After having watched the last episode, I felt mostly satisfied with the conclusion of nearly everybody, but very disappointed with how Raj's story wrapped up. Or, rather, didn't.
Raj's character arc throughout the show went from a guy who couldn't speak to women to someone who could and was searching for love to no avail. He needed to end with some sort of happy finish that showed that his efforts wouldn't be in vain.
Instead, his finish was a throwaway joke that he was on a date with Sarah Michelle Gellar, who is married (to Freddie Prinze Jr.). There's no hint that the future will be different for him than any other episode of any other season. He's still alone, he still has no prospects, nothing.
And I feel like this would have been SUCH an easy thing to fix, which bugs me so much that I felt the need to write this up, as it's still in my mind this long after that last episode aired.
How do you fix it? You just change Gellar to a completely random woman.
Raj sits next to someone on the plane that he has maybe two bits of dialogue with. One little exchange. There's a bit of flirtation, wherein he mentions that the last time he was going to get on a plane, he was going to propose to someone he wouldn't have wanted to spend his life wife, and that Howard showed him how he needs the romance he's always been hoping for.
There could be a connection with this random woman, wherein he'd feel a romantic spark with the idea in mind that he could have met the love of his life on the plane ride to the Nobel ceremony...and she'd somehow be presented in a way that the audience would get it.
Then, she's the one who is his date at the ceremony, and there could be a throwaway joke about how Sheldon thanks her in his speech even though he doesn't know her name yet or whatever.
That way, it's hinted that Raj has a future with this woman and that they'll forever have a story to tell about how they met and how romantic it was.
Now was that so hard?
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