Spaghetti Catalyst

Spaghetti Catalyst
Writers	Chuck Lorre, Bill Prady, Lee Aronsohn, Steven Molaro
Director	Anthony Rich
Air Date	3 May 2010
Vanity	Card #285
Guide	Episode #320
Quotes	Episode #320
Forums	Discuss Episode

Season 3, Episode 20 (0320)

Wheaton Recurrence . . . << Spaghetti Catalyst >> . . . Plimpton Stimulation

Summary

When Leonard and Penny aren't speaking, Sheldon goes to extremes to keep them both happy.

Episode Outline

I. First floor of the building

• Sheldon asks Penny about the protocol now that she had broken up Leonard. She tells him they are still friends.

II. Stairway

• Penny and Sheldon small-talk on the way upstairs. Penny asks how Leonard was doing.
• When Sheldon discovers that Penny bought spaghetti, he tells her how much he loves them and she invites him for dinner.

III. Living room

• Howard, Raj and Leonard got Chinese food for dinner.
• When Sheldon mentions that he talked to Penny, Howard points out that Sheldon should chose sides.

Title and Opening Themes

IV. Living room

• Leonard wants to spend the evening with the guys, but Howard has to leave and Raj complains about having been neglected during Leonard's relationship with Penny.
• When Sheldon wants to sneak off to Penny by pretending to go for an "after dinner walk", Howard joins him.

V. Outside of the building

• Sheldon waves goodbye to Howard leaving on his scooter.
• Smelling the hot dogs Sheldon is hiding in his pants to bring them to Penny, a dog starts chasing Sheldon.

VI. Penny's apartment

• A disheveled looking Sheldon enters Penny's apartment having saved only one hot dog while having traded the others "for his life".

VII. Living room

• Raj and Leonard are watching a movie and talk about their chances with women.

VIII. Penny's apartment

• Sheldon and Penny are having dinner. Sheldon pretends Leonard knew about him having dinner with Penny.

IX. Living room

• While Raj seems to be looking at online pornography, Sheldon returns from his "dinner walk".

X. Leonard's bedroom

• Sheldon confesses that he lied to Leonard about going for a "dinner walk" and instead had dinner with Penny. Leonard claims he didn't care.

XI. Laundry room

• Penny runs into Leonard who claims he's fine with Penny spending time with Sheldon.
• Penny tells Leonard she's going to Disneyland with Sheldon the next Saturday.

XII. Living room, Saturday, 10pm

• The guys are playing a board game, when Sheldon and Penny return from Disneyland. Leonard invites Penny to stay for a coffee.

XIII. Sheldon's bedroom

• Leonard and Penny watch Sheldon sleeping and agree they can be friends.

Resources

List of entries from this episode

David Saltzberg's science blog about this episode

Notes and Trivia

Sheldon not only gets new shoes in this episode (and they are not made for running), he also wears a new red-grey-green model of his trademark checked pyjamas, which we haven't seen so far and additional new models will be revealed in the coming episodes (see pyjamas).

Timeline

This episode starts with the guys having Chinese food, which they usually do on Fridays and occasionally on Mondays. Since there has been some time between the last episode and on the following day Penny talks about taking Sheldon to Disneyland "next Saturday", we could assume it's the Monday night one week after the unhappy second bowling match of The Wheaton Recurrence, which was a Thursday. This means, the episode ends on Saturday night.

Title

A catalyst is "something" that speeds up or changes a reaction. Penny's invitation to Sheldon to have spaghetti with her leads to a cascade of lies and excuses that Sheldon has to invent to please both, Leonard and Penny. His confession of the deception in turn leads to Leonard and Penny starting to talk again.