The Convergence-Convergence

"The Convergence-Convergence" is the twenty-fourth and season finale of the ninth season of the American sitcom The Big Bang Theory. The episode aired on Thursday, May 12, 2016.

Summary
Leonard and Penny plan to get remarried in front of their friends, Leonard's family, Penny's family, and Mary Cooper. Sheldon's mother and Leonard's father find something in common. Howard gets an unknown email from the Air Force about his invention.

Extended Plot
The episode opens with Lenny in Leonard's bedroom. Penny is sitting on the bed and Leonard joins her and asks how it was picking up Beverly at the airport. Penny is very flirty with Leonard and says it went well and is excited that she even got a hug from Beverly. Penny is flirting with him to get him to agree to a wedding redo while Beverly is in town. His reaction: "What?, it was only one hug. Why are you promising this?" However, Penny is excited about a redo and suggests that this time, they will be able to invite family and friends. Penny mentions that her brother is out of prison and it would be a good time for family to be there. Leonard agrees.

Next scene, Penny tells the girls about the redo and explains that it won't be legal or anything, but just for show. Amy begins to hint at being maid of honor. Penny then asks Bernie to officiate at the wedding, which makes Amy feel bad about having a lesser position. Sheldon comes in and says he has invited Mary who says she is coming. Penny questions him, asking why he invited his mother to she and Leonard's wedding; Sheldon assumes that when Penny says "OUR wedding", it means her, Leonard, and himself. Sheldon reveals he also asked Stephen Hawking, Robert Downey Jr., and Erno Rubik (the inventor of the Rubik's cube).

In the next scene, Beverly yells at Leonard for inviting his father, Alfred Hofstadter.

Shamy head out to go pick up Mary at the airport. Mary is not at all excited to see Beverly again. She pulls out her cross necklace and puts it on. Sheldon says she is a atheist not a vampire, Mary wants to get garlic at the store anyway!

Raj and Howard are at the Engineering lab. Howard completes the project and discovers it works! They are very excited with their success until about a second later when Howard gets an email from the Air force about the project. The boys freak out and Howard feels he is being watched because the email came at him so quickly.

Leonard has Alfred and is taking him upstairs. Alfred asks about the elevator and when it will be fixed, to which Leonard lies and says "any day now." Alfred teases Leonard saying that if he dies before they get up the stairs, at least he won't have to see Beverly.

When they get to the apartment, they do introductions and Alfred says hi to Bev by calling her a hateful old shrew. She says "Hi, you wrinkled bastard."

Back at the lab, the boys are really freaking out. There are two scenes with Howard wondering if he should open the email and if he is being watched. Howard is worried that if they don't open it, they will be killed.

At the apartment, tensions rise when Beverly and Alfred exchange barbs and get snarky with each other. Leonard and Penny yell at them and tell them that they are going to dinner for them and that they are the reason that they are doing the dinner was for them. They tell Beverly and Alfred that they need to behave.

At the Wolowitz House, the boys are still freaking out and Bernadette yells at them and reminds them that they have to go to Lenny's dinner. They head out to dinner (Raj, Howard and Bernadette) and are on their way driving there when they begin to notice a car is following them close. Is it a government car? No, it is Beverly with Penny and Leonard! Leonard sees it is Howard and Bernie's car and speeds up to catch up to them. Howard, Raj and Bernie begin to freak out because the car is tailgating them. So they do a quick turn to "throw off the government car." Leonard thinks Howard knows a way to avoid some traffic and get there quicker so follows. Raj then screams that they are still being followed, the car turned and followed them. Penny then suggests to Leonard to flash his lights to get their attention. But the flashing lights only make Howard, Bernie and Raj even more freaked out. Bernie then tells Howard to floor as she is not going to raise the baby alone. She wants them to loose the car following them.

Mary and Alfred are in the backseat of Amy's car (with Sheldon in front with her). They are getting along great. Alfred tells Mary that he is an agnostic but often prayed that Beverly be turned into a pillar of salt. Mary tells Alfred that God turned Beverly into a block of ice. Sheldon is oblivious to any flirting going on between Mary and Alfred, but Amy notices and suggest to Sheldon to just keep playing games on his phone.

Penny calls Bernadette after they get to the restaurant and wonders where they are at and why they have not arrived at the restaurant and why they turned their lights off and sped away when they were following them. Bernie was surprised, and relieved, to learn it was Penny and Leonard following them. Bernie tells her that they have been pulled over. Bernie tells them to eat without them as Howard is being given a sobriety test. Howard is only making things worse by trying to explain to the officer that he is not drunk, just being chased by the government because they are after his invention.

At the restaurant, Mary and Alfred are arguing with Beverly. Alfred decides to leave the restaurant, calling it an early night. Mary also says she is going to call it an early night. They find out they are staying at the same hotel and decide to share a cab. As they are walking out, Alfred invites Mary up for a nightcap, and she accepts. Sheldon says they both had to leave early because they filled up on bread.

Sheldon tries calling his mother and Leonard tries texting Alfred but neither respond. Penny laughs saying they turned their phones off. Sheldon and Leonard are quite disturbed at what is being suggested. Penny thinks it's hilarious.

Adding Del's note below here as well so all the report will be in one place:

Also to add/follow up on the summary, I don't know if there was an "off camera redo wedding" or just dinner celebrating the wedding, they talked about a ceremony in the beginning but if you follow the timeline in the rest of the episode, it seems like they went right to the dinner reservations from the apartment.

Also, the Government/Air Force is just inquiring about the project, and Raj thinks it's to give them money, but Howard is paranoid they want to take over the project and they will "get him" if he doesn't allow them.

Thanks, stardustmelody

Credits

 * Guest starring:
 * Judd Hirsch as Alfred Hofstadter
 * Christine Baranski as Beverly Hofstadter
 * Laurie Metcalf as Mary Cooper
 * Marcus Folmar as Police Officer
 * Teleplay: Chuck Lorre, Steve Holland & Jeremy Howe
 * Story: Steven Molaro, Tara Hernandez & Adam Faberman

Critics

 * Jesse Schedeen of IGN - If nothing else, it was nice to have a relatively upbeat season finale storyline...Leonard’s father Alfred made his belated debut here (played by Taxi’s Judd Hirsch). Unsurprisingly, he’s no more fond of his ex-wife than any other character in the series is. Hirsch was entertaining in what proved to be a fairly limiting role...But while fairly entertaining, this dinner outing didn’t make for a very exciting or unusual conflict... Howard and Raj’s ridiculous conspiracy theories about being spied upon by the government made for an amusing subplot...The Big Bang theory has struggled a great deal in the last few months, so it's not surprising that Season 9 ends with a dull thud. There was nothing particularly bad about this episode.

Trivia

 * Leonard and Penny wedding redo doesn't take place in this episode. It will take place in the Season 10 premiere episode.
 * Christine Baranski and Laurie Metcalf return in this episode as Beverly Hofstadter and Mary Cooper, respectively.
 * Beverly makes her third Season 9 appearance in this episode. Her previous two appearances in Season 9 were in "The Celebration Experimentation" (S9E17) and the previous episode. Season 9 is the first season she has appeared that many times, while in Season 7, she appears.
 * Leonard's father, whose name is revealed to be Alfred, makes his first appearance in this episode and is played by Judd Hirsch.
 * It's revealed that Alfred has already met Penny and Sheldon. He had last met Penny since his divorce from Beverly, but for Sheldon it is unknown when their last meeting was.
 * Bernadette again still hasn't met Sheldon's mother since the previous season episode of "The Maternal Combustion" (S8E23) and her two absent appearances in Season 4's "The Zazzy Substitution" (S4E3) and Season 5's "The Rhinitis Revelation" (S5E6).
 * Because of being pulled over, Bernadette also doesn't get a chance to meet Alfred, but it's unknown if they've already met and it's unknown if Howard and Raj have also met him, along with Sheldon.
 * Howard and Raj also don't get a chance to interact with Sheldon's mother since "The Rhinitis Revelation", but Howard obviously interacted with her in "The Mommy Observation" (S7E18), when Howard went to talk with Sheldon in the latter's old bedroom.
 * This episode doesn't feature Emily, Stuart or Claire.
 * Marcus Folmar has played guards on other episodes.
 * This episode proves that Sheldon is once again putting himself into Leonard's romances (i.e. inviting his mother to the wedding), despite the fact that he is not supposed to.
 * This episode starts the same night as the previous episode.
 * Amy first picks up on the connection between Alfred and Mary, followed by Penny and then the boys. If the new couple gets married, Leonard and Sheldon will become step-brothers. At Sheldon's birthday party "The Celebration Experimentation", Leonard calls Sheldon his brother.
 * Howard and Raj share no scenes with Sheldon and Amy in this episode, but indirectly share scenes with Leonard and Penny during the car ride.
 * Bernadette indirectly shares a scene with Leonard during the car ride.

Quotes
To be entered.