The Big Bang Theory – Recap & Review – The Desperation Emanation

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The Big Bang Theory
The Desperation Emanation

Original Air Date: Oct 21, 2010

Theresa – Staff Writer
theresa@thetwocentscorp.com

Here’s one you haven’t heard before: Sheldon making fun of Leonard because he doesn’t have a girlfriend.

As if that weren’t insulting enough, Howard’s back with Bernadette and Raj found out he can date deaf girls he doesn’t have to talk to, so Leonard is the ONLY one without female companionship. Even Stuart has a girlfriend now. Leonard is lamenting his loneliness when Amy Farrah Fowler butts in via webcam, and suggests he try meeting someone “in a bar or tavern.” Sheldon tells her that would only work if Leonard had alpha male traits such as height and athletic skills.

After Leonard leaves, Amy tells Sheldon she’d like him to meet her mother. He says he’ll get back to her, calmly closes his laptop, and then races down the stairs to freak out to Leonard. Sheldon does not want his relationship with Amy to go to the next level, but Leonard won’t help him. Instead, Leonard shows up at Howard’s house to invoke the girlfriend pact (setting him up with Bernadette’s friends) as Plan B. Plan A was pretending to work at the Apple store to meet women, but he ended up in mall jail.

While Leonard prepares for his date, Sheldon attempts to make himself unGoogleable so that Amy can’t find him, even removing a number from the outside of their building to “change their address” (trivia: address is 2311 Los Robles). Unfortunately, he did not think his cunning plan all the way through, because she shows up anyway, seeing as, y’know, she’s been there before. This may be the only time Sheldon has ever had a dumbstruck look on his face. Leonard gets Amy to leave by constructing the elaborate excuse of “Sheldon’s not here.”

At the restaurant with Howard and Bernadette, Leonard meets his blind date, Joy. What to say about Joy…  She begins by dabbing at her post-gym sweat with the table napkin, laughs raucously in Leonard’s face, and then imitates how she would maim his genitalia. After asserting that he has too much self-respect to settle, he agrees to go to a wedding with her because there’s a chance of sex. Good going, Leonard.

Sheldon, who randomly sings a diddy about the nearest stars when he walks down the stairs, finds that Amy is waiting outside the building. His logical reaction is to run back upstairs and put on a hooded jacket and a Groucho Marx mask (!) to sneak past her, but she is now camped out on the steps. It turns out she just wanted Sheldon to lie about being her boyfriend to satisfy her mother. Via webcam, Amy and Sheldon awkwardly describe their desire for coitus with each other to Amy’s mother in a way I cannot even repeat, and all is well.

Ok, first, major points for the old-school plastic disguise. More than a few laugh out loud – then rewind and laugh out loud again – moments in this episode. I liked the split of time between Sheldon and Leonard’s stories, and I actually really enjoyed Johnny Galecki in this one. No Penny in this one, so I assume we’re seeing the beginning of Kaley Cuoco’s hiatus (If you don’t know, Kaley had been injured while horseback riding, so episodes had to be rewritten). And I know it was a joke, but I would’ve loved to get a peek at Raj’s girlfriend in the last scene, wouldn’t you? What did you think of Joy? How about all the interesting Amy/Sheldon discussion? Leave your Two Cents in the comments!

Best Lines
Sheldon: You know it just occurred to me – if there are an infinite number of parallel universes, in one of them, there’s probably a Sheldon who doesn’t believe parallel universes exist.

Leonard: Have you considered telling her how you feel?
Sheldon: Leonard, I’m a physicist, not a hippie.
Leonard: Well, let me see if I can explain your situation using physics. What would you be if you were attached to another object by an inclined plane wrapped helically around an axis?
Sheldon: … Screwed!

And best line ever –
Raj: Two words: deaf chick. It doesn’t matter if I can’t talk because she can’t hear me.
Leonard: What?
Raj: That’s what she said.