Wednesday, September 19, 2012

Summary for 6x04 - The Re-Entry Minimisation

Before the taping of 6x05, they showed us The Re-Entry Minimisation, which was taped last week, and I've typed up a summary of what I can remember. It's a little different than my regular reports (no alternate takes, or bloopers and such, since I only saw the finished episode), but I know some people were still wanting more details on what happens in it.

SPOILER ALERT. Following is a summary of "The Re-Entry Minimisation." Please credit me if you share this information anywhere.

The episode starts with Sheldon, Leonard, Raj, and Stuart in the guys’ apartment. Raj is tracking Howard’s decent into space on his phone, and excited that the fantastic four will soon be reunited. Sheldon tells Stuart that he had a good run, but basically his time is up. Raj defends Stuart, so Sheldon turns to Leonard for the tie breaker. Leonard says he likes Stuart, plus he gives them a discount at the comics store, it was something like 20% or 30% off. Sheldon says he can’t be bought for that cheap. Stuart bumps it up another 10%, and Sheldon’s sold.

Now I’m going to just go through Howard’s plotline first, rather than jumping back and forth between the two… Bernadette’s waiting for him at the airport, with a sign that says “Payload Specialist Wolowitz.” She tells a man waiting next to her that her husband is coming back from outer space. He says that this place is coming from Houston. She says never mind. Howard walks out, and Bernadette calls, “Howie!” and then suddenly all these photographers are taking pictures and shouting “Howie!” and Howard thinks it’s for him, but really it’s for Howie Mandel next to him. Mandel then leaves with his chauffer (who I think was the same guy next to Bernadette), and tells him “That crazy guy was telling everyone on the plane he was an astronaut.” Howard asks where all the guys are, and Bernadette says it’s just her. Howard thinks they’re setting up a party for him back home (“Don’t worry, I can look surprised!”), but Bernadette says no, she just wanted him for herself for the night. But throughout the scene Bernadette’s been wiping her nose with a tissue, and with Howard it becomes more clear how sick she is, but she says it’s just allergies.

Later in Howard and Bernadette’s room, Howard tells her they don’t really have to do anything tonight (Bernadette’s cold is just getting worse, very red nose, all congested, coughing badly), but Bernadette says he left right after they got married, it’s like their honeymoon. She moves to straddle him, but gets dizzy, so they change positions and she lies flat on her back. She tells him to kiss her, which he reluctantly does, but within a few seconds she’s asleep. He wakes her, and she’s all “That was amazing, you made me feel things I never…” but then she’s asleep again. Howard says something like, “Well that was fast and a little disgusting. Now I know how she feels.”

So Howard goes by his mom’s to see her, but the chain is on the door, and she’s yelling that she wasn’t expecting to see him yet. She says she needs time to get decent, and Howard comments to himself that for years she doesn’t tie her robe closed, and now she has to get decent. Then he hears a man’s voice yelling about which exit to use, and he can’t find his other sock. Mrs. Wolowitz tells him he has to whisper, though of course her “whisper” can still clearly be heard. Howard asks who’s there, and she says she has the TV on – Leno (or someone) lost his sock, it’s hilarious. Then the guy is climbing out of the window right around the corner from Howard, and it turns out to be his dentist.

Next Howard goes to see Raj, who’s happy to see him. Howard tells him about Bernadette and his mom, and how he’ll have to get a new dentist, “now that I know where his hands have been.” Then Stuart walks in, greets Howard, who’s surprised to see him. Stuart says that Raj is just helping him out until he can get back on his feet, and Raj connects that to the new boots he bought Stuart. Howard’s surprised that they’re close friends now, and Raj says that neither of them had girlfriends, they had holes in their lives, and now they feel each other’s holes. Stuart says that sounds wrong. Raj asks which part, and Stuart says all of it.

Raj and Stuart were going to go to the Sound of Music sing along, and Howard says that used to be their thing. Raj says he can come, they’ll get a scalper ticket. Howard asks, so I’ll be sitting by myself? Raj says no, they can switch seats, and Howard can sit with him for the second half. Stuart asks, so I’ll be sitting by myself during Edelweiss? Howard says no, the two of them had plans, he’ll just see them tomorrow. Out in the hallway, he says to himself, “At least my mom had her boyfriend climb out the window.”

He ends up sitting at a diner by himself. The waitress says he looks familiar, and Howard says he doesn’t think so. She says yes, he was on the news, one of those astronauts! Howard perks up, and says he was. She offers him a free slice of cheesecake, which he accepts. He starts to tell her about how hard of a day it’s been, explaining the stuff that happened, but she asks, do you want to cheesecake or not? So he shuts up at takes it. Then as he eats it, he quietly and sadly sings Rocket Man to himself. (This was the closing scene of the episode.)

Okay, now jumping to the other storyline… Sheldon, Leonard, Amy, and Penny at the guys apartment, setting up to play Pictionary. Someone suggests boys vs girls for the teams, and Sheldon says that’s hardly fair, but then again, no matter what team he’s on it won’t be fair. Penny and Sheldon draw first, with Amy and Leonard guessing. Penny’s drawing some box, while Sheldon’s drawing stick figures, and Leonard’s guessing all these comic book characters. The word turns out to be “present,” which Amy guesses when Penny adds a bow to the box, and Leonard asks Sheldon how in the world that was present. Sheldon points out how he was drawing the four of them in the apartment – the present.

Then Leonard and Amy are drawing – Leonard’s drawn a circle, and is putting lots of dots inside. Sheldon keeps guessing these crazy complicated scientific things. Penny ends up guessing it right – a chocolate chip cookie (on Amy’s the chips were actually chip shaped, rather than little scribbles). Leonard asks Sheldon how he didn’t get that, and Sheldon says that if you’re drawing a chocolate chip cookie, it needs milk next to it. Leonard points out that Penny got it, and Sheldon says yes, after he eliminated all of the obvious answers.

Penny and Sheldon are up again – except Sheldon’s drawing on the board, and Penny’s just watching. Amy asks Penny shouldn’t she get started, and Penny says it’s alright, they’ve got time. Sheldon keeps drawing different things, not seemingly related to each other, and Leonard has no idea, guessing various things, and Penny’s just amused watching this all unfold. Finally she decides that’s enough, and draws a hand, darkens the tip of one finger, and points to it – Amy says “nail polish,” and the word was “polish.” Sheldon says no, it was “Polish,” and points out how the three things he drew connect to being Polish. (Like the last was Madame Curie, who was part Polish.) Penny points out the small p on the card – polish, not Polish. Sheldon says oh, then tells Leonard they share the blame on losing that round.

Later they’re putting the game away, Penny asks Sheldon if he knows the origin of the phrase “getting your ass handed to you,” and suggests it goes back to like the Roman days, when your ass would literally be cut off and handed to you. They end up talking about different games, Sheldon saying they could beat the girls in anything else, and Penny tells him to pick something. Sheldon says Physics Fiesta, in which you ask physics questions and answer them in rudimentary Spanish. He asks Leonard, in Spanish, where the Higgs Boson particle is, and Leonard answers. Penny says they’re not playing a game he just made up. Sheldon says that all games are made up – they’re not just found in the wilderness.

Penny suggests darts, but Sheldon says she’d have an unfair advantage, since it’s played in bars, which she’s been frequenting since she was legal drinking age (Leonard comments sure, that’s when it started). Amy suggests something physical, like water polo, but Leonard says that Sheldon doesn’t float. Sheldon says it’s true, he has a higher than average density; if he makes his bath too deep, he’ll drown. Amy also suggests going to UCLA and playing real life operation with a cadaver – the nose doesn’t light up, but sometimes you can get the leg to jump.

What they actually end up doing next is Leonard and Amy racing to find Waldo, each with their own Where’s Waldo book, with their glasses off. Sheldon and Penny are yelling encouragements, Sheldon describing what he looks like, and Leonard’s all, I know! Amy finds him first. Sheldon’s disappointed in Leonard, and Leonard says that it’s hard – if it was easy, it’d be called “There’s Waldo.”

Next we see Sheldon and Penny spinning in circles around lightsabers (bent over, with their foreheads touching them), then when they hit the minute mark they wobble their way over to white boards for a long division problem. Sheldon’s so dizzy he falls over, and Leonard’s all, “Come on, we can’t lose in math!” But Penny finishes the problem first.

Then Penny and Sheldon wrestle, and Penny immediately pins him on his back. Then she kisses his nose and leaves a mark with her lipstick, then kisses one cheek, then the other. Sheldon tells Amy to do something, but Amy just joins in, kissing his forehead.

The last game is a pie eating contest – they’re all kneeling around the little coffee table. Sheldon hesitates, because blue berries are full of antioxidants, so what if he runs out of oxidants? Leonard tells him that they haven’t won a game all night, they need to do this. So on go they all stick their faces full on into the pie and go for it. In the middle of this Howard comes in, but they all look up and basically just say hi before going back to the pie. (For Howard this fits in between seeing Raj and his last scene in the diner.)

I really enjoyed the boys vs girls part of the episode - one of the funniest storylines, in my opinion, the show has done in a while.

20 comments:

  1. Thanks Roxanne! I think it's one of the funniest subplot they had so far.
    I can't stop laughing at it, and I haven't even seen the episode yet!

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    1. No problem! I was laughing a little to myself just remembering Johnny's delivery of "There's Waldo!" Definitely lots of great stuff to look forward to!

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    2. The "There's Waldo" comment cracked me up too! This episode seems to be full of win. Thanks for the detailed report. I absolutely love it, every single thing.

      Roxanne, I read in the forum that at first, you didn't know what to make of Penny kissing Sheldon after wrestling. Did it seem OOC to you? Did it look seductive (for lack of a better word) at all? Did they show Leonard's reaction to that? I figured that if Leonard and Amy didn't care, then why should anyone else care? LOL

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    3. Not necessarily OOC, I was just really surprised. I think I would have had a bigger problem with it if it was just the one kiss on the nose, but the fact that she just keeps kissing him shows she's really doing it just to bug him. Didn't look seductive at all. And no, we don't see Leonard's reaction.

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    4. what was sheldon's reaction to it???

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    5. Pretty much just struggling to try to get away.

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  2. Can't wait to see the boys vs girls stuff! Thanks for the recap!

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  3. This sounds like a great episode! Can't wait!!!

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  4. This sounds hilarious! Thanks, Roxanne!

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  5. Thanks for the great reports. I am looking forward to seeing this episode as well as the Halloween one.

    Do you have tickets to any upcoming tapings?

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    1. Yes, right now I have tickets for the taping on October 2.

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  6. How was she pinning him?

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  7. I was at the taping for this episode! It was hilarious! :)

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  8. If I had gotten standby tickets (which was for 9/11/12) and got guarenteed tickets for a future taping, will I be put in standby? Because I got in for the 9/11/12 taping I'm just wondering if having guarenteed tickets next time if I'm going to have to be in standby again.

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    1. Technically, according to their website, you might be put in the standby line, but I've never seen them enforce that rule, or heard of it happening.

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    2. Okay thanks! I have tickets to go again for October 23rd so ill see what happens.

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  9. Slight correction - Madame Curie (nee Maria Sklodowska) was 100% Polish. She left Poland (the part then occupied by Russia) in 1891 at age 24 to continue her studies in Paris. Her husband, Pierre Curie, was French so her children were part-Polish. From Wikipedia - While a French citizen, Marie Skłodowska-Curie (she used both surnames) never lost her sense of Polish identity. She taught her daughters the Polish language and took them on visits to Poland.

    I am of Polish descent so I have to point this out.

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    1. Thanks for the clarification! I'm sure Sheldon gave the correct explanation, I just couldn't remember the details properly.

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  10. I'm the guy Howard Wolowitz is named after. (Not based on - just named after.) My wife and I were invited by my friend and ex-partner Bill Prady to attend the taping of this episode. It was great fun. I even got to be an extra in it! In the very last scene I'm sitting at a table at the back of the diner. See http://www.photobuff.com/LA-2012 for some photos. (BTW: Wolowitz is a Polish name.)

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    1. That is awesome! I remember reading that Howard was named after an old partner of Prady's. Thanks for sharing your pics - I'll definitely be looking for you when the episode airs!

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