Bernadette Robertson

Dr. Bernadette Maryann Robertson-Wolfowitz, (née Robertson), is a supporting character of The Sidemen and was a waitress at the Cheesecake Factory and has earned her Ph.D. in microbiology who has a lucrative job at the pharmaceutical company ZanGen. She began dating James Wolfowitz in "The Creepy Candy Coating Corollary" and eventually married him in "The Countdown Reflection", Season 5 finale. She had her own apartment in East London which James eventually moved into finally leaving Debbie Wolfowitz's house. In Season 7, they start thinking about raising a family after Debbie has to convalesce. After his mother died in "The Comic Book Store Regeneration", James and Bernadette moved back into James's home. They since have renovated the house and began preparing for parenthood in "The Valentino Submergence". They have become parents to a little girl, Halley, as of the episode, "The Birthday Synchronicity". They were expecting another baby as of the Season 11 premiere "The Proposal Proposal". The baby was revealed to be a boy as of "The Explosion Implosion". He was born in "The Neonatal Nomenclature" and was named Neil Michael Wolfowitz.
== Biography ==
=== Early Life/Before the show ===
Bernadette was born sometime in 1998 to Mike Robertson and his wife. She has 5 siblings, one of them is a brother named Joey. Bernadette, like James, is on bad terms with her mother, whose over-protectiveness caused issues for her when she was growing up. Bernadette's height is a sensitive topic for her, similar to James and Lewis, as well as she believes her small stature is linked to her mother smoking cigarettes while she was pregnant with her.
Her mother ran an illegal day-care centre in the basement and worked full-time and Bernadette had to take care of her siblings, which was hellish for her.
According to Bernadette, she became fascinated in microbiology the first time that she looked through a microscope. Her interest mainly stemmed from the fact that if she wanted to she could crush everything she saw with her thumb like a god, allowing her to feel powerful despite her short stature.
Growing up, she entered beauty pageants. Bernadette went to Catholic school, then into the University of London to study microbiology and got a job at the Cheesecake Factory to pay her tuition, where she met Penny as currently best friends. She received her Ph.D. in microbiology in "The Roommate Transmogrification" and subsequently accepted a job with a big pharmaceutical company called ZanGen in which she earned a "buttload" of money.
=== Season 1 ===
=== Season 2 ===
=== Season 3 ===
=== Season 4 ===
=== Season 5 ===
=== Season 6 ===
=== Season 7 ===
=== Season 8 ===
=== Season 9 ===
=== Season 10 ===
=== Season 11 ===
=== Season 12 ===
== Physical Appearance ==
Bernadette is a very short woman. She is 4' 10" (1.47 m) (even shorter than both Lewis and James), with blonde hair, pale creamy skin, and blue eyes. Her wardrobe mainly consists of red-frame glasses, petite cardigans, knee-length floral skirts, nylons and black flats; although in later seasons she is known to wear blue jeans or sweatpants with sweatshirts. Bernadette is very cute and very attractive. Besides Penny, she can attract a lot of hot guys (and notably did so prior to, and even after, her marriage to Howard). She is very pretty, in the same league as Penny (yet ironically, Amy, who was notably plain in appearance by comparison prior to a makeover late in the final season, long considered Bernadette to be the "least attractive" among the three girls, though this came across as jealousy-fueled projection on Amy's part). She also wears necklaces, most notably a cross as she was raised in a Catholic family, or the star that Howard gave to her when he went to space. Her hairstyle is wavy with bangs and is usually untied, though occasionally is worn in a low side ponytail or with a headband.
== Family ==
Not much is known about Bernadette's family. Howard joked that her parents' names were Adolf and Eva and her brother's name was Ricky even though he hadn't met him yet. Her surname indicates she has Polish descent, which makes sense as she claims her family is Catholic, Poland's most common religion. Howard's mother refers to her as "that little Catholic girl". This fact is further reinforced by Debbie refers to her as "little Polish girl" when Howard was on ISS. Bernadette's mother used to make Bernadette crazy like Debbie does to Howard. She used to run an illegal daycare in the basement, which was part of the reason that Bernadette has a dislike of children. She used to smoke cigarettes when she was pregnant with Bernadette, which is a reason, according to Bernadette, as to why she is short. She wouldn't let Bernadette ride a bike because she was worried she would hit a bump and lose her virginity (which she eventually lost in a Toyota Camry). When Bernadette first appeared, her mother was still picking out her clothes daily.
Bernadette's father Mike Rostenkowski is a retired police officer and she was always worried for his safety. According to Bernadette, he is a rude person and often bullies others. In "The Vacation Solution", Bernadette said that her father was retired, but still carried his gun as a fashion statement. She also gave Howard a list of topics to avoid when talking to him, implying that he is a conservative. This list included:
* Jimmy Carter
* Gardeners
* Foreign people
* Homosexuals
* Sean Penn
* Vatican II
* Gun Control
* Organic food
* Designated hitter rule
* Recycling
* Howard being Jewish
She also says that if he yells, it is a good sign, but if he is quiet, Howard should quickly back away, but in zig-zags. Mike Rostenkowski appeared in the last two episodes of Season 5 and in the "The Fish Guts Displacement", in which he appears to have befriended Howard. Her father describes her as four feet tall though she is four foot ten inches.
Mike taught his daughter to not take any crap; however because of his tendency to bully, Bernadette sometimes bullies others without realizing it. Penny helped her to realize this in "The Champagne Reflection".
Bernadette has Bernadette's five sisters and brothers, as is revealed in "The Scavenger Vortex" (S7E03), one of them is named Joey. She often took care of her younger siblings as a child, as Mrs. Rostenkowski worked full-time, which was also another reason she doesn't like little kids ("The Shiny Trinket Maneuver", S5E12) and makes her competitive for she had to fight for everything with them ("The Scavenger Vortex", S7E3). She had a grandmother who died during Christmas 2009 ("The Maternal Congruence", S3E11). Her grandmother had a parrot, and once she lost her marbles, treated the remote control as if it were her pet parrot ("The Ornithophobia Diffusion", S5E09).
=== Members ===
* Grandmother: Unnamed Grandmother
* Father: Mike Rostenkowski
* Mother: Mrs. Rostenkowski
* Brother: Joey Rostenkowski, Darren Rostenkowski
* Siblings: Four Other Unnamed Siblings
* Unnamed Nephews/Nieces
* Husband: Howard Wolowitz
* Daughter: Halley Wolowitz
* Son: Neil Michael Wolowitz
* Father-in-law: Sam Wolowitz
* Mother-in-law: Debbie Wolowitz
* Half-Brother-in-law: Josh Wolowitz
* Uncles-in-law: Murray Wolowitz, Elliot, Uncle Louie
* Aunts-in-law: Aunt Barbara, Betty, Gladys
* First Cousins-in-law: David, Marty
* Second Cousin-in-law: Jeanie
== Relationships ==
==== Platonic ====
==== Romantic ====
== Characteristics ==
Despite her high-pitched tone, which makes her come off as friendly and innocent, Bernadette has ironically shown signs of having a passive-aggressive and selfish personality. She has a short-temper, but is still friendly, nice, sweet, and extremely devoted towards her friends and husband, Howard. She has a habit of being vicious, underhanded, pushy and demanding in order to get her way (Such as manipulating Leonard's relationship with Penny in order to win the scavenger hunt so that he would focus more), and when she, Amy and Penny went to Disneyland, she proclaimed herself to have the Cinderella makeover on the basis that it was her idea and she was driving the car at the time, and if either of them disagreed she would turn the car around and they couldn't go. Despite this, she has the capacity for being a very good person.
Bernadette is the financial provider of her marriage and in doing so she constantly albeit unintentionally emasculates her husband, she took a commanding tone and was extremely competitive possibly due to growing with up with younger siblings. When trying to win Rajesh's scavenger hunt, she spoke to her teammate, Leonard, the way a drill sergeant would, using vehement insults and yelling to motivate him and lying to Leonard about his relationship with Penny. Howard even compared being in the same room as a competitive Bernadette as being in a steel cage with a wolverine.
For years, Bernadette had no interest in children as her younger siblings made her life hellish, this was also shown during Howard's magician act, she spoke towards her audience in an aggressive voice, but veiled it within a kind tone, as you would speak to an infant. On the way back, she went into a vociferous rant at how the children she knew when she was young were constantly toying with her patience and sanity.
Ironically Bernadette in some way does have a child as due to her husband's Oedipal Condition, the relationship between Howard and herself their relationship was more of a mother-son relationship than a husband-wife. Bernadette actually created a chore chart for Howard and she does most of the housework around their home while Howard plays video games. Despite hating children, Bernadette has the potential for being a great mother - she is able to calmly reason with the extremely difficult Sheldon Cooper like a mother to a son, and it is even possible that her relationship with Howard will sharpen her for being a mother to their child.
== Career ==
Bernadette worked at the Cheesecake Factory with Penny to pay off her debts in graduate school, studying to become a microbiologist. She met Howard at work as Penny introduced the couple.
Later, Bernadette has received her PhD and was offered a job at a big pharmaceutical company named Zangen. Although her exact income is never specified, it is stated that she makes very good money (a "butt load") and that it greatly exceeds Howard's income.
== Trivia ==
* Bernadette was raised Catholic (though Melissa Rauch is Jewish). Given her father's disapproval of Vatican II, it is implied that she grew up in the Traditionalist Catholic household.
* Bernadette is shown to be a loyal customer of Nissan as she formerly drove a 2007 Nissan Altima before her current 2013 Nissan Altima.
* Bernadette's normal speaking voice is much higher than her actress's (Melissa Rauch's) normal speaking voice. Melissa once said that she based Bernadette's voice on her mother's voice, minus the New Jersey accent; however, Bernadette sometimes has a big booming voice when arguing with Howard, causing everyone to remark of its similarity to Howard's mother.
* Bernadette is 4 ft 10½ in (1.486 m) tall [1] the height of Melissa Rauch. Her character has been described as "only four feet tall" by Mike Rostenkowski in "The Fish Guts Displacement".
* Bernadette seems out of character during her first appearances on the show. It seems she was originally supposed to be portrayed as almost a dim-witted blonde by taking things literally and not understanding even the simplest of ideas. She mentions this fact in "The Alien Parasite Hypothesis", where she says she is much smarter than Howard, but in order to protect his manhood, she acted dumber.
* Despite being an adult and living on her own, her mother still picked out her clothes for her when she met Howard.
* Bernadette says the most exciting thing she gets to work with in microbiology is yeast.
* In "The Shiny Trinket Maneuver", Bernadette revealed that she hates children because she was forced to babysit her younger siblings as her mother worked full-time.
* Bernadette met Howard on a blind date while she was still waitressing at the Cheesecake Factory with Penny.
* Her last name is revealed to be Rostenkowski in "The Love Car Displacement". The name is of Polish origins, although in Czech "rostenka" means "rumpsteak" or (sexy) "girl".
* Bernadette also knows a lot about physics (mostly experimental physics). In "The Gorilla Experiment", she expressed her interest in Leonard's area of work involving fundamental tests of quantum mechanics and electron accelerator.
* Bernadette says that if she hadn't taken up microbiology, she would have either become a physicist or an ice dancer "The Gorilla Experiment" (S3E10).
* Bernadette isn't good at lying as she went to a Catholic school when corporal punishment was still allowed and they "whipped" the ability to lie out of her.
* When she gets very angry, her voice changes to one similar to Debbie Wolowitz, to which Howard said "she sounds sexy when she's angry".
* In "The Roommate Transmogrification", she announced that her dissertation had been accepted and she will get her Ph.D. soon. She also announced that she had been head-hunted by a big pharmaceutical company (Zangen).
* Bernadette doesn't like magic, science fiction, high school and role playing games, either in the bedroom or as in Dungeons and Dragons. However, in "The Weekend Vortex", she is shown to enjoy the MMORPG Star Wars: The Old Republic.
* A puppy once bit Bernadette in the face, causing her to fervently dislike puppies.
* Due to her height, she has to use a stool to reach her apartment door peephole. She also complains about having trouble seeing over the dashboard while driving, being unable to play Twister, to go on roller coaster rides, or to reach the floor when she sits on chairs (although this latter difficulty is not normally seen).
* Bernadette once dated a former teacher of hers who stood 6'7", which made Howard jealous.
* In "The Psychic Vortex", Bernadette revealed that she gets hungry by watching flesh-eating bacteria skeletonize small rodents.
* In "The Gorilla Experiment", Bernadette claimed that she does not get a lot of Howard's jokes, but laughs anyway since he lights up every time she laughs.
* Bernadette compares Howard's sense of humor to those of stand-up comedians.
* Bernadette is the only member of Penny's Posse with whom Stuart has not went out on a date.
* In "The Vengeance Formulation", when Howard sang a song and played the piano at the Cheesecake Factory as a way to apologize to Bernadette, she said that it was the most romantic thing anyone has ever done for her.
* She blames her small size on her mother smoking during pregnancy.
* Bernadette was bullied in school by a girl called Tammy Bodnick, who once hid her clothes from her locker after gym and left an elf costume in there. The problem was, the costume was too big.
* Bernadette has a younger brother named Joey and four other unidentified siblings. And through Howard, she has a half-brother-in-law named Josh.
* Bernadette has some of the qualities of Debbie like when she yells and how she dotes over Howard without Howard really noticing the similarities.
* Debbie seems happy with Howard dating Bernadette, but never gave an answer to marriage. She did call her "my future daughter-in-law, the doctor", though in "The Roommate Transmogrification".
* Bernadette is Polish and some of her family lived near Howard's family in Poland in the 20th century.
* The logo on Bernadette's lab coat indicates that the pharmaceutical company she works for is called Zangen, though the name has never been discuss by the characters out loud.
* Bernadette, Rajesh Koothrappali, Leonard, Penny and Amy are the only characters of the social group/main cast whose parents have both been seen on-camera - Sheldon's father died when Sheldon was a child, Howard's father abandoned him and his mother when Howard was eleven, Stuart's mother and father have been mentioned and are both alive, Emily's father has been mentioned and it is not known if he is dead or alive and there has been no appearance or mention of Emily's mother or Leslie's mother and father to date.
* Bernadette has the longest personal name of the social group.
* After Bernadette had joined the regular cast Melissa Rauch said that the writers were going to show that Bernadette had a darker side. This concept can probably be seen in her confrontational nature and the fact that she gets hungry watching flesh-eating bacteria devour rodents.
* Bernadette, Leslie Winkle and Emily Sweeney are the only female characters in the entire main cast who never dated Stuart Bloom.
* Bernadette and Stuart hadn't been seen with Sheldon's mother Mary Cooper for long until "The Conjugal Conjecture", but unfortunately didn't speak to her while Leslie and Emily are the only members of the whole main cast who haven't met her; however, all of them, minus Emily, had not met Leonard's mother Beverly Hofstadter until "The Celebration Experimentation", but unfortunately didn't talk. But in "The Line Substitution Solution", then Bernadette started speaking to Beverly.
* Bernadette wears a short necklace carrying a five-pointed star which is the necklace that Howard took into space for her. Howard asked for her to return it and then he said, "When I come home, you will have a star that was actually, in space. She has a star that has actually been in space."
* Penny was one of the gang that married Howard and Bernadette in while Bernadette married Leonard and Penny at their wedding redo ceremony.
* She has the same birthday as her real life actress.
* Bernadette was pregnant at least ten months, as she was pregnant in "The Valentino Submergence" which occurred on Valentine's Day and Halley was not born until "The Birthday Synchronicity" in mid-December.
* Bernadette looks like Kristen Bell, Allison Mack and Sarah Michelle Gellar all at once.
** Interestingly enough, Sarah Michelle Gellar guest stars in the series finale, "The Stockholm Syndrome".
* According to Howard, Bernadette has what Howard calls "eagle eyes" as she is able to notice continuity errors quickly and easily, which is annoying to Howard.
* Bernadette's angry side appears to have gotten the best of her in recent seasons, as near the end of the series (notably after her pregnancies which may have been a contributing factor in-universe) she is portrayed as more of a bully full of snarky comments.
== Gallery ==