was another highlight of the episode. Stuart was made a recurring character not too long ago, but we haven't seen much of the sad sack for a while. Stuart also made a reappearance in Sheldon's absence, which was a welcome change. But there are some traditions that are very specific to Penny, Leonard, Sheldon, and their friends, and these are some of the best to make part of any holiday season.

It was also nice to see that the gang pretty much said their lives would not be anywhere near as good if it weren't for Sheldon. For the most part, the TBBT gang have Christmas celebrations like anyone else - family comes to town, Christmas trees are decorated, cookies are baked and gifts are given. There was also Amy's weird fantasy which saw Penny come on to Sheldon (as she would still be living opposite him), Howard killing his mother Norman Bates-style, and Raj and Leonard living together but becoming incredibly fat due to Raj's enabling of Leonard's food dependency.Īs it was a Christmas episode, it was a perfect time for the writers to attempt a fantasy episode like this, as it hadn't really been done on the show before. The fantasy sequences were all genuinely amusing, including Leonard attempting to ask out a disinterested Penny, Penny dating Zack and Bernie being put off by Howard due to his homoerotic friendship with Raj. It would also have been interesting to have seen the episode written in the style of It's a Wonderful Life, or to see whether the gang would have met Sheldon in the end anyway, but as has previously been said, this has been tackled in various shows in the past, so at least the writers attempted a different style. However, it was closer to How I Met Your Mother-style creating stories as they go in quick scenes, rather than one long episode in that fantasy. It was instantly exciting to see the prospect of such daydreams, in a similar fashion to how Friends would throw in the odd 'parallel universe' episode.

Introducing the often-used homage to It's a Wonderful Life, the group - minus Sheldon who is back home in Texas while his twin sister gives birth - indulge in various fantasy sequences of what could be happening.

Big bang theory christmas episodes