Stuart Fails to Save the Universe Episode 7 picks up exactly where we left off, with Stuart, Denise, Bert, and Kripke finally back at the comic book store. There is just one rather big problem: everyone can hear everyone else’s thoughts.
And things don’t get off to a particularly good start. Kripke is bothered by the fact that he is taking orders from Stuart, Bert is easily distracted by everyone’s thoughts, and the group quickly learns far too much about each other’s love interests and sexual preferences.
Stuart Figures Out What the Machine Needs
Stuart is the only one who seems able to keep track of what they are actually trying to accomplish. He realizes the machine’s instructions are a message. The reason they haven’t been able to restore it to its original universal state is because they have been moving sideways, jumping between parallel universes, when they actually need to move forward.
There is another problem. Leonard and Sheldon never finished the machine.
What it needs is essentially a steering wheel, and the only place they might be able to find the missing component is in the engineering department at Caltech.
When they arrive, Ms. Nowitzki is there to greet them, and thanks to their new ability, they can also hear her rather depressing thoughts. They ask about Howard Wolowitz, only to discover that Howard doesn’t work there because, apparently, he doesn’t exist in this universe at all.Bernadette does, though, so naturally, they go looking for her.
Bernadette Has a Very Different Life in This Universe
This version of Bernadette never became a microbiologist. Instead, she teaches tap dancing to little girls.
Her tenacious, combative personality is still very much there, but almost everything else about her life is different. She is married, just not to Howard, and when Bert wonders what happened to her, Bernadette tells them her story.
Her alcoholic mother pushed Bernadette into living out her dreams, dressing her up and entering her in beauty pageants until she became Miss California Quiznos 1999. And yes, we’ve actually seen a glimpse of that pageant past before in The Big Bang Theory Season 8 Episode 14.
Now, instead of working as a scientist, Bernadette spends her days teaching tap dance to uninterested young girls. We also learn that this version of Bernadette uses cocaine.
The gang, meanwhile, still needs to get inside Caltech.
The Gang Breaks Into the Engineering Department
Stuart’s plan sounds simple enough: break into the engineering department and steal the component they need. Actually doing it is another matter.
They don’t know exactly what they’re looking for, how to put everything together, how to operate the completed machine, or even where to go once they get it working. Stuart starts running through all of these problems in his head, which means everyone else can hear every single one of his doubts.
They need a way to shield their thoughts. Denise suggests meditation, but that only makes everyone’s thoughts louder.
The group eventually returns to Caltech with a much more practical solution. When they reach Ms. Nowitzki’s desk, everyone starts singing. The noise from their own thoughts gives Stuart enough cover to lie his way into the engineering department; it works.
But when they finally reach the room they need, they discover something none of them expected.
There Is Another Stuart Trying to Save the Universe
Standing in the room is another group made up of Stuart, Denise, Bert, and Kripke. They are fixing the machine too.
Before the original group can really understand what is happening, the other four disappear inside a bubble. Stuart and the others rush after them, and all eight are pulled through the universe.
They begin passing through several of the realities we’ve already seen this season, including the apocalyptic universe and the one where magic exists. We even see Neil deGrasse Tyson burning alive there, much like Bert did.
The two groups continue chasing each other until they reach the universe where humans eat like cows. That is when they begin to piece together what may have happened.
It seems the original Stuart didn’t trust a single version of himself to successfully save the universe, so he may have sent another Stuart on the same mission as a failsafe, and apparently, even that wasn’t enough.
While the two groups are talking, yet another Stuart, Denise, Bert, and Kripke arrive. There are now three teams.
The newest group steals one of the machines from the team our Stuart has been following and disappears into another universe. Stuart, Denise, Bert, and Kripke immediately follow them.
Where Does Stuart Fails to Save the Universe Episode 7 End?
The chase brings them into a strange new reality. After switching the machine again, Stuart and the others return to what appears to be another version of the comic book store.
But this universe has one very noticeable difference.
They are no longer completely human. Stuart, Denise, Bert, and Kripke have become half-human, half-horse creatures, leaving the group trapped in yet another bizarre universe by the episode’s end.
