The Big Bang Theory Season 8 Episode 4 - The Hook-Up Reverberation

Season 8 of The Big Bang Theory is continuing well after a good start with the premiere.  The fourth episode just aired.  It is another fun, entertaining episode overall, though a few slightly serious things do come up once or twice.  

As usual, there are spoilers, so read at your own risk if you haven’t seen the episode yet.

Raj finally brings his girlfriend Emily over to the apartment to meet everyone.  It seems like she has a problem with Penny immediately even though she agrees to meet so Penny can practice her sales talk for her new job.  Things don’t go well when Penny goes to Emily’s office to practice.  It seems Emily does have a problem with Penny and it goes back to her almost having sex with Raj several years ago.  Howard is still having issues with Stuart living with his mom - evidently she signed up for HBO, something she never did for Howard, and bought fancier toilet paper.  The guys, when visiting another comic book store, miss Stuart’s store and start talking about the possibility of investing so he can reopen.

Emily has been good for Raj and she seems nice, so it was a little odd to see her act the way she did toward Penny.  Things do get discussed and seem better briefly, but then something indicates that they aren’t liking each other.  I’m not sure how I feel about this development at this point.  If it doesn’t come up all the time, then it more than likely won’t bother me.  If it comes up a lot, it will probably get a little annoying to me.  I never did like that a drunk Penny ended up in bed with Raj even though not much really happened, so I was less than pleased for that to be brought up again.  As part of thinking of investing in the comic book store, Leonard, Howard, and even Sheldon discuss the subject with Penny, Bernadette, and Amy, with each having a different reaction. 

I was intrigued by the idea of the guys investing in the comic book store and I liked that Stuart was around again.  He seems to have a lot of problems, but I like him.  He’s entertaining when he shows up.  I also love what is going on with him living with Howard’s mom and how Howard is flipping out about it.  There was another very funny conversation between the two of them when Howard claims that his mom’s house is his and that he is welcome to drop in any time he wants.  You can see Howard struggling to stay calm at Stuart’s comeback to that. 


Penny's hair didn't look as bad to me in this episode.  It almost seemed like it was slightly longer than it was in the first episodes.  I still don't like it, but that is a minor thing that isn't preventing me from enjoying the show.

Overall, I thought this was another fun, entertaining episode that touched on a few slightly serious things.  I like that something is going on related to Stuart and the comic bookstore.  I absolutely love that Stuart is still living with Howard’s mom and how much that irritates Howard. 


The first three episodes of season 8 are available online at the CBS website.  I think they usually show up a day after they originally air.  I'm not sure if the episodes are available through any of the streaming services.