The Big Bang Theory

The Big Bang Theory

Episode 6: The Extract Obliteration

Episode 7: The Habitation Configuration

By: Carlos Uribe

The Big Bang Theory is about a group of friends who happen to be nerds and the girl next door.

Spoilers Ahoy!

The Extract Obliteration:

There is something I immensely like about this episode. It's an episode that is essentially about accomplishing something and how that can affect people's relationships. Let's take Penny. She has gone back to community school but she has been keeping it a secret. She signed up for a history class and she's hoping she'll do good on it. The only reason anybody finds out about the textbook is because one of her female find it. Amy and Bernadette are surprised but they're also not sure why she would be keeping this a secret. This seems like something you would want to tell people about. It's good news and the people you love will want to support you. They don't really get why they had to discover the textbook in order to find out. Penny's entire reason for not telling anyone is simply because she didn't want the support.

She wants to accomplish this without Leonard's help. She doesn't want him to think that the only reason she got good grades was because he was able to help her. She wants to be able to prove to him that she's smart and capable. She's not trying to prove this to herself. She has no problems getting Amy and Bernadette to secretly help her get a good grade on an essay. It's solely Leonard whom she has a problem with. Her education has always been a problem in their relationship. The first time they broke up is because she hadn't gone to school. Leonard was able to accept it by the end but he would definably want to help Penny out with her projects. It's this desire to prove to him that she can be a good student that drives her. That's why she tells him that if she fails, she wants to do it because she put in the work and earned it. This strains their relationship but Leonard is forced to accept that he's not going to be able to do her papers for her. When she gets a good grade, he's happy for her. Still that's a lie. She only earned it with help.

There's also a silly sub-plot with Sheldon. He's delighted when Stephen Hawkins accepts his invite to play Words with Friends. Sheldon is delighted because he takes the title literally. He actually believes that Stephen and him are friends. When Sheldon picks a word that puts him on top, Stephen doesn't respond for two entire weeks. This drives Sheldon crazy as he's afraid that he's lost Stephen as friend. It doesn't help matters when Sheldon learns that Stephen is a sore loser. When Stephen does respond, Sheldon is given a choice. He can beat Stephen Hawking. This is a small accomplishmnent in winning the game. He can decide to lose the game on purpose and keep his friendship. This means giving up the accomplishment. In the end, Sheldon decides he wants to be friends more than he wants to win. He breaks his code of ethics and loses dishonestly. This causes Stephen Hawkins to call him because Hawkins is also a bad winner. The Extract Obliteration might have had a low-stakes sub-plot but the main plot was a pretty good one with a fresh take on an old conflict.

The Habitation Configuration:

There is a single scene in this episode that justifies the sheer existence of Sheldon. The show has never had to justify it as Sheldon is it's break-out character and consistently the funniest member of the cast. There are times when the show accidentally makes him too unlikeable but it's usually able to keep him within an acceptable realm. Sheldon is one of the most original characters on television and it's because of him that this show is arguably a hit in the first place. It should come as no surprise that Jim Parsons has been able to win awards for portraying this character. There is no need to justify his place on the show but if there was then this scene would do it. It's a simple scene that the episode set up. When his friend Will Wheaton and Amy have a small fight, Sheldon refuses to take sides. He simply does nothing. Amy is furious because she wanted her boyfriend to stand up for her. Sheldon is still new to the concept of dating and it takes him an entire episode to realize that even if he doesn't actually agree with her, he has to take her side. One of the only reasons that he's able to do this is because of the scene I'm talking about.

It's not just the episode that built to this scene. It's the entire series. Sheldon has been presented as an self-obsessed genius who has difficult reading social signs and is accidentally a jerk. He simply sees the world from completely different eyes than everyone else. He was reluctant to become friends with Penny until Leonard basically forced Sheldon to accept her. He admits it as much in this episode to her face. Since that time, he now considers Penny to be one of his most trusted friends. He goes to her whenever he needs social advice. When Sheldon got Amy as a girlfriend, it's been an original relationship because only one partner is even interested in sexual activity. He doesn't get relationship cues. So when he makes Amy angry, it makes perfect sense that Sheldon would go to Penny to talk about his girl problems. It's this scene that I'm talking about. As he talks, Penny manages to get Sheldon to drink alcoholic tea. It's this scene where Sheldon talks to her about girl problems that is so funny and so right that it feels like the entire series has been building up to it. It obviously hasn't. It's a perfect exploration of how Sheldon struggles to connect with other humans and how he is using Penny and inadvertently alcohol to find out how. It was handled so perfectly that it made what was already a hilarious episode into a classic Big Bang Theory episode. It's simply golden.

The sub-plot was also pretty good. Bernadette is tired that Howard continues to move out of his mother's house and she gets him to commit that he'll move out that weekend. When he tries to back out of it, Penny and Bernadette gang up on him and he decides to go through with it. He does but when he gets home he recounts how he's the only person who would make his mom feel less lonely. It's such a sad (and funny) story that it makes Bernadette realize it isn't just Howard who has come to depend on his mom. His mom has come to depend on Howard. She decides to take a couple boxes back because she can't have her heart breaking. The sub-plot helped to define the relationship between Howard and his mom to make it a little bit less pathetic. It all of a sudden makes a lot of sense why he would be more hesistant to move out than you would think.