Castle 5x21: The Squab and The Quail

As Castle and Beckett get into a tiff over him not immediately dropping what he was doing to have sex with her when she wanted, across town, a billionaire drops dead at a fancy restaurant. Also at the table was Eric Vaughan, billionaire inventor, Castle's idol, and Mr. Fantastic.

Hey kids, it's Ioan Gruffudd!

Vaughan has no idea who might have wanted the other billionaire dead, but that's immaterial as the investigation turns up something interesting: The waiter screwed up the orders. The dead guy ordered the squab, but was given Vaughan's quail by mistake. So that means Vaughan was the real target. He has no idea who might want him dead, either.

Beckett suggests police protection, and Vaughan agrees. Only, rather than having a couple of burly, uniformed cops, he specifically requests Beckett, and the commissioner agrees for some reason. Castle doesn't want her spending too much time alone with an attractive rich dude, so he puts extra pressure on Ryan and Esposito to solve this one quickly.

Lanie calls Beckett to tell her that the billionaire was killed by a synthetic neurotoxin, and it just so happens that Vaughan owns a lab where it's manufactured. The lead researcher there had a crush on him, and when he didn't reciprocate, she got a bit crazy.

I dunno what his problem was. I'd let her boil my bunny any day.

However, she has an alibi, and a drunk homeless guy the cops picked up in the alley behind the restaurant IDs one of the busboys as someone who was up to no good around the time of the murder. When Ryan and Esposito go to pick him up, they find him lying in bed with a bullet in his brain. They also find the vial of poison that was meant for Vaughan.

With a serious-business killer on the loose, Vaughan decides it's a good idea to stay off the street, so he books himself and Beckett into the Presidential Suite at the Fairwick Hotel(a TV version of the Warwick Hotel). He orders room service, but since the other guy was killed by poisoned food, Beckett won't let him bring anything in other than the Champagne. She tries to resist his charms, but he still manages to convince her to have a glass, even though she's on duty.

Well, half a glass.

Castle and Beckett have another disagreement when he sees the two glasses on the table, but he agrees to let it go because she says 'please'. Meanwhile, the guys find a video of someone handing the busboy the poison, and figure that the killer was threatening his daughter to get him to cooperate.

At home, Alexis tries to calm her father down with some soothing tea, but he will not relax as long as Kate is in a hotel suite with a billionaire. While his daughter says Beckett is totally committed to the relationship, his mother points out quite rightly that there ain't no ring on her finger.

And Martha knows a thing or two about not having a wedding ring.

As it happens, Castle's right to be jealous because while he's drinking tea, a billionaire is trying to kiss his girlfriend. Fortunately, she's not totally into it, and she shoves him away just as a sniper is trying to put a bullet in his brain.

The cops check with the hotel across the street and discover that the killer was staying there under an assumed name, and he made several phone calls to the disgruntled scientist. They bring her back in and she says she thought she was giving the poison to a rival lab so they could file the patent first. With her help, they track the wire transfer from her payoff, and a whole web of lies is unravelled. The payment came from Vaughan himself, and the company that he was getting the dead billionaire to invest in doesn't exist. Castle posits that Vaughan's entire empire is built on lies, Madoff-style and he had the other guy whacked to keep from being exposed.

However, when Beckett confronts him, he tells her that he doesn't oversee the day-to-day operations of his company, his lawyer does. The lawyer made some bad investments with other peoples' money, and when he tried to buy his way out of it, he just kept digging the hole deeper and deeper. Eventually, all he could do was kill some people to keep from being exposed. He goes to prison, the feds catch the hired gun as he tries to escape over the Canadian border, and Beckett says goodbye to the fantastic billionaire.

Castle apologizes for taking her for granted and offers Kate a romantic, full-body massage. But when she asks him where they're going, all he can say is "To the bedroom."

"That's not what I meant!"

What I Liked
-Castle can't believe that the department is forcing Beckett to hang out with a womanizing rich guy against her will. Oh, cruel irony!

What I Hated
-Castle somehow memorized the menu after seeing it briefly at the restaurant. Even the waiter couldn't recognize the items properly, and he worked there.
-Unnecessary tech talk. The fact that the killer was left-handed didn't matter one iota.

Final Thoughts
Geez, Beckett's really not all that great a girlfriend. She gets pissy when Castle tries to have a hobby that doesn't involve her, she's concerned that their relationship isn't going anywhere, even though they've been dating less than a year, and she kissed another dude just because he was cute and rich.

Women are good at dodging unwanted kisses, and this is not a woman who's dodging.

In fact, that was primarily what the episode was about, since the case was mainly in the background and they didn't even actually catch the guy who tried to shoot Vaughan. I guess that's why I hated it so much. Half of the episode was devoted to Beckett being a stereotypical "Where's this relationship going" girlfriend, which seemed really out of character for her. Plus, she spent four years running around with Castle before she was willing to go out with him, including an entire year where she knew he was in love with her, and now she thinks they might be moving too slowly? For a while there, she was pretty sane compared to most women on TV. Now apparently she's become a cliche.

There's not much more to say about it. Everything that wasn't Beckett and Vaughan fawning over each other was kind of superfluous and incredibly underdeveloped.

Hawaii Five-0 3x20: Olelo Pa'a

Steve and Catherine are in South Korea, exchanging some North Korean prisoners for the body of a dead US soldier. It's taken three years and intervention from the highest levels of government to get the body back, and the North Koreans wonder why the US would exchange so much for one body, but McGarrett's not saying.

When we come back after the credits, it's 2000 again and Joe White is training Navy SEALs, including McGarrett and some other guy. In the middle of the night, the other guy gets up so he can quit the program, which is done by ringing a bell three times. He gets off two rings before McGarrett tackles him from behind. It turns out they're friends and the previous Thanksgiving the guy's dad told Steve that his proudest moment was when his son signed up for SEAL training.

Aw crap, now I have to finish training.

After that, he became the most badass, hardcore soldier there was. But then McGarrett took a mission from a CIA guy to capture Victor Hesse's brother in Korea, and got him killed. Three years later, the US government finally managed to recover his body, except when Steve cracks open the casket to say his goodbyes, he finds that it's not his friend, but some other guy. Immediately before they parachuted into the DPRK, his friend knocked up his girlfriend, married her, and got her name tattooed on his arm. The body in the casket is missing that tattoo.

Steve immediately starts planning an unauthorized mission into North Korea to retrieve his friend's body from where he left it. Catherine convinces him to let her come along, and McGarrett calls in a favour from Joe White and Jimmy Buffett. Jimmy's helicopter wasn't in the budget this week, but he gets Steve and Cat a cache of weapons and gives them a ride to a secret smugglers' road that goes across the border. Once they're across, McGarrett recognizes one of the smugglers who killed his friend in a firefight three years previously. He and Cat hijack the guy's car with the intent of getting him to take them to where the body's buried. But the guy bails out and the car crashes into a tree.

Always buckle up, kids.

They recover quickly and manage to recapture the guy, and fortunately, he can still remember where the body is. Steve gets him to dig it up and discovers that the body was mutilated before it was buried. After getting the guy to admit who ordered the mutilation, McGarrett booby-traps the guy with a grenade and then he and Cat head down the road to kill the guy who gave the order. Unfortunately, they're greatly outnumbered and they get captured fairly quickly. Fortunately, the smugglers' boss is an idiot who immediately has his captives untied. The grenade trap goes off, and the distraction is enough for Steve and Catherine to grab some guns and shoot everybody. They somehow manage to recover the body and take it back to Hawaii for burial.

Case closed... I guess.

What I Liked
-CIA Agent Robert Picardo. I like the stereotypical shadowy, smoking guy who doesn't tell you his name.

Drinking on the job probably isn't the best idea.

What I Hated
-McGarrett of 2000 looks exactly the same as McGarrett of today, just with slightly shorter hair. It didn't even look like they tried to make him look younger.
-The chief smuggler was the biggest idiot in history. TV villains have severe intelligence issues, but this guy really pushed it to a new level. He untied the people who, just minutes earlier were trying to kill all his men.
-There's no indication of how Steve and Catherine actually got the body back over the border. It was a long walk through the jungle to get where they were, did McGarrett throw the corpse over his shoulder or something?

Final Thoughts
This was a bad episode, and I really didn't like it. It had none of the things that make Hawaii Five-0 watchable, and a whole bunch of pointless, stupid crap. My guess is that this episode was designed to give half the regular cast a little bit of a break, since they're only in the episode for two short scenes. It suffered because of that. All the stuff that makes this show fun is due to the characters and the setting. Ignoring half the cast and setting the episode in Korea was just a recipe for disaster.

Community 4x10: Intro to Knots

It's been eight weeks since Halloween, so that means it's time for a Christmas party. Despite being Jewish, Annie's really excited for the party and she arrives a bit early to help Jeff make his apartment a little bit more habitable. He's a bit concerned that she might want to start playing house on a permanent basis, but she quickly dismisses the idea.

The gang (minus Chevy, but plus Chang as Kevin) arrives shortly thereafter, and all of them have gifts even though they said 'no gifts'. When they're all settled in, Annie sits them down and explains that she heard through backroom channels that they failed their big history paper. Since Jeff needs to pass the class to graduate, he's really ticked off. Fortunately, Annie has invited Prof. Cornwallis to the party so they can schmooze him a bit and try to get him to change their grade.

And it's going to be tough because he's not a happy dude.

The professor doesn't respond much to Winger's charms, but he's very interested in both scotch and boobs, so Jeff tries to get Britta to go over to him and jiggle her bits at him. She's not interested, though, because she thinks Cornwallis hates her. However, Jeff needs all the help he can get, since he blew off his section of the paper so he could go to a secret Tom Waits concert, and that's why they failed. Britta agrees to try, but she shows her disapproval with her judgy face.

It looks more constipated than judgy to me.

Jeff goes back in to continue schmoozing, but Cornwallis sees right through him, and says nothing he does will get their grade raised from the C- he gave them. Elated, Jeff grabs Annie to tell her that they didn't actually fail. She already knows. The grade wouldn't keep them from passing the course, but a C- would cause her to fail to become valedictorian. Jeff doesn't care, though, and he says that the only reason he agreed to kiss Cornwallis' pasty British ass is because he thought they failed. Unfortunately, he's forgotten that human beings have ears, so Cornwallis hears the whole thing and decides to change their grade to an F after all.

These new revelations require a confab, so the group gathers in Jeff's bedroom to discuss what they're going to do. While they're in there, the hear sounds of a struggle, and when they come out, Cornwallis is tied to a chair and Chang wants to know if they want him to kill him.

I think the answer is probably 'no'. Probably.

Annie wants to immediately untie the professor, but Jeff thinks that they now have leverage, and they can talk about their grade. Cornwallis threatens to report them to the police, but Jeff and Annie lawyer him into submission. So a sociological experiment begins: The professor offers to give an A to whoever unties him and flunk everyone else. The group manages to hold together, but Annie is sorely tempted when Cornwallis points out that Shirley is also on track to be valedictorian. But, when that still doesn't work, he reveals that the reason the group originally got a C- is because Jeff tanked his section. Annie punches him, and they all start arguing, which attracts the attention of Jeff's neighbour, The Dean. Craig knocks on the door, then barges in when he sees what's happening.

They're having a party, and they didn't invite him.

The professor has inexplicably been untied, and is roaming around the apartment, drinking more scotch. He's not going to leave, though, because things are finally getting interesting. Winger gives one of his standard speeches about how they're all flawed and he forgives whoever screwed him over, which is, of course, exactly what the betrayer would say. So, to prove his loyalty, Jeff grabs Cornwallis and they tie him up again. Then it's on to the gift-giving. The bows on Kevin's gifts show that he doesn't know how to tie a knot, which means he couldn't have tied up the professor, and he must have done it to himself. He admits to doing it because he was bored, and as compensation for the mental anguish he's caused, he agrees to change their grade to a C+. Chang excuses himself to the bathroom to make a call to his boss, then The Dean comes over with a basket of kittens to say he forgives them for not inviting him to the party.

Kittens make any party more awesome. It's science!

What I Liked
-After Annie smashes a ceramic thing, Abed takes off his shoes.

I really wish they'd done Die Hard, too.

-This week's best line: "I'm pretty sure it's anus."-Troy

What I Hated
-Shirley was on track to be valedictorian. Come on, no one believes that. She took a class that she thought was Phys Ed. Someone who could've been top of her class wouldn't take a class she thought she'd do poorly in.
-Cornwallis managed to slip out of the chair without anyone noticing. Malcolm McDowell is wily, but he's not a magician.

Final Thoughts
After two viewings, I still don't know what Abed's gifts to the group were. They looked like plastic bags full of chickpeas or something.

The final tag with the evil universe was silly.

I've changed my mind about who I think Chang's employer is. There's no reason for the City College Dean to try to get the study group expelled, so I figure it must be someone else, like Garrett or Fat Neil or Rob Corddry.

This was a better episode than last week's, although it would've been pretty hard for it to be worse. That doesn't mean it was any damn good, though. It was basically on par with last year's stupid musical Christmas, and not quite as good as the claymation Christmas in season two. They've had bad luck with Christmas episodes on this show.

You know what would've been really good? If they did Die Hard in a restaurant like Abed wanted. That could've been awesome. Yes, it would've been really gimmicky, but Community does a lot of gimmicky episodes, and Joel McHale did a really good John McClane in Modern Warfare. Oh well, if ifs and buts were candy and nuts, we'd all have a merry Christmas.

Castle 5x20: The Fast and The Furriest

A car speeds up to the patient drop-off at an ER, dumps a woman on the ground, and speeds away. She's still alive, but badly injured and she dies soon afterwards. Perlmutter doesn't have an immediate cause of death, but her face is covered in what look like claw marks. A little research determines that she was getting a PhD in evolutionary biology, and she worked at a sanctuary for primates who retired from the movie business.

Beckett and Castle head over to the sanctuary and have a talk with the director. He says that the dead girl had very little direct contact with the animals, and that even if she did, the animals are very gentle. He also mentions that she had an angry confrontation with someone in the parking garage a few days earlier. While he describes the guy to a sketch artist, Castle is accosted by a man in a gorilla suit who threatens to kill him.

It doesn't quite look real.

A witness points the team to a small-time thug, but when Beckett brings him in, he claims that he found the girl lying in an alley and didn't stick around at the ER because he didn't want to take the blame. He gives her directions to the crime scene, where Castle and Beckett find a blood stain and some giant footprints. Castle knows just who the killer was.

Bigfoot.

Beckett's a little incredulous, but Castle wonders just exactly why someone would try to frame Bigfoot for murder. Back at the precinct, battle lines are drawn once more: Castle and Ryan think their killer could be the legendary sasquatch, while Beckett and Esposito think it was just hoaxers trying to get money out of some crappy reality show that's offering $1 million for proof Bigfoot exists.

However, as it turns out, the dead girl's very last phone call was to world-renowned Bigfoot researcher, Dr. Darrell Meeks. The doc tells Castle and Beckett that since the girl was a member of the First Nations, to her tribe, the sasquatch was a benevolent protector. She told him that she actually saw one as a child, and that's why she devoted her life to studying primate evolution. Meeks figures that she may have been followed by someone who thought she might lead them to a Bigfoot so they could claim the million bucks. He also identifies the other primate researchers saw her arguing with.

International big-game hunter, Chase Diggins.

It just so happens that Diggins has a hook for a hand (his left hand having been gnawed off by a sasquatch), which could have been used to make the wounds on the girl's face. Ryan and Esposito track him to a very creepy warehouse, and bring him in. Under interrogation, he admits to being in the alley where the girl was killed, but he was there the night before she died, watching her stamp fake sasquatch footprints into the dirt.

With Bigfoot seeming like a less likely suspect, the team focuses their attention on a pendant that was inexplicably found in the dead girl's stomach. Her friends indicate that it didn't belong to her, but rather to her roommate, who was murdered a year earlier. Esposito also manages to link a piece of glass found embedded in her skull to a wi-fi enabled camera, which leads to some video she uploaded to the cloud. It seems to capture her murder, but unfortunately it's very dark, so it's not particularly helpful in identifying her killer.

It's a street light.

The police tech department manages to narrow down the murder's location to a two square mile section of woods, so Beckett and Castle trudge out to the forest to investigate. They don't find the crime scene or Bigfoot, but they do find a Bigfoot trap, which they promptly fall into. Castle manges to boost Beckett out, but he has to wait in the pit while she goes back to the car to get some rope. During his imprisonment, he tries to dig himself out with a spork, and he's accosted by yet another dude in a suit.

This time it's actually supposed to be a dude.

Beckett returns to find a sasquatch staring into the hole, and wisely draws her gun. The surprise of seeing someone wave a gun in his face causes him to stumble backwards into the bit, where he removes his mask and reveals that he's actually Dr. Meeks and not Bigfoot. Meeks has been out stalking sasquatches all day, and he's even found what he thinks is a club that Bigfoot used to kill his prey.

Back at the precinct, Esposito and Ryan have rounded up the dead roommate's ex-boyfriend, who was the prime suspect in the roommate's murder. He says he's been living out in the woods for the past year and that the dead girl has been helping him by bringing him food and supplies because she didn't believe he killed her roommate. He also tells them that the roommate's pendant was stolen when she was killed, so the fact that it turned up in the dead girl's stomach meant that she had found the real killer. A quick investigation points to the director at the primate retirement home, who had been accused of harassing various female students over the years. Castle and Beckett confront him, and the look on his face makes it pretty clear that he's guilty.

Case closed.

Meanwhile, on the home front, someone or something is stealing Castle's leftovers. Martha and Alexis swear it wasn't them, and the housekeeper hasn't been there in three days, so it's a mystery, and there's nothing Castle loves more than a good mystery. In order to catch the 'giant super rats' that are swiping his chateaubriand, he sets a trap, which goes off just as he and Beckett are about to get busy. But, when they run out to catch the perpetrators, instead of a squad of giant rats, they find one relatively large daughter.

Getting caught made her a little blue.

Alexis bolts when confronted with her tennis racket wielding father, but few days later, she returns to the scene of the crime to talk about what happened. Despite the fact that he gives her a generous allowance, she's out of money because she invested it all in her friend's idea to plant rooftop bamboo gardens. She didn't ask her dad for the cash because she's tired of hearing the speech about how people might try to take advantage of people like them who have the kind of money they do. Castle's not too upset because giving all their money to causes they believe in is kind of a family trait, but she stills owes him a chateaubriand, so he gets her to call her friend, and the three of them go out for dinner to discuss how bamboo's going to save the world.

What I Liked
-Castle has to hold Ryan back when Esposito talks smack about leprechauns. You shouldn't insult a dude's cultural heritage.
-The killer broke a camera over the girl's head when he killed her, which explains why there are so few photos of Bigfoot. That actually makes a lot of sense.
-Alexis flips out and just runs away when she gets caught stealing. That's a fairly reasonable response when you get hit in the face with a dye pack.
Castle's voice breaks a little when he gets Beckett to promise to come back for him. Nathan Fillion's voice work is almost as good as his face work.
-Beckett has giant, sasquatch-sized handcuffs. You never know when they'll come in handy.

What I Hated
-The bad gorilla suit. It was a step up from the one in Congo, but it was still quite obvious that it was fake.

Final Thoughts
The brought back Jonathan Frakes for another directing gig. He didn't make a cameo this time, though, which is a shame. He would've made a pretty good sasquatch. They've given him a couple fun episodes this season.

And this episode was indeed fun, which is what I think Castle should be. They can get really dark or dramatic sometimes, but for the vast majority of episodes, they really ought to be solving murders with the help of Castle's goofiness. There are very few other shows out there that would have a character who seriously considered the idea that someone may have been murdered by Bigfoot; Castle has two.

That being said, I didn't enjoy this episode quite as much as The Final Frontier. It was really good, but it didn't have as many fun bits as that one did. However, it did have a dude in a sasquatch outfit, and Alexis getting a face full of blue dye, so I'd have to say it's my second-favourite episode of Castle this season.

HIMYM 8x21: Romeward Bound

Two plots this week, both terrible.

Terrible Plot Number One
The Captain's moving to Rome for a year, and he wants Lily to come with him to keep working as his art consultant. She's always wanted to live abroad, but when she calls Marshall to tell him the news, she realizes that moving to Rome would mean that he would have to give up his career.

And become a slightly racist caricature of an Italian person.

So, she calls up the Captain and turns down the job. Now unemployed, she bakes some brownies and goes to surprise Marshall at work. When she gets there, she finds that the place is nearly abandoned and that they haven't had a client in months. Garrison Cootes has disappeared to Colorado to await the apocalypse and the office is down to just Marshall and another associate named Bernard. With no work to do, they spend their days goofing off. Lily yells at him for not telling her and costing them their life in Italy, but Marshall totally wants to become a slightly racist stereotype and he runs off to try to get her another chance. He succeeds, but when the Captain offers her the job again, she still rejects it. She's scared that she'll uproot her family and then fail and lose everything.

And Marshall will become a different, slightly racist caricature of an Italian person.

When Marshall finds out, he's crushed and runs home to convince his wife to chase her dream job. He uses variations on the one phrase he can say in Italian (Come on, bro. Don't Bogart all the Funions.) to tell her that even though it's going to be scary, he believes they can do it.

Plus, he already bought a white suit and it would be a shame to have to return it.

Terrible Plot Number Two
Ted and Barney are hanging out at MacLaren's. For some reason, Barney wants to leave as soon as he gets there, but before he can, Ted spots a girl from his yoga class. Apparently, she has a ridonkulous body, so Barney resolves to stick around until he sees it. Unfortunately, for him, even though he bribes Carl (who doesn't actually appear in the episode) to turn the heat up, she just won't take off her coat.

It's still winter to her, damn it!

Lily asks him just what the hell he's doing, but Barney explains that Robin's the coolest fiancee ever, and she won't care as long as he looks and doesn't touch. When Robin shows up at the bar and gives the woman in the coat a big hug, he even thinks that she might be up for a threesome. However, it turns out that 'Liddy' is their wedding planner; Barney's even met her once before. Later, when he tells Robin what's up, even she wants to see what's under the coat.

Barney laments the fact that Marshall's not there, because he lacks the stench of desperation and could just ask Liddy to take the coat of without repercussions, unlike Ted and Barney who would get beaten down. Since he's getting married in three weeks, Robin thinks Barney should also be able to ask with impunity, so she stares him down until he does.

And it is, indeed, ridonkulous.

Barney revels in his newfound ability to say whatever gross thing he wants to women and get away with it. However, Ted cautions him that no matter how cool Robin may seem, they're getting married in three weeks, and he's not really acting like it. They have a bit of an argument, but Barney insists that he knows Robin better than Ted and that's why he's the one marrying her. He's probably right, since Robin meets him at home wearing nothing but a coat.

She won't be cool for long.

What I Liked
-Marshall dropped Italian in college because he had a conflict with being not stoned. That's the best reason to drop a class.

What I Hated
-The whole thing with The Captain only responding to nautical speech got old really fast. Having the characters repeat themselves until they remember to say 'Ahoy' instead of 'Hello' slowed an already slow episode down to a glacial pace.
-The Italian Existential Film.

Seriously?

-Ted acts like a weirdo because Liddy spoke to him. Apparently, in addition to being Lord of the Douche, Ted is also Crown Prince of Creepy Weirdonia.
-Honeywell & Cootes is nearly defunct and Garrison Cootes is hiding out in a mine shaft in Colorado. In an episode last season, Future Ted said that Marshall and Cootes would go on to save the planet. Plus, they just hired Big Dick Richie to use his manipulation and accidental pen-dropping to help them. Again, why even bother with continuity if you're going to ignore half of it?

Final Thoughts
The actress who played Liddy is named Mircea Monroe. She looks pretty good, but I'd have to say that her body is not quite ridonkulous. That's probably why they didn't actually show it in the episode. However, if you do an appropriate search, you can see her boobs.

They've really gotten a lot of use out of 'Murder Train'.

This was quite possibly the worst episode in the history of the show. Other than merely killing some time, it didn't advance the plot. We know that Ted meets the mother in the season finale. We've known for months. All we're doing now is waiting... and watching boring filler episodes.

Why even bother sending Lily and Marshall to Rome? We know they'll be back like two episodes later, just like when Lily went to San Francisco, Robin moved to Japan, and Lily and Marshall moved out to Long Island. New sets and locations are expensive, the show's ratings are diving, and the cast just renegotiated their contracts. They can't afford to do more than a couple episodes set in anything even remotely resembling Italy. Even ignoring the financial issues, there's still the fact that it's really hard to write characters into a show when they live far away from the show's main location. That's exactly why everyone moved back so quickly all those other times.

I'm hanging on until the end of the season, and maybe next season's premiere if they cop out and don't show the mother's face in the finale, but after that, I'm done. The show just isn't very good anymore, and watching it just makes me long for the good ol' days of five years ago. I could even forgive the ridiculous plots and the slow pacing if it were at least still funny. Unfortunately, it's not.

TBBT 6x20: The Tenure Turbulence

While the guys are eating lunch in the University cafeteria, Kripke comes in to inform them that the horrible smell coming from Prof. Tupperman's office was actually Prof. Tupperman. He's been dead for two weeks now, which means two things 1) They may never get the smell out of the carpet and 2) A tenured position is now available. Barry heads off to plant his nose in the tenure committee's collective butthole, but the three PhDs at the table decide that they'll apply, but they won't make fools of themselves trying to win the job. That lasts all of one day. Over three individual dinners, they decide the stability tenure offers is worth a little schmoozing.

Fancy meeting you here.

Leonard starts things off by accosting the head of HR at the gym. Unfortunately, he hasn't done any cardio work in quite some time, and he winds up in a heap on the floor while Kripke successfully works the elliptical machine beside Mrs. Davis. Since he can't talk to women, Raj sends her a 90-minute video explaining his genius, while Sheldon stops by her office to butter her up by giving her a DVD copy of Roots.

It may be a racially insensitive gift, but LeVar is awesome in it.

Their next step is to hobnob with the committee at Tupperman's memorial service. Sheldon brings Amy along so she can talk up his academic accomplishments and tell him which emotions he should be expressing. Leonard brings Penny along so she can show off her boobs.

Raj sees what she did there.

As the guys bicker about the ethics of using their ladies to advance their careers, Howard and Bernadette arrive. Since he only has a Masters, Wolowitz can't get tenure, and he encourages the guys to talk smack about each other's mothers because it's just so much fun to watch. Sheldon proves to be surprisingly good at it, even accidentally making a 'come across your mother' remark. But, seeing how their competitiveness is driving them apart, the three PhDs resolve to go home and let their work speak for itself... until Kripke shows up.

He's the master of schmoozing.

They can't let Barry win, so everyone goes into the memorial service, and despite their quirks, Mrs. Davis puts them all on the tenure short list. She's even willing to overlook Sheldon's accidental racism.

What I Liked
-Raj works out some daddy issues over dinner.

No one else can ride my bejewelled elephant, either.

-The video Raj makes shows him discovering the moon at the age of five. Truly, he was a prodigy.

What I Hated
-Kripke's speech impediment. Most of the time I can understand him, but he had a couple lines in this episode that were just unintelligible.

Final Thoughts
It's rare that they do an episode with a single plot, but the entirety of this one was devoted to the guys' quest for tenure. They didn't even do a little side plot about how Howard was jealous and resolved to get his doctorate or something like that. I find it really refreshing for a sitcom to devote enough time to really flesh out a plot, even if it's not the most interesting one in the world.

And it certainly wasn't the most interesting plot in the world. I think I've seen the 'the guys compete for something and wind up fighting' plot about a hundred times now. They didn't spend a whole lot of time on the fighting portion, but that's still not exactly a new spin on an old story. The episode still managed to deliver a good number of laughs, however they weren't really related to the plot, and some of them were a bit juvenile, so I can't give this a really high score.