Adhesive Duck Deficiency

Adhesive Duck Deficiency
Writers	Chuck Lorre (Story), Bill Prady (Story), David Goetsch (Story), Steven Molaro (Teleplay), Eric Kaplan (Teleplay), Maria Ferrari (Teleplay)
Director	Mark Cendrowski
Air Date	16th November 2009
Vanity	Card #267
Guide	Episode #308
Quotes	Episode #308
Forums	Discuss Episode

Season 3, Episode 8 (0308)

Guitarist Amplification . . . << Adhesive Duck Deficiency >> . . . Vengeance Formulation

Summary

With Leonard, Howard and Raj away camping in the desert, an injured Penny has only Sheldon to rely on.

Episode Outline

I. somewhere in a desert

• Leonard, Raj and Howard are camping in the desert to observe the Leonid meteor shower. While waiting, they watch TV via satellite.

II. Living room

• Sheldon, who stayed behind to work on a paper, records his "personal log" in a Star Trek-like fashion.

Titles and opening theme

III. Living room

• Sheldon calls Siam Palace to order dinner when he hears Penny scream for help.

IV. hallway in front of apartments

• Sheldon knocks on Penny's door and is told to enter.

V. Living room in Penny's apartment

• Sheldon enters and hears Penny calling from her bedroom. He knocks on her bedroom door and is told that she's in the bathroom and he should enter.

VI. Penny's bedroom

• Sheldon runs through Penny's bedroom and stops in front of the bathroom door. He's told "don't you dare knock" and enters.

VII. Penny's bathroom

• Penny slipped in the shower and dislocated her shoulder. Sheldon explains she should have adhesive stickers in her tub to prevent slipping. Penny asks Sheldon to drive her to the emergency room. He hesitates but agrees.

VIII. somewhere in a desert

• Howard has found out that besides "other science nerds", two women in their mid-fifties have their camp nearby. They gave him cookies, which the guys start to eat.

IX. Penny's bedroom

• Sheldon helps Penny getting dressed.

X. somewhere in a desert

• The guys have obviously eaten Hash cookies and are hallucinating. Reclining in their chairs, looking at the stars, Leonard asks Raj to slow down earth cause he thinks it's spinning to fast. As a reaction Raj squints his eyes the same way Hiro Nakamura (from the Heroes TV-series) does when he's stopping time.

XI. Penny's car

• Sheldon prepares the car and himself for his first time "driving an actual motor vehicle".

XII. somewhere in a desert

• The three guys are each talking about a topic that concerns them, while not really listening to each other.

XIII. Penny's car

• Sheldon is driving, though rather slowly. He asks Penny about a tattoo she has on her buttocks.

XIV. somewhere in a desert

• The guys have eaten all the food they had. They are still hungry and are searching for more food ...

XV. emergency room

• Sheldon fills out the accident form for Penny. She asks him to be empathetic, just for one moment...

XVI. somewhere in a desert

• The guys, still hungry, made a plan to steal food from one of the nearby camps, when Howard discovers an "I-love-you-brisket" in his backpack. While they're eating, the Leonid meteor shower is right above them, but they don't watch.

XVII. living room in Penny's apartment

• Sheldon and Penny return from the emergency room. Penny asks Sheldon to help her "get into bed".

XVIII. Penny's bedroom

• Penny makes Sheldon sing Soft Kitty to her.

XIX. somewhere in the desert

• Leonard and Raj make fun of Howard, who told them (while he was high), that he lost his virginity to his (second) cousin.

Resources

List of entries from this episode

David Saltzberg's blog about this episode

Notes and Trivia

According to the coordinates that Raj gives at the beginning of the episode (34.48n, 118.31w), the guys had their camp north of Los Angeles, next to the Vasquez Rocks Park, Green Valley. The episode was actually filmed on the soundstage. However, the Vasquez Rocks have been used as location for filming many, many movies and television shows over the years, including several episodes of the original Star Trek, which might explain why the guys would have chosen that as their campsite.

Timeline

This episode was aired on the evening when the Leonid meteor shower was at its peak, 16 November 2009, and of course that's exactly why Howard, Raj, and Leonard are camping out in the desert. The stardate Sheldon gives for his "log entry", howver, works out to 17 November 2009 (3:00 pm GMT, in fact). In Excelsior Acquisition we learn that the date was indeed November 16th (0316).

Always a slave to the schedule, even when the other guys aren't around, Sheldon tries to order Thai food, which the guys usually do on Mondays (see Schedule).

Title

The adhesive ducks in question are the ones Sheldon mentions he has on his bathtub. Penny doesn't have adhesive ducks -- or adhesive anything -- on her bathtub, which is why she fell, hence she has an "adhesive duck deficiency".