CBS, 8:00 p.m. ET
In this new episode, one of the few remaining before Big Bang implodes into that big TV black hole in the sky, Raj (Kunal Nayyar) publishes a paper in which he claims to have discovered alien life. Presumably, he’s not referring to Sheldon…
Fox, 8:00 p.m. ET
SERIES FINALE: This is the 100th episode of Gotham, and, even though it’s called “The Beginning,” it’s also the end. Like Smallville, this TV series based on the origin story of a costumed hero from DC Comics has made its way to the point where its protagonist finally comes close to donning his famous crime-fighting costume. But Gotham gets there by making a leap of faith, and of time, moving its narrative 10 years into the future – or, at least, 10 years after the time line dramatized in the recent episodes of Gotham. One noteworthy change for this final installment: Selina Kyle, the young woman who is destined to don the tight-fitting costume of Catwoman, is played for this last episode by Lili Simmons, inheriting the role originated as a teen Selina by Camren Bicondova. But David Mazouz remains as Bruce Wayne – and Robin Lord Taylor and Cory Michael Smith hang onto their roles as well, and look even more like the characters we know, from the TV and movie canon of Batman adventures, as Penguin and the Riddler, respectively (pictured). Taylor’s Penguin, like the TV incarnation played in the 1960s by Burgess Meredith, even sports a monocle in this new timeline. And here’s an applicable piece of monocle trivia I picked up recently, doing research on the Beatles, that has delighted me to no end. In British period slang, guess what they used to call a monocle? A glass onion… so after more than 50 years, the lyric “looking through a glass onion” finally makes sense.
Fox, 9:00 p.m. ET
SEASON FINALE: This is the Season 2 finale of this affectionate Star Trek homage, and it continues the confusing playing-with-fire story introduced in the first part of this two-part season ender. Kelly, played by Adrianne Palicki, continues to confront her past… and, literally, her younger past self (pictured), while dealing with a strange new reality.