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Following eight seasons of will-they-or-won’t-they, Leonard (Johnny Galecki) and Penny (Kaley Cuoco-Sweeting) officially tied the knot during Monday’s season-nine premiere of CBS’ The Big Bang Theory. But the happily ever after doesn’t quite get off to a good start.
While Penny did her best to overlook the fact that Leonard had kissed another girl two years ago while he was on his North Sea expedition, she was unable to get past it and thought of the girl — who, it turns out, works at the university with Leonard. The fact that Leonard sees Mandy (Melissa Tang) regularly also doesn’t sit well with Penny, and their wedding night is ruined. The duo head home to Pasadena, where they spend their first night as husband and wife in their respective apartments. (Also not helping matters is Sheldon confirming that Mandy is “brilliant and attractive.”)
Sheldon (Jim Parsons), meanwhile, can’t give Amy (Mayim Bialik) the space she needs and winds up pushing her to the brink of finalizing their breakup. He turns to his mother in Texas for support and viewers learn that the ring he had planned to give Amy when he proposed belongs to his great-grandmother, illustrating that, in his own way, he really does care.
Here, The Hollywood Reporter chats with leading man Galecki and showrunner Steve Molaro about the wedding, the fight and, yes, the Roommate Agreement that may or may not keep the newlyweds from officially moving in together.
The wedding has been eight seasons in the making. What was being on set for that scene like?
Molaro: It was great. It’s a rocky episode for them but I wanted to make sure that the actual wedding moment was satisfying, sweet and lovely, which I think it was. We were all pretty happy with how it turned out — especially with Penny’s vows. Kaley did a great job with them. I was so excited about that scene and she came through and more.
Galecki: It was emotional. I love both of these characters, as Kaley does, and we’re very protective of them. We’re their biggest fans and we’ve been rooting for them for a long time and it was time to pull the trigger after talking about it for so long.
When you first heard that Leonard and Penny were actually going to go through with it, were you surprised?
Galecki: No, I wasn’t surprised. We talked about it [with the writers] that they may or may not take that step. What we didn’t want to do was play up the will-they-or-won’t-they any longer. It wasn’t in the audience’s best interest. The audience wants to see them married. But just because they have rings on their fingers doesn’t mean that it’s solved every relationship problem. Marriage doesn’t answer all the questions and doesn’t solve all the problems. So there will be plenty ahead with this commitment that they share. There’s very little comedy in everything working out well (laughs), so we’ll see what happens in the future. But we didn’t want to dangle the marriage carrot over the audience’s head any longer.
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Sheldon needs Leonard more now than ever given his split with Amy. How will he be a factor as Leonard and Penny look to start life together as newlyweds?
Molaro: Sheldon is dealing with a lot of emotions and they fluctuate all day long between sad and lonely to angry and hurt to jealous. He’s not doing a good job of controlling them. It’s going to be a fascinating journey to watch him be on, but it’s a good one for him and for Leonard and Penny as people. If Penny and Leonard are ultimately going to make it work, something like this will help them, as a couple, be stronger if they can weather it now.
This is really Sheldon’s and Amy’s first huge fight. Should they find their way back together, could make-up coitus be something you’ve been considering?
Molaro: They are so far away from repairing it, it’s too soon for me to even think about that part. But there’s always that dangling sexual issue between them, so if they do manage to get through this, that’s not going to go away.
Will Amy explore being single or is she really going to lean on her friends?
Molaro: Amy is definitely going to lean on everybody in the first several episodes. She’s not in a rush; she wasn’t looking to be with another person — she just wanted to figure out what she’s doing and if a full life of Sheldon is exactly what’s right for her. Other men aren’t really on the immediate horizon for her.