Lucy Don't Play Raj Like That

Big Bang Theory, S06E17

 Raj's coffee date with the girl he met at the Valentine's party bailed on him while pretending to go to the bathroom.  Raj locked himself in his apartment, drowing in his own sorrow, and refused to leave until Howard brought him the girl's number that she had handed him.  Sheldon took Amy's advice to compliment Penny on her acting advice for his flag show and reluctantly tried to obey social rules by going to see her play.

I tried to keep an open mind about the girl (I guess her name is Lucy?) that ran out on Raj.  She did come to a party for lonely people at a comic book store--there was no way that she was expecting some kind of perfect guy to be there.  I started to lose hope that her reason for leaving Raj wasn't purely on her own part and not Raj's when he spent much longer holed up at home than I would have liked.  By the time Raj called her and got an explantation from Lucy, I was more than peeved that it took her so long.  I mean, if Raj had any kind of dignity, he would have already written her off.  Lucky for her that Raj is just as messed up as she is, so she still had a chance.  Still, I don't like that she made Raj feel so bad for so long.  She better be worth all the trouble.

The reason I'm not so quick to love Lucy is that we got to see how miserable Raj was due to her actions.  He was sitting around in a soiled shirt with his hair all messy, looking as sad as can be.  Then he improved upon that pathetic look by enjoying lobster in nothing more than  a bib and his underwear.  I sort of understand how Howard felt like Raj had ruined eating lobster for him.  That's not an attractive look for eating, nor is it a sight you want to be seen running down a public street (I'd pretend to not know Raj in that case).

Lucy and Raj do seem to have the potential for a perfect match because their inability to interact with people brings them such discomfort that they become dysfunctional.  Raj becomes mute in front of women he doesn't know, and Lucy apparently runs off into the night when she's just had too much human contact for the day.  Hopefully their flaws won't cancel each other out, though.  This is about as close as Raj has gotten to a real girlfriend in a long time.

I've sort of forgotten that Penny does acting at all because she seemed like she had given it up and admitted that she hasn't had much luck finding parts, but comparing her acting to Sheldon's on his show made Penny not seem like the worst actress around.  I thought the way that Sheldon executed her advice was hilarious.  He even looked like he was going to make the moves on Penny with the way he was sitting next to her, all "relaxed" and such.  I sort of wonder how his viewers thought about all of his over the top body language.  Well, the real imporatant thing was that Sheldon valued her input, instead of acting like the expert on all things in the world.  Even a praise that Amy initiated in him was still  pleasing to hear from Sheldon's mouth.

I probably would have felt the same way as Sheldon did when Penny invited him to her play, but it was still pretty rude that he shot her down like that when she was trying to engage him in friendly gesture.  It's hard for Sheldon to understand doing things for other people that's not based on obligation or personal gain.  I don't think we will see the day when he will understand all these "confusing" rules.  I did like that these concepts frustrated him.  Just for that, it was worth Amy telling him what to do and Penny ordering him to come to her play in the end.  I didn't expect Sheldon to more than show up and complain, though.

The most surprising part was that Penny was really good in her play.  For even Sheldon to admit that she was good at what she was doing really showed that.  I guess all those acting classes she has been taking have paid off.  She might have a real shot at something real in the future.  Hopefully that was the point of bringing up Penny's acting in the first place.  If this was just part of teaching Sheldon about praising his friends and accepting invitations after being helped, then they could have done it another way.  Now I'm expecting to see more about Penny's acting since she wowed everyone.

I liked this episode, even though it sort of tricked you into thinking that it was another typical "Raj is a loser" type of story.  I've seen quite enough of those, and I'm ready for Lucy to start something significant with Raj.  They seem to have some similarities, so if that's not enough for Raj to get a girlfriend, I don't know what kind of hope he has.  Maybe Sheldon has hope of one day knowing the next socially acceptable move when dealing with a friend without Amy or someone else having to tell him.  He's definitely learning, but it's obvious that he's got a low tolerance for all of the "rules" that he has to abide by.  Penny was surprising good in her role on the stage, making me wonder if we'll address her acting career again.  I haven't been thinking about it previously , but seeing her perform so well, there's no way I can't be a little curious as to where her talent might take her.