“The Maternal Capacitance” was bumped to the 9:30 time slot on the East Coast thanks to President Obama’s first primetime press conference. This is a good sign that the folks at CBS would rather shift The Big Bang Theory back instead of preempting it for the night.
The episode opens with the Howard, Raj and Sheldon playing Rock Band in the apartment. Raj is scoring high as the lead vocalist. Penny walks into the room to have them tone it down. Raj’s voice vanishes. Leonard enters the room talking on the phone. Penny wonder who it is. Sheldon uses his powers of deduction to determine his roommate is arranging a colonscopy. Leonard hangs up and lets everyone know his mom is coming to visit. Howard declares that Sheldon was right.
It’s always strange when a roommate tells you their mother is dropping by the apartment. Usually this means you have to do things like hide the porn tapes, throw away the empty bottles of Jack Daniels and clean the toilet. You’d think the roomie would clean the toilet since it is their mom coming. But they never do it. Why? Cause they know you’ll break first cause you don’t want his mom to give you the stinky eye for having a dirty toilet bowl. Whenever a roomie says their mom is visiting, do yourself a favor and go visit your own mom.
Sheldon’s mom (Christine Baranski) stands in front of the out of order elevator. Penny tells her that it is out of order. The mom goes into a strange logic thing that fries Penny’s brain. She’s the mother that Sheldon should have had. Penny asks what Sheldon was like when he was young and little. Mom says that her son is still little. Turns out mom is a psychiatrist and neuroscientist. She asks Penny about herself. One flight of steps later, Penny is crying her eyes out while disclosing her relationship with her dad wasn’t that great. After Penny leaves, mom informs Leonard that his best chance of sleeping with Penny is to wear her old man’s cologne. She tells Sheldon about the non-existence of her sex life. She and her husband both wrote research papers about it. Leonard wants to get ahold of their work. He truly envies his roommate’s mom.
At the lunch room, Howard asks mom about Leonard’s siblings. Turns out one is a Harvard Law professor while the sister is about to cure diabetes. Raj says Leonard is the Jar Jar Binks of his family. Leonard wants a little compassionate from his pals. But they are happy to give him the business. Leonard gets revenge by giving up Raj’s mute-ness and Howard living with his mom. Baranski accuses Raj and Howard of being secretly in love with each other. She’s not impressed by her son’s research not being so original. Raj and Howard bicker like a married couple. Maybe there is truth to this?
This mom is an emotional terminator. She’s tearing everyone apart with her incisive views. She shows no humanity while dealing with people. It’s so funny to see Sheldon having a pure awe reaction at how this woman has decided that her marriage isn’t based on casual sex. She mates to procreate which make sense to him. This can only lead to bad things.
Leonard drops by Penny’s apartment for a wine break. His mom has taken Sheldon to the hospital for a brain scan. There’s no problem. She likes to look at brains and he likes to have his scanned. Leonard admits that when he was a boy he built a hugging machine to make up for his mom’s detached nature. His dad used to borrow it.
Sheldon doesn’t like how his brain looks. It seems like Sheldon is ready to seduce his roomie’s mom. He admits he feels very comfortable around her. She feels the same way. They want to do the odds of them both feeling this way.
Leonard and Penny are now doing Tequila shots. She wants him to lick the salt off her neck first. He’s ready to roll. He works the salt extra long. After the salt, he discovers Penny has hidden the lime in her mouth. This is going to lead to bad things.
Tequila isn’t a drink. It’s a drug. Don’t ever underestimate the power of the worm. Although if you must drink tequila, may I suggest you try Jose Cuervo Black Medallion. It goes down rather smooth. Your head will thank you in the morning. The ladies don’t like booze that comes out of plastic bottles.
Leonard and mom appear to be discussing an affair in cold scientific terms. It’s like Mr. Spock putting the moves on an ATM machine.
Sheldon is finally in bed with Penny. He can’t shut his mouth and tells her that her having sex with him and him with her is making up for their father/mother issues. This hits the wrong note and he’s tossed out of the bed. He returns to his apartment to the horrific sight of his mom and Sheldon singing Journey while playing Rock Band.
My eyes burn. First off, don’t talk to much when you finally get a chance to hook up with a major crush. Every word out of your mouth has a major chance of destroying the spell. Keep it short simple. Don’t even say her name. Second thing to remember is to never make direct eye contact until it’s too late for her to say, “This will ruin our relationship.” Best is to work the back of her neck. Don’t give her a chance to remember that you’re only her friend. Whatever you do, never say, “I can’t believe you’re actually going to do me!” That will kill the moment almost as bad as putting in a tape of her grandparents doing the deed for inspiration.
Leonard walks his mom out of the apartment. Her hug and kiss to her son is beyond robotic. She walks down the stairs with Penny. Once more the girl is in tears. Mom wants her to come to New Jersey for further analysis and a brain scan.
Christine Baranski was strong on this episode. She seemed like the kind of woman that could excite Sheldon. It’s a shame they didn’t get wild, but that would defy all the logic of this show. Having Leonard getting frisky with Penny was nice. Always good to tease us with the relationship while making sure Penny keeps him from coupling.
