The episodes opens with an old-school scene of the whole gang (minus Amy) having dinner at Sheldon and Leonard’s. Raj opens up the conversation by asking if everyone knew about the new Siri feature where she can respond to voice commands without having to manually activate her. As Raj demonstrates, Howard points out that in that case anyone can get Siri to do stuff on your phone. Raj tells him it only replies to its owner’s voice, so Howard puts on his best Raj accent and asks Raj’s phone to show him naked grandma butts. While Raj claims that sounded nothing like him, his phone’s Siri does call up the elicit images. Sheldon enters, looking for someone to go with him to eat at the Aquarium cafeteria, as he has an extra ticket because he was supposed to go with Amy. The gang offers up their excuses, as Penny and Leonard will be cooking all day, and the rest of the gang will be volunteering at a soup kitchen, including Howard now that he knows his other choice is the Aquarium with Sheldon. Downtrodden, Sheldon calls Amy and offers her the tickets, to which she replies that she knows he really wants to go, and offers to accompany him as his friend, claiming enough time has passed that it should not be too awkward.

Raj, Bernie, Howard and Emily head to the soup kitchen, which at first turns them away claiming to have too many volunteers, which makes Howard very happy. Unfortunately for him, as they are walking away they’re called back, which makes Bernadette very happy. They are assigned to washing dishes in the back for their 6 hour shift, which makes Howard even more unhappy, until Raj teaches everyone how to use washing dishes as a kind of meditation. When Howard finally gets into the meditative state, the head volunteer calls for 3 of them to go serve food at the front, and Howard is left alone doing the dishes, too caught up in his meditation to respond as fast as the rest. Luckily for him though, he is soon joined by Elon Musk, who was sent back to wash dishes for being too generous with the gravy. Howard is shocked to meet his hero, and after conversing for a few minutes, Elon asks for Howard’s contact information, saying they could always use good engineers. Howard is so happy that he does not even mind sharing a half eaten piece of pumpkin pie  with the man.

Penny and Leonard set to cooking, with all the recipes they need on Leonard’s iPad. Penny goes to unlock the device, with Leonard telling her the password is his birthday, and everyone realizes Penny does not know her husband’s birthday. As Leonard lords her mistake over her, and reminds her of all the things he knows about her (including favorite Spice Girl and N’Sync member), Leonard makes a mistake by knowing that she hated the lingerie he got her for Valentine’s Day, claiming it made her look like a slutty carrot. Penny reveals that she never told that to anyone, only wrote it in her diary, and the tables are turned, as Leonard is forced to admit he read his wife’s diary.

To atone, Penny tries to read his online diary, but discovers the most recent entry is just about how excited he is about the new ‘Star Wars’  movie about to come out (as are we all Leonard!). Instead, Leonard decides to make it up to Penny by dressing up in the aforementioned lingerie and have Penny take a picture of him, a “Shame Photo,” that she can post to Facebook. Penny is mortified, but laughs as Leonard begins to dance in the new outfit, thrusting and grinding on her. Of course, in that moment Howard, Raj and Bernadette show up for dinner, though  I’m not sure if they will  still be hungry after the display they stumbled upon.

As for Amy and Sheldon, he brings along a list of conversational topics to keep things less awkward for their car ride, and after a lengthy discussion of vacation, the weather and potential pets, Amy tells him to drop the list, saying they have known each other long enough to have a real conversation. Of course the first thing Sheldon asks about is her dating life, and while awkward, Amy tells him about her 6 dates, and admits that she did not have coitus with any of them. After they arrive at the aquarium and eat (with Sheldon being mad that an infant got the last pilgrim hat) they chat as they walk through the museum, playing Eat, Kill, Friend (an aquatic version of Kiss, Kill, Marry) and having a genuine good time, with Amy even commenting that she missed his company. Later that night, after Sheldon has returned home and eaten with his friends, he tells them about his day and how happy he is that he and Amy can be friends. He then receives a phone-call from Amy, who tells him she had a good time that day, and is ready to be his girlfriend again. In a heartbreaking moment, Sheldon tells her that he had a really hard time getting over her, and thinks it would be best if they remained friends. Amy tries to stay brave, but you can see how disappointed she is, and how torn Sheldon is about the decision (not to mention the emotions crossing over Penny and Leonard’s faces, as they eavesdrop on the conversation). The phone call ends, and it seems that the Shamy will not be getting back together this week, though it was close.

QUOTES OF THE NIGHT:

PENNY: (after Leonard promises he will never let her forget that she did not know his birthday) Oh, look at us! Our last Thanksgiving as husband and wife!

HOWARD: So we don’t even get to be up front where the action is?
BERNADETTE: What difference does it make?
HOWARD: I was hoping some poor kid would come up to me and say ‘Please sir, I want some more?’
RAJ: You’re in a soup kitchen, not a production of ‘Oliver.’
HOWARD: It’s not like I’m expecting them to sing.

SHELDON: (after Amy tells him to ask the first thing that comes into his head) I know you’ve been seeing other men, have you had coitus with any of them?
AMY: Man, I walked right into that one.

HOWARD: (after Raj tries to claim washing dishes can be meditative) Just because you have that accent doesn’t mean what you say isn’t….stupid.

AMY: (After Sheldon complains about a baby getting the last pilgrim hat at the Aquarium) Well, it wouldn’t be a holiday without you getting mad at a baby.

I really enjoy that the show is not racing to get Sheldon and Amy back together just yet, though we all see it coming. And it was nice to see a reminder of how well the two work together, and why we all think they should be together. Other than that, not the best episode in terms of laughs, as Raj, Emily and Bernadette were a bit underutilized, but otherwise a solid outing. Cannot wait to see whether the Shamy is fully reunited (and potentially engaged?) by the winter break!