Dead Hooker Juxtaposition
| Dead Hooker Juxtaposition | |
 Dead Hooker Juxtaposition | |
| Writers | Steven Molaro |
|---|---|
| Director | Mark Cendrowski |
| Starring | Valerie Azlynn as Alicia, Carol Ann Susi as Mrs. Wolowitz |
| Air Date | 30 March 2009 |
| Vanity | Card #247 |
| Guide | Episode #219 |
| Quotes | Episode #219 |
| Forums | Discuss Episode |
| Season 2, Episode 19 (0219) |
|---|
| Work Song Nanocluster . . . << Dead Hooker Juxtaposition >> . . . Hofstadter Isotope |
|---|
Contents |
Summary
Penny develops a rivalry with a sexy female neighbor who threatens to become "The New Penny" in the building
(Full summary edited from Wikipedia:)
Penny develops a rivalry with the new sexy female neighbor, Alicia, who lives directly above the guys and who has the guys falling all over themselves trying to impress her. Alicia takes advantage of this to get Leonard, Wolowitz, and Raj to "help" her set up the apartment, from fixing her stereo to painting the walls. She also offers to repay them in Chinese food for driving her to Universal Studio to audition for a role in CSI, even though Penny already bought food for the guys in an effort to remind them of their friendship.
Penny confronts Alicia in the laundry room after Alicia asks her how much money physicists make. Penny tells her not to take advantage of the guys, but Alicia accuses Penny of using the guys as well. Penny has had enough, and the two women get into a catfight in the lobby. In the end, Alicia is upstairs sleeping with a producer to further her career and the guys and are back in their own apartment, sharing a meal together.
Episode Outline
I. Living room
- conversations over Chinese take out, Penny mentions that the neighbours in 5A are moving out
Titles and credits
II. Howard's front porch
- Howard and his mother argue about him moving out, he decides to stay
III. Lobby
- Leonard and Sheldon meet Alicia, Sheldon quizzes her on how noisy she'll be
IV. hallway on the fourth floor
- Penny meets Alicia
V. Living room
- Sheldon writes on an invisible whiteboard
- Penny comes in looking for Leonard, learns that the rest of the boys are upstairs helping Alicia move in
- the boys are hooking up her stereo and helping her move in
- Penny turns up with wine and dressed to kill (including a Pennyblossom)
- She discovers that Alicia has been in town just three months and been more successful as an actress than herself
- Penny tries to tell a physics joke
VII. Living room
- Sheldon is watching something about bees on the Discovery Channel
- Penny walks in without knocking, Penny complains about Alicia, Sheldon talks about bees
VIII. living room
- Penny has bought Chinese food for the boys
- Alicia shows up and needs a ride to Universal, the boys run out
IX. laundry room
- Alicia and Penny discuss the way Alicia is using the guys
- Penny explains the shield-guys metaphor to Alicia and realizes she just turned a bit into a geek herself
- Alicia accuses Penny of using the guys as well
X. lobby
- the guys come home talking about Green Lantern
- Alicia and Penny, fighting each other, come tumbling up the stairs
XI. living room
- Penny has a black eye
- the group is all eating Chinese food together
- they hear Alicia upstairs with someone, a producer for CSI, according to her Facebook page
Resources
List of entries from this episode
YouTube video of Admiral Akbar in Star Wars saying "It's a trap!"
Timeline
This episode must take place over the course of several weeks, if we accept the fact that they only eat Chinese takeout on Friday nights (and Sheldon's digestive system requires consistency, of course). With that assumption, we can place the initial conversation about new neighbours on a Friday, Alicia's moving in sometime during that next week, Penny's attempt to win the guys back with Chinese food and Alicia's call back at Universal on the Friday of that week, then the confrontation in the laundry room (when Alicia finds out she has the part) during the week after that. The final scene, where Penny has a black eye, must also be a Friday, but the freshness of Penny's wounds suggest that it's only a day or two later.
As for the calendar, we'll place this episode during the three weeks prior to 16th of April (since the next episode opens on "Anything Can Happen Thursday, which is the third Thursday of the month). So the opening scene is March 27, Alicia's callback to Universal was April 3, and the final scene and Alicia's tryst with the producer for CSI took place on April 10.
Title
The 'Dead Hooker' refers to Alicia, who gets a part playing a murdered prostitute on CSI. In many ways, her character is the "evil twin" of Penny's character, an anti-Penny with similar traits but twisted toward using and manipulating people. So Alicia's character is juxtaposed against Penny's in this episode.
