'The Big Bang Theory' recap: Sex Bomb

Dec 11, 2010 15:06

EPISODE 10 | AIRED DEC 9, 2010
'The Big Bang Theory' recap: Sex Bomb
In a stellar episode, Amy Farrah Fowler gets horny, Sheldon becomes her pimp, and Raj and Howard (almost) come to blows
By Adam B. Vary | Published Dec 10, 2010


Phew, that was a close one, Big Bang theorists -- Sheldon Cooper held a girl's hand for all of three seconds, and he didn't recoil away. Oh yeah, also, for a second there, after Amy Farrah Fowler's sexual appetite unexpectedly spiked from zero to the scientifically measurable amount known as "humina humina," it almost seemed like Sheldon was going to have coitus. You can count me firmly on Team Science Is And Shall Always Be Sheldon's Only True Love, so, in spite of myself (and I'm sure to the ridicule of many in the comments), I actually became rather panicked at the notion of Sheldon doing the horizontal mambo. Fortunately, instead, he just became Amy Farrah Fowler's pimp, a solution that proved far more comedically satisfying (and, ultimately, kinda moot).

Amy's libidinal outbreak first flared up when she was out at a bar with what must be the most oddly-matched female threesome currently on television. After regaling Penny and Bernadette with factoids like the standard heart shape is actually based on "the shape of the buttocks of a female bending over," a former (quick) flame of Penny's named Zach sauntered into the bar. Apparently, tall, broad-shouldered, and kinda doofy looking guys who look good in jeans are exactly the fuel needed to jump start Amy's sex drive -- almost immediately, she became flush, her heart began beating faster, her palms got clammy, and she began involuntarily exclaiming "hoo!" Naturally, in her most Lilith-from-Cheers moment yet, Amy concluded she had "the flu coupled with sudden onset Tourette's syndrome."

The next day, while Sheldon watched Amy slice a human brain over lunch (how romantic!), Amy recounted her symptoms to Sheldon -- including "localized vascular throbbing" in an area that not even the most clinical of language will get me to type out here (I'm bashful, what can I say). Before Sheldon could render his verdict, however, he partook in a delightful bit of Who's-on-First accidental word play with Amy:
Amy: Penny's friend Zach stopped by and said "Hello," and I said, "Hoo!"
Sheldon: Who?
Amy: Zach.
Sheldon: Then why did you ask?
Amy: Ask what?
Sheldon: Who?
Amy: Zach.
Sheldon: All right, let's start over. What did you say when Zach walked in?
Amy: "Hoo!"
Sheldon: Zach.
Amy: Why do you keep saying Zach?*
Sheldon: Because you keep saying "Who!"
Amy: I'm not saying "hoo" now. I said "hoo" last night.
Sheldon: And the answer was Zach, correct?
Amy: There was no question; I simply said "hoo!"
Sheldon: [Pause] All right, I think I have enough to go on.
*An odd question, in hindsight, since the record clearly shows Amy is the one who kept saying "Zach."

Finally, Sheldon diagnosed Amy's problem as either hyperthyroidism, premature menopause, hosting an alien parasite, or -- only as a last-ditch possibility -- sexual arousal. Amy, however, was more clear-headed, if unenthused, about her condition: Zach turned her on but good. Sheldon was not happy, and stormed out with his sashimi. Later that night, however, while doing laundry (so I guess it was Saturday?), Penny pointed out that there was something Sheldon could do to help allay Amy's un-evolved "urges." At first, Sheldon didn't get it -- "it's illegal to spay a human being." But then things seemed to click in, and, I gotta say, for good ten seconds there, it was pretty bracing to even imagine the real possibility of Sheldon having sex. "Oh no oh no oh no oh no oh no," I wrote down in my notes -- and then, right after it, "oh, no I see he's gonna be Amy's pimp instead. Thank jeebus!"

Sheldon phoned up apparently every Zach Johnson in the Pasadena area until he found the right one, something most women would find horrifying. Amy, though, was just grateful for the opportunity to get Zach out of her system -- er, or, really, into her system, if we're being scientifically accurate here, but I'm already regretting this particular aside, so let's just move on. Sheldon brought Amy to the bar and wished her well with Zach, and Jim Parsons expertly betrayed just a thin slice of Sheldon's buried jealousy, especially with his Vulcan hand sign kiss off to Zack after Amy quickly retreated, satisfied with just a hunky handshake and determined to use the Vulcan practice of Kolinahr to repress her carnal needs. But not before she tried holding hands with Sheldon to test her attraction to him, to no apparent results. Still, Sheldon didn't resist her attempt, which, come to think of it, is pretty much the closest he's likely to get to coitus for a long time. All told, I'd say this was the best use of Amy yet on Big Bang; Mayim Bialik is settling into the shows comic rhythms more naturally, and the writers have actually found a way to have their cake (Amy is Sheldon's girlfriend) and eat it too (Amy is simply Sheldon's friend).

Meanwhile, after discussing a lab tech who'd gotten bit by a radioactive rat, Raj and Howard devolved into a spat over which one of them would be the other's sidekick if they developed superpowers due to a nibble from a radioactive animal. It was a very geeky set up to what was essentially a series of escalating sight gags buffeting the main Sheldon/Amy storyline. I'm not sure which I enjoyed more: The ultimate spectacle of these two ostensibly grown men wearing tight wrestling singlets -- and Raj a comically outsized pair of boxing shorts as well -- just circling each other for hours while Leonard looked on in I-can't-believe-this-is-all-I'm-supposed-to-do-in-this-episode disgust. Or the earlier moment, when Howard's "bravery test" for Raj over who could keep their hand in a container housing a giant hairy spider backfired, and Howard was left frantically trying to blow the woolly arachnid off of him.

What did you make of "The Alien Parasite Hypothesis," fellow Big Bang theorists? Were you relieved that it apparently never even occurred to Sheldon that he could have sex with Amy? Are you hoping Bernadette will soon get as much screen time as Amy has been getting? Could Kaley Cuoco's still-in-recovery-from-a-serious-leg-fracture inability to do anything other than sit or stand with her feet firmly planted be any more obvious? Do you think Howard is Raj's sidekick, or Raj is Howard's sidekick? (Or, perhaps, is the whole point that they're each the other's sidekick?) And what is the best number: 73; 5,318,008; or something else?

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