Jumping right in, the episode opens with Howard and Raj entering the apartment claiming they are ‘kidnapping’ Leonard for his bachelor party, claiming that Penny already packed a bag for her husband. Sheldon asks how it is a kidnapping without rope, ransom calls, and phone tracing, and soon learns that he is coming along as well. When he asks how they plan on taking him along, the episode cuts to a shot of Howard and Leonard throwing a bound Sheldon into a van, while he fights them tooth and nail. Once the van gets going, they inform Leonard and Sheldon that it was formerly owned by one of Sheldon’s heroes, Dr. Richard Feynman, and Sheldon immediately warms up to the vehicle. Sheldon is even more excited when he learns they are going to Feynman’s beach house in Mexico. Leonard warns Howard about driving too fast as the Mexican police target tourists, and Howard informs him of his plan to put Raj in the driver’s seat with a sombrero if anything happens.
The girls meanwhile are having their own type of Bachelorette party, with Amy showing up with male genitalia cookies, which impress Penny and Bernadette greatly. They discuss the fact that Penny and Leonard still have not told Sheldon to move into Penny’s old apartment, and also the fact that Penny and Amy have not updated Facebook to reflect their new relationship status’s. Penny reveals that she still has not told her family she got married, worried that her dad would be upset that he did not get to walk her down the aisle, while Amy reveals she is afraid to tell her mom she broke up with Sheldon. While discussing how she might change her clothing as a response to the break-up, Amy reveals that she never got her ears pierced, as her mother said pierced ears were for pirates, whores and genies. Penny busts out a needle and ice to “take Amy’s ear virginity” as Bernie prods both of her friends to call their families and confess what they had done. Penny calls her dad, who takes the news calmly, for he had been keeping a secret of his own, he had accidentally killed Penny’s pet pig, Moondance, and had been keeping it from her for a year. Amy chickens out on calling her mom after seeing how Penny’s call went, but her friends insist. Amy still cannot tell her mom about Sheldon, so Penny grabs the phone and tells Amy’s mom that Amy broke up with Sheldon, pierced her ears, and made them eat penis cookies. Suffice it to say that Amy was forced by her mom to spend time in Penny’s closet for these egregious actions.
As for the guys, they get a flat tire out in the middle of nowhere, and while Howard knows how to change a tire, he just cannot get the last lug nut off. After Raj attempts to take it off, and confirms Howard’s statement, the group debates how they should go about removing the lug nut, with wild ideas involving phasers, Superman’s heat vision, the Hulk, and the Green Lantern. Eventually they realize they should use science to help them, and after a quick argument about the correct pronunciation of “levers,” they attempt to force the nut off with a hijacked “alto” traffic sign. Next they attempted percussive force, with Leonard using a wrench against the tire, the beat of which inspires the gang to start singing the opening to Queen’s ‘We Will Rock You,’ ending when Sheldon takes off with a solo. When the beat fails, they enlist a tortilla chip as fuel to burn off the nut, which also does not work, the same for the acidy of salsa combined with an electrical charge from jumper cables. In a last ditch effort, they create thermite from rust and aluminum in the van, which of course ends with them burning down Feynman’s van. (no worries, according to Chuck Lorre’s vanity card at the end of the episode, the actual van was not harmed in the making of the episode).
The guys return home to compare nights with Penny, who admits that having to spend a night in Mexico with Sheldon was infinitely worse that Amy in the closet and the news of her dead pig.
HOWARD: (while struggling to ‘kidnap’ Sheldon for the bachelor party for Leonard) I told you to put tape on his mouth!
RAJ: And I told you he bit me!
PENNY: (checking out Amy’s penis cookies) WHOA! That is anatomic!
AMY: Thank you! The veins are gummy worms.
BERNADETTE:Oh, Jewish and gentile.
AMY: I had extra dough.
PENNY: (upon learning of the death of her pet pig) Moondance?
PENNY’s DAD: He’s not dancing anymore.
PENNY: You killed my pig!
PENNY’s DAD: Actually the vet took care of that.
HOWARD: What are you doing?
RAJ: It’s called Lamaze breathing. It helps when you push.
HOWARD: Great. He’s pushing with his uterus.
PENNY: (in regards to her dead pig) Now he’s illegally buried in the back-yard next to my great-grandmother.
BERNADETTE: Really? They didn’t eat him?
PENNY: No! He was a beloved member of the family.
BERNADETTE: … Breakfast meat family?
PENNY: (on hearing about the burnt van) Oh, I’m sorry. If it makes you feel any better I pierced Amy’s ears and her mom made her sit in my closet.
Pretty solid episode, with the scientific parts pretty hilarious, especially as they do not often go that deep into the type of science the guys might use in every day life. I still think Amy and Sheldon will be back together soon, though I wish we could have seen some more of their post-break up tension in the episode, as that was the highlight of last week. And I cannot wait for the episode when they tell Sheldon he needs to move, I feel that might be one of the better episodes of the season. See you next week!
