If Raj’s fate was dictated by the needs of the story rather than a desire to rewrite his ending, that same practical thinking also determined why he became the first original cast member to return.
As Prady explained, the writers needed “somebody who had the answer… and then he gets killed before he can use it. So, you sort of work back from there.” Because the story required “somebody capable of doing this math,” Prady said, Koothrappali was the obvious choice.
That said, when it came to murdering Raj, Bowie wasn’t necessarily comfortable with the direction the story was taking — at least not at first. “I was very, very taken aback to read that,” he told TVLine. “And I’m still not 100% comfortable with it, honestly, because it’s Kunal, man! Who shoots Kunal?”
The actor eventually made peace with the moment by Episode 2 — which, as Bowie previews, offers a justification of sorts for Kripke’s heinous crime. “There’s two possibilities,” he said. “One, that universe no longer exists, in which case he did not kill Raj. Or two, that’s one of an infinite number of universes, in which case he killed one of an infinite number of Raj’s, so it’s a rounding error.”
Posehn, for his part, was happy to remind me that he gets to exact a measure of revenge on Raj’s behalf. “Bert gets to beat the s**t out of him,” he said. “So, for everybody watching it going, ‘Raj, no!’ Like, you get that… satisfaction of watching me just pound him like a bear.”
Sussman, meanwhile, was just happy to have the chance to reunite with Nayyar — after all, Stuart and Raj spent many a lonely night together, when they were both still single — more than six years after wrapping on “The Big Bang Theory.”
“Kunal is such a love,” Sussman emphasized. “He’s just a ball of joy, so it was nice going back. I mean, I’ve kept in touch with Kunal, but we haven’t worked together — and in that way — in so many years that it was just a delight.” And seeing Nayyar’s take on this alternate-universe Raj only heightened the experience: “When they called action and I saw what he was bringing to it, I was like, ‘Oh, okay. All right. It’s on, it’s on.’ Yeah. It was awesome.”
