Unraveling the Mystery: A Big Bang Farewell

"Unraveling the Mystery: A Big Bang Farewell" is the retrospective special episode of the twelfth season of the American sitcom The Big Bang Theory. It aired on May 16, 2019, following the series finale.

Summary

In the special, Johnny Galecki and Kaley Cuoco lead fans on a trip down memory lane, sharing some of the best-kept backstage secrets and personal memories from the past 12 years. They reveal their favorite moments playing beloved characters Leonard and Penny and revisit some of the best episodes of "The Big Bang Theory Stage." In addition, the special features a tour of the iconic sets, including Leonard and Sheldon's apartment. This special farewell includes unforgettable clips and interviews to celebrate this beloved series.^[1]

Extended Plot

Actors Johnny Galecki and Kaley Cuoco in the stage — The hosts thanking both the live and at-home audience for supporting the show

The episode begins with a montage of scenes from throughout the taping of the show, while The Old Apartment from the Barenaked Ladies plays in the background. After Johnny Galecki and Kaley Cuoco introduce themselves, Cuoco begins by explaining how the two of them would thank the live audience after every taping, and Galecki proceeds to give a heartfelt thank-you to the audience at home for watching the show and making all this possible. He then explains that Stage 25 in the Warner Studio Lot is where filming of the show primarily took place, and that the stage was officially renamed the "Big Bang Theory Stage" in early 2019, with TBBT being only the 5th show in Warner Brothers history to receive such an honor.

Galecki and Cuoco then look back at the various sets during the show, including casinos, hotel rooms, the wedding on the rooftop, and the International Space Station. Galecki remembers how excited he felt to see the Dagobah set as a Star Wars fan, and that it was incredible to have Bob Newhart on set. Cuoco also talked about the car scenes in the show, with Galecki explaining that as the car scenes were set up separately, the cast would simulate the car scenes during live taping to record laughter from the audience and add it to the final episode.

Johnny and Kaley again — The hosts discussing the series pilot

Afterwards, the two hosts start discussing table reads. Galecki reveals that he reads the script once he receives them on Tuesday night out of respect for the writers. Cuoco on the other hand reads them cold every Wednesday during table reads, and she finds the reads awesome because she laughs so hard in the process. The two reminisce about the Pilot, with Cuoco remembering being excited about the Jim-Johnny duo. Galecki then reflects on how he realized that the audience is on the ride with the cast as they film, noting a moment when the audience laughed at an unexpected moment for Galecki and Parsons.

Johnny and Kaley visiting Apartment 4B — Kaley on her favorite moments in this apartment

The hosts enter Apartment 4B, and Cuoco starts to recount her favorite moments in this apartment. They include: Amy getting a tiara ("The Shiny Trinket Maneuver"), the Penny-Amy painting ("The Rothman Disintegration"), Leonard and Penny's drunken makeout ("The Maternal Capacitance"), the girls having a slumber party ("The 21-Second Excitation"), the girls reading comic books ("The Bakersfield Expedition"), Penny singing "Soft Kitty" to Sheldon ("The Vegas Renormalization"), and finally Sheldon dressing Penny after she dislocated her shoulder ("The Adhesive Duck Deficiency").

Remembering Carol Ann Susi — Johnny and Kaley remembering the late Carol Ann Susi by pointing to the picture of her on the fridge

Cuoco notes the importance of food in the series, with Galecki stating that it was what bonded the characters together. Cuoco then starts to recount the numerous guest stars on the show, including John Ross Bowie as Kripke, Brian Posehn as Bert, Keith Carradine as Penny's dad, Katey Sagal as Penny's mom, Christine Baranski as Leonard's mom, and Laurie Metcalf as Sheldon's mom. They then start to list guest stars that mostly appeared as themselves, such as Adam West, James Earl Jones, Billy Bob Thornton as Oliver Lorvis, and Stephen Hawking. Cuoco reveals that she felt embarassed having to make fun of Hawking while playing Penny, and Galecki remembers that Simon Helberg was also very nervous having to do an impression of Hawking while playing Howard. The two also talked about Helberg's impression of Al Pacino in "The Love Spell Potential". The list of guest stars continue with William Shatner, Joe Manganiello, Bill Gates, Steve Wozniak and Elon Musk. Additionally, the two remarked that the show included at least 3 Nobel laureates as guests. The guest star list also includes Buzz Aldrin, and finally the late Carol Ann Susi who voiced as Howard's mom. The two discussed how the cast and crew remembered Carol Ann's passing, which included telling stories about her and printing out an image of her to place onto the fridge, so that she would be included in every subsequent episode since then.

Galecki and Cuoco walk into the wardrobe room, which Cuoco comments might be the most epic ever. The room has a full wall of clothes for each character, including Raj's sweater vests, Leonard's iconic red robe, Star Trek uniforms ("The Bakersfield Expedition"), costume for Aquaman (Worn by Raj in "The Justice League Recombination"), costumes for the Flash and Penny's cat costume (Both in "The Middle-Earth Paradigm"). The list continues with Wolowitz's belt buckles, Sheldon's zombie costume ("The Good Guy Fluctuation"), Leonard and Penny's Valentine's Day outfit ("The Valentino Submergence"), Amy's wedding dress ("The Monetary Insufficiency"), the fencing outfits ("The Perspiration Implementation"), Bernadette's pageant dress ("The Troll Manifestation") and lastly Amy's pretzel costume ("The Beta Test Initiation").

Galecki and Cuoco in Prop room — The hosts in the prop room showing some notable ones used in the show

The hosts then tour the prop room for the show, which displays the various distinctive objects that appeared in the series. They first discuss the internet kissing machine that Howard and Raj use in a disturbing scene in "The Infestation Hypothesis". They then talk about the ring from Lord of the Rings, featured in "The Precious Fragmentation", followed by a remote-controlled Stephen Hawking in "The Geology Elevation", and lastly the two boxes of transporter that Penny gifted Leonard and Sheldon in "The Transporter Malfunction". Other than physical props, the show also included various digital robotic props, such as Shelbot in "The Cruciferous Vegetable Amplification", M.O.N.T.E. in "The Killer Robot Instability", and Howard's robotic arm in "The Robotic Manipulation". Cuoco then suggests the napkin signed by Leonard Nimoy as the most memorable prop in the series, which was featured in "The Bath Item Gift Hypothesis". That same episode also includes a hug that Sheldon gave to Penny after receiving the napkin as a gift, which is one of Cuoco's favorite Shenny moment.

Galecki and Cuoco enter the set for the comic book store, and begin discussing the scenes that each had on this set. Galecki remarks that he had much more scenes here than Cuoco did, while Cuoco remembers the scenes she had here during the scavenger hunt in "The Scavenger Vortex". The two then talks about Melissa Rauch as Bernadette fake punching Galecki as Leonard during that episode. They also discuss the great Kevin Sussman and the debut of Footprints on the Moon in the comic book store.

Galecki and Cuoco at bottom of stairs — Johnny and Kaley standing at the bottom of the stairs, looking at the gum wall

The hosts walk down the iconic stairs from the show to reveal that the bottom of the stairs is actually a dead-end with a wall of chewed gum. Galecki remarks that this is how actors mark the stage, similar to how dogs mark trees, and Cuoco comments that the cast is quite disgusting for this. The hosts also discuss the now-iconic "Bazinga!" from Sheldon in the series, most famously during a hide-and-seek in a ball pit in "The Einstein Approximation". Galecki reveals that he and Jim were covered in dirt after filming that scene, and is relieved that the crew washed the balls the next day, which is key to being on set. Cuoco responds to that story with a witty "Bazinga!", followed by an audible "Cut!" from the director.

Cuoco sitting in Sheldon's spot — Kaley tries to sit in Sheldon's spot on the couch

A montage of scenes from the final taping day is shown, with Cuoco admitting that she doesn't want to say good bye even though she knows this is the end. She goes on to point out that the cast alone is not all that goes on, but that the crew really helps make this show what it is. Galecki agrees that the show will not be possible without the incredible hardwork from the crew and staff, and he thanks them for their work because they receive too little credit for it. Lastly, Cuoco tries to sit in Sheldon's Spot with Galecki's encouragement, but ultimately cannot go through with it. The camera then pans out across the various sets with the lights going off after passing each set, all accompanied by an acoustic rendition of the Big Bang Theory Theme. The order of the sets are: the comic book store, Apartment 4B, the Stairs, and finally Apartment 4A. After the lights in 4A goes out, the screen turns black and the episode ends.

Trivia

The production code for this farewell special is T12.16026.
The farewell can be considered where Leonard and his friends move to houses from The Apartment Building, as seen once the lights in the apartment shut down.
Neither the Cheesecake Factory nor the Cafeteria appear in this episode, likely due to having made their last appearance in the second to last episode.

Quotes

Galecki: I remember when word came down that she had passed, we gathered around here, everybody, and just told stories about Carol Ann...

Cuoco: I mean, she... yeah.

Galecki: And cried a bit and laughed a lot. And then, uh, executive producer Steve Molaro and I went to Props and asked them to print up this photo of her. So she's been in every... every episode.

Cuoco: Every episode. Everyone loved her so much.

Cuoco: Every show night, Johnny and I have walked to this rail, climbed ourselves up, and thanked our studio audience for their love and support of this show.

Galecki: But tonight, we want to thank you, the audience at home, without whom none of this would be possible. You kept us here for over a decade in a job we absolutely adore.

Cuoco: So we want to take you behind the scenes of our very special show, "The Big Bang", share some secrets, some special moments, and we say goodbye... [choking up] ...to a place that's been our home for a long time.

Galecki: This is Stage 25 on the Warner Bros. lot in exotic Burbank, California. Earlier this year, it was officially renamed The Big Bang Theory Stage. I think it's only the fifth stage in the history of Warner Brothers that's been named after a show, right?

Cuoco: That was a really special day.

Galecki: That was a good day.

Cuoco: Our week starts on Wednesdays. That's our... table reads.

Galecki: We gather around a big table and read it aloud for the first time.

Cuoco: And do you read yours right when you get it Tuesday nights?

Galecki: Immediately, yeah, out of respect for the writers. We're aware of the weeks, if not months, of hard work they put in the script, and we're gonna show up and read it cold?

Cuoco: I read it cold every week.

Galecki: [laughing] That's not true.

Cuoco: That's a 100 percent true.

Cuoco: When we have guests come, they immediately want to see what's down here. [walks down the stairs] This is it.

Galecki: There's a lot of chewed gum here.

Cuoco: Yeah. [chuckles]

Galecki: It's kinda like, how dogs mark trees, actors mark stages this way...

Cuoco: Yeah.

Galecki: ...with just chewed gum. That's not true. We're just disgusting.

Cuoco: We're disgusting.

Cuoco: Well, we've come to the end. I don't really want to say good-bye. [laughing] What you see here is not all that goes on. And this crew has really helped make this show what it is.

Galecki: Honestly, it could not be possible without the 150 or so crew and staff that work incredibly hard and get, much, much too little credit for it. We thank you very, very much for all your hard work.

[The series' last lines]

Narrator: Our whole universe was in a hot, dense state, then nearly fourteen-billion years ago expansion started, wait. The Earth began to cool, the autotrophs began to drool, Neanderthals developed tools, we built a wall (we built the pyramids), math, science, history, unraveling the mystery, that all started with the big bang. [fade to black]