After the first two episodes of Stuart Fails to Save the Universe, it became clear not only how different the sci-fi comedy was going to be from The Big Bang Theory and any of its other spin-offs (Young Sheldon and Georgie and Mandy’s First Marriage) but also just how each episode was going to be full of new surprises.
In Thursday’s third installment of the 10-episode series, “Spoiler: Bert Is Magic,” the universe-hopping quartet of Stuart Bloom (Kevin Sussman), Bert Kibbler (Brian Posehn), Denise (Lauren Lapkus), and Barry Kripke (John Ross Bowie) land in a world where magic is real and science is evil. And one Big Bang alum goes very, very big.
Not long into the episode, we find out that in this world Bert is the only one who has magical powers, which he uses to his advantage to save his life since we first see him about to be burned at the stake for being a scientist. However, once he cries out for rain and it actually begins to rain, he realizes he has magic and is deemed a powerful sorcerer with an immediate legion of followers. (“They’re my acolytes,” he dryly tells Stuart later).
This being a comedy, Bert uses his powers for laughs by changing a Coke to a Diet Coke and then a Dr Pepper with a wave of his hand as well as conjure up an adorable puppy and make it housebroken. “Bert flourishes in the magic world,” Posehn tells Gold Derby exclusively. “I’m a giant dog lover, so getting to do this abracadabra puppy and have an adorable puppy land in my hands was fun every time I did it.” He also proudly states that he doesn’t need magic in the bedroom since “I’m a good listener,” he says.
While Denise tries to figure out her feelings for Stuart by throwing back drinks in a bar, Kripke and Stuart (neither of whom know Bert has powers) desperately try to find someone with magic to fix the non-working time traveling device to get out of this universe. Jokingly asking Alexa to help, a miniature sardonic demon named, yes, Alexa (Louis Mustillo) appears and leads them to a sorceress that they actually know — Bernadette Rosetenkowski (Melissa Rauch). (No, we don’t see or hear anything about Simon Helberg’s Howard, Bernadette’s husband from Big Bang.)
However, as Stuart and Kripke find out when they visit her, Bernadette has been stripped of her powers though she says if she can have some blood from Stuart (who is as close to an “innocent” as she can find), she can reverse the spell and then help them. So, a naïve Stuart gives up some blood and upon drinking it, Bernadette reveals herself to now be a demon and she becomes a giant. “I think that was a really fun part for her to get to become a giant. It was such a fun choice,” Lapkus tells us. Adds Sussman, “but still doing the [high-pitched] Bernadette voice.”
Turns out giving blood to a demon is a punishable offense in this world so another Big Bang alum, Wil Wheaton as a version of himself, appears to kill Stuart as retribution for what he has done. Luckily the magical Bert is there to fight him off, with some intentional heavy metal finger moves used to throw fireballs or bring a shark to life. “The fun thing about the fight scene is that Brian’s also a massive metalhead,” says Bowie.
That’s clear when Bert uses the “sign of the horns,” a familiar gesture of Black Sabbath’s Ronnie James Dio and something Posehn worked on with episode director Kyle Newacheck. “I’m going Dio against Wil Wheaton, who’s going Star Trek. Kyle showed it to the big bosses and they were like, ‘looks good to us,’” says Posehn.
With this particular fight scene and other action sequences like last week’s episode where resistance leader Penny (Kaley Cuoco) repeatedly slaps Bert, Kripke and Stuart, the preparation for the actors is real. “It’s very tightly choreographed since it’s stage combat,” says Sussman. That kind of work was taxing even for Cuoco, who was the one doing the slapping. “Her arm got very tired because she was slapping all of them all day long,” says Lapkus. Adds Sussman, “by the end of shooting, I was like, ‘I’m so sorry you have to slap me again.’”
Overall, the actors, who played supporting characters on The Big Bang Theory, have stepped up to the plate when the physical work has come into play. “Side characters are not usually the focal point of an action sequence so in a way, it was like a bucket list of all this stuff,” says Sussman. Lapkus adds they were all ready to just do whatever was asked of them. “We were shocked by some of the running and you just never knew what was going to happen from episode to episode, but it was so fun,” she says.
And now that we’ve seen three different universes over the course of the series, should we assume that each episode’s universe is random or is there some overarching connective tissue that maybe isn’t apparent yet? The answer is… sort of. “There’s some connectivity over random episodes but certainly some of the episodes are designed to be as random as possible and as different as possible from the last one,” explains executive producer Zak Penn. “Obviously the intention was for them not to connect but some have a connective tissue that runs through them.”
For example, Penn teases next week’s fourth episode, which is previewed at the end of Episode 3 with Stuart seen sitting in what appears to be a mental asylum, as one that sets up some things that will play out later in the season. Prady also advises to keep an eye on that kind of connectiveness as we get deeper into the season, noting, “Episodes 9 and 10 very much connect.”
