‘The Big Bang Theory’ season 10, episode 15 review: Addicted to trains
What happens when you deliberately go out of your way to remove the distraction that is Dr. Sheldon Cooper, only to realize in the end that he is the person you need to continue forward in the project? That was the focus of Thursday night’s new episode of “The Big Bang Theory.”
Here was the central struggle at the center of the episode: Leonard and Howard were desperate to get some more work done on the government project, and the best way to do that was to ship him away somewhere else. Therefore, Leonard played a secret weapon that he’s had in his pocket for a long time: A trip to a special event in Nevada. This sent Sheldon completely into train mode, where he sported some overalls, a cap, and started working on his engine sounds. All of a sudden, he started to transform into an engineer!
Herein lies the problem: Right after sending Sheldon away, Col. Williams showed back up in order to demand that they change the project to meet the new specifications in Sheldon’s guidance system. Unfortunately, Sheldon wasn’t there anymore, and Leonard and Howard had to convince him to come back in order to save their butts. For a number of reasons, including their own sense of humility, this was not an easy thing to convince him to do. He’s the sort of guy who loves to have his ego stroked, but that is in part what makes said ego-stroking all the more difficult.
Watching Leonard and Howard grovel was fun mostly because of Leonard’s plan to woo him back by intentionally messing up the math, and drawing a swiggle that was really just Charlie Brown’s hair. The payoff to this said joke proved itself rather easily to be one of the funniest things that we saw in the entire episode and possibly the season.
Eventually, Sheldon did come back, at least long enough to get the job done.
Is Penny stuck? – Her story tonight started with her, Amy, and Bernadette attempting to have a night out on the town. In doing so, however, she realized precisely how tough a time she was having with how she and Leonard weren’t moving forward. Amy tried to console her, and then realized that she was even more stuck. There was no major ending to this story, but the ending with Sheldon and the water bottle was the second funniest thing in the episode. Sometimes, two great little bits can make an entire episode great.
Episode Grade: B+. The surprising turn with Penny at the end of the episode was something that we did expect, but it was understandable given that this show is so much about watching people evolve into the next phase of their lives. We had some emotional development, but also some unexpected humor — you don’t get that often on this show.
What did you think about Thursday night’s new episode? Share now in the comments, and head over here in the event you want some other news when it comes to the show. (Photo: CBS.)