Bernadette Rostenkowski-Wolowitz

Bernadette Maryann Rostenkowski, Ph.D., (nicknamed Bernie by an ex-boyfriend of hers, but also used by her fiancé), is a former waitress at the Cheesecake Factory who worked there to pay her way through graduate school, and has earned her Ph.D in Microbiology. She has been dating Howard off and on since The Creepy Candy Coating Corollary and as of The Herb Garden Germination, they are engaged.

Character History
Bernadette, like Howard, is on bad terms with her mother, whose over protectiveness caused issues for her growing up. Bernadette was bullied at school by a girl who replaced her clothes with an elf costume, which was humiliatingly too big. Bernadette's height is a sensitive topic for her, similar to Howard and Leonard. Bernadette went into college to study microbiology, where she met a professor named Glenn that she dated for a year. This would later become a sore spot with Howard, due to Glenn's height, success, and large penis. Bernadette got a job at the Cheesecake Factory, where she met Penny.

Family
Not much is known about Bernadette's family. Howard joked that her parent's names were Adolf and Eva, even though he hadn't met them yet. Her surname indicates she has Polish descent, which makes sense as she claims her family is Catholic, Poland's most common religion. Howard's mother refers to her as "that Catholic girl". Bernadette's mother used to make Bernadette crazy like Howard's mother does to Howard. She used to run an illegal day care in the basement, which was part of the reason Bernadette has a dislike of children. She wouldn't let Bernadette ride a bike because she was worried she would hit a bump and lose her virginity (which she eventually lost in a Toyota Camry). Bernadette's father worked as a police officer and she's always worried for his safety. Bernadette often took care of her younger siblings as a child, as her mother worked full time, which was also another reason she hates children. She had a grandmother who died during Christmas 2009. She had a parrot, and once she lost her marbles, treated the remote control as if it were her pet parrot.

In The Vacation Solution, Bernadette said that her father was retired but still carried his gun as a fashion statement. She also gave Howard a list of topics to avoid when talking to him, implying that he is far-right wing. This list included: She also says that if he yells, it is a good sign, but if he is quiet, quickly back away, but in zig-zags.
 * Jimmy Carter
 * Gardeners
 * Foreign people
 * Homosexuals
 * Sean Penn
 * Vatican II
 * Gun Control
 * Organic food
 * The designated hitter rule
 * Recycling
 * Howard being Jewish

Howard
Main article: Howard and Bernadette



Bernadette has been dating Howard since The Creepy Candy Coating Corollary. Bernadette was introduced to Howard by Penny because of a pact Leonard made with Howard. After that, Bernadette dated Howard for a few more episodes until Howard announce that they had broken up "a few weeks ago" in The Plimpton Stimulation. In The Hot Troll Deviation, Howard revealed the reason they broke up and after he apologized they started dating again. In The Herb Garden Germination, Howard proposed to Bernadette and she accepted. However, Bernadette's relationship is strained due to Howard still living with his mother and his sensitivity. This is also strained when Bernadette starts to yell like Howard's mom and gets a Ph. D, further rubbing in the fact he does not have one.

One thing he did to get her back was playing "Bernandette" on the Cheese Factory piano, which creeped out Penny. However, Bernadette thought it was very romantic.



Penny
Bernadette knew Penny before the rest of the gang, as she worked as a waitress at the Cheesecake Factory with Penny. By the fourth season, they have become good friends and occasionally go on a girls night out. Bernadette doesn't like Priya because she sides with Penny after Priya announced her relationship with Leonard.

In "The Wildebeest Implementation", Priya invites Bernadette and Howard over to dine with her and Leonard. Amy talks her into spying on Priya and Leonard for Penny, but she eventually can't handle the pressure of lying and leaves abruptly.

Amy
Amy and Bernadette are good friends as they have girls nights with Penny. In the episode The Wildebeest Implementation, Bernadette had been given the nickname 'Wildebeest' by Amy, but doesn't really appreciate Amy calling her that. In "The Isolation Permutation", due to the guilt she felt for leaving Amy out and went bridesmaid dress shopping alone with Penny, she decided to make Amy her maid of honor. Even though she has known Penny longer than Amy, and gets along better with Penny because of this, she still has more similarities with Amy in terms of academics. Both of them are doctorate holders with majors under the branch of Biology. In "The Ornitophobia Diffusion", Sheldon called both of them biologists and asked them to get rid of the bird that had flown into his apartment and landed on his spot on the couch. She does seem more uncomfortable around Amy when she makes outside of the box social comments, which Penny is more used to having put up with the guys for five years.

Bernadette has been unsettled and disturbed by Amy's ways more than once, but does not comment on it if Amy is present. Amy oftens overshadows Bernadette, and thinks of her as "not as cool as the rest of them".

Leonard
Bernadette became friends with Leonard shortly after Penny introduced her to the Howard. She became interested in Leonard's experiments, but they are only friends as Howard and Bernadette are in a relationship (even though Howard felt threatened by this).

Raj
Bernadette's relationship with Raj is somewhat strained. Neither she nor Howard appreciates the fact that Raj has feelings for her and fantasizes about her, despite his selective mutism. She also feels awkward over the fact that Raj fell in love with his iPhone 4s. She also has a hard time believing that Raj is as he claims, metrosexual.

Occupation
Bernadette worked at the Cheesecake Factory with Penny to pay off her fees at Graduate School, studying to become a microbiologist. She met Howard at work as Penny introduced the couple. In the present, Bernadette has received her Ph.D, and was offered a job at a big pharmaceutical company. Although her exact income is never specified, it is stated that she makes very good money (a "butt load") at a pharmaceutical company and that it greatly exceeds Howard's income.

Trivia

 * Bernadette was raised Catholic.
 * Bernadette seems out of character during her first appearences on the show. It seems she was originally supposed to be portrayed as almost a dim-witted blonde by taking things literal and not understanding even the simplest of ideas. She mentions this in season 4's The Alien Parasite Hypothesis, where she says she is much smarter than Howard, but in order to protect his manhood, she acted dumber.
 * Bernadette studies microbiology.
 * Despite being an adult and living on her own, Bernadette's mother still picks out her clothes for her.
 * Bernadette says the most exciting thing she gets to work with in microbiology is Yeast.
 * Bernadette met Howard while waitressing at the Cheesecake Factory with Penny.
 * In The Hot Troll Deviation, Howard is revealed to have been having cyber-nasty under the Bridge of Souls with a troll on World of Warcraft and Bernadette caught him red-handed, so they broke up. However, they decided to go out again, after talking it out.
 * Her last name is revealed to be Rostenkowski in The Love Car Displacement. Bernadette shares her surname with the late Rep. Dan Rostenkowski (D-IL), who was convicted of mail fraud and sentenced to prison for nearly two years. The name is of Polish origins, although in Czech "rostenka" means "rumpsteak" or (sexy) "girl".
 * Bernadette also knows a lot about Physics (mostly in experimental physics). In The Gorilla Experiment, she expressed her interest in Leonard's area of work involving fundamental tests of quantum mechanics and electron accelerator.
 * Bernadette says that is she hadn't taken up microbiology, she would have either become a physicist or an ice dancer.
 * Her middle name is revealed to be Maryann in The Herb Garden Germination.
 * Bernadette isn't good at lying as she went to a catholic school when corporal punishment was still allowed and they whooped lying out of her.
 * When she gets very angry, her voice changes to one similar to Howard's mother, to which Howard said "she sounds sexy when she's angry".
 * In The Roommate Transmogrification, she announced that her dissertation has been accepted and she will get her Ph.D. soon. She also announced that she has been headhunted by a big pharmaceutical company.
 * Bernadette doesn't like magic, science-fiction, high school, role playing games (either in the bedroom or as in Dungeons and Dragons).
 * A puppy once bit Bernadette in the face, causing her to not like puppies at all.
 * She is 4' 11" tall and has to use a step to reach her peephole. She also complains about having trouble seeing over the dashboard while driving, being unable to play Twister, to go on roller coaster rides, or to reach the floor when she sits on a chair.
 * Bernadette once dated a former teacher of hers who stood 6'7, which made Howard jealous.
 * In The Psychic Vortex, Bernadette revealed that she gets hungry by watching flesh-eating bacteria skeletonize small rodents.
 * Bernadette claimed in The Gorilla Experiment that she does not get a lot of Howard's jokes but laughs anyway since he lights up everytime she laughs.
 * Bernadette compares Howard's sense of humor to those of stand-up comedians.
 * In The Vengeance Formulation, when Howard sang a song and played the piano at the Cheesecake Factory as a way to apologize to Bernadette, she said that it was the most romantic thing anyone has ever done for her.
 * She blames her small size on her mother smoking during pregnancy.
 * Bernadette's bully, Tammy Bockneck, once stole her clothes from her locker after gym and left an elf costume in there. The problem was, the costume was too big.
 * Bernadette has a younger brother named Joey.
 * Bernardette has some of the qualities of Howard's mother like when she yells and how she dotes over Howard without Howard really noticing the similarites. He is marrying a woman not unlike his mother.
 * Howard's mother seems happy with Howard dating Bernadette, but never gave an answer to marriage. She did call her "my daughter-in-law, the doctor", though.

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