The Big Bang Theory: Falling Stars and Yellow Duckies

Coinciding with this year’s Leonid Meteor Shower, Leonard, Raj, and Howard go on an overnight camping trip away from the city lights to have a look at the meteor shower themselves, dividing this week’s episode between them outdoors and Penny and Sheldon back at the apartment.

Spending the night under the stars, the guys unknowingly get high from special cookies baked by hippie teachers. As they progress through the early stages, Raj discusses being king of the rabbits, and Howard reveals his virginity was taken by cousin Jeannie at an uncle’s funeral. When the guys get a second wave of the munchies, they plan a raid on the nearby Boy Scout camp. The night ends with the Leonids streaming across the sky above their heads as the three of them devour Mrs. Wolowitz’s brisket like a pack of hungry wolves.

Back in the apartment, Sheldon’s quiet evening home is cut short when he hears Penny screaming for help from across the hall. Sheldon arrives to find a naked Penny in the bathtub who has slipped and dislocated her shoulder. After lecturing Penny on bathtub floor rubber adhesives and accidentally getting to second base while helping her with her clothes, Sheldon finally puts his learner’s permit to use as he drives her to the hospital. Along the way, Sheldon confesses he did peek when he asks about the tattoo on Penny’s right butt cheek. Their night ends with Penny and Sheldon singing an endearing version of “Soft Kitty” in rounds as he tucks her into bed.

Verdict:

The first thing I was glad about in this week’s episode is that they’re finally giving Penny and Leonard some much needed time apart since the beginning of the season. Sure, I’m happy that Leonard did get the girl, but unless they make it more entertaining and less annoying for Penny and Leonard to be together, I foresee an impending breakup.

Second is Penny and Sheldon. As we’ve seen from past episodes, as well as this one, Penny and Sheldon interact well together. I think the creators of the show know that, so I hope to see more of Penny and Sheldon (but not too much like they did with Sheldon in season two).

What the creators really need to work on, though, is sharing the spotlight. It’s a little difficult to share the spotlight when there are five characters constantly vying for it, but I do believe each character of Big Bang is unique enough deserve a bigger share of the storyline that Sheldon, Leonard, and Penny usually hog.

In this episode, it seems that instead of trying to cram them all into the same scene, they did try to divvy it up and give the characters more room to shine by splitting it into two stories, but it’s still all of them crammed into the same half-hour slot trying to share the same amount of lines. What Big Bang needs to do is rotate the spotlight. We’re in the third season after all.

Season 3, Episode 8:  The Adhesive Duck Deficiency (Originally aired November 16, 2009)

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Photographs courtesy of CBS and Monty Brinton