Psychic Vortex

Psychic Vortex
Writers	Lee Aronsohn (Story), Steven Molaro (Story), Chuck Lorre (Teleplay), Eric Kaplan (Teleplay), Jim Reynolds (Teleplay)
Director	Mark Cendrowski
Starring	Danica McKellar as Abby, Melissa Rauch as Bernadette, Jen Drohan as Martha, David Trice as Waiter
Air Date	11 January 2010
Vanity	Card #273
Guide	Episode #312
Quotes	Episode #312
Forums	Discuss Episode

Season 3, Episode 12 (0312)

Maternal Congruence . . . << Psychic Vortex >> . . . Bozeman Reaction

Summary

While Sheldon and Raj attend a university mixer, Leonard is upset to discover that Penny believes in psychics.

Episode Outline

I. Living room

• Leonard and Howard go on a double-date with Penny and Bernadette, leaving Raj alone with Sheldon.
• Sheldon wants to spend the evening with installing a Linux partition on his computer, but Raj isn't keen on the idea.

Title and Opening Themes

II. Living room

• Raj suggests several events where he could go with Sheldon, but the latter is not interested. Instead, Sheldon suggests an imaginary trip to Flatland.

III. Leonard's car

• Leonard, Penny, Howard and Bernadette are chatting.
• When Penny tells them she got career advice from a psychic, Leonard bursts into laughter and deeply upsets her.

IV. Room at the University

• Raj convinced Sheldon to go to a mixer by giving him his limited edition Green Lantern lantern, which Sheldon brought to the mixer.
• Raj explains to Sheldon what a wingman does.
• Abby turns up and starts chatting with them and later introduces her friend Martha.

V. Restaurant

• The atmosphere is rather tense because Penny is angry with Leonard; Howard and Bernadette wisely decide not to interfere.

VI. Hallway in front of apartments

• Leonard tries to explain his situation to Penny who refuses to listen.

VII. Living room

• Leonard walks into Raj and Sheldon playing Rock Band with Abby and Martha.

VIII. Laboratory at the University

• Leonard asks Howard how he can be with Penny when she believes in things he really doesn't. Howard explains with the help of a Venn diagram that he thinks Penny is his only chance for a relationship and that he should ignore their different opinions.

IX. Living room

• Sheldon is learning Finnish, when Raj turns up and begs him to join him on a second date with Abby and Martha. Sheldon agrees when Raj gives him his incredible Hulk hands signed by Stan Lee.

X. Laundry room

• Leonard tries to explain himself to Penny who asks him to go to her psychic with her. In the interest of peace with her he agrees.

XI. Living room

• Sheldon and Martha chat about Flatland, while Raj and Abby are kissing.
• Sheldon leaves to go to bed.

XII. Sheldon's bedroom

• Martha asks Sheldon whether she could stay with him for a while,
• Sheldon misunderstands her intentions and offers her his bedroom, while leaving for Leonard's bedroom.

Resources

List of entries from this episode

David Salzberg's blog about this episode

Notes and Trivia

• Bill Prady revealed on his Twitter account that Danica McKellar, star of The Wonder Years and author of best selling mathematics books, would guest star in the 11th episode of this season. The episode aired 12th, however, since Maternal Congruence was shown out of order on 14 December as the 11th episode of the third season.

• Sheldon's move to let Martha stay in his bedroom at the end of this episode is rather surprising considering his strict "people can't be in my bedroom" rule that he has highlighted many times (e.g. 0203, 0217).

• The "Green Lantern lantern" which Sheldon carries isn't really called that. The correct name is Green Lantern Power Battery, which Sheldon would certainly have known.

Timeline

This episode takes place over several days presumably early January 2010.

Title

The title refers to Penny believes in psychics, which causes severe turbulences (vortex) in her relationship with Leonard.