The Stag Convergence

In it, the main characters go to the bachelor party to celebrate Howard (Simon Helberg) and Bernadette's (Melissa Rauch) upcoming marriage.

The story and concept of the episode was written by series co-creator Bill Prady, and writers Steve Holland and Eric Kaplan.

The bachelor party proves to be a failure, with Sheldon's jokes falling flat and Barry Kripke complaining about the lack of strippers.

The story and concept for "The Stag Convergence" were written by series co-creator Bill Prady, and writers Steve Holland and Eric Kaplan.

[note 1] Guest stars included Kevin Sussman as Stuart Bloom, John Ross Bowie as Barry Kripke, and Wil Wheaton as himself.

[6] Ian Scott Rudolph returns as Captain Sweatpants along with actors Jesse Heiman and Zack Sonnenberg at the bachelor party as guests in non-speaking roles.

[13] Sava noted that it "has a lot of Jew humor, and Mayim Bialik and Simon Helberg are the perfect people to deliver it", although disliked Barry and Wil and said that "their jokes wore thin fairly quickly".

Shaffer of IGN also gave the episode a mixed review, saying that The Big Bang Theory has become more "cynical and chauvinistic" towards female characters.

[14] Carla Day of TV Fanatic gave a more positive review, rating the episode 4.5 out of 5, and praising Penny's response to Howard's apology and claiming that it "provided a nice chuckle.

"[12] Jill Mader of Inside Pulse also gave the episode a more positive review, praising "that the episode ended with a really sweet moment for Howard as, after all, he is a character who doesn't often get to be sweet" and claimed that it was "definitely about people changing and moving forward, and The Big Bang Theory has done a great job of emotionally maturing many of their characters over the past couple seasons".

[15] Despite this, she said that "the episode wasn't as funny as [she had] hoped it would be" and "felt like there was more potential in Howard's bachelor party than just revealing some unflattering secrets to Bernadette.