Original Air Date: 13 October 2011
Bill Prady (@billprady) tweeted the day after broadcast that the two people in the background chatting with Stuart were Star Trek writers D.C. Fontana and David Gerrold.
Best Quote:
Penny: Wil Wheaton is Sheldon's mortal enemy.
Amy: "Mortal enemy?" Sheldon, I know you're a bit of a left-handed monkey wrench, but you really have a mortal enemy?
Sheldon: In fact, I have 61 of them. Would you like to see the list?
The Sheldon: Muhammad is the most common first name in the world, Li, the most common surname. As I didn't know the answer, I thought that gave me a mathematical edge.
The Wolowitz: If you're gonna love me, you're gonna have to love the whole package: the tenderhearted poet and the crazy daredevil.
The Science: At this moment, our relationship exists in two mutually contradictory states. Until you either do not go or go to Wil Wheaton's party, you are simultaneously my friend and not my friend. I'm characterizing this phenomenon as Schrodinger's Friendship.
Review: I had to watch this episode twice to fully grasp the humor. Sure, the first time I was multitasking and I sort of skipped the Howard scenes, as he's not my favorite character and seeing him engaged is a tad disturbing. But the second time I watched it I found it extremely funny and maybe the best one this season.
There are two storylines and I'll start with Howard's. He gets the opportunity to go on a space station for a few weeks to work on a project and doesn't tell Bernadette (or his mother) until after it was sure that he will leave. While everyone thinks Howard is now a hero (for being the first one to go into space and the first one to kick a girl out of bed), Bernadette is scared for his safety and rats him out to Mrs. Wolowitz, who is decisive: "Your tuchis is not leaving this planet!"Howard, who hasn't had a woman other than his mother in his life for very long, doesn't know that whatever life-altering decision he makes should be discussed with his fiance, while Bernadette, though not wanting to be like Mrs. Wolowitz, is quite bossy, and that combo makes for a couple of really funny scenes. My favorite part of this arc was Bernie's "Oh, boo-hoo, you're not going to space!" line. Another highlight was Howard's pre-sex preparation. Not only does he light up his Star Wars swords and puts on music, but he also stretches!
The other storyline puts Sheldon together with his mortal enemy, Wil Wheaton. Or, too be fair to the guy who cancelled Firefly and whoever else was on that list, one of his 61 mortal enemies, all carefully put on a list saved on a five and a quarter inch floppy. As Leonard decides to go to Wheaton's party, Sheldon uses an application of Heisenberg's uncertainty principle, considering his roommate to be both his friend and a traitor until the night of the event, which gave us some funny moments like the one with the water bottle.
In the end, Sheldon's mortal enemies number remained constant as he made peace with Wheaton but put the former Mr. Data - Brent Spiner - on the list, and I'm trying to figure out what his former "Wesley Crushers" bowling team will be named now. Any ideas? But I don't particularly like that Wil Wheaton is now on Dr. Cooper's good side. Their rivalry gave us some of the greatest moments of this show.
I was also glad to see that Jon Snow's sword made it to The Big Bang Theory. As the geeky universe is expanding, it's fun to see Sheldon and Leonard keep up with the new stuff. Not to mention that Game of Thrones is currently my favorite fantasy show on TV.
Leonard didn't have much in this episode, but his "street smarts" bargaining scenes were hilarious. As for Raj, Penny and Amy, they were background characters more than anything else, and I dare say - as much as I love both Amy and Bernadette - that the inflation of characters makes things dull sometimes, as one of the things that made this show so hilarious were the interactions between Penny and Sheldon and we don't have much of that anymore. And bring the science back already, these guys are physicists!
The Big Bang Theory 5x04: The Wiggly Finger Catalyst Back to Season 5
