I’ll never get to 43 again!

For lacking a Bernadette and Amy, this episode of Big Bang Theory still proved to be the cleaner, quainter, and on the whole, more progressive episodes we’ve seen this season. Leonard finds love (and that he’s more attractive than he realizes), Penny finds emotions, Sheldon finds clarity, and Raj and Howard scare themselves silly.

…Sounds fun.

When Sheldon’s done doodling a wormhole on the edge of his napkin at lunch, his friends realize he takes up twenty minutes each day a week locked in a basement doing something with the letter 43. I personally would have been more invested in Raj and Howard’s search effort if I weren’t so offended Raj got the Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy number wrong. 42! The answer is 42, how does one not know that? Regardless, I’m glad they brought the wormhole joke full circle—no pun intended. Maybe.

Tell you what, claps for Sheldon. When he tells off Raj and Howard for spying, he’s the most concise and pure I’ve seen Dr. Sheldon Cooper in a VERY long time.

Meanwhile, Penny gains a school project partner and Leonard gains jealousy on his shoulder. Jealousy is a clouding judgment; it doesn’t let you see when someone else might be knocking on your door (Alex, better watch yourself). For all the bickering and low-brow and back-and-forth this episode, however—I seriously cringed over Leonard’s gang effort—the snuck-in “I love you” socked me in the stomach. I’ll just sit over here and make believe the crying meant something good. I wish it did; the scenario was harder for me to read, but I guess we’ll learn all about that next Thursday.

Tonight’s quotables are:

“That’s just the tip of the sadness iceberg.”

-- Leonard

“Corduroy makes too much noise, and I need to find quieter pants.”

-- Alex

“What is 43, besides my mom’s neck size?”

-- Howard

And we now have a fast and easy way to describe Leonard Hofstadter’s positive attributes to outsiders:

Ø  Taste in friends

Ø  Good sleeper

Ø  Buys the grapes Sheldon likes