Previously…
Here’s a quick recap of everything you missed in the first four episodes!
Sheldon is a new man, a changed man, a man who can face anything different that comes his way because he did, after all, spend 45 days traveling on a train. He’s seen things. He did not, however, see Penny’s new pixie haircut coming. And that’s a change that took everyone (including the audience) some time to get used to.
Speaking of Penny, she now works as a sales rep for Bernadette’s pharmaceutical company. She and Leonard are also engaged, but their relationship is always on the rocks. They worry that they’re not compatible, especially after Sheldon asserts that his relationship with Amy is the most superior in the group, while Penny and Leonard’s relationship comes in last after Penny and Chardonnay. As always though, Leonard eases any doubt by saying something adorable.
Amy is still trying (and failing) to get Sheldon to be more intimate, and enjoying the perks of having girlfriends. She was even caught in the middle of a squabble between Penny and Bernadette. There was name-calling, three-way calling, and back-stabbing, oh my!
Howard is concerned about Stuart’s growing relationship with his mother. Is he like a new son, or a new lover? Only time will tell. All we know is that Ms. Wolowitz lent Stuart money in order to reopen the comic book store. Phew! I’m glad we haven’t seen the end of that set.
Finally, in the biggest news yet, Raj has a girlfriend, a girlfriend! Emily is the newest addition to the group. She’s getting along with everyone except Penny. Maybe Penny’s Nebraska charm will work on her. That’s all so far. Head over to page two for a full recap of the latest episode.
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In this week’s episode of The Big Bang Theory, the guys try to focus and invent the next big thing, while the girls hit Vegas for the weekend. With the girls out of the picture for a few days, it should be easy for a couple of geniuses to focus and get some work done, right? Wrong! It turns out, it’s not only the girls that have been a distraction for the guys; it’s absolutely anything and everything around them that sidetracks them, especially if it involves a Blu-ray and some popcorn (courtesy of Raj).
The first order of business when inventing the next big thing is location, location, location! It can’t be a cabin in the woods, or a hotel, or a lake house, or even a beach house because Sheldon has seen all those sites in Cabin in the Woods, The Shining, The Lake House, and Jaws, and frankly he’s just not interested in facing the same fate all those characters did, so Leonard and Sheldon’s apartment it is.
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Back at their place, all this talk of innovating reminds Raj of The Social Network, which Howard hasn’t seen, which Sheldon happens to have on Blu-ray, which means popcorn and movie night! However, Leonard quickly rejects this plan, and turns to their long forgotten book of ideas for some inspiration, but all there seems to be in this book are sex robot ideas. Mainly robot girlfriends and robot prostitutes. In case you’re wondering, why there is a need for both a robot girlfriend and a robot prostitute, it’s because according to Howard, “There’s just some things you don’t do with your robot girlfriend.”
Rather than this book of ideas, Sheldon suggests turning to science fiction for some inspiration since it was Star Trek after all that inspired the Motorola flip phone. This proposal leads them to the classic, Back to the Future Part II, because how great would it be to invent the hoverboard, which existed when Biff visited the future in 2015? This means movie night is back on! (Raj, get the popcorn.) Unfortunately, watching the film does not inspire any scientific breakthroughs, just a lively debate about the space-time continuum including the proper verb usage for events that would have happened in the future of a past that was affected by the future. Confused? Here’s how this verb usage would look like in a sentence (Biff had will have placed his first bet.) You could always count on Sheldon to teach you some new words, and for that matter, new verb group structures.
After another digression involving wieners as appetizers and shapes on the world map, they finally decide to go where there will be less distractions—Leonard’s work space. They have no choice but to focus here because this is, after all, a work environment, where their minds are conditioned to do just that: focus. However, they just cannot seem to concentrate this weekend whatsoever, and so Leonard’s workroom becomes a place of watching pigeons playing Ping-Pong, searching Amazon for medieval operant conditioning devices, and ripping duct tape off each other’s arms—a failed experiment aimed at conditioning each other to stay on topic. Funny enough, all this “negative reinforcement” causes Sheldon to give a quick lesson on how the term is often used incorrectly, even by veteran movie star Bill Murray in the blockbuster hit, Ghostbusters.
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In the end, the guys finally decide to opt out of trying to invent the next big thing, and decide to experience the next big thing: Ghostbusters movie night and of course, Raj’s popcorn!
Meanwhile, in Vegas, Penny, Amy, and Bernadette are all ready to take on the night and a bucket of margaritas, but Penny ends up having to stay in to study for her new job. Amy and Bernadette go on without her and enjoy giant, frozen margaritas, get drunk, and pretend to be housekeeping. Penny later joins them at the strip club to watch Australian male strippers dance the night away, but with her notes and laptop to get some work done. The guys can take a lesson from her, because it seems she was the only one who knew discipline and how to focus, even with Australian male strippers all around her.
Best Bazingas!
“I know the real reason why you never made progress with that idea. You thought of it September 22, 2007. Two days later, Penny moved in, and so much blood rushed to your genitals, your brain became a ghost town.”—Sheldon
“I think we’ve all been distracted since the girls entered our lives… Listen to this: ‘Hi! Hope you’re having a good day.’ Who has time for this constant sexting?”—Sheldon
“Did you see The Lake House?” —Sheldon
“Nothing bad happens in The Lake House.” —Raj
“Not to them—to me. Time traveling mailbox? Only time that travels is an hour and a half of my life down the toilet.” —Sheldon
“We didn’t think you’d make it. You have a steady girlfriend now, and we assumed you’d have to stay home to lower food down to her in the pit.” —Howard
“For your information, Emily is working tonight.” —Raj
“One would assume on getting out of the pit.” —Sheldon
“Therefore, the timeline in which 1955 Biff gets the almanac is also the timeline in which 1955 Biff never gets the almanac. And not just ‘never gets.’ Never have, never hasn’t, never had, have, hasn’t!”—Sheldon
“He’s right.”—Raj
EPISODE RATING: 9/10
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