The Big Bang Theory

The Big Bang Theory

Episode 16: The Vacation Solution

By: Carlos Uribe

The Big Bang Theory is about a group of nerds and the girl next door.

Spoilers Ahoy!

Sheldon is the kind of person who doesn't like to go on vacations. The first reason is because he really does love his job and he loves being able to do it. It manages to mentally stimulate him and this makes it rewarding for him to do it. The second reason is that he doesn't know what to do with himself if he doesn't work. This is the kind of person who lives to work so he hasn't really developed a way to live without work. He seems to have enough time to fulfill his hobbies after work and during the weekends. The third reason is that he's a creature of habit to the extreme. He likes to do laundry on a certain day and he even likes to have a schedule on where to go eat weekly. He is used to going to work and not going to work upsets his daily routines. It makes sense that when Sheldon is finally forced to take a vacation, he decides to spend it working. He simply works at another lab in another field of study. That field is biology.

Sheldon decides to help out Amy. He thinks he's doing her a favor. His belief in his own genius makes him believe that he can do everything that Amy has worked her entire professional life in a mere hours. He looks down on biology since he has a tendency to look down at anything that's not physics. When Amy has him doing what he considers to be trivial things, like cleaning beakers, he objects to her. He wants to do something serious like help her dissect a brain. She does allow him to dissect a brain but he is unable to do it. He cuts his own thumb and the mere sight of blood causes him to faint. He realizes he can't just enter a biology lab and cure cancer. He may be smart but he's still not a biologist. This leads to him giving an honest apology to her. This is probably the first time in the series where he's actually given one on his own. It was nice, it was sweet, and it actually shows some character development for his character.

Howard meanwhile runs into some trouble in his engagement. It turns out that since Bernadette makes more money than Howard, her father wants them to sign a pre-nuptial. Bernadette doesn't know how to ask Howard this and holds off. The problem is that Howard ends up hearing about this from his friends since they can't keep their mouths shut. Howard isn't sure whether he wants to sign a pre-nup but not even Bernadette is sure she wants one. It's all about her commanding father. His mere description of him by Bernadette is enough to make Howard from wanting to communicate with him man-to-man to wanting to call him from the International Space Station. They left the signing of the pre-nup up in the air as it will probably be explored in a future episode.

This was a funny episode of the Big Bang Theory. It managed to work very well since the plots were built around good emotional cores. The Sheldon and Amy relationship is a one-in-a-kind television romance. To my knowledge, it's never really been done before and I don't ever see it being done again. To see it evolve and change is good. It's also nice to see Howard and Bernadette's wedding being slowly built up to.