episodes 920 'The Big Bear Precipitation' (April 7)

[Tripper]

'The Big Bear Precipitation' - Season 9, Episode 20 
Airs Thursday, April 7 at 20:00 on CBS.

Sheldon spills a secret of Leonard's when the two take a weekend cabin trip with Penny and Amy. Also, when Koothrappali goes overboard with pregnancy gifts, Wolowitz and Bernadette must draw the line.

 

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[stardustmelody]

Preview for this episode is up! 

[stardustmelody]

Sneek Peeks for this episode are up!

[SRAM]

That scene with Bernadette sitting wrapped up in that stuffed bear has got to be one of the most adorable scenes I have ever seen on the show.

[4everlenny]

At least the show has been consistent this year. Raj is consistently a jerk and creepy. Sheldon and Amy are shown in their quirky love. Leonard and Penny are shown as a married couple that keeps secrets from each other and having little in common. Even when they have a chance for a little fun, their 'best friend' ruins it. Why does Sheldon has to ruin couples fun by dropping a secret like tonight just 'to win'. Oh he's socially awkward and doesn't know better doesn't cut it anymore. That was just mean and meant to cause trouble. Penny was once sweet and caring, this Penny is gone. Only thing left from her character that Leonard and the rest of us fell in love with is that she likes to drink and that she's had sex in every possible place in every possible way. Didn't feel there was any progress on their conflict tonight either.  If Penny's job pays so much, why hasn't she paid down her debt. The questions about their money changes from episode to episode. Seems the writers are confused, or maybe we're not supposed to pay close attention. Really wish I didn't feel this disappointed after every episode, but I do.

[Shelldon]

I guess on some level Raj's desire to never want to be alone stems from fearing he'll fall out of his friend's lives. Like with this pregnancy. Which also links to his double dating plotline. Hopefully there's some serious Raj development in the season 9 finale, just so that Big Bang can prove it hasn't forgotten Raj like Raj feels his friends are starting to do.

I'm also glad that no matter how sitcom formulaic it might be, they are using Bernadette's pregnancy as a catalyst for episode plots. This version of her is better than watching the cliche Howardette were back in Season 8.

So Penny doesn't like her easy money pharmaceutical job.....because she flirts with doctors? What? Why is this apparently a requirement for her profession? I just feel like it's a weak narrative reason, but I'm entirely indifferent on what career she chooses next if it comes to that. It could be a mature progression for her still or it could be another bad sitcom pitfall Penny falls into. At least this is one rational thing for Penny and Leonard to debate over.

Finally, the "Never Have I Ever" parts with Amy and Sheldon were cute and inoffensive. I just wonder why they couldn't do more with the landscape they were around. This is easily a game that could've been played back at their apartment. Mostly just jokes about how Sheldon and Leonard were out of their element in camping. Guess they never tried boy scouts.

[bbtfan07]

Tonight's episode was charming. Not over the top, but gave everyone good lines and with a moderate story. The Wolowitzes are setting in with Bernadette's gestation, Raj is being needy, Shamy is having good time together, Sheldon is unintentionally causing trouble and Leonard and Penny are being married and discovering each other. Not a bad pleasant episode.

[Chrismo]

35 minutes ago, bbtfan07 said:

Sheldon is unintentionally causing trouble 

LOL. When you do it over and over it isn't unintentional.

[meka3000]

1 hour ago, 4everlenny said:

-Why does Sheldon has to ruin couples fun by dropping a secret like tonight just 'to win'.

-That was just mean and meant to cause trouble.

-If Penny's job pays so much, why hasn't she paid down her debt. The questions about their money changes from episode to episode.

-maybe if Leonard didn't keep it a secret it wouldn't be a problem.

-after learning that penny used sheldons toothbrush to clean the sink, it doesn't surprise me that he would get spiteful.

-making alot of money doesnt mean a debt goes away easily.  Also this doesn't mean penny is fiscally responsible given her putting money in the stock market instead using it to pay off her debt.  Also we don't know an absolute amount to Penny's debt like we do Leonards account.

[Itwasdestined]

1 hour ago, 4everlenny said:

At least the show has been consistent this year. Raj is consistently a jerk and creepy. Sheldon and Amy are shown in their quirky love. Leonard and Penny are shown as a married couple that keeps secrets from each other and having little in common. Even when they have a chance for a little fun, their 'best friend' ruins it. Why does Sheldon has to ruin couples fun by dropping a secret like tonight just 'to win'. Oh he's socially awkward and doesn't know better doesn't cut it anymore. That was just mean and meant to cause trouble. Penny was once sweet and caring, this Penny is gone. Only thing left from her character that Leonard and the rest of us fell in love with is that she likes to drink and that she's had sex in every possible place in every possible way. Didn't feel there was any progress on their conflict tonight either.  If Penny's job pays so much, why hasn't she paid down her debt. The questions about their money changes from episode to episode. Seems the writers are confused, or maybe we're not supposed to pay close attention. Really wish I didn't feel this disappointed after every episode, but I do.

I'm not one to worry about the portrayal of Lenny's married relationship. Most of the comments are just harmless sarcastic banter between married couples in sitcoms, albeit a little one way in this one. The hat thing was exactly how my wife would have reacted to me dressing in an unapproved of way - she's often embarrassed about my choice of attire when going out- and because she really doesn't give a shit about what Sheldon wears, she gives him the "nice hat" comment, most likely not really meaning it. They both got each other during the game and didn't really care - both of them smiled about it really. The sex in the cabin in the rain was yet ANOTHER predictable Penny's done it joke that neither offended me or made me laugh. I was more annoyed by the Old Penny storm out - she hasn't done that since mid Season 7 so that was a bit of a regression. But they worked it all out in the end and got a mutual I Love You into the conversation so that's something for the perpetually offended Lennys among us. ( I recall vaguely from Taping report that they taped a scene with them in bed at the end which didn't make the final cut so that might be something to gripe about - correct me if I'm wrong. I must admit the Shamy repartee at the end was overly long if not cute)

It's the money plot that annoys me the most and just flip flops all over the place. This is a continuity dilemma that I will weigh in on. Why has this become such a big deal in their lives? I know it was a major problem for Penny throughout the years in this show but it just wasn't much of an issue regarding Leonard until the engagement came into being. This is a man who on his wage constantly got Penny out of trouble, bought her tickets to fly home, paid her rent, always paid for dinners, bought her a flipping car(!!) and spent years throwing money at collectibles that are rarely cheap. Then suddenly he has student loan debts and is a struggling physicist whose wife earns more than and is saving money secretly, even $20 is aunt sent him!?!. Penny on the other hand, is still massively in debt even though she seemed to have made enough money to get herself out of enough debt with money from the commercial as far back as Season 5 to buy 2 Star Trek transponders, (while also being in so much debt the she couldn't pay her electricity bills or rent a few eps earlier), then got herself back in problems when she dropped her job for committing to acting, then eventually gets a great job that leads to her making more money than Leonard, getting a financial adviser, being able to buy Leonard a helicopter without thinking, while in the midst of this she gives Leonard back his money for the car which they eventually decide to put away in a joint savings account!! Now despite all the references to her get paying job which she now hates, she is still in massive debit that could be helped with Leonard's secret 6 grand that a year ago would have been going into their joint account except for the fact that Leonard doesn't trust her spending, even though in the last 2 seasons since they've been engaged/married hasn't really come up in conversation at all. PHEW!!!! That's a lot of confusion, writing type guys!

Of course all this flip flopping on finances COULD be the final straw to make the one decision that would REALLY solve their financial issues - the fact they have been unnecessarily paying TWO rents for living in TWO apartments for nearly TWO flipping years! How about ending all this inconsistent financial trauma with that simple solution! Is that what the writers are building to or are they just fixated on marriages being traumatised with money problems, wince we've gone down that path with Howardette as well. And yet Sheldon is blissfully still rolling in dough all this time. (Genuine question - do theoretical physicists make a lot more than experimental physicists and engineers?)

As for the episode, it was smile inducing rather than laugh inducing. Howardette and Raj were cute. I'm enjoying pregnant Bernadette. Shamy were cute if a little overexposed on the Never Have I ever finish and despite the issues I still got my Lenny comparison to my real life marriage ( which by the way is running beautifully after nearly 25 years despite the Lennyness of it). Not a watch again for the laughs episode for me but a pleasant 19 minute diversion. ( come to think of it, another short one , would it have killed to include 20 seconds of Lenny in bed making up after the fight!?)

[RoRo]

I liked it. It was entertaining. It showed how comfortable shamy are together, loved the teddy bear. (Sometimes I forget that these are words written on a page and acted out so believably by this group of excellent actors and that they are not really people I know LOL)

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[stardustmelody]

I enjoyed tonight's episode.  I felt the only thing that truly bothered me was how the writers continue to ignore their own past history and therefore the continuity was amiss when it came to Penny and her finances.   She had a portfolio, a financial agent, obviously was making a lot of money.  While I can see her being fiscally irresponsible and seeing that the more she makes the more she can spend on clothes and shoes (which she probably had to get a lot of professional looking attire anyway) makes sense, but on Leonard's side, his saving up money and it still only being worth about $6,000 when he had bought her a car in the past without any hidden accounts, etc. - when you combine their incomes, there is no way that she should have that huge of a debt.  And what about the financial advisor....why isn't he helping her control her spending?   Ugh....It just feels like they insult our intelligence as viewers when they violate their own history in order to create a story situation and could not think of a more creative way to do so.   Sheldon probably could have come up with something far different that could have started an argument between the couple, if that was the purpose, without violating the history they had created.

But now that I got that off my chest, I have to say that this episode was sweet.   Even the banter between Lenny was more on the light side and they quickly resolved their differences.  The only thing that was a bit off was the way she got up without any regard to his romantic advances and left they room.  I guess I feel the writers could easily have written her saying "let me give you an IOU drink on that, but we can remedy your never have never...." and had them embrace and begin to kiss...so you feel that her appealing to his advances was more important than going and taking the drink.   But other than the way their story closed because of his romantic playful comment...I think that Lenny were cute in this one and I have to say I loved Penny's hair straightened.  It reminded me a little of first season.   

The Raj excitement over the baby actually didn't bother me and I didn't find it creepy.   He knows he has boundary issues and acknowledged that and was willing to work with the couple on it.   But he really is very excited for both of them and he does feel, in a way, as if he is part of their family since he is so close to Howard.   I actually found it sweet how he was doing lovely things for Bernadette and caring for her, something Howard should have been doing and finally acknowledges.   Overall cute and as SRAM said above, Bernie sitting in the bear was one of the most adorable scenes on TV ever.

Shamy were adorable and played the game as only Shamy would....flirting over stupid every day things and yet finding such joy and flirtation in it.   Loved it!   It was a very sweet episode.

[Tensor]

Discussion about salaries moved to the season 9 Discussion thread.

[A.D.A.]

I liked the episode as well. It fell off a little for me when it got into Serious Talk around the last third, but the scenes in the cabin plus the drinking game were all fun and I still think Simon pretty much makes any line given to him, so I usually enjoy everything he's doing. Plus, Bernadette with that teddy bear was adorable, and Shamy doing their back-and-forth and not finding anything to drink to (plus the last joke) were really cute. I like seeing that a lot more than Amy rolling her eyes at Sheldon.

Considering the show is going for slightly meaner humour these days, I wonder if we're going to see Penny stand on the side of a road with a "Shoot Me $12" sign like Al Bundy did... it might happen if they don't think of a passion/job-storyline for her soon, instead of always taking away the ones she has. Not a fan of the implication about pharmaceutical sales reps either (I'm sure that job requires nothing at all but opening your blouse), but oh well, the episode was still good.

Edited April 8, 2016 by A.D.A.

[djsurrey]

I enjoyed the baby theme. There is a lot of excitement with the first. Worries too.

Some sort of disagreements are going to come with newlyweds. Money disagreements are real common too. 

A trip to a cabin was new and different for this show. A little funny they still spent all there time inside but this show is not big regarding on location.

I'm wanting to comment on  wilderness but I got to book off for a while.

---edit

When I think of California I don't imagine wilderness. Guess that comes from growing up near the edge of civilization.

https://www.google.ca/maps/place/Edmonton,+AB/@53.5555501,-117.9763954,985499m/data=!3m1!1e3!4m2!3m1!1s0x53a0224580deff23:0x411fa00c4af6155d .

Edited April 8, 2016 by djsurrey

[rachelshamyfan]

Perfect adorable shamy

[Lionne]

Howard, Bernie, Raj and the bear was really adorable. Bernie curled up with the bear, and Raj's physical comedy with trying to get the bear out of the house was really good. I find myself waiting for Bernie to say out loud that when she married Howard she knew Raj came along as part of the package. They have a weird threesome, kinda like Leonard, Penny and Sheldon had/have a weird threesome. (Although not sure that threesome is working at this point, but I digress.)

I guess I just wish that Bernie would look at Howard and say, "look, he's your best friend and I'm your wife and this is just the deal for the three of us. It's a package." Something where they'd just accept how things are and have been for years, rather than fighting it in a plot or two every season. I mean, there's not too much different here than when Raj came to live with them for awhile, and they tossed him out because Raj was both a more doting husband/wife then either of them, and it was throwing them off and making them argue. So at that time they threw him out. Here they throw him out, then regret it and take him back in. About the same thing that they did with Stuart also.

The show does this a little too often - people have a spine then regret it and backtrack but then still perhaps regret it? The issues pop up again and again, and I get a little tired of seeing them replayed, and I also get tired of people sending others mixed messages.

At least this one had a giant bear that made it very funny, but I have a hard time thinking that after all these years Howard, Bernie and Raj can't get the dynamics of their relationship right.

The Shamy tag was the best; I loved it. They felt like two peas in a pod for the first time in a long time. It was nice to see that similarity between them that shows why they are together.

I could have done without Amy bringing up their one night of sex AGAIN, or Sheldon's completely gratuitous pants dropping (does Jim have it in his contract he has to strip down to his underwear once every season?) that did nothing for me.....pantless Sheldon has been a stale joke for awhile, and now it actually annoys me. Especially when it's hamfisted into a scene as randomly as this one was. Thank goodness for that tag!

As for Lenny...I really wanted Leonard to take his awesome hat with him anyway. If Penny doesn't appreciate Leonard and his interests, and considers something as mainstream as Harry Potter geeky (I thought she actually liked Harry Potter?) then I'm happy to take him off her hands. I completely agree with IWD and what he said about the show's inconsistency about their finances, and I won't rehash it just agree that it irks me and there are so many obvious solutions to it. I was very, very surprised that Leonard just said "yes, I support the grown up thing, now how about sex?" instead of stopping to say, "the grown up thing is great, but....what about being happy? You know, it's possible to find a job or career you like that you can get paid for?" And I am surprised that he was just glad she didn't want to go back to acting and waitressing, but didn't say that he didn't want to go back to it because it made her missssssserable! So miserable! But instead he really says nothing about her emotionally - it's hard that something makes her miserable (because she always takes it out on him) or that something makes her happy, and he wants her to find happy.

Why do their conversations always seem to fall so, so, SO SHORT of all the things that I think they need to say to each other? Or get diverted into sex? Their communication is so awful. I believe that they love each other, but wow, they really don't seem to have any idea how to talk to each other about big issues, and it makes their relationship very uncomfortable and unconvincing.

Edited April 8, 2016 by Lionne

[serena_1995]

What was that joke about Penny loving Sheldon's hat and hating Leonard's hat ?
And then Leonard says -Why are u always mean to me or something .
I didn't get the joke. The audience laughed though. Anyone care to explain ?

 

Edited April 8, 2016 by Serena_nyc1995

[SRAM]

1 hour ago, Serena_nyc1995 said:

What was that joke about Penny loving Sheldon's hat and hating Leonard's hat ?
And then Leonard says -Why are u always mean to me or something .
I didn't get the joke. The audience laughed though. Anyone care to explain ?

 

You're not the only one that didn't get that one either, it just seemed like a put down of Leonard to me.

Lionne

Why do their conversations always seem to fall so, so, SO SHORT of all the things that I think they need to say to each other? Or get diverted into sex? Their communication is so awful. I believe that they love each other, but wow, they really don't seem to have any idea how to talk to each other about big issues, and it makes their relationship very uncomfortable and unconvincing.

This bothers me too, their whole interaction seems to have taken a major change after season 6, the last season they have seemed to be really able to talk to each other about things.  Though this episode wasn't particularly bad, Penny's snarkiness towards Leonard, her feelings about her job, and this whole thing with her supporting living in 4A, has really changed the character of Penny and has made her not as sweet and love able too me as she was before.  I sometimes wonder why Leonard doesn't get pissed at her for the way she acts like he did in season 6 on Valentines Day.

[kelliluvtbbt]

i thought it was a cute episode for all couples. and the 'big bear' being used cleverly for both story lines... funny  

[Strawberry PopTart Fan]

1 hour ago, SRAM said:

It seems like they did sort of a mini-reset with the show in Season 7, the show seems different now.  I still think Penny seems to be turning into more like Katie of the pilot now then the sweet girl of the first few seasons.  Her past slutiness keeps being brought up and she is much more snarky than sweet anymore, two big traits of the pilot's Katie.

I found myself longing for a little more  Penny sweetness too. It pained me when she made fun of Leonard and his new baseball cap. He was very happy with it, it looked cute on him, and she mocked him. It felt mean to him to the point that he asked her why is she always mean to him. It felt mean to me too.

What's up, Buttercup? Please add a little more sugar to the sass. When it gets too tart it stops being funny, imo.

[Tensor]

 Posts hidden.  One due to restrictions, the other due to quoting a hidden post. /color]

[vasu]

That was some horrible acting by the actress playing bernedatte in the scene where she cries ...

other than that the subplot with the 3 of them was a routine sitcom plot 

[djsurrey]

7 hours ago, Serena_nyc1995 said:

What was that joke about Penny loving Sheldon's hat and hating Leonard's hat ?
And then Leonard says -Why are u always mean to me or something .
I didn't get the joke. The audience laughed though. Anyone care to explain ?

 

It is okay for Sheldon to look crazy as she is not with him.

In Pennyland it is fine to wear a ball cap if it has a crest of some real sports team. Leonard had the crest of an fictional Quidditch team. Penny finds that embarrassing and not cool. She grew up as one of the cool kids. I think the audience laughed when it was revealed his cap was representing Quidditch which only exists in the fictional world of Harry Potter. 

I don't recall if there was also a laugh for "why are you always mean to me" but in sports culture  that could come across as sissy talk. You got to be tough if you are going to play sports. Which reminds me of Tom Hanks famous line (and it was a ball cap)