TBBT 7x01: The Hofstadter Insufficiency

Leonard's been away all summer, and Sheldon's starting to really miss him. As such, when he dreams that his good buddy has been eaten by a kraken...

Or possibly just molested by one, he wakes up in the middle of the dream

...he has to immediately run over to Penny's place to talk about how he's worried that she might be missing Leonard and having nightmares that one might have if they watched Clash of the Titans before bed. Though surprisingly chipper and well-kempt for someone who was supposedly asleep, Penny is in no mood for Sheldon's shenanigans, and she almost shuts the door in his face. However, he suggests that he sleep at her place so she won't miss Leonard so much, and seeing that Sheldon could use a little comforting, she agrees. He then marches into her room, leaving her to sleep on the couch.

At work the next day, Raj is still pining over Lucy, even seeing her face in his chicken pot pie... which Wolowitz subsequently murders. Since Bernadette is out of town, he suggests that Raj accompany him to a mixer for incoming post-docs, so that he can try out his newfound ability to talk to the ladies. Unfortunately, it takes time to learn how to talk to women, so even though he can physically do it, Raj can't do anything more than make awkward small-talk. Including telling the head of the HR Department, Mrs. Davis, that it's okay that her husband cheated on her because penguins cheat on each other and they're adorable.

Smooth

Back at the apartment, Sheldon continues to miss Leonard. But he refuses to admit it, even after inviting Penny over to play three-dimensional chess because it's what he always used to do with Leonard. The boredom eventually makes her miss Leonard so much that she decides she has to call him. Despite the fact that it's 5:30 in the morning where he is, Leonard is wide awake.

And getting his groove on.

Apparently, research vessels in the North Sea are home to some of the most kick-ass parties on the planet. They're dancing and partying and doing shots. Penny's a bit miffed that he's having so much fun while she misses him terribly, but Sheldon's fine, because he's a rock and he totally doesn't miss him at all. She looks to Sheldon for comfort, but he's no help, and they're out of booze. However, he tells her that he'll still try to comfort her because Leonard made him promise to look after her while he was gone. That revelation just makes Penny miss him more.

To get their minds off Leonard, Sheldon and Penny decide to have their very first heart-to-heart conversation. They start with him telling her how many pairs of pants he owns, and also underpants when she asks him to get more personal. That's not exactly what she meant, though, so she tells him something he doesn't know about her: When she first came to LA, she did a topless scene in a movie about a killer gorilla. Except he's seen it. It was called Serial Apist, and Howard looked it up the day they first met. Sheldon gets the idea, though, and he tells her that he tells people he's okay with Youtube's switch to a thumbs-based rating system, even though he's really not. She scoffs at him and starts to leave, but he tells her he's upset because that actually was something that meant a lot to him, and she treated it like it was nothing. He's right, so she apologizes, and they hug it out.

You can feel the love.

Meanwhile, Bernadette and Amy are at a neuroscience conference together. When they head down to the bar to plan which talks they're going to attend, some guys buy them drinks. Bernadette tells the guys that they're taken, but she says that no one would blame her if Amy went over to talk to them. This of course starts a fight about whose significant other is weirder. Honestly, it's probably a draw. They're still angry at each other when they go to bed, but the power of girl talk is overpowering, and they chat about which one of the guys they would've hypothetically gone for if they weren't attached. As it turns out, Amy wanted the one that was kinda like Howard, and Bernadette wanted the one that was kinda like Sheldon. This revelation is too much for them to handle and they awkwardly go to sleep.

What I Liked
-In his dream, Sheldon's ticked off that the Back to the Future II and III DVDs are in the wrong cases. That's the sort of crime that should be punishable by a swift kick in the gonads.
-Penny's fine with Sheldon taking her bed. After six years as neighbours, she's finally learned to deal with his eccentricities. That's some good character growth.
-Raj says that hot, young undergrads are so much better than the old, ugly ones. The man speaks the truth.
-The worst thing about being angry at Leonard for not missing her enough is that Penny has to process her emotions without vodka. Vodka makes everything better.
-Serial Apist. I don't know why, but those kinds of jokes make me giggle.

I wouldn't see it in the theatre, but I'd probably watch if it were on TV.

What I Hated
-Hair dangling over Kaley Cuoco's boobs when she's in a nightgown.

If you're gonna show skin, go all the way. Don't half-ass it. Or in this case, half-boob it.

Final Thoughts
This is the second time that Leonard's gone away for the summer and left Penny behind. It's also the second time he's grown a beard. Is this some kind of subconscious way for the writers to tell us that Penny is Leonard's beard? Probably not.

I really don't like it when they break up the episode into three completely unrelated stories. They can be funny, and this one certainly was, but it makes the show seem disjointed, and just seems like lazy writing. Their problem seems to be that they have too many characters, and getting them all into every episode is probably really hard without breaking things up that way. That's no excuse, though. If they didn't want to have to shove so many characters into an episode, then they shouldn't have created them.

All that aside, this was a pretty good way to start the episode. It was interesting to see some of the characters actually dealing with the fact that Leonard is away, rather than just having him return two minutes into the episode. It's unlikely that his absence will have any long-term repercussions, or even get mentioned again after he returns in episode two, but at least it had some consequences. One of which turned out to be Sheldon and Penny bonding. Character development! I love it!