The Big Bang Theory season 10 episode 24 review: The Long Distance Dissonance

This article comes from Den of Geek UK.

This review contains spoilers.

10.24 The Long Distance Dissonance

We’re picking up where we left off last week in this The Big Bang Theory season ten finale, and Sheldon is missing Amy. Devoid of anyone to willingly accompany him to weird events, Leonard is stuck back in his old role as faithful valet/companion, and he’s not enjoying himself.

So it’s little wonder that, when Ramona Nowitzki – Sheldon’s old stalker – turns up with the intention of following him around once again, the gang inadvertently let it happen. Any normal guy would be expected to manage his own life and resist cheating on his long-term girlfriend within a matter of days, but then Sheldon has always been oblivious to women’s advances when they occasionally enter his world.

I’ve never particularly loved that attitude towards the character, because as much fun as is poked at him on the show, there are people in the real world dealing with similar limitations and getting on just fine. It’s for that reason that I enjoyed the episode’s ending, but more on that in a second.

As was to be expected after last week’s much more finale-esque outing, The Long Distance Dissonance is very ‘Shamy’ focused. With last season’s ender very much concerned with getting Leonard and Penny to the altar, it makes sense that this year we’d be reaching another milestone with a different couple.

If nothing else, revisiting the idea of Sheldon as a sexual being with romantic desires is one the writers could stand to acknowledge a little more. After seasons and seasons of the assumption that Sheldon ‘has no deal’ before he became comfortable enough to meet Amy in the middle, we’ve subsequently begun to see him start to enjoy physical intimacy.

Faced with a choice between staying loyal to Amy or having another woman ‘take him out of the box and play with him’, Sheldon makes the only choice he can.

How we get to the proposal isn’t in any way surprising or inventive, and has felt like a foregone conclusion for more than a season now, but the choice to include it here definitely piques my interest for a season eleven (and twelve) I can’t imagine anyone’s particularly excited for otherwise.

But to have it as a cliffhanger makes little sense, because there’s not a reality in which Amy would say no. If the show really wanted to keep us on edge, a much better ending might be Amy turning him down before the cut to credits, with her reasoning something to be explained and resolved in the season premiere. It’d be cheap, but also perhaps a little more intriguing.

The other characters don’t progress much at all in this episode, with everyone but Penny taking a back seat to the episode’s main storyline. That’s fine, and the seemingly throwaway line about Penny and Leonard needing couples therapy could well turn into something next season.

Overall, this season has been one of the show’s weakest, with sparks of interest like Raj’s relationship with the university’s cleaning lady and Bernadette’s trouble adjusting to motherhood batted away as quickly as they were introduced. But there have been bright spots, and new characters like Bert promise to keep the show fresh as we move further into the double digits.

If I were to guess, the rest of the show will be much like this episode – unsurprising, preoccupied with Sheldon, only occasionally funny yet comforting in its own way.

Read Caroline’s review of the previous episode, The Gyroscopic Collapse, here.