Bye, bye, "Big Bang"

The following contains some spoilers from tonight's "Big Bang Theory" series finale. Updated with a closing note about "Young Sheldon's" season finale.

One of the comforting things about "The Big Bang Theory" is that, even when characters misbehave (Sheldon specifically), there was an underlying sweetness to how things played out. Of course, there was pain -- Sheldon again, Howard and women, Leonard's relationship with his mother, Stuart's general misery, Penny's sorrow over her acting career -- but there was also an assumption that these are all basically good people and that life would work out in some way. And so it has: Howard's finding Bernadette, Leonard finally working toward some affection with his mom, Stuart finding Denise, Penny getting a new career.

And what, then, of Sheldon? That was the crux of the series finale, which began with everyone waiting to see if Sheldon and Amy would win the Nobel Prize, and then led into how Sheldon would handle the news.
Well, Sheldon and Amy got the win -- and I have to say I grinned.
Not as much as I grinned when, in one of the best bows to the show's long history, the elevator finally worked. But close.
After all, if nothing else, we loyal fans wanted this win for Amy. Only it still meant dealing with Sheldon's narcissism, and how even in a triumphant moment it sours Amy's celebration and more.
Because, in addition to the Nobel celebration, the finale offered another reason for festivity: Penny's pregnancy. The attempt to keep it quiet, and then the revealing of it, both involved Sheldon -- and threatened a permanent rift among the friends.
Not that it became one. Sheldon, at last, acknowledged what we have known all along, even if it appeared he did not: that the people around him were loved ones, that Sheldon would not have made it to the Nobel stage without them.
And, in the way he made good, I think a little mist in my eyes was more than excusable,
The episode was also funny, of course, and as I said it bowed to the past. It could have used more Raj time (Stuart got a bigger moment inthe plot than Raj did, with Raj stuck mainly in a sidekick role). And the show's deep bench of guest stars was limited here (although some had been given their time in episodes leading up to this) even as Sarah Michelle Gellar dropped in.
Still, as finales go, this one felt just right, not overly ambitious, true to the show's form and, yes, sweet.
Nice as well was the season finale of "Young Sheldon," also tied to the Nobel. It offered a hint of the melancholy that would have come if Sheldon had not won the Nobel via his friend John Sturgis's dealing with the realization that he will never win it. But it underscored the "Big Bang" finale in a closing sequence where a scene of solo Sheldon is mingled with scenes of the young Leonard, Penny, Raj, Howard, Amy and Bernadette -- all while "Someday We'll Be Together" played. And they would be. And our comedy lives have been better because of it.