Desperation Emanation

Desperation Emanation
Writers	Story by Bill Prady & Lee Aronsohn & Dave Goetsch, teleplay by Chuck Lorre & Steven Molaro & Steve Holland
Director	Mark Cendrowski
Starring	Melissa Rauch as Bernadette, Mayim Bialik as Amy, Kevin Sussman as Stuart, Carol Ann Susi as Mrs. Wolowitz, Charlotte Newhouse as Joy, Annie O'Donnell as Mrs. Fowler
Air Date	October 21, 2010
Vanity	Card #303
Guide	Episode #405
Quotes	Episode #405

Season 4, Episode 5 (0405)

Hot Troll Deviation . . . << Desperation Emanation >> . . . Irish Pub Formulation

Summary

Leonard realizes he's the only one without a girlfriend, while Sheldon wants to get rid of his.

When Amy wants Sheldon to meet her mom, Sheldon freaks out because Leonard has told him that means Amy is his girlfriend, even though Sheldon still adamantly claims she is not. Sheldon tries to hide from Amy and even gets Leonard to lie to Amy for him. He eventually comes to a conclusion that it might be nice to talk to Amy's mom. They talk via webcam and he lies to her and tells her that he has amazing sex with Amy. After the conversation with Amy's mom, Sheldon asks Amy if they actually want to do it. She stares at him in disbelief, and he says "Bazinga!"

While Sheldon and Amy have their problems, Leonard is having his. He realizes that he is the only one who doesn't have a girlfriend and feels lonely. He goes to Howard and invokes their "Girlfriend Pact", which is where Howard gets Bernadette to get Leonard a date with one of her friends. This date ends up being one of the worst of Leonard's life, but he does decide to go on another date with this woman because she strongly implies that they'll have sex.

Episode Outline

I. Living room

• Leonard and Sheldon are watching an Hulk movie.
• Leonard asks about the status of Sheldon's and Amy's relationship. Sheldon points out that Leonard was jealous because he didn't have a female companion.

Title and Opening Themes

II. Living room

• Leaving for work, Sheldon talks about parallel universes.

III. Stairway

• Sheldon tells Leonard that when his Meemaw was lonely, her family put her in a senior center to meet people.

IV. Comic book store

• Leonard finds out that every body but him has a girlfriend, even Stuart.
• Raj suggests Leonard evoked his girlfriend pact with Howard.

V. Living room

• A depressed Leonard receives a neurobiological consultation from Amy via webcam.
• Amy tells Sheldon that she wants him to meet her mother.

VI. Stairway

• A panicking Sheldon runs after Leonard who tells him obviously Amy wants to take their relationship to the next level.
• Sheldon wants advice how to prevent that.

VII. in front of Howard's apartment

• Leonard tells Howard that he wants to evoke the girlfriend pact.

VIII. Living room

• Sheldon is removing his digital foot print from the Internet trying to hide from Amy.
• When Amy knocks on the door, Sheldon tells Leonard to pretend Sheldon wasn't there.

IX. Restaurant

• Bernadette introduces Leonard to her friend Joy.

X. Stairway

• Sheldon walks down the stairs reciting the stars nearest to him.
• When he sees Amy, he runs upwards again.

XI. Restaurant

• Leonard is rather not impressed by Joy's mannerism.

XII. Stairway

• Amy confronts Sheldon that she did not want to take their relationship to the next level, but rather pretend to her mother she was in one.
• They decide to resume their girl/friend/boy/friend-relationship.

XIII. Restaurant

• Leonard tells Howard this was the worst date of his life, but than changes his mind when Joy invites him on a date to her cousin's wedding.

XIV. Living room

• Amy and Sheldon are chatting with Amy's mother and pretend to have a "regular intercourse".

Resources

List of entries from this episode

David Saltzberg's science blog about this episode

EW's report on Kaley Cuoco breaking her leg

Notes and Trivia

Penny was written out of this episode because the weekend before taping, September 11-12, Kaley suffered a broken leg in a horseback-riding accident. Originally, Brian Thomas Smith was cast in the episode as Zach, Penny's less-than-brilliant date from the last episode of season 3, but his character was cut when Kaley couldn't appear in the show.

Ironically, Howard got Bernadette from the "Girlfriend Pact" while Leonard was dating Penny.

We see quite a bit of the usually-unseen "fourth wall" in this episode when we see Sheldon's laptop (with Amy appearing on it) from the point of view of the couch. This segment of the episode was pre-taped and shown on monitors to the studio audience, since the set wall would have completely blocked the audience from seeing the scene if they'd done it live.

Timeline

Still to come

Title

Still to come