912 'The Sales Call Sublimation' (January 7)

[mirs1]

43 minutes ago, FortCozyMcBlanket said:

this might have been Kaley's best episode this season -- she was SO funny and she definitely gave a great performance with her lines! I loved her pushing the pamphlet toward the psychiatrist and trying to change the subject  and I'm glad they finally made her vent a little frustration after all the kind of silent maturing Penny has done. Lenny gave me a weird vibe this episode at first but I realized after reading a lot of the comments here that it's completely healthy and IC for penny to have frustrations about her life since a new job and marriage. 

the Shamy scenes were so cute and exceeded my expectations for what I thought was going to be distant interaction between them! they're so smitten  

to me, the stars of this episode were Howard for his LET'S DO IT IN THE GARAGE scene - I busted out laughing!!! - and Leonard for his big middle finger to Beverly while he was gleefully skipping rope at the end haha... you know the psychiatrist must have prescribed him something!  

I agree! In this episode the writers finally are focusing on what's going on in Penny's life. I hope this will lead to new story lines for both Lenny and Penny. Of course Penny and Leonard need to live alone without Sheldon and to focus on themselves as a couple ASAP, and I hope this will be achieved soon,  but Penny has also problems to solve with her life choices (to be clear, not her marriage). In the episode she regrets her past life and her acting career. She has settled for a safer job, now she earns a lot of money and that gives her more confidence. Last season she appeared happier, for the first time she felt independent, she could buy stuff without worrying about credit cards bills and she had a guy for her investments. But after some time, I think she is realizing she has no passion at all for this job. The writers are also making it appear really unpleasant, with all those lines about hidden side effects, it seems something deceitful...I never liked very much her new career, because it was not something she was passionate for. All the other in the gang have passion for what they do as a job and\or for their hobbies. Penny used to have passion for acting, she insisted in auditioning, she even decided to quit working as a waitress to focus on it, but now she seems kind of lifeless. I know that being an even slightly successful actress in LA is harder than winning a lottery and that her dream was kind of meant to fail, the writers on some occasions even suggested  she wasn't that good in acting, but I liked her better then since she seemed to fight for something she really cared about...I don't know if she needs to come back to that career or just to work throught the grief of loosing her dreams, but I think she now has  to focus on that aspect of her life.

In general, I liked the episode, right till the end...the part about Penny missing her old life was  harsh for me to watch, and I found Leonard playing with those girls and above all Stuart in Howardette's room kind of creepy. 

Edited January 8, 2016 by mirs1

[SRAM]

I'm hoping this episode is a preamble for a career change for Penny back to acting.  I just never saw Penny being a 9-5 girl, so her job does seem to be sucking the life out of her.  She doesn't have to be a star, but a working actress would be getting most of her dream, and would give us old Penny back to some extent.

[Denise07]

This episode was ok for me. I had high hopes for it but it just fell kind of flat for my liking.

That being said, I enjoyed the Raj/Sheldon interaction (not so much that Sheldon got his way again), Howardette (creepy Stuart was lil much), Lenny was ok.  I thought Leonard and Penny actually stood out more in the scenes without their SOs in this epi.  Penny's line about the drug she was selling was great and I loved the guest star, Jake K. But overall it just fell flat to me...and yes I agree with others: the Leonard double dutch-ing was really out of place.  I actually can't decide which scene was creepier Stuart or Leonard?!

Edited January 8, 2016 by Denise07

[vonmar]

The teddy bear that Stuart left behind...

GUND ‏@GottaGettaGUND  5h5 hours ago

Philbin made a special guest appearance on @BigBang_CBS last night! We hope fame doesn't go to his head. #GUND

 

For more than 100 years, GUND has been a premier plush company recognized worldwide for the quality and innovation of our products. Not only are we the oldest manufacturer of soft toys in America - in fact, we were one of the first ever companies to produce a teddy bear in the early 1900s! 

 

 

https://www.gund.com/product/philbin+bear+beige+-+319926.do?from=ac

[sgreece]

Hey everyone, Happy new year!!!!!

So Leonard at the and was EVERYTHING!!!!!

Love happy shamy, you can tell something changed (with both of them)!

Overall a happy kind off mature.... I will dare to say episode, funny stuff!

Have a good one people!

[mjc45]

shamy skype was sweet.

was stuart that creepy, how did he get back into the 

house at night. did he not give the keys back?

lets hope l/p talking leads to leave there man-child 

in 4a.  laugh at times it was good+

[Einstein Von Brainstorm]

Can't remember who it was that suggested the possibility of Leonard skipping with some university students but looking at it they are indeed little girls:

From: http://womenneverreallyfaint.tumblr.com

You can tell they are children cus they're the same height as him  

Maybe they are neighbour kids? that he's helped with their homework before or something? I dunno but I am in the 'funny, not creepy' camp  

[Kathy2611]

Easily could be Howardette's neighborhood and he might have helped them with science homework (Howard would help with their math).  Very plausible.

[gwhh]

49 minutes ago, Einstein Von Brainstorm said:

Can't remember who it was that suggested the possibility of Leonard skipping with some university students but looking at it they are indeed little girls:

From: http://womenneverreallyfaint.tumblr.com

You can tell they are children cus they're the same height as him  

Maybe they are neighbour kids? that he's helped with their homework before or something? I dunno but I am in the 'funny, not creepy' camp  

Why are there so many kids skipping rope outside of Howard house?

Is penny description of Sheldon as a man-child an accurate description now a days?  He did get laid for the first time! 

 

 

[Einstein Von Brainstorm]

Just now, gwhh said:

Why are there so many kids skipping rope outside of Howard house?

Is penny description of Sheldon as a man-child an accurate description now a days?  He did get laid for the first time! 

 

- That is not Howard's house.

- Man-child implies mental immaturity, not physical. 

 

[phantagrae]

It wasn't the funniest episode they've ever done but I think it was fine.  I laughed a lot and enjoyed it overall.  

I didn't have a problem with the jump rope scene, except that I wondered if Johnny was actually jumping over the ropes or just faking it for the scene.

Anyway, I don't think there was any real point in who he was jumping with or how he might have met them or whatever.  I think the point went along with the happy thoughts and self-affirming phrases he was spouting after talking with the doctor.

Anyway, I didn't have a problem with it.

I also didn't mind Stuart at the end.  It was supposed to be funny/creepy, so, IMO, it worked.

I don't know that this episode is meant to be some kind harbinger of things to come.  Sometimes things are just funny for their own sake.

[djsurrey]

1 hour ago, phantagrae said:

It wasn't the funniest episode they've ever done but I think it was fine.  I laughed a lot and enjoyed it overall.  

I didn't have a problem with the jump rope scene, except that I wondered if Johnny was actually jumping over the ropes or just faking it for the scene.

Anyway, I don't think there was any real point in who he was jumping with or how he might have met them or whatever.  I think the point went along with the happy thoughts and self-affirming phrases he was spouting after talking with the doctor.

Anyway, I didn't have a problem with it.

I also didn't mind Stuart at the end.  It was supposed to be funny/creepy, so, IMO, it worked.

I don't know that this episode is meant to be some kind harbinger of things to come.  Sometimes things are just funny for their own sake.

Yes but why? I guess he was never allowed to be a kid.

[Oldnavy]

I thought this episode was OK. I liked the Sheldon/Raj part. Lenny was OK. I thought was interesting when the Dr. confronted Penny. I really don't think Penny acts as Leonard's mother. She does mother Sheldon and I agree that Sheldon is a big man child. IMO, Sheldon hasn't fully grown up yet.  

I liked the Howard/Bernie part but I thought the last scene with Stuart watching them sleep scary; it may have 

been intended to do that, but I really wish that they would take Stuart on an different path.

[djsurrey]

31 minutes ago, Oldnavy said:

I thought this episode was OK. I liked the Sheldon/Raj part. Lenny was OK. I thought was interesting when the Dr. confronted Penny. I really don't think Penny acts as Leonard's mother. She does mother Sheldon and I agree that Sheldon is a big man child. IMO, Sheldon hasn't fully grown up yet.  

I liked the Howard/Bernie part but I thought the last scene with Stuart watching them sleep scary; it may have 

been intended to do that, but I really wish that they would take Stuart on an different path.

I think they did take him on a different path. Sometimes I wonder how did he get here?

Edited January 9, 2016 by djsurrey

[SRAM]

I wish they would play around with bringing Lucy back dating Stuart and have a few episodes of extreme awkwardness between Raj, Stuart, Lucy and Emily.  It could be used to take the awkwardness away from Emily and Penny, you could even have Emily asking Penny what she would do and them becoming friendlier.  It would make Stuart less pathetic and it would give Raj an interesting drama-comedy situation different than him wondering if Emily is going to kill him and chop him up.  It could also make Emily less creepy if they had a plot between her and Raj that was totally relationship based.  Anyway, just a thought.

[phantagrae]

4 hours ago, Oldnavy said:

I thought this episode was OK. I liked the Sheldon/Raj part. Lenny was OK. I thought was interesting when the Dr. confronted Penny. I really don't think Penny acts as Leonard's mother. She does mother Sheldon and I agree that Sheldon is a big man child. IMO, Sheldon hasn't fully grown up yet.  

I liked the Howard/Bernie part but I thought the last scene with Stuart watching them sleep scary; it may have 

been intended to do that, but I really wish that they would take Stuart on an different path.

I think that people are seeming to misinterpret the idea that Penny is "acting as Leonard's mother".

It's not that she is mothering Leonard.  It's that she is a strong character, like his mother, so he seems to act like he needs to bend over backwards to please her, that he's not worthy of being pleased himself.  This is kind of like the way he was with Dr. Stephanie, when Penny was trying to get him to assert his own feelings about how fast the relationship was moving, etc.

And how he told her that when they were first dating he used to go along with whatever she wanted to do so that they would have sex.

So he was telling the Dr. that his mother never celebrated his birthday because it wasn't HIS achievement and he felt guilty enough about it that he would send his mother a card on his birthday.

Though Penny is a strong, assertive character and Leonard seems to doubt his worthiness, that doesn't mean that Penny is the same as his mother.  She doesn't necessarily want to go along with all of the nerdy pursuits, but she does show Leonard plenty of affection.

I think that it's Leonard's issue that he has sought out a strong woman, but Penny running around in tank tops and short shorts was indeed part of the initial attraction.  When he first looked at her and wanted to say hi, it wasn't because he knew anything about whether or not she was a strong woman like his mother.

As for Stuart, I don't think they're ever going to really take him down any particular path.  He's a minor recurring character, not one of the main guys.  He's always going to be used as comic relief and probably not going to be developed all that much more than he already has.

[djsurrey]

58 minutes ago, SRAM said:

I wish they would play around with bringing Lucy back dating Stuart and have a few episodes of extreme awkwardness between Raj, Stuart, Lucy and Emily.  It could be used to take the awkwardness away from Emily and Penny, you could even have Emily asking Penny what she would do and them becoming friendlier.  It would make Stuart less pathetic and it would give Raj an interesting drama-comedy situation different than him wondering if Emily is going to kill him and chop him up.  It could also make Emily less creepy if they had a plot between her and Raj that was totally relationship based.  Anyway, just a thought.

We rarely see Emily. We may be seeing less of Stuart now that he moved out (unless he is moving in with Meemaw  next).

[jenafan]

On ‎1‎/‎8‎/‎2016 at 1:14 AM, djsurrey said:

I laughed while watching the episode. 

In retrospect I have to agree Leonard skipping with a bunch of young girls seemed odd. Then there was Stuart. Are they trying to make Sheldon look like the more normal one?

I must say, that has been the impression I am getting.  In the end, Sheldon will be the one who comes out on top with the career win, the happy marriage, and the family.   Not that I am complaining, but as he is becoming more stable, the others' instabilities are becoming more evident.  

Edited January 9, 2016 by jenafan

[Lionne]

Both Leonard's jump-rope skipping and Stuart's watching his "parents" while they slept was weird, but oddly I laughed anyway. Or rather, I laughed at the moment, but when you stop to actually think about them it becomes a bit more messed up and disturbing. Just makes me want to plug my ears and go, "Lalalala, don't think about it" and I don't really enjoy being put into that position.

The episode started out really strong; I loved the cold open and Sheldon and Amy's "Best Best" discussion. Only those two could follow that with a straight face.

I also enjoyed watching Raj and Sheldon work together again, since that's always a treat. Their "Eye of the Tiger" episode when they work together the first time is a TBBT classic.

I also enjoyed watching Bernie and Howard together, and would note that Howard was *helping* Bernie with the clean up this time, which seems a big step forward in the right direction for them both. While i liked the hint that they were getting empty nest syndrome, it seems a little weird that they were getting that feeling for Stuart. The whole thing with Stuart and Howardette is really messed up in the telling, because there's the situation where Howard and Stuart got into this weird step-father/son dynamic when Stuart was living with Debbie, but then this mother/son dynamic that Howardette sometimes have because Howard was so used to be doting on by his mother and expects the same from Bernie, but now they expect me to buy into this Howardette as parents to Stuart dynamic and I'm sorry, but that's going way too far. Stuart was chiding Howard about calling his mother more just a season ago, like a step-father, now I'm supposed to think that the roles are reversed and Howard has been a father to Stuart all this time?

If you want to set up the idea that Howard and Bernie are ready for children of their own, and that they need to go through some marriage growing pains to get ready for that new step in their relationship, then so it. The conversation with Howard, Bernie and her father about it earlier this season was a more realistic setup. But the idea that a married couple and their live-in friend have this revolving door of son/mother/child roles that constantly flip flop depending on today's plot is not something that I buy. Please let's just get back to Stuart as the comic book store owner, and let Howardette work on their own issues in a more organic way.

Besides, is you want to look at a married couple and their live-in "man-child" problems, you already have Leonard/Penny/Sheldon for that, and you're dealing with that in this episode too. Unfortunately, this isn't being dealt with in a way that really makes sense for me either, at least Penny's side of it. I really expected Penny to stop concentrating on making her sale in order to fight with Dr. Gallo instead. Penny knows how Leonard had to celebrate his mother's birthday and Xmas, and in response, she tried to throw him a surprise birthday party and always sets up a more traditional, family-like Xmas, decorating the tree with him and dressing up as an adorable little elf while doing so. Penny isn't like a mother to Leonard. If anything, they dynamic is usually that Penny and Leonard come together like parents to Sheldon. At least Penny did change the topic around to Sheldon when talking about being in some mother-like role, and I find that more believable.

However, Penny's turn on the couch didn't really make a lot of sense to me, not unless she's looking at it all through rose-tinted glasses, and really twisting up the actual truth of her past. She was a horrible and unsuccessful actress. Her interest was never really in acting anyway, but in being rich, famous and glamorous and life being easy once she made it big. She was carefree, but often impossibly and horrendously lazy, and that is one place where Leonard and even Sheldon came in - both of those guys have done a ton to take care of her. She does remember that, right? That she could get away with being carefree and irresponsible because Sheldon and Leonard fed her, cleaned for her, and paid for her? Her internet, her food, her rent? That she was an adorable but atrocious mooch who floated on the philosophy, "I'm cute. I get by." Personally, I loathed that side of her and have embraced her growing up - she was always the one who needed to get her act together to be worthy of a real marriage to Leonard, who has always been her rock and who has floated her up until now, when she can stand on her own two feet.

I don't need the writers to remind me, once again, that Penny is hot and doable and loves that about herself. There are a lot more issues on the table with Lenny to dig into - his infidelity, the power-balance dynamic of their relationship, their living arrangements, Sheldon as the third wheel in their life, Leonard's issues being raised to please others, and growing older.

But God, the last thing I want is Leonard and Penny both regressing at the same time. Him into being the child he always wanted to be, and running around skipping rope and collecting more toys and video games, and Penny throwing over the career she's worked so hard for to pursue acting and becoming a mooch and parasite on her husband once more. We worked hard to get where we are today, and there is more to dig into with these two characters and their relationship, but the writers don't seem to know how to get past "Nerd and the Hottie" to write something more appropriate to where we are now, in season 9.

While there was a lot of funny things in this episode, it really highlighted the problems that have been ignored all this time with literally everyone that's not Sheldon and Amy. Those two and their relationship have held the spotlight long enough to distract from the issues with everyone else, but now that their story arc is over and we're getting back to the rest of the gang those issues are very, very apparent. I feel like this episode was trying to shuffle some cards around so maybe they could start dealing with those problems, but it still highlighted how much they've lost the plot with all the other characters and are groping around blindly trying to find it.

[djsurrey]

Perhaps TBBT is mostly just not that consistent nor all that deep. On any given episode any of the guys can be the man child. Penny can be street smart or a dumb blond who can't handle glue. Bernadette can morph from smurfette to Howard's mother. When it comes to money our geniuses can morph into dumb and dumber.

[joyceraye]

I too was confused about what the skipping rope scene at the end meant. I wondered if he'd gone to the school where they gave the talk about girls getting into science, given another one and then joined in with a game at playtime. I loved how he stayed coordinated with the ropes and didn't trip up.

Has Stuart really left or is he dossing down in another part of the house ? Why is Stuart getting creepier and creepier ? Is Amy going to find he has a brain tumour ?

[Tonstar17]

I don't know why people think the skipping rope thing was weird or creepy. Maybe it was one of the things he enjoyed doing when he was a kid and wasn't allowed to do but secretly did anyway and seeing the kids doubled dutching triggered some happy childhood memories in him, combined the happiness he was feeling from his session just made him want to have fun and he seem really good at it.

Is that creepy I don't think so. People also seems to forget they were chanting his name giving the impression that they knew him and also how many times we seen that same scenario in movies, is that weird too.

Sent from my SM-G928F using Tapatalk

[Strawberry PopTart Fan]

I didn't find it "creepy" either if "creepy" is implying  inappropriate behavior with young teenagers on Leonard's part. I think it symbolized the relief and comfort Leonard got from his talk with Dr. Gallo. She heard him and acknowledged his mother's "heartbreaking" behavior,  and really feeling that you have been heard is very healing.  I'm hoping the help she gave to Leonard with his mommy issues holds up for the long term. I'm all for less whining and more jumping rope. Great cardio!Go Leonard.

[gxi720]

I had a huge case of deja vu watching this episode. I feel like I've seen it before one time on StarWorld India. I already knew the whole thing down to Stuart watching Howard and Bernadette sleep. The best I can guess when i saw it was before march 2014. Has it been shown before or something? I can't figure it out.

[Tonstar17]

I didn't find it "creepy" either if "creepy" is implying  inappropriate behavior with young teenagers on Leonard's part. I think it symbolized the relief and comfort Leonard got from his talk with Dr. Gallo. She heard him and acknowledged his mother's "heartbreaking" behavior,  and really feeling that you have been heard is very healing.  I'm hoping the help she gave to Leonard with his mommy issues holds up for the long term. I'm all for less whining and more jumping rope. Great cardio!Go Leonard.

Agreed his happiness after the talk was evident and it looked like it helped him come to terms with his mommy issues, well hopefully some of it. I hope this is a start and he learns from the experience and maybe have a few more sessions with Dr Gallo, giving him the confidence to move on with his life and not let his unhappy childhood ruin his relationship with his wife. It was a joy to see a very happy Leonard.

Sent from my SM-G928F using Tapatalk