Stuart Fails to Save the Universe’s “Spoiler: Bert Is Magic” (Episode 3) finally dives headfirst into full-on fantasy after the first two episodes took Stuart Bloom and the gang through increasingly weird corners of the multiverse. Instead of yet another alternate version of modern-day Pasadena, the gang finds themselves in a world where wizards exist, science is dangerous heresy, and one wrong idea can send you to the stake. Remarkably, the show never seems to forget where it came from, given the outrageous premise. The same personalities we’ve known for years still give fans humor, but this time they are trying to survive in a universe infinitely further removed from The Big Bang Theory.
The effectiveness of the episode is mainly because it doesn’t just rely on references. The humor doesn’t come from nostalgia, but from the characters’ reaction to a different set of rules. Bert is still Bert. Stuart means well but keeps on making the wrong choices. Kripke is still sarcastic and quick to point out the errors of others. Even with dragons and demons and magic, all the characters have a sense of self.
Bert Has His Day
Bert unexpectedly becomes the protagonist of the episode, despite the initial unfavorable circumstances. Almost as soon as the group arrives in this enchanted realm he is captured and sentenced to death for the unpardonable crime of believing in science. As the villagers are about to burn Bert alive, he calls for rain in desperation, and to his surprise the weather listens. Within seconds the terrified audience is singing a different tune. The person they were about to kill suddenly turns out to be the most powerful wizard they have ever seen.
This is one of the funniest ideas in the episode and Bert’s reaction is exactly what longtime fans would expect. His unlimited magical power doesn’t suddenly make him unselfish or noble. He uses it, rather, to make his daily life better in the most trivial ways. He turns regular Coke into Diet Coke, decides that Dr. Pepper is better, calls a perfectly trained puppy out of nowhere, and quickly gets used to being treated like a celebrity. It’s much more fun to watch him take his new fame in stride, than watch him turn into a regular fantasy hero.
By the end of the episode, it’s clear that Bert has transformed from the underappreciated geologist who occasionally popped up on The Big Bang Theory to the most important member of Stuart’s team. It’s a nice turn for a character who’s been on the margins for years and the show smartly lets him enjoy every bit of it without changing who he essentially is.
Stuart’s Good Intentions Lead to Another Disaster
Bert is getting his magical upgrade, and Stuart and Kripke have more important things to worry about. Their quantum device, the only way to get them home, is broken. They need someone with magical powers to fix it. The quest takes them to an unusual guide in the form of a tiny demon named Alexa who immediately points them to Bernadette Rostenkowski.
Bernadette here is a disgraced member of the Wizards Guild of America, stripped of her powers. The episode slyly tips its hat to Hollywood labor disputes by revealing she was fired for using forbidden magic to resurrect a neighbor’s dog. Bernadette insists that Stuart’s ‘innocent’ blood can restore her powers and Stuart, as usual, agrees without thinking of the possible consequences.
As soon as Bernadette drinks Stuart’s blood, she transforms into a towering demon, and begins to rampage through Pasadena in search of the quantum device. It’s a wonderfully absurd image, and Bernadette’s constant self-identification just makes it better. She’s got that same chipper voice fans have come to know and love from The Big Bang Theory, as she levels buildings, politely apologizing. The joke works because it plays off one of Bernadette’s longest-running character traits: her sweet voice masking a surprisingly scary personality. The joke takes that to the most absurd extreme.
A Wizard Duel Well Worth The Wait
The problem was already Bernadette, the giant demon, and now the Wizards Guild sends one of its enforcers immediately to take care of the problem. Enter Wil Wheaton, arriving to take revenge on Stuart for bringing back Bernadette’s abilities and putting the whole realm in danger. Of course the situation escalates to a full-blown magical confrontation.
The Wheaton/Bert duel is unquestionably the episode’s biggest set piece, and it’s every bit as ridiculous as you’d expect. Fireballs are lighting the screen, spells are erupting everyplace. At one point a shark somehow gets involved in the fight. Wheaton has the confidence of a seasoned fantasy warrior, Bert seems to be winging most of it. But that is enough to win.
Just another reminder that this series likes to mess with your expectations. One of the most unassuming characters from the original sitcom, Bert, almost by accident, defeats one of the episode’s most significant threats. The moment feels well-earned, considering that the episode has been dedicated to the slow unfolding of Bert’s real power.
Denise Gets Sidelined
And at the end, Denise gets the least important role in the main cast, while the excitement is happening somewhere else. Denise sits in a nearby tavern and tries to make sense of everything that has happened since she left Gary in a different universe. Most of the episode is spent with Stuart, Bert and Kripke fighting demons and researching magical chaos.
The scenes aren’t particularly objectionable, and they do serve as a brief reminder that the multiverse hopping has real emotional repercussions. The problem is that they never quite manage to connect her to the larger narrative that is playing out around her. Every time the episode returns to Denise, the momentum seems to fizzle out but is then revived in Bert’s magical adventures or Bernadette’s rampage.
But the episode does contain some nice background details. One of the funniest things is that Sheldon Cooper is not a physicist in this universe. Now, though, he can be seen in a production of Man of La Mancha, a throwaway joke that neatly sums up the kind of extreme divergence that can occur between each reality.
Final Thoughts
Episode 3 is probably the best episode of Stuart Fails to Save the Universe so far because it focuses on its premise. The writers create a whole new world and let the characters react organically to it, instead of making the multiverse a mere excuse for cameos. Bernadette turning into a giant demon is one of the episode’s funniest payoffs, turning an old sitcom gag into something new, Bert’s surprise promotion to magical superstar is completely in character, and the fantasy setting provides some truly inventive comedy.
Now, there are faults in the episode of course. The world itself is interesting and it is somewhat disheartening that the show does not devote more time to the rules or history of the magical world. Denise could have had more to do. But these are relatively minor quibbles in an episode that is clearly more interested in entertaining than overexplaining. It ends with the giant demon Bernadette on the loose, the multiverse device still malfunctioning, and Stuart once more faced with a disaster that arose from his attempts to help someone. That, at the moment, could be considered the mission statement of the show, and it is proving to be quite entertaining.