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Not to be confused with the deaf Emily who also dated Raj in the season 5 episode "The Wiggly Finger Catalyst".

"She's scary, but it's a cute scary."
―Raj, The Relationship Diremption

Dr. Emily Sweeney, M.D., is a supporting (formerly major) character in The Big Bang Theory. She is a dermatologist who found Rajesh Koothrappali through his dating site and contacted him. Rajesh Koothrappali replied through Amy. Emily is a redhead with a quirky sense of humor and likes horror movies and other gory things. She has three tattoos including a Sally rag doll from the Disney movie "The Nightmare before Christmas". As of the end of the series, Emily has been on more episodes than Rajesh Koothrappali's parents, is tied with Wil Wheaton and is behind Barry Kripke, Mrs. Wolowitz and Stuart.

In October 2015 during season 9 that year, she was added to opening credits when she appears in the respective episode, much like Kevin Sussman.

Biography/Series overview[]

Season 7[]

In "The Friendship Turbulence", after Amy has Rajesh Koothrappali check his dating site, he finds a message from a woman named Emily who wants to meet him. The reluctant Raj has Amy contact her as his wing-man. Amy and Emily exchange emails and find they have a lot in common. They both went to Harvard University, are doctors, and like crocheting and Chaucer. Unfortunately Emily doesn't like Raj's inability to correspond with her directly. Amy and Emily meet to have coffee and Raj barges in to show that he is not a passive guy. Emily calls him a weird guy with no boundaries and leaves. She also ditches Amy for their next get together. Raj appeared to ruin any chance for friendship for either of them.

In "The Indecision Amalgamation", Raj meets Emily again in the coffee shop and apologizes. She gives him another chance and agrees to go out to dinner with him. Then Raj finds out that Lucy wants to see him again and he finds himself dating two women. Emily is fine with that, unlike Lucy. Raj and Emily seem to be getting along together. She also has a creepy sense of humor that Raj likes.

In "The Relationship Diremption", Raj and Emily have dinner with Howard and Bernadette. Howard figures they should do it quickly because Raj is bound to mess up his relationship. Upon meeting Emily, Howard recognizes her because he had a blind date with Emily sometime near 2009 before he met Bernadette. He had a sick stomach, had to use the bathroom and clogged the toilet. Since he was too embarrassed to tell her, he escaped through the bathroom window just like Lucy. They meet again at dinner where she is now dating Raj. Emily reveals she's okay with it and her friends love the story and call him "Clogzilla".

In "The Anything Can Happen Recurrence", Raj and Howard watch the gore-fest "House of 1000 Corpses" because Emily wants to watch it with Raj. They are both turned off and wonder about someone who likes this type of movie. On their date, Raj tells Emily how he feels about it and she also wonders about someone who likes this film. She also admits that it turns her on, so Raj immediately starts it so they can watch it.

In "The Gorilla Dissolution", Raj and Sheldon find Emily at the movies with another guy. Later she visits Raj to talk. The guy was her tattoo artist who had been asking her out for weeks and she did so just to end the obligation. Emily says that she would be upset if she saw Raj out with another woman. They sit down. She mentions that she has one tattoo on her shoulder, one that is not on her shoulder and one that is REALLY not on her shoulder. It has been a long time since Raj has seen something "REALLY not on some woman's shoulder". Emily suggests that if he'll show her his pierced belly button, he can see all her tattoos. They start to kiss and she then spends the night.

In the next episode, "The Status Quo Combustion", the gang was happy about how serious his relationship with Emily has gotten and though she did not appear in the episode, it overshadowed Leonard and Penny's engagement announcement.

Season 8[]

In "The Hook-up Reverberation", Penny and Leonard meet Emily for the first time and she treats Penny rather coldly. At Bernadette's suggestion, Penny stops by Emily's office to do her sales pitch in front of a real doctor. Penny does her pitch enthusiastically; however, Emily ignores her. It's then revealed that she doesn't like that Penny had crawled into bed with Raj. Though Penny is mad at Raj for telling Emily about their "one-night stand", he gets them together and they apologize to each other. After the two women part, both say to themselves how much they hate the other one.

In "The Prom Equivalency", Emily is Raj's date to the prom-themed dance put together by Amy and Bernadette. She travels to the dance in the couples' limo. Bernadette likes her Sally (From "The Nightmare before Christmas") tattoo. Emily likes Sally because she has lots of scars and her limbs had to be sewn back on. She also tells Bernadette that in the original Cinderella story, (Bernadette's favorite fairy tale) where the evil step-sisters cut off their toes to fit in Cinderella's glass slipper. Ugh! Also while Stuart and Howard are fighting, she tells Raj that she is having a great time.

In "The Anxiety Optimization", Howard starts a game called "Emily or Cinnamon" where people have to guess whether statements Raj has made are for the woman he loves or the dog he loves. Emily thinks Raj's sensitive nature is very sexy.

In "The Intimacy Acceleration", Emily gets Raj, Leonard, and Amy to go to an event escape room where puzzles have to be solved to exit the room. Unfortunately, the puzzles don't prove to be very challenging to the four geniuses, who all have advanced degrees, and they get out in only six minutes. The four of them later give Sheldon a makeshift surprise party after Penny tells them it's his birthday.

In "The Colonization Application", Raj snoops around Emily's place when he is alone and breaks her bedside drawer. Emily is not happy, but forgives him. When she gets back she tells him it's good that he didn't look in her closet causing Raj to wonder what was in it.

In "The Commitment Determination", Raj confides in Howard and Bernadette how different he is from Emily and that he is considering breaking up with her though he has a fear of being alone. Howard doesn't believe that he will break up with a girl that has sex with him. At a grave yard picnic, Emily picks up on these vibes and tells Raj that he has to break them up and not make her do it. Instead, Raj tells her that he was just trying to say that he loves her and kisses her, not knowing what her reaction would be.

Season 9[]

In "The 2003 Approximation", Raj played Emily the song that he and Howard wrote for their band. She thought it was cute, but would rather hear something she could dance to. Raj relays this opinion to Howard and it almost breaks up their band. Emily is later seen with the rest of the gang (minus Amy) at the comic book store hearing Howard and Raj perform their song.

In "The Platonic Permutation", she joined Raj in serving Thanksgiving dinner to the homeless at a soup kitchen. Bernadette acknowledged that they were close enough that she could call her husband "creepy".

In "The Empathy Optimization", Emily is infuriated by a sick Sheldon like everyone else. She is angered when Sheldon tells her to remove the "irritating patch of brown skin" standing next to her. When Sheldon tries to apologize, she does NOT accept his apology due to him inadvertently insulting her. He later makes her cry attempting to apologize again. Eventually, Sheldon makes a heartwarming apology to Emily, and she finally forgives him, allowing Sheldon to join all of them on their party weekend.

In "The Valentino Submergence", Raj breaks up with her because he wants to pursue Claire. Emily is thoroughly disgusted with him. After Claire turns him down, he asks to get back together with her. Emily slams the door in his face.

Breakup

Raj breaks up with Emily so he can ask Claire out.

In "The Application Deterioration", Emily sends Raj a belated Valentine's Day gift: a sextant (which she got for him before the breakup), also calling to say that she still wants to be friends. Later on, Raj gets calls from both Emily and Claire. Emily just wants to talk. Claire advises him that she is just manipulating him. He ends up at Emily's to just talk because she is so upset, but they end up in bed. Raj remarks, "Good talk."

Rt27

Raj and Emily in bed

In "The Fermentation Bifurcation" Raj admits that he is still dating both Claire and Emily.

Season 10[]

In "The Hot Tub Contamination", Raj admits that he has broken up with both girls at the ladies' insistence; therefore, he is no longer seeing Emily.

She reappeared in "The Emotion Detection Automation", along with the deaf Emily, Lucy and Claire. It is also revealed that she has a new boyfriend, Gary, and broke up with Raj due to trouble in the bedroom.

Family[]

Nothing really has been talked about Emily's family members. It's unknown if she has any siblings or not and where her parents are; however, in "The Commitment Determination" (S8E24), Howard hints that Emily's father has died when he says "Well, if it’s her father’s grave and they didn’t get along, then you know she holds a grudge." When Raj talks to Howard and Bernadette about his relationship with Emily. Whether this was just an example from Howard and is not exactly dead, but alive or if he really knows that Emily's father is dead and found out off-screen is unconfirmed and unknown.


Trivia[]

  • Emily is the second woman named Emily that Rajesh Koothrappali has seriously dated. The first was the deaf woman that Penny fixed him up with in "The Wiggly Finger Catalyst".
  • She is also Raj's longest-serving love interest. They have been dating for almost 3 seasons.
  • Emily is a horror movie fan and is turned on by "House of 1000 Corpses". She seems to be a horror and gore fan, stating that she had a tattoo of Sally, the rag doll character from "Nightmare Before Christmas", because of all her scars and sewn on limbs. She also prefers the horror version of Grimm Fairy Tales, telling the original Cinderella story.
  • She has three tattoos, one of which is the aforementioned tattoo of Sally.
  • Emily initially had something against Penny since she fooled around with Raj at the end of Season 4.
  • Laura Spencer is one of three actresses that have played love interests of Raj and been on multiple episodes of the TV drama "Switched at Birth." Tania Raymonde (Yvette the vet) and Katie Leclerc (deaf Emily) were the other two.
  • She exhibits sadistic tendencies due to the creepy comments she makes and the gory interests she has.
  • She likes being in cemeteries because it makes her feel alive.
  • Her chosen profession is a dermatologist because she likes to cut people and as a doctor it is legal.
  • While the guys are into video games and the sci-fi/fantasy genre, Emily adds the horror genre to TBBT universe.
  • Third girlfriend of the gang who is a red-head, first being Stephanie, then the first Emily (Season 5).
  • Emily, along with Stuart and Leslie are the only characters ever in the main cast who have never had either of their parents appear on the show. Also, Emily and Leslie are the only ones among the whole main cast whose mother has never been seen or mentioned. Also Leslie's father hasn't been seen or mentioned either.
  • Emily is the only character of the entire main cast who remains unknown of whether she have any siblings or not (Leonard, Penny, Sheldon and Stuart each have one brother and one sister, Howard has a half-brother, Leslie has one sister, Amy is an only child, and Bernadette and Raj each have five siblings (Raj: 3 brothers and 2 sisters; Bernadette: Four unidentified siblings (brothers/sisters) and a brother).
  • While her name appears during the opening credits making her a main cast member, it only appears the weeks she is in the episode though in season 10 she appears to have been dropped from the show.
  • She made more frequent appearances when she was a recurring character during Seasons Seven and Eight, but once she became part of the regular cast, she ironically began appearing much less frequently on the show.

Appearances[]

Appearances

The Big Bang Theory Episodes
 1   2   3   4   5   6   7   8   9  10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 Tot
Season 1 0
Season 2 0
Season 3 0
Season 4 0
Season 5 0
Season 6 0
Season 7 M 5
Season 8 M M M M 6
Season 9 M M M 5
Season 10 M 1
Season 11 0
Season 12 0

Appearances

Young Sheldon Episodes
 1   2   3   4   5   6   7   8   9  10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 Tot
Season 1 0
Season 2 0
Season 3 0
Season 4 0
Season 5 0
Season 6 0
Season 7 0
Appeared M = Mentioned Did not appear Not aired/Not available
V = Voiced C = Cameo F = Flashback I = Indirectly mentioned P = Pictured


Gallery[]

References[]


v · e · d
Characters Main Leonard Hofstadter  ‧  Sheldon Cooper  ‧  Penny Hofstadter  ‧  Howard Wolowitz  ‧  Rajesh Koothrappali  ‧  Amy Farrah Fowler  ‧  Bernadette Rostenkowski-Wolowitz  ‧  Stuart Bloom  ‧ The Social Group  ‧ Emily Sweeney  ‧  Leslie Winkle
Recurring and Minor Debbie Wolowitz  ‧  Barry Kripke  ‧  Priya Koothrappali  ‧  Dr. V. M. Koothrappali  ‧  Mrs. Koothrappali  ‧  Stephanie Barnett  ‧  Lucy  ‧  Mary Cooper  ‧  Zack Johnson  ‧  Beverly Hofstadter  ‧  Mike Rostenkowski  ‧  Alex Jensen  ‧  Professor Proton  ‧  Missy Cooper  ‧  Ramona Nowitzki  ‧  Dan  ‧  Josh Wolowitz  ‧  Dennis Kim  ‧  Althea Davis  ‧  Jeanie  ‧  Cinnamon  ‧  Mrs. Rostenkowski  ‧  Wyatt  ‧  Claire  ‧  Kurt  ‧  Eric Gablehauser  ‧  Dave Gibbs  ‧  Dimitri  ‧  Alfred Hofstadter   ‧  Meemaw  ‧  Jimmy Speckerman  ‧  Susan  ‧  Randall  ‧  Bert Kibbler  ‧  President Siebert  ‧  Janine Davis  ‧  Richard Williams  ‧  Halley Wolowitz  ‧  Neil Michael Wolowitz  ‧  Denise  ‧  George Cooper Jr.   ‧  Larry Fowler  ‧  Anu  ‧  George Cooper Sr.  ‧  Marissa
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