The Big Bang Theory – Episode 7.21 – The Anything Can Happen Recurrence – Recap & Review

NOTE: Anything in bold is my thought of each scene of the episode.

Teaser:

The episode begins where Penny explains to Leonard on what she will be doing for the movie. She is not very happy that she has to walk to the bathroom at the gas station while being dressed. Meanwhile, now that Sheldon has given up on string theory, he is struggling to find his next area of focus and needs advice from Leonard. He tells Sheldon that dark matter is useful but it is erased by him. Penny tells him he is trying too hard and he needs to get his mind off of it. Leonard suggests, the “Anything Can Happen Thursday” event and Sheldon agrees.  

Review & Recap:

Sheldon suggests ordering a pizza but Penny tells him to think harder. Leonard thinks that they should go for a walk and find a new restaurant. He suggests inviting the girls but Raj and Howard are busy tonight at Howard’s mother’s house. Penny tells him that Bernadette’s working late and Sheldon tells him that Amy is sick and that she talks too much. I loved this scene when Sheldon made references from “Lord of the Rings” and where Penny did not want to have calzones until he brought up the ridiculous idea of reenacting fantasy scenes from the movie. Also, she made hilarious suggestion where they can push Sheldon down the stairs since its “Anything Can Happen Thursday”.

Meanwhile, Howard and Raj are at the Wolowitz’s house and he thinks him for coming to hang out. It was entertaining when Raj revealed to Howard that he hides Cinnamon’s medicine under cheese and that Howard revealed that his mother would accidentally eat the dog. Her mouth is not big enough for that, though. Therefore, he overreacted it. Raj wants to watch a DVD. Howard suggests to watch a video of her colonoscopy but he asks him if he wants to watch House of 1,000 Corpses because Emily wants to watch it with him tomorrow. This way, he will act cool about it with her if he watches it with him first. Howard agrees this. I enjoyed hearing Mrs. Wolowitz yelling tonight. She yells at him to get her out of the tub. He reluctantly goes upstairs to help her before watching the movie with him.

Sheldon, Penny, and Leonard are walking around and Leonard suggests to eat at the Asian Fusion place. Outside of another restaurant, Penny is shocked to see that Bernadette and Amy bonding together. She is mad that Bernadette lied to her while Sheldon is mad as well for Amy lying to him. Then, he embarrasses everyone with his cool knock ritual, which the writers always makes this hilarious. This time, he knocks “Amy and Bernadette” three times. I thought he would storm into the restaurant and confronted them knowing his personality. However, it was crazy of him to embarrass himself by yelling at the ladies outside the restaurant.

Raj explains to Howard what the movie is about. He tells him that he helped his mother out of the tub so he tells him that he is one slippery horror ahead of him. Raj praises him for being brave with his mom. Howard tells him that it’s all about beach blankets. Raj tells him that he wants to get over by surviving the movie. Despite Howard’s frequent frustrations with his mother, he tolerates her demands and her health very well in this scene.

Penny, Leonard, and Sheldon are wondering why Amy and Bernadette lied to them. Amy confesses that she needed a break from him being obsesses about what to do after string theory. I’m so glad that Amy finally told him how she felt about him after all of these times that he aggravated her. Bernadette confesses that they did not want to hear about how miserable Penny’s career is heading. However, Amy believes that they still love her. Penny defends her and insists that she has not complained about the movie. She asks Leonard if she has been but based on his facial expression, she has when he tells her, “I love you” in a nervous way. This frustrates her even more and she points to all except Sheldon that she needs a break from all of them. She tells him that he will tell all of his science stuff and complain about her movie and support each other because that’s what friends do. Bernadette is right about Penny complaining about her acting career. It’s a good thing that there was a fight between Penny and her friends except Sheldon so the writers can mix up the characters (Leonard with Bernadette and Amy and Penny with Sheldon), which worked for me in "The Scavenger Vortex". In this scene, it seems that Bernadette and Amy spend too much time with Penny and Sheldon that they needed a break from each other and was tired of them complaining.

Penny and Sheldon are at the Chinese restaurant that Leonard suggested except he is with Bernie and Amy. He complains that the Chinese noodles are with Korean barbecue mixed in a taco. She asks him if he has been complaining about the movie and he tells her, “not at all”. However, he ends up mimicking her. She does not understand why he is upset with Amy but he tells her he is upset with Amy that he is going to bring her here for dinner on their date next date night. They have something in common this week, which is they are self-centered and cannot admit their faults. It’s great to see that Sheldon defend Penny instead of being all about himself.

Back at Howard’s house, he and Raj are watching the movie. He seems to be grossed out by has happened in the film. Howard made an excellent reference by referring of his mother dismembering the rotisserie chicken to the movie. He is right because when I saw that movie, those decapitation scenes was like cutting up meat. Raj asks him why Emily likes this stuff. Howard thinks she might have a freezer full of ex-boyfriend’s body parts and he’d still go out with her. Raj tells him that he likes that her ex-boyfriend is out of the picture.

Amy reveals that she feels so bad for lying to Sheldon and she does not know how to make it up to him. Bernadette suggest dressing up like a Catholic school girl but she does not think it will work with him. Leonard thinks he will give Amy homework as a punishment. She wonders if Bernadette lied to Howard tonight and she replies, “Of Course”. I enjoyed this scene when she referred to Howard’s mother as a gorilla when she had the choice between listening to Penny complaining about her gorilla movie and Howard’s gorilla mother. She tells Amy and Leonard that she had no choice between those two. He reveals that thankfully that he and Penny have a relationship based on honesty but Amy starts to laugh, implying that it is not true.

Back at the restaurant, Penny hopes that Sheldon’s answers to his career question is in one of these fortune cookies. It was entertaining Sheldon referred to fortune cookies as Oreos by telling her that something in the middle that solves life’s problems. She wants him to open the cookie but he’s afraid there is a tiny Chihuahua in there. She opens her first but he tells her that the advice she got is that actually the cookie was mocking her. Then, he opens his cookie but Penny wants him to open another one after reading his fortune.

Back at Howard’s house, he and Raj are getting scared of the movie. I loved it when Raj made references to The Sound of the Music. He asks why he can’t be in a relationship with a girl who likes that. Not shockingly, Howard tells him that he is the girl in the relationship who likes that movie. Last season, Lucy wrote in her blog that Raj acted feminine so Howard’s statement made sense. Howard gets a call from Penny and finds out that Bernadette was not working late. He thanks Penny for telling him.

Penny thinks their next stop should be going to see a psychic. Sheldon tells her he would rather be following Leonard on Instagram. She wants him to try things tonight. He thinks it’s a lot of incense and it’s like someone setting a hippie on fire.

Bernadette continues to lie to Howard on the phone that she is still at work. She reluctantly tells him that she will put on her “Catholic School Girls” costume. At the bar, Leonard wonders why he and Amy never hang out like this. She thinks it’s weird right now. Leonard got a text message from Penny that she got Sheldon to go see a psychic with him. He tells Amy that Penny can be very persuasive and that she has gotten him to do a lot of things he would not normally do. Amy confesses that every once in a while that she gets a little jealous of how close Penny and Sheldon are. Leonard tells her that they have known each other for a long time. She tells him that she feels that she has some sort of connection with him but she is glad they are friends. She wishes that he would be comfortable around her but Leonard tells her that it took a while for him to get comfortable around him. Bernadette has to leave to go home to Howard. Before she leaves, she gets revenge on Penny by telling Leonard that she is getting him a watch for his birthday with the money she took out of his wallet. The scenes between Amy and Leonard were sweet. If not for Sheldon and Penny in the picture, they would make such a great couple. I’m glad that Amy confessed about her reaction to his friendship with Penny. Amy is such an open person and Sheldon should be lucky that he has her in his life.

Sheldon and Penny are now at the psychic place. This was my favorite scene of this episode because he does not believe that scientific evidence can support clairvoyance of any kind. He was amusing when he said that no offense but she is afraid and that her profession was a swindle. I do not care for psychics very much but Penny did a great job in trying to get Sheldon to try new things even if he does not like what he does. The psychic predicts that there’s a woman in his life that he is having problems with and the girl he is in a relationship’s color hair is dark. She also reveals that he has difficulties with her. I’m glad that he admitted that he is an annoying person and has problem with both genders. After the psychic continues to annoy him, he leaves off and calls this place a “malarkey”. The scenes with Penny and Sheldon have clicked well with me once again. If Penny’s movie career does not go further, she would have a great career of being a guidance counselor or a therapist because she is great at giving advice and getting people like Sheldon and Leonard to get out of their comfort zones.

Ending:

Emily is now at Raj’s place. He admits to her that these movies aren’t his things and he watched it last night just to see what he was getting himself into and he thought it was disturbing and weird. She admits that these type of movies turn her on, which causes Raj to play. I am happy that Raj told the truth to her about he felt about these movies and when he did not judge her. They are so cute together especially at the end when they were snuggling.

As Amy’s punishment for lying, she reveals to Sheldon that she is dressed up as a Catholic School girl thanks to the suggestion from Bernadette earlier in the episode. What made me laugh about this was when Sheldon made references to one of my favorite movies, “Gravity”. He does not know where is going with this unless she has the movie of it on Blu-ray under her skirt.

Please feel free to give me respectful comments on this wonderful episode.