The Big Bang Theory – Episode 7.17 – The Friendship Turbulence- Recap & Review

Recap:

The episode begins with Bernadette fixing Raj's tag on his shirt. He thanks her and notes that it was the closest to sex in 2 years but Howard does not like the way he talked to her.  Sheldon starts throwing insults at Penny’s failed career. She announces that she turned down a role in a sequel to a gorilla movie she played in because it was crap. Raj goes into full detail on what happened but Sheldon does not believe him because he has a better memory than him. Sheldon continues to throw insults at her.

Leonard is not impressed that she turned the role and she must know what it’s like to turn down real money and burn her savings off. This insults Penny. Amy wants to go but Sheldon wants to stay because he was having a great time making fun of failed careers. He insults Howard by not tapping the juicy vein. Bernadette wonders why he insults her husband but Penny interjects by telling her he does out of love just like when Leonard makes her feel terrible about her life choices. Amy insists to leave again but Leonard believes there is not a fight. However, he continues to insult her, which causes her to leave the apartment.

After Leonard chases down Penny, Sheldon gets the opportunity to tell Bernadette why he has been insulting Howard. Sheldon tells her that he started it. Ten years ago, he claimed Howard looked like Pee-Wee Herman and C-3PO. 9 years, 11 months, and 3 weeks ago (I love how he goes into detail on what exact date ago an event happened), he replaced his lectures with photographs of nude fat women bending over. Amy is not impressed on what he did but Raj thought it was funny what Howard did. To this day, Sheldon gets inappropriate and unwanted magazine subscriptions from Howard.

Meanwhile, Raj walks Amy to her car and she hopes to solve the mystery of “Why can’t Raj find a girl?” Amy wonders why Raj stopped online dating and he tells her women stopped talking to him. Amy knows what Raj went through with online dating until she met Sheldon. Raj makes a comment that she and Sheldon only kiss once every three years but she tells Raj to do whatever he wants.

At work, Howard visits Sheldon and tells him that he hopes that they should try to be better friends. He tells him that he got invited to talk at NASA and he has two tickets. He tells him that Bernadette is not able to go. In an attempt to improve on their friendship, he invites him to go fly with him to Houston. Sheldon wonders if this is a trap. By a trap, he wonders if he is going to be arrested for Howard putting a mustache on his face with wanted posters and then him getting deported out of the country. Howard assures him that it will not happen and Sheldon believes his words.

Raj visits Amy at work and needs help on how to talk to women. He shows her the girl he has a crush on. After Raj reveals on what he wants to tell Emily, Amy tells him that he should be himself instead of looking like as if he was desperate and creepy. Amy gives him excellent advice on how to compliment Emily. He wants her to write the letter to Emily for him but she does not want to pretend to be him.

Penny is on her way back from the pharmacy with Sheldon in the car. He had to pick up some medication for his trip and it’s possible he’ll end up in South America. A few seconds later, Penny’s car breaks down and the best part of the episode was where Sheldon used one of his catchphrases by telling her that the check light engine is on.

At the apartment, Raj is jealous that Sheldon is on Howard’s team while playing board games. He tries to finish sentences with Howard to prove that they’re best buds but this annoys Howard. Penny asks Leonard to talk to her in private. She reveals that she cannot afford a car, she has no job and cannot drive to auditions. He wonders if she can get the part back but it was given to someone else. She tells him that she would not be surprised that the girl who got that part will be on David Letterman and become famous. Sheldon tells Leonard to hear the conversation up and tells Penny that the board game is important, which aggravates her even more.

Raj wonders if Amy heard back from Emily. She tells her that Emily is not right for him. Also, she tells him that she thought it was a bad sign when Raj did not write to her himself. She thought it made him seem shy and passive. She reveals that she is meeting Emily for coffee. They hit it off and they ended up having a lot in common including quilting.

Bernadette is with Howard waiting for Sheldon to go to the airport. She was expecting him and Sheldon to stop insulting each other. She was surprised that he had the guts to ask him to come to Houston with him. Sheldon is very excited for Texas and is excited to see the real astronaut. Sheldon wonders who it is. Howard does not look impressed because he thought he was going to say him. Not wanting to fight, he reveals that he may get to see Buzz Aldrin.

Later, Howard and Sheldon are on the plane. Sheldon does his “Knock routine” on Howard’s shoulder, which aggravates him. He wants to go to the bathroom but Howard will not let him because he is irritating him despite he has done all he can to be a better friend to him. He tells him that he cannot admit that he is jealous of him for going to space. Sheldon admits that he wanted to go to space and he look up to those astronauts as his heroes. It was hard for him when he went to space. Howard still will not let him go to the bathroom and he taunts him about the turbulence. Sheldon is scared of this but Howard tell him he’s been through worse when he plummeted back to earth.

At Penny’s apartment, she reveals that she wants to get her waitress job back but Leonard questions that. He wonders if she is going back to the Cheesecake Factory or if they both are going to have sex.

They are now out of the apartment and she appreciates him trying to make her feel better, but this is making her hate him even more. He surprises her with a new car, which makes Penny Happy. He tells her that this will get her to auditions and she does not have to go back to being a waitress. Penny gives Leonard a hug and asks her to say “Thank You” because he just bought her a new car.

Amy and Emily are having coffee. She assures him that he is a sweet guy even with his odd personality but changes her mind about him after he comes to see Emily uninvited. Raj goes against Amy’s advice and calls Emily “dew-kissed flower”. This actually offends her and she would rather go to a reading on Friday by herself than with Amy as she finds out that he is really weird.

Ending:

The episode ends with Howard and Sheldon are finally getting along by holding hands during the turbulence. They finally apologize to each other for every bad thing they did to each other. As the turbulence stops, Howard asks if he wants to let go of his hand, but he replies that he does not want to let go.

My thoughts:

It’s no secret that Sheldon and Howard have rarely been the best of friends. Sheldon referring to Howard as “Hawkeye” from the Avengers was interesting to hear. It was great that Howard got revenge on him by not letting him go to the bathroom during the plane scene. Despite their constant fighting, they had great chemistry together during the airplane scene especially when they were holding hands during the turbulence. I was glad that Sheldon finally revealed on why he is always picking on him. It seems that Sheldon is the king of “holding grudges”. It was awesome when Penny threw references about “Meryl Streep”. Penny could have taken the part but she wants to big parts in movies instead of just minor ones. It was sweet when Leonard surprised Penny with a new car. It’s really cool how this season has been mixing characters up. For example, Raj asks Amy to write to a girl he wants to pursue but it ends up that the girl wants to talk to Amy more as friends over him. Raj was really sweet by walking her to the car but he needs to improve on his manners when he talks to other women. The reason why he still can’t get a girl is because he needs to break out of his shell and act appropriately in front of girls. What did you all think of this hilarious episode?