You’re right, I forgot to mention the candle.
Amy would start a fan club.
It would be good story fodder if Penny got a good acting job. I like the thread’s ideas–a recurring commercial role with Shatner, or a semi-successful SF role like a SyFy Original Movie.
She could get thoroughly exposed to Hollywood phonies and react by valuing her friends more. While Leonard can freak out about all the other people suddenly in her life, like vapid but hunky men, just as she’s realizing how much she loves him.
You’re all missing the gigantic character development/news that was already in the episode.
Penny knows the word epiphany! Four syllables of wow!
This part was pretty spot-on. The first season of Buffy was rough and they only saw one episode.
What disappointed me was that the episode did not contain any Penny fanservice costumes – a real missed opportunity to see Penny in a cheerleader or slayer outfit.
But “Welcome to the Hellmouth” is a pretty kickass episode.
The relationship is doomed. If she doesn’t like Buffy, she’s just a [redacted grossly inappropriate sexual characterization] who isn’t worth Leonard’s time. He should start looking at Sheldon’s assistant.
I think it would be cool if Penny got an acting gig because of stuff she picked up by hanging with the guys - like, a role in a web series like The Guild, or something.
But isn’t that real life for you?
Personally, I think they ought to flip the tables, and have Penny finally figure out that Leonard’s the guy, and then have him realize that Penny’s not the one for him for all the reasons Sheldon’s pointed out all along- no degree, bad job, not an intellectual match, etc…
That would make for some really interesting conflict and some interesting character development. And it’s entirely possible that Penny might go back to school or something… stranger things have happened. A friend of mine actually met his wife while he was working on a Master’s degree and she was a high-school grad waitress. They married while he was in doctoral school, and she’d started undergrad. Fast forward about a decade or so, and she’s just got her PhD!
But Penny did like Buffy. She said so, she thought it was “cute”, and I got the impression she genuinely enjoyed it to a reasonable level. She just didn’t jump up and down saying she loved it. I had basically the same reaction the first time I saw Buffy, and I’m a huge fan.
She seems to have liked it about as much as she would like any pretty good TV show. That was the whole point of her questioning herself. Leonard was expecting an “OMG it’s AMAZING!” reaction and didn’t get one, because Penny’s just not like that. About anything. Except maybe shoes… and now, hopefully, her friends.
Even her questioning of Bernadette was not about whether the show was good per se, but what inspired such passion in Leonard, and the rest of her friends.
(Unless I’m forgetting a part where she said she didn’t really like it or something. But that was my overall impression.)
Except for the first episode where Leonard said Sheldon was a “semi-pro” at masturbation. 
Everybody keeps saying that about the first episode but I just watched it recently (having never seen it before). I waited for that line never caught it. What I did catch was Sheldon serving Leonard and himself bottles of beer. He even stuck a lime wedge in his bottle.
Ah, that looks like a cold open. I may have missed it.
I’ve never seen that scene in syndication. Whenever they (my local Fox affiliate or TBS) air that episode, it always begins just after that cold-opener with Leonard and Sheldon climbing the stairs and meeting Penny for the first time.
Perhaps it’s sold without it. Because those first 5 or so minutes totally mess up the “Sheldon has no ‘deal’” deal that the show has been working with since the second episode.
They canceled Alphas?
But it really did end on a hell of a cliffhanger.
Damn.
Damn damn damn!
I’ll miss you, Gary.