“The Classified Materials Turbulence” isn’t the final episode of the season. Turns out there’s a 23rd episode coming on next week. Why have they ruined the night with an introduction from Ryan Reynolds? He’s hosting CBS comedy night. Way to ruin our viewing pleasure.
The guys are back at the comic bookstore. Sheldon breathes in and gets a whiff of new comic books. Howard promises to buy everyone’s comics today. Raj asks if he’s sold more sperm. But nope. Howard is thrilled because tonight his space toilet is being taken up to the international space station. The guys exchange quips about toilets in outer space. Sheldon learns for the first time about the concept of “number one” and “number two” in the bathroom. Stuart (Kevin Sussman) brings the new Hellboy up to Sheldon. He hypes it as mindblowing. Sheldon gets upset cause he’s spoiled the book. Stuart asks Leonard about Penny. He’s got a second date with Penny and wants to know if things will get physical. Leonard declares it’s not going happen. Howard suggest the best way to keep Stuart from scoring is for Leonard to tell him what he’s done with Penny for the last two years. Leonard heads to the cash register with his sabotage plans.
Can we discuss the world of “the spoiler?” I recently got screamed at because I spoiled a movie that’s been out for 40 years. It used to be the “spoiler” only covered movies that had opened up in the past week. Is it my fault that someone is “saving” the chance to watch Citizen Kane until they can view it in Blu-ray? You snooze, you lose. The harsh truth is that you can’t spoil a good movie, book or TV show by learning the ending. If it’s really good, you’ll become so wrapped up in the tale that it will seem fresh. If that failures, get liquored up before pressing play. That always helps me forget the spoiled parts. And if you’re concerned about me spoiling this episode, you better stop reading now and visit your DVR. And never ask a guy about what’s the best way to hook up with their ex-lover. You might as well ask him what hand lotion he uses.
Penny meets Leonard at the mailboxes. She asks if it bothers him that she’s going out with Stuart. He gets really confused playing it cool. He perceives it all through time shifting elements. She asks how to make Stuart less uncomfortable around her. He swears the guy thrives under pressure that’s why he owns a comic bookstore.
At the lunch room, Leonard’s cellphone is ringing. It’s Stuart. He tries to ignore it, but Sheldon insists he answer it to make sure the comic bookstore hasn’t caught fire. He badgers his friend to check the voice messages. Howard and Raj arrive with the warning of a code red. Turns out that Howard found a little error on his space toilet. In about a dozen flushes, there might be crap floating through the space station. He begs Leonard and Sheldon to help him fix it before he has to tell NASA.
At apartment, they bring in a duplicate of space toilet and a box of parts that are on the space station. The talk goes weird as Sheldon realizes all the jokes you can make about space poop. Stuart knocks on the door. He begs for advice on how to deal with Penny. He claims the best approach is fear. If he touches her, she’ll break. Stuart will try that approach and leaves. Sheldon says his mother declared that when you lie, you make Jesus cry.
There can be nothing worse than a busted toilet in space. Although it’s painful to be stuck near the toilet on the Greyhound bus going to Reno. You know those people don’t follow the no number 2 rule. If they cared about the rules, they would have been permitted to board an airplane.
The apartment is a mess with the toilet parts all over the floor. Sheldon has a good idea, but it won’t work with the Russians sitting on the toilet. Those guys are heavy duty squatters. Raj gets on Leonard’s case for giving the bad advice to Stuart. He thinks Leonard will be reborn as a banana slug for being a two faced bitch with Stuart. Howard’s best option is the change his name and hide with distant relatives. He’s doomed.
Leonard knocks on Penny’s door in the morning. He claims he’s doing a coffee run. She’s got a pot going. He asks how things went with Stuart. She doesn’t want to talk about it. She shuts the door. Raj says to restore his karma, Leonard better get him his latte.
Back at the apartment Raj thinks he found the solution except the device is the little thing from the pizza box. Leonard zips down to the comic book store. Howard tests the toilet flush with his mom’s meatloaf. Things go bad when the loaf shoots to the ceiling and stays.
Leonard wanders into the comic bookstore looking shameful. Stuart said the slow and distant thing during dinner worked. It helped when they polished off two bottles of wine. He was sucking face with her. The action was going good. However things went bad when instead of calling out Stuart’s name, she dropped a Leonard bomb. Leonard does his best to look remorse, but he does a jump for joy outside the shop. He’s gotten to the girl.
That seemed to be a really brief amount of show in between two marathons of commercials. Always wondered what you could do with those little pizza thingies beside give them to little girls for doll tables. Now I know we can send them to NASA to help fix toilets. Also it’s nice that the series has gotten us back to Penny and Leonard having feelings about each other. But how will he react when he realizes that Sheldon is going to steal her away? It’s going got happen.
Howard paces around the apartment on the phone. He promises to keep it all classified. He hangs up. He hopes the solution works. Sheldon points out that his job wasn’t in the balance. Penny asks Leonard for some sauce. He acts like he’s ignoring her. She gets his attention by saying, “I said Leonard.” He gets a smile on his face cause she did say it the other night. At that point, the meatloaf falls from the ceiling. Penny asks what it is. “That’s classified,” is the answer.
We’re taken to an exterior view of the International Space Station. The astronauts ask Houston for permission to go outside for a space station. Sounds like they have to go to the bathroom bad. Howard might be leaving the show first when these astronauts return to earth.
Next week the geeks are going to give us “the coolest season finale ever.” The guys are training to do experiments in the arctic. There’s even a Snuggie in one of the clips.
