My Thoughts - Stuart Fails to Save the Universe: Spoiler: Dexys Midnight Runners Get a Royalty Payment (9/3/2026)

Synopsis: Stuart (Kevin Sussman) and his friends arrive in a universe where everyone can read each other's minds.  After learning the device is missing a piece in the previous universe, they attempt to retrieve it from Cal Tech and make an unexpected discovery.

My Thoughts:

The whole mind reading thing has been done before but this might have been one of the most realistic takes on that. I loved how the characters "heard" both thoughts that were relevant to the plot along with various other thoughts that popped into their minds because that is the kind of thing I would expect had I had the ability the read thoughts.

I also liked how it didn't cause unnecessary drama. That would be the usual expectation with something like this, someone hearing a thought, taking an offense to it and things spiraling out of control. The episodes on this series are already trying to cram a lot into a very short amount of time and something like that would have bogged things down too much.

Having Barry (John Ross Bowie) think his speech impediment certainly was a choice. I also think it would have been just as cool to hear his thoughts in a normal voice, providing some contrast. The fact he did have the speech impediment also made me wonder if maybe his friends were just adding it themselves when their brains were processing his thoughts.

I'm not sure if the whole "think of a song" thing would really work but it was admittedly clever. At minimum, I now have "The Girl from Ipanema" stuck in my head.

I liked seeing Melissa Rauch in another cameo but I'm not so sure this one did Bernadette correctly. Her "mean" persona really didn't come until after she became a microbiologist, was making money and was married to Howard (Simon Helberg) in The Big Bang Theory, three things that didn't happen in this universe. 

While the backstory of a mother who pushed her into pageants against her will did technically work, I think it would have been better to take the opposite route and make her nice to the point it was creepy, especially since we've already seen a villain version of her in this series.

Speaking of Howard, what happened to him? Was his lack of existence solely confined to this particular universe, or did he disappear from all the other universes as well?

Their discovery at Cal Tech answers at least some questions for me. If multiple versions of themselves are also traveling between universes, it explains what happens to the versions that belong in the universe they are visiting and even confirms some of those versions might be trying to stop them, However, I am still a little confused about why they adopt the characteristics of those versions, such as having four stomachs or being able to perform magic. 

And, beating a dead horse here, it once again means the Denise (Lauren Lapkus) traveling with him isn't the same one from his universe. It makes me wonder what will happen if he runs into that version of her or if he succeeds in his mission and the universes reset themselves.

Final Opinion: It was a fun episode that took a not-so-unique idea but made it feel somewhat fresh. I liked it.

My Grade: A

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Here are my thoughts from previous episodes:

My Thoughts - Stuart Fails to Save the Universe: Spoiler: Corn is Delicious (8/27/2026)

My Thoughts - Stuart Fails to Save the Universe: Spoiler: Bert Gets Married (8/20/2026)

My Thoughts - Stuart Fails to Save the Universe: Spoiler: Stuart Makes a Wallet (8/13/2026)

My Thoughts - Stuart Fails to Save the Universe: Spoiler: Bert is Magic (8/6/2026)