But it was fun to see the big Raj/Penny hookup from Season 4's "The Roommate Transmogrification" come back into play. Raj was really the highlight of the Emily/Penny rivalry more than the two ladies themselves. This is probably the closest Raj will ever come to having two women fighting over him, and he clearly enjoyed egging the two on. This episode also served as a nice reminder of how far Raj has come in the last few years. Of the main cast, he's often the only character to show a real, tangible sense of growth.
If the Emily/Penny showdown was short and sweet, the bulk of "The Hook-Up Reverberation" was actually focused on the guys as they debated pooling their money and investing in Stuart's comic shop. This proved to be a consistently amusing little conflict. Early on, we got to see the gang bicker and argue with each other as they reluctantly browsed at Capitol Comics and Sheldon plotted ways to bring ruin upon the store. Leonard's description of Sheldon as "an 80-year-old man in a 15-year-old's T-shirt" is ab out as apt a description of him as I've heard on the show. And this plotline only grew more entertaining as the boys became enamored with the thought of becoming comic shop owners and all the perks that come with it. The humor hits its peak as Sheldon, Raj, and Wolowitz cooked up their ridiculous plan of luring local children into a van and remained completely oblivious to how creepy they sounded.The humor continued as we saw each of the gang pitch the idea to their respective significant others, with varying results. As cool as the idea of owning a comic book store might sound on paper, it's certainly not a business model I'd want to be throwing money at in this economy. Penny's nonchalance was fitting, and you have to wonder if her offhand reference to her mountains of credit card debt will come back into play as she and Leonard get closer to the altar. Bernadette's no-nonsense dismissal of Wolowitz's pitch was another comedic highlight of the week. As for Amy, she quickly discovered that Sheldon didn't actually want her opinion, just reassurance. In general, Amy had some memorable moments this week, even if her humor was a little more self-deprecating than I like to see.
In the, it turned out Stuart didn't need his friends' money, and it seems his comic shop will be back in business soon. What that means for his role on the show remains to be seen. I've really enjoyed Stuart's new role as Mrs. Wolowitz's caretaker, especially because of the tension it's created between he and Wolowitz. I'm hoping that running conflict doesn't simply fade away as Stuart reverts to being the pitiful loner. It should also be interesting to see what role Emily plays in Season 8 going forward. Is there more potential in her apparently ongoing feud with Penny? Is there a niche for her in the larger group dynamic? But mostly, I'm just hoping we can expect plenty more episodes of this caliber in the months to come.