Bad Fish Paradigm

Bad Fish Paradigm
Bad Fish Paradigm
Writers	Bill Prady (Story), Dave Goetsch (Teleplay), Steven Molaro (Teleplay)
Director	Mark Cendrowski
Starring	Carol Ann Susi as Mrs. Wolowitz
Air Date	22 September 2008
Vanity	Card #215
Guide	Episode #201
Quotes	Episode #201
Forums	Discuss Episode

Season 2, Episode 1 (0201)

Tangerine Factor (Season 1) . . . << Bad Fish Paradigm >> . . . Codpiece Topology

Summary

(Edited from Wikipedia:)

Penny and Leonard return from the restaurant while Howard and Raj spy on them, using a webcam on the corridor connected to a laptop. They try to convince Leonard that the date wasn't working well: they think that when Penny said "let us slow down a bit", it meant that the "fish is bad". But they are obviously envious.

On the other hand, after Penny and Leonard's date, Penny feels uncomfortable having not completed community college. She is afraid that Leonard would become bored with her. She lied to Leonard about completing her own college and makes Sheldon keep her secret. This request to deceive Leonard is very hard for Sheldon (and his facial expressions) and results in the drastic decision on Sheldon's part to move out. However, after moving from Raj's and Howard's homes (in the course of one night), Sheldon is brought back home by Howard. Having unknowingly taken a dose of Valium, Sheldon tells Leonard about Penny's failure to complete community college. Leonard, in an attempt to help Penny, offers her some pamphlets regarding some local community colleges. She promptly slams the door in his face in annoyance. The episode closes as Leonard remarks "Okay this time I know where I went wrong." and he finds Wolowitz and Koothrapalli eavesdropped on the whole incident with the webcam.

Episode outline

I. Stairway and hallway in front of apartments

• Penny and Leonard come home from their date, while Howard and Rajesh are eavesdropping via a webcam

II. Living room

• Howard and Rajesh calls Leonard's date a failure, while he protests and claims it went well.

Titles and opening theme

III. Laundry room

• Penny talks to Sheldon and tells him she lied to Leonard about finishing college. She asks Sheldon to keep her secret.

IV. Stairway

• Leonard and Sheldon come home and talk about Batman. Leonard tries to ask Penny out again, but she finds excuses. When Leonard rhetorically asks Sheldon what he could have done wrong, the latter panics and leaves.

V. Cheesecake Factory

• Sheldon tells Penny he can't keep her secret, but she tells him, he has to.

VI. Living room

• Sheldon tells Leonard he was going to move out without giving a reason.
• Howard and Rajesh turn up and try to guess the reason for Sheldon's decision, but fail. Sheldon pressures Rajesh into letting him stay at his apartment.

VII. Rajesh's apartment

• Sheldon and Rajesh talk about his apartment and try to watch TV together.

VIII. front door of Howard's home

• Rajesh drops Sheldon of at Howard's place.

IX. Howard's bedroom

• Sheldon drives Howard crazy by not falling asleep.

X. Living room

• Howard dumps a Valium drugged up Sheldon with Leonard.
• Sheldon unintentionally tells Leonard the secret.

XI. hallway in front of apartments

• Leonard suggest to Penny she could go to the Pasadena City College. She's severely offended. Howard and Rajesh have again eavesdropped.

Resources

List of entries from this episode

Wikipedia episode guide

IMDb page for this episode

Timeline

The events of this episode immediately connect with the last one with Penny and Leonard coming home from their date. Penny talks to Sheldon while he is folding his laundry, suggesting it's laundry night, which is Saturday evening (see Schedule). Assuming that Penny's talk happened on the day following the date, this means the date was on a Friday.

The following events are a bit inconsistent. When Leonard and Sheldon come home just for Sheldon to leave again and wish Leonard a "good day", Sheldon wears the same shirt he wore when talking to Penny. It is however clearly not Saturday night. So we have to assume it's Sunday and Sheldon has two of these shirts.

The episode finishes with the following morning, which would be Monday.

Title

The title comes from Leonard and Howard's conversation regarding Leonard and Penny "taking things slow", with Leonard's position being that their relationship is like a dinner that Penny wants to enjoy slowly, while Howard believes it's more like Penny is saying "This fish (referring to Leonard) tastes bad. I'm going to slow down and spit it out."