The Big Bang Theory Review: The Holiday Summation (Season 10 Episode 12)

The Big Bang Theory Season 10 episode 12, “The Holiday Summation,” was hyped up on the show’s Twitter page as a chance to see “Howard and Bernadette handling parenthood.”

Unfortunately, “The Holiday Summation” is very light on this parenthood since most of its duration is spent on figuring out what happened to Amy and Sheldon while they were in Texas.

The episode uses flashbacks to move between the present (the group hanging out in what is now Leonard and Penny’s apartment) and the past (mostly events that took place in Texas).

The idea of seeing Sheldon’s mother Mary (Laurie Metcalf) managed to make me excited for a moment, but sadly, this particular episode does not fully utilize her talents and places the biggest laughs around Sheldon’s antics.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pea-Hw042Ew

The scene with Sheldon standing up for himself and questioning her mother’s assumptions about his chances to find someone to spend his life with is nice enough, but the small high I got from that was quickly brought down as the next scene shows Sheldon walking into the living room wearing white underwear on his head.

I feel like recently with The Big Bang Theory, it has become more and more difficult to stop myself from cringing. 

The few scenes there are of Howard and Bernadette are mostly focused on Bernadette’s struggles to calm the baby. Once, through Howard’s help, she comes to the realization that her baby does not hate her, the most touching moment of the episode takes place.

Seeing Howard watching Bernadette sleep in the crib with the baby, telling how he loves both of his girls, almost made me tear up. Just think of how much Howard has changed! I would never have imagined seeing the guy I was introduced to in the pilot becoming a father.

We don’t actually see baby Halley, and it will be interesting to see whether someone will be cast to play her or whether she will be represented only as a sound, much like Howard’s mother was.

If The Big Bang Theory is set to continue indefinitely, it would only be logical to see her grow up, but for now, using only the sounds she makes works out.

Raj, who was silenced at the beginning of the series because he couldn’t talk to women, has now been somewhat silenced again, only now he just talks about the baby. The Big Bang Theory urgently needs to come up with some sort of storyline for Raj that has nothing to do with the baby or with Howard and Bernadette.

He could be (and as the show has previously proved, is) an interesting character in his own right, but at the moment he feels less like part of the group than some random nanny with very limited number of lines.

Please note that while the holidays of the other characters are covered, no one even asks Raj what he did — and come on, even Stuart gets to recite the events of his holidays. 

“The Holiday Summation” doesn’t manage to bring The Big Bang Theory back with a bang.

By giving Raj a storyline and by taking its time to allow Howard and Bernadette adjust into being parents, there could be potential laughs in the future. Hopefully, that is the direction The Big Bang Theory takes.

What did you think of this episode of The Big Bang Theory? Share your thoughts in the comments below!

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The Big Bang Theory airs Thursdays at 8/7c on CBS.

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