Both Amy and Sheldon found their love lives unfulfilling in The Big Bang Theory 9×08.
Hateable
Tonight’s episode, “The Mystery Date Observation,” adds further evidence to the dossier on Sheldon as one of the worst people ever. Having decided that he needs a woman in his life to ignore and focus on science, Sheldon asks Raj and Howard for their help in trapping.
Sheldon’s ideal? A brilliant woman who will tend to his every need and ask nothing of him.
Perhaps because Sheldon is a skinny nerd and not a macho beefcake, The Big Bang Theory only makes minor hand-waves toward the reality of how disgusting and sexist Sheldon’s ideas are. Eight episodes into the season, he has made zero progress toward understanding why Amy abandoned their relationship. Nope — Dr. Cooper is as selfish, entitled, and emotionally ugly as ever.
Howard and Raj get minor points for recognizing that Sheldon is being terrible. But, inspired by Sheldon’s idea that women should fight for the honor of being near him (yes, he actually says this) they prepare an impossibly difficult Craigslist scavenger hunt to attract potential mates.
And one sweet, brilliant woman does, in fact, win. But because she shows up late, and has a slightly different opinion on something than Sheldon, he slams the door in her face.
Which means that she lucked out, basically.
Undateable
Meanwhile, the good ones couldn’t catch a break in this episode. Bernadette and Penny (and a reluctant Leonard) decide to spy on Amy’s date with the British Dave.
But they can’t even do that right. They think that Amy is having a good time, when Dave actually turns out to be obsessed with Sheldon. His interest in Amy evaporates, and she has to spend the evening telling stories about her asshole ex-boyfriend.
And then, to put a cherry on the evening, Amy has to drive Dave home after Penny and Bernadette ram into his car. Thankfully, she decides not to go out with him again.
And look, we get that comedy comes from conflict and unhappiness. But if Howard and Bernadette could find each other, can’t The Big Bang Theory give poor Amy someone to actually be happy with?