Over the course of its 12 seasons, The Big Bang Theory has a wellspring of memorable, hilarious moments that stand out: Sheldon (Jim Parsons) coming into the living room holding multiple bath item gift baskets for Penny (Kaley Cuoco) in “The Bath Item Gift Hypothesis,” Howard’s (Simon Helberg) little Wolowitz in the steely grasp of a robotic hand in “The Robotic Manipulation,” or anytime Bob Newhart‘s Professor Proton appeared.
But the sitcom has had its share of poignant moments as well, like Leonard (Johnny Galecki) confronting his mother Beverley (Christine Baranski) about how much she’d hurt him over the years, ending in a heartfelt reconciliation between the two, in “The Maternal Conclusion,” or Howard getting the news that Mrs. Wolowitz (Carol Ann Susi) passed away in “The Comic Book Store Regeneration.” The latter arguably could be the series’ saddest episode, only it’s eclipsed by the episode where Howard loses his mother all over again: “The Leftover Thermalization.”
Howard Has a Unique Relationship With His Mother in ‘The Big Bang Theory’
Simon Helberg’s Leonard on the phone in The Big Bang Theory
Image via CBS
We first “meet” Mrs. Wolowitz in the first season’s seventh episode, “The Dumpling Paradox.” She’s a disembodied voice having an argument with Penny’s promiscuous friend Christy (Brooke D’Orsay), whom Howard has hooked up with. From that point forward, that big, bodiless voice of became a running gag, with Susi elevating the stereotypical chutzpah and Jewish mother guilt with her inflections, making the character as beloved as any other despite never seeing her at all. And the nuggets we’re given about her appearance paint a picture of a simply enormous woman, so over-the-top that it can’t possibly be true (Howard: “I should have sent you to the custom car cover place in Altadena. They have her pattern on file.”).
Her co-dependent relationship with Howard, too, became a running gag. His insistence on being treated like an adult was constantly at odds with him wanting to be pampered by his mother, whether it was cutting his food for him, making briskets, or preparing breakfast (leading to another funny moment: the NASA nickname “Froot Loops”). And she relied on him too, a relationship borne out of both being abandoned by Howard’s father years before. In Susi’s hands, Mrs. Wolowitz had become a fleshed-out, sympathetic, loving, and yes, very funny character, and the news of her death hit viewers hard, especially seeing just how broken Howard was over it.
‘The Big Bang Theory’s “The Leftover Thermalization” Is a Loving Goodbye
In “The Leftover Thermalization,” Raj (Kunal Nayyar) and Howard go to his mother’s house following her passing to go through her things. Those things bring back memories for Howard, reminding him of the wonderful times he had with her. But when the power goes out in the home due to a transformer blowing up, Howard practically goes white when he realizes that this means everything in the freezer will defrost. It seems a very odd thing to get upset about, until we learn that the freezer contains the last of the food his mother made before she died. The food, in essence, is the very last tangible representation of his mother’s love that Howard has to hold onto.
Briskets, soup, kugel, even a piece of cake from Howard’s bar mitzvah. All of it, going away before his eyes. So he decides that they’ll cook it all and have one big feast for himself and his friends, one last chance for his beloved mother to feed everyone — to love everyone — one last time. The declaration brings Raj to tears and, truthfully, viewers at home too. So the gang comes over, sits around the dining table, awash in candlelight, and soon the moment goes from respective retrospect to their regular, almost familial banter, about Marvel introducing a female Thor to Sheldon and Leonard (Johnny Galecki) bickering over their joint research paper.
That natural progression of the conversation into that familiar dynamic is more important than one realizes, and ultimately lifts the episode from being The Big Bang Theory’s saddest episode to something uplifting. Howard is forced to say goodbye, for the last time, to his mother and those last tangible connections to her. That he would choose to share that with his friends means he’s learned something that his mother arguably never did: life’s struggles don’t have to be taken on alone and aren’t meant to be taken on alone.
Mrs. Wolowitz leaned on Howard, as he did on her, but he’s found others to share his joys and heartaches with. He’s found a family, the one he was denied when his father left so many years before, leaving just him and his mother, and the dinner symbolizes his acceptance of that family, and a new beginning. It’s tear-jerking, but not in a sad way. Right when we think Mrs. Wolowitz is gone forever, Bernadette (Melissa Rauch) barks at the group, ushering them into the front room… and she sounds exactly like Mrs. Wolowitz when she does it, making it the perfect way to end the sitcom’s saddest and best episode.
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Release Date
2007 – 2019-00-00
Showrunner
Mark Cendrowski