The Matrimonial Momentum

1st episode of the 9th season of The Big Bang Theory

"The Matrimonial Momentum"

The Big Bang Theory episode

Episode no.

Season 9
Episode 1

Directed by

Mark Cendrowski

Story by

Chuck Lorre
Jim Reynolds
Maria Ferrari

Teleplay by

Steven Molaro
Steve Holland
Eric Kaplan

Production code

4X7201^[1]

Original air date

September 21, 2015 (2015-09-21)^[1]

Guest appearances

Louise Claps as the receptionist (voice only)
Jim Meskimen as the minister
Laurie Metcalf as Mary Cooper

Episode chronology

← Previous
"The Commitment Determination"

Next →
"The Separation Oscillation"

The Big Bang Theory (season 9)

List of episodes

"The Matrimonial Momentum" is the first episode of the ninth season, and 184th episode overall of The Big Bang Theory. It first aired on CBS on September 21, 2015.

Plot

Leonard and Penny elope in Las Vegas, live streaming the ceremony for friends at home. Leonard wrote a touching cosmology-based wedding vow while Penny recites "You've Got a Friend in Me" from Leonard's favorite movie, Toy Story. Sheldon, confused and hurt by Amy's indecision about their relationship, insults her before all their friends while watching the wedding stream at Howard and Bernadette's house. Amy openly breaks up with him, upon which all leave except for Howard and Stuart, who actually see the wedding to the end. When Leonard and Penny kiss after he carries her over the threshold, Penny is still bothered that Leonard kissed Mandy two years ago and is outraged to hear they work together. They argue on their return home and both go to their respective apartments alone. Sheldon calls his mother to return his great-grandmother's ring which he had intended for Amy, but Mary tells him to wait. He also briefly considers dating Mandy to hurt Amy and is outraged to learn that Penny knew she was unhappy and did not defend him.

Reception

Ratings

The episode was watched live by 18.20 million viewers, and had a ratings share of 4.7, during its original broadcast.^[2]

The episode attracted 2,661,000 viewers upon its British premiere, making it the most watched programme on E4 for the week.^[3]

Critical response

In 2019, Screen Rant rated it the worst episode of the series.^[4]

Jesse Schedeen of IGN rated the episode 8.2, complimenting how the episode set-up ongoing drama, as well as Amy and Sheldon's break-up. Schedeen criticized the episode's lack of humour.^[5]

Caroline Preece of Den of Geek similarly criticizes that the episode is "devoid of any laughs at all" and ends on "a sour note". Preece commented that Sheldon is "unrepentantly awful" and described the wedding as "cute" and a "brave choice" by the writers, but questioned after their breakup: "what was the point?"^[6]

References

^ ^a ^b "Listings | TheFutonCritic.com - The Web's Best Television Resource". www.thefutoncritic.com. Retrieved December 9, 2018.
^ "Monday Final Ratings: 'The Big Bang Theory' Adjusted Up; 'Significant Mother', 'Life in Pieces' & 'Penn & Teller' Adjusted Down - Ratings". TV by the Numbers. Archived from the original on September 22, 2015.
^ "Weekly top 10 programmes". www.barb.co.uk. Retrieved December 9, 2018.
^ "The Big Bang Theory: The 5 Best (& 5 Worst) Episodes". Screen Rant. 18 May 2019.
^ Schedeen, Jesse (September 21, 2015). "The Big Bang Theory: "The Matrimonial Momentum" Review". IGN. Retrieved December 9, 2018.
^ Preece, Caroline (September 23, 2015). "The Big Bang Theory season 9 episode 1 review: The Matrimonial Momentum". Den of Geek. Retrieved December 9, 2018.

External links

"The Matrimonial Momentum" at CBS.com
"The Matrimonial Momentum" at IMDb

The Big Bang Theory

Characters

Episodes

Season 1	"Pilot"
Season 2	"The Bath Item Gift Hypothesis" "The Terminator Decoupling"
Season 3	"The Jiminy Conjecture"
Season 4	"The Cruciferous Vegetable Amplification" "The Hot Troll Deviation" "The Love Car Displacement" "The Toast Derivation" "The Roommate Transmogrification"
Season 5	"The Skank Reflex Analysis" "The Infestation Hypothesis" "The Wiggly Finger Catalyst" "The Russian Rocket Reaction" "The Rhinitis Revelation" "The Good Guy Fluctuation" "The Isolation Permutation" "The Flaming Spittoon Acquisition" "The Shiny Trinket Maneuver" "The Recombination Hypothesis" "The Beta Test Initiation" "The Werewolf Transformation" "The Hawking Excitation" "The Stag Convergence" "The Countdown Reflection"
Season 6	"The Fish Guts Displacement" "The Santa Simulation" "The Egg Salad Equivalency"
Season 7	"The Hofstadter Insufficiency" "The Convention Conundrum"
Season 8	"The Locomotion Interruption" "The Comic Book Store Regeneration"
Season 9	"The Matrimonial Momentum" "The Platonic Permutation"
Season 10	"The Conjugal Conjecture"
Season 11	"The Proposal Proposal"
Season 12	"The Conjugal Configuration" "The D&D Vortex" "The Stockholm Syndrome"