Please tell me Sheldon 'kicks the bucket'.

***SPOILER***

If it's about   Nowitzki:   that was a great episode. Some intense   Sheldon-Ramona   moments.

I don't see how to "mask" anything so now that I've made it clear that "spoilers lie beyond," I'll just go ahead.

It's always seemed true that Ramona admires him/his talents etc, more than Amy does. And despite others' claims that Sheldon has "grown" etc - which I don't believe to start with - it should be undeniable that his ego remains unchecked. Sheldon once said about Amy that (more or less) "those times where you worship me really tips the balance." Ramona always seemed to worship him more than Amy ever did, even moreso now that Amy has more experience with his various oddities. And now that he's able to perform sexually at least on rare occasions, and to support his Nobel goal etc, Ramona could easily be a better match for him than Amy.

I see it being a cliffhanger that will ultimately go nowhere, ala Penny and Raj from eons ago. I believe they wrote this in case contract negotiations fell through. Since they did not, this storyline will be toast within three episodes.

I'm not sure how that situation would... what, help with contract negotiations? Somehow be a SERIES finale if they "fell through?"

Oh maybe you mean just a way to "exit" Mayim/Amy if HER contract negotiations didn't work out? I guess that's possible. But it still probably wouldn't have led to anything more with Ramona since I doubt they could get her to join the cast even if they wanted to.

The overall premise still seems to hold, though, that Ramona is arguably a better match for Sheldon than Amy is. IF they're planning to maybe have Sheldon decide that a Nobel is less important than Amy, well.... That doesn't really hold water. Sheldon's ego doesn't seem to have lessened any since the first episode, if anything it might be "worse" now. If they showed Ramona as no longer insistent that Sheldon spend EVERY moment on science and not - for example - waste time at Comic-Con, even "today's" Sheldon should switch from Amy to Ramona in a heartbeat. But maybe they'll make Ramona as single-minded as before, which basically just means it'll be a remake of that earlier episode. Perhaps in two parts: season finale, and season premiere.

@Knixon said:

I'm not sure how that situation would... what, help with contract negotiations? Somehow be a SERIES finale if they "fell through?"

Oh maybe you mean just a way to "exit" Mayim/Amy if HER contract negotiations didn't work out? I guess that's possible. But it still probably wouldn't have led to anything more with Ramona since I doubt they could get her to join the cast even if they wanted to.

Yes, I was talking about Mayim. This storyline would have been a way to write her off the show had she not re-signed. They could have just had Amy say she accepted a permanent position there. I think they added Ramona in for the extra drama. In any case, I don't see Sheldon "going there." It would be too much a stretch for Sheldon's character to be believable. People had a hard enough time accepting him in a relationship and then having sex. Cheating on Amy is too OOC.

So it ends up being about how Ramona tries to get Sheldon away from Amy, but Sheldon decides that Amy loving him is more important than Ramona's help getting to a Nobel? That strikes me as very OOC, even based just on Sheldon's behavior and statements in the last few episodes, not even counting that he's been essentially the same since Episode One.

Just recently, Amy posited a future lifetime for Sheldon where he does good steady work and has loving relationships, without getting a Nobel. Sheldon's response was "you're cute."

Sheldon has conceded that he's become dependent on Amy, but Sheldon would believe he could transfer that dependence to any other person, or even a robot that he builds for the purpose. Leonard's "hugging machine" might be a good start.

I don't think Amy will let go of Sheldon. As I've mentioned here, Amy has already made plans, more than four years ago, to marry Sheldon, and nothing and nobody will deter her from that.

Perhaps they might work together like in S10E19 "The Collaboration Fluctuation" on something important and he will win a Nobel Prize with that.

At the moment Sheldon is "putty" in her hands. Of course the same goes for Leonard and Howard, with regard to respectively Penny and Bernadette, and they are now married.

Amy might have her plans, but Ramona won't be making her moves while Amy is still there. Amy will be on the opposite coast, and perhaps totally oblivious to current events unless Leonard or Penny (most likely) or one of the others, 'finks' on Sheldon.

Once that happens, though - or if Sheldon mentions it himself, for some oblivious reason - Amy might very well drop out of her fellowship and scurry back to Pasadena. That could be the next season premiere.

I do not think that Ramona could steal Sheldon away from Amy. Ramona suffocated him last time and made him miserable. Amy lets Sheldon be himself. Sheldon would not put up with someone trying to control him for a minute. Plus Sheldon is in love with Amy.

Amy and Sheldon ain't breaking up. No way, no how.

I mentioned before, that Ramona wouldn't be able to be the same as far as insisting Sheldon spend every second on science, with no breaks for "nonsense" like Comic-Con. And if she's exactly the same as before, the episode involving her couldn't last more than 1.8 minutes, not the 18 minutes we mostly get lately. So it seems pretty much guaranteed that she's lightened up some since her previous appearance.

But especially considering Sheldon's very recent comment that it was "cute" for Amy to postulate a future life for him where he's basically happy but DOESN'T get a Nobel - and that he's actually been consistently that way since Episode One - I wouldn't put it past him to pick getting a Nobel over Amy.

He may not, in what we're eventually shown. But what we're shown now may turn out to be another huge inconsistency based on what we "know" - what we've been shown - of Sheldon's aspirations.

And Amy "lets Sheldon be himself" except when she drugs him on a trip to Texas, or wants him to stop talking by giving him taffy until she runs out... That doesn't strike me as actually being very understanding/accepting/tolerant/whatever.

As expected Ramona was just there to add some excitement in Shamy relationship.

Now that they are married and share a Nobel Prize they will be together forever and ever.

But if they do ever split up...

who gets to keep the Nobel????

(Well, maybe they each got a statue.)