Tonight’s episode was a variation on two of my favorite ‘Big Bang’ themed episodes, Sheldon gets drunk and Sheldon gets sick, with the combination leading to some hilarious shenanigans. Seemed like everyone on the cast had something significant to do (even Stuart who does not always have a big role to play since he is not a main member of the cast) and it was nice to have an episode that felt a little more old school ‘Big Bang’ like this.
The episode starts with Amy and Leonard realizing Sheldon has double booked his evening with both of them, promising to work on both the military project with Leonard and Howard and also on his new project with Amy, which Sheldon assures both groups he can manage by being efficient, using minimal words, and by staying well-fed and hydrated by carrying both a water pack and a soup pack on his back and taking sips from both constantly (which works most of the time until a carrot gets stuck in his soup straw). To the surprise of both groups, Sheldon is firing on all cylinders that night and as he runs back and forth between both projects and he does indeed manage to contribute very well to both, and proves invaluable as a team member, even solving difficult equations with one glance that Howard and Leonard were struggling to complete before Sheldon entered the room.
Later, full of excitement at a job well done, Sheldon heads downstairs to do laundry and finds Penny in the laundry room, who comments on how he should not push himself so hard since he is a relatively fragile person, reminding him how he got a cold from watching ‘Frozen’ and a nosebleed from watching ‘Up.’ Sheldon tells her her comment is nonsense even as he sneezes, and awakens the next morning clearly sick, though he denies it even as he sneezes onto Amy’s toast, who jokes that now she does not need butter. She insists he goes back to bed as she does not want him working next to her and sharing his germs, but Sheldon keeps claiming he is not sick.
Jump cut to the end of that day when Raj, Penny, Leonard and Amy find Sheldon passed out on the couch in his spot in Penny and Leonard’s apartment, and Sheldon realizes he is naked from the waste down (luckily he has a blanket to cover his shame). He realizes he took cold medication which, just like when he gets drunk, must have sent him into an altered state, and he completely blacked out for the day, and he cannot remember what happened for the past 12 or so hours. After insulting Penny by pointing out this must be what her youth was like, Sheldon takes stock and realizes his pants are missing, which Raj luckily finds in the oven. Also, he realizes his notebook full of top secret military notes and equations is missing, which he freaks out over. Luckily, Raj is able to help him retrace his steps using the GPS on Sheldon’s phone, and Sheldon hazily remembers going to a cowboy bar where he line-danced and bought rounds of drinks for the patrons. Raj, Leonard and Sheldon race over to the bar where the helpful bartender returns the notebook Sheldon left behind, but admits that Sheldon explained the math within to everyone in the bar, which horrifies Leonard and Sheldon. Luckily, the bartender assures them that Sheldon also made everyone pinky swear to keep equations secret, and we cut to a hilarious flashback of over a dozen people huddled around Sheldon, fingers linked in a massive pinky swear, repeating after him their oath to keep the top secret information to themselves. As the gang leaves the bar, the bartender remembers the chalkboard full of notes Sheldon made, and he hastily erases it.
In the B-story of the night, Bernie admits to Stuart that she is nervous about going back to work and leaving Halley at home, even when Stuart assures her the daycare they found is top notch, even if they frown on child-less men peering in through the windows. She cries about leaving her baby, and then makes Stuart promise not to tell Howard about her breakdown, even though he tells her that she should share her feelings with her husband. When Howard gets home he can sense something is wrong, but he assumes Bernie is mad at him, and wonders if she found out about her dead aunt that Howard had been keeping a secret for 6 years since he forgot to tell her about the phone call when it happened. Eventually she comes clean to him about her misgivings and he makes her feel better about it by telling her about his own unease when he returned to work, and assures her that if she decides after returning to work that it isn’t for her the decision is not permanent, and she could always come back home with the baby. He then decides to tell her about her aunt.
In the episode close, Amy and Sheldon sit on the couch after Amy makes Sheldon tea, with him sipping through his backpack pouch again, enjoying the warm tea on his back. As he is still sick he has one request of Amy, and she pulls out her harp and fulfills it for him, and much to delight of many fans of the show (including yours truly who worried after last year’s lawsuit we might not be able to hear it again) she sings him ‘Soft Kitty.’ And not only do we get Amy’s rendition of the song on the harp, but Sheldon has her sing it in German and then in Mandarin, and every version is wonderful. Marry that girl Sheldon. And do it soon.
QUOTES OF THE NIGHT:
HOWARD: (as Sheldon walks into work wearing a backpack laden with soup, water and two giant straws) Before we do [get to work], what are you wearing oh friend that we pretend is normal?
BERNADETTE: And that daycare is great.
STUART: Yeah it is. I went to go check it out, and they are are very conscious about letting strange men with no kids peek in windows.
SHELDON: My pants are missing, I don’t remember anything… Penny this is your youth, what do I do?
PENNY:I don’t know, check your body for tattoos.
SHELDON: (lifting up his blanket which is covering his nakedness from the waste down) Leonard would you be a lamb-
LEONARD: She’s KIDDING!!
BARTENDER: (after he reveals Sheldon explained the top secret math to everyone at the cowboy bar) Don’t worry he made us pinky swear not to tell anyone.
As the season is coming to a close, I hope they manage to finish on an episode as quality as this one, as this episode had everything I love about ‘The Big Bang Theory’ in it. I was so happy to hear ‘Soft Kitty’ back in the show as well, and this episode just proves that there is still plenty of good comedy left in the series, they just need to find it, and if this season has proved anything, it’s just how central the Sheldon/Amy relationship has become, and how much Amy’s character especially can be mined for some amazing comedy. She (combined with Sheldon, of course) in a lot of ways has been the comedic heart of Season 10, and if they were smart they would continue to build storylines mainly off the two of them, because the time (in my opinion) has passed for Leonard and Penny as their storylines seem a little stale and for some reason keep coming back to their failing marriage, and that is not exactly great fodder for comedy. But I could be proved wrong. See you back here for the next episode!
Nick is a freelance writer based in Los Angeles, who belongs to the privileged few who enjoyed the ending to ‘Lost.’ For more of Nick’s thoughts and articles, follow him on Twitter.
