“The Dead Hooker Juxtaposition” is one of those theories thought at the college in a really bad neighborhood like Columbia or USC. I stayed at a frat house at Columbia University that was so trashy that crack whores stayed away from it for fear it would depreciate their value. It was amazing to think that tomorrow’s leaders (or their parents and trust fund) were playing $50,000 a year to stay in slum housing.
The geeks and Penny are sitting around the apartment eating Chinese takeout. Penny has freaked out about spider, but Sheldon wants to focus on the horror of getting steamed dumplings. Howard swaps the topic by complimenting how Penny looks. She promises that should wouldn’t have sex with him with a thousand condoms. She mentions an apartment above them is opening up. Sheldon freaks out about this change. He didn’t know the people who were in that apartment. This made them perfect neighbors. He didn’t have to deal with them. They were quiet. Howard wants to rent the apartment so he can finally get out from under his mom’s eye.
They run the opening credits and a commercial break after the short opening. Seems they abandoned last week’s longer run time before giving folks a reason to head to the toilet. We still don’t have any dead hookers which is probably a good thing. I don’t know too many comedies that have had effective episodes about dead hookers. There’s a lot of Law and Order episodes that have them. There’s go to be a certain level of excitement that Howard’s getting a bachelor pad. Maybe he finally flips and attacks a hooker like Vince from Slap Chop?
Sheldon, Raj and Leonard arrive at Howard’s mom’s front porch. Sheldon is upset with the concept that they’re moving him for only the reward of pizza. Raj lies and says he gets his choice between a PS3 and a mountainbike. Now Sheldon is happy. He wants a PS3. Before the guys get inside, they hear Howard and his mother’s loud conversation off camera. She’s laying on the guilt. He promises her that he’ll come over every night for dinner. “Does this look like Olive Garden?” the mom replies. It’s a passive aggressive battle royale that ends with Howard declaring he won’t move. The pals leave after Sheldon removes his lifting belt from under his t-shirt.
Leonard and Sheldon enter their lobby to find boxes of the new tenant. Sheldon rattles a box and is freaked out. He swears its filled with musical instruments. Leonard points out the box says it’s stuff for the kitchen. “Do cocaine smugglers write ‘cocaine’ on the box?” Sheldon replies. Alicia (Valerie Azlynn) arrives on the scene and isn’t too happy at seeing her neighbor shaking her box. Leonard is stunned by her beauty. He’s flipped into lapdog mode for her. How can the show survive two hotties in the building? The geeks will explode. Sheldon asks her weird questions about her foot, dancing skills and fertility. He wants to know if she’s going to have crying babies. The final question is “area rugs, pro or con.” She’s pro. Sheldon welcomes her to the neighborhood.
Leonard hauls up a giant box for Alicia. Penny steps out of her apartment in a Hillary Clinton t-shirt. She claims she’s going jogging, but Sheldon makes her admit it’s laundry day. Sheldon does a really obscure impersonation from Star Wars that cracked me up. Penny is depressed since she’s no longer the hottest girl in the building.
In the apartment, Sheldon uses an air blackboard. Penny enters to discover that Leonard is up in Alicia’s apartment along with Howard and Raj. He’s upset since they’re setting up her stereo.
Howard helps Alicia unpack. He talks about how he almost got the apartment, but wanted a downtown studio space. She’s not impressed at Howard’s lie about living with his mom as a platonic woman who is his maid. Penny enters the apartment wearing a slinky dress. The boys aren’t impressed. Turns out Alicia is also an actress. She has a job on a soap. Penny attempts a joke about a physicist that doesn’t get a laugh from the guys. Penny is getting riled that the guys are doing so much for her. She asks when Leonard is going to set up her printer. He swears he’ll get to it. Her power over them is dead.
Sheldon is downstairs watching TV. He’s upset at the stomping above him from the guys setting up Alicia’s apartment. Penny walks in without knocking. She broods. She’s lost her little flock of admirers. How can she get them back?
Valerie Azlynn holds a distinct honor when it comes to Monday sitcoms on CBS. She has already appeared on How I Met Your Mother, Two and a Half Men and Rules of Engagement. She would have nailed all the shows, but she has only done CSI: NY and not CSI: Miami. Hopefully she has that on her “to do” list.
Penny has brought the Chinese take out to the apartment. She talks about getting her geek on. She’s up for watching Battlestar with them. Alicia bangs on the door. She has a shot at a playing a dead hooker on CSI. She needs a lift cause her car is in the shop. Howard, Raj and Sheldon are out the door. Penny complains about how Alicia is using the guys. She mentions how Alicia had Howard drive to Orange County to get a TV from her mother. Sheldon reminds her how Leonard and him attempted to get her TV from her ex-boyfriend. Penny doesn’t see the similarities
In the laundry room, Alicia and Penny cross paths. She’s delighted to hear that Alicia got the CSI role since the woman knows how to play a hooker. Alicia asks how much a physicist earns. The answer doesn’t appeal to her. But she’s delighted knowing the guys are setting up her satellite TV. Penny attempts to describe how Alicia needs to be careful around the guys because they’ve got their shields down. When she’s asked to describe what that means, Penny refers to Star Trek. She’s become infected by geeks syndrome! She begs Alicia to not take advantage of them. The conversation turns into the pot calling the kettle black. Penny doesn’t like being called out by the new girl. Alicia drops the “What are you going to do about it, bitch?”
The guys return from the going out. They argue about the weakness of Green Lantern. Penny and Alicia tumble up the stairs from the laundry room. It’s a girl fight. Howard grabs Leonard to prevent him from breaking it up.
Penny sits in the apartment eating Chinese. She looks pretty abused. She’s ready to be a mug shot posted on TMZ. When Howard flirts with her, she doesn’t get nasty. Howard admits that she’s been broken. A rumble of bass comes from above. Sheldon is upset that Leonard set her stereo for DTS. Howard points out that according to Alicia’s Facebook page, she hooked up with a CSI producer. Penny mentions she went from playing a dead whore to being one in real life. The sound of bed springs overrides the bass. Sheldon complains at how Alicia is now jumping up and down on the bed.
There’s nothing that helps a TV show better than a girl fight. Maybe a girl fight that involves hot oil. Getting to see Penny fight for her geeks made this show rock. It allowed us to see that her character has changed over the last two seasons. The boys are rubbing off on her – although not the rub that Howard imagines. She’s infected.
Does anyone else have their sound die during the final segment? The last few original episodes have had about 20 seconds of drop out during the epilogue. This means I’m having to watch the show with Closed Captioning to get the final joke.
The good news for fans of the show is that the series has become a force. Last week CBS decided to run How I Met Your Mother in its slot with a rerun following. There were 2 million less viewers for Mother than the previous week’s Big Bang. CBS needs to learn that they can’t mess with the geeks. Next week is a rerun of “The Vartabedian Conundrum.” The new “The Hofstadter Isotope” airs on April 13. This is confusing since next Monday the show will be airing before the NCAA Mens Basketball Tourney Championship game. Why not give us a new show on a big night?
