The popular sitcom following a group of brilliant nerds and their attractive female neighbor-turned-friend-turned-more ended its eighth season with, well, a bang as Leonard (played by Johnny Galecki) and Penny (Kaye Cuoco-Sweeting) were en route to a quickie Vegas wedding. But there was a bit of a cliffhanger, as Penny discovers that Leonard (gasp!) kissed another woman while he was working overseas a few years earlier. Talk about an awkward drive.
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Show creators Chuck Lorre, Bill Prady, and Steve Molaro decided to ease fans’ minds by letting the cat out of the bag in advance of the season premiere so viewers felt they’d have something good to look forward.
“My fear was that it was going to start to sound like they didn’t [get married],” Molaro told The Hollywood Reporter. “That was not a positive message.”
The pair’s on again/off again love story has been an integral part of the show’s eight-season run as fans got to see if the geeky guy could really get the hot girl. The wedding ties a nice, big red bow around that story (hopefully), but it also leads to a number of questions: What implications will this have on the recently broken up relationship between Sheldon and Amy? How will their families feel about them eloping once they find out? And, most important, what will come of Leonard and Sheldon’s shared apartment – and almost marital relationship – that has been so key to the story up to this point?
What we do know about this season, in addition to, of course, the big nuptials, is that Mandy, the girl Leonard kissed that unfaithful, drunken night on a ship, will show up in the second episode, and hopefully resolve all of the issues between the newlyweds — or create a new riff to ride out until the end of the season.
The ninth season of The Big Bang Theory will commence on Monday, September 21 at 8 p.m. The show has already been renewed through to its 10th season the following year. Judging from these major leaps in the storyline, chances are that may be the last one. But there’s no word yet, so stay tuned.
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