CinePals Reacts to Big Bang Theory Season 3: Kite Wars, a Dislocated Shoulder and Howard's Big Cheesecake Factory Serenade

I spent this reaction working through five episodes of The Big Bang Theory season 3, and there was a lot to unpack, from a literal kite battle to a hospital visit to a marriage proposal that came completely out of nowhere. If you are a fan wondering how a first time viewer takes all of this in, I had strong opinions on almost every storyline, especially the fights.

The kite battle and football lessons kick off my Cornhusker Vortex reaction

The episode opens with Sheldon and Raj having an actual kite fight, which ends with Sheldon claiming Raj's kite as the spoils of war because, in his words, the rules of aerial warfare dictate that the fallen kite go to the victor. That sets up Leonard realizing Penny has never introduced him to her friends, which Raj bluntly sums up as Leonard being a tiny little man who flies kites. I said that once Leonard actually got to Penny's football watch party, watching him narrate every play reminded me of a childhood friend who used to narrate every single thing she did while we played with dolls, which used to drive me and my sister crazy.

Sheldon turns out to know a surprising amount about football because he grew up in Texas, and I loved watching him explain the line of scrimmage and sacks while Leonard asks him to secretly teach him football so he does not look like an idiot at Penny's. Sheldon's response, that looking like an idiot would be perfect camouflage among Penny's friends, got a genuine laugh out of me. I also pointed out that Sheldon quietly gives Leonard a full escape route by inviting him to fly kites instead of watching football, and I loved that he walks away saying he was just trying to help, since as Sheldon put it, that is something I have never been offered.

I also have to give credit to Howard in this one for chasing after a jogger mid date with a friend. As I said, you got to give it to Howard, the guy's trying everything possible in the book, you cannot get mad at him for that. I did wonder out loud what happened to Penny's friend, since it seemed like they only went on one date and never followed up. By the end I was fully on Penny's side too, saying that when she just tells her friends her boyfriend is really smart, that is honestly all she needs to say, because he is going to get her a nice big house down the road while the pretty faced guys do not have much going on upstairs.

The Justin the guitarist fight shows me exactly why Leonard and Penny's communication failed

Sheldon invents his own board game called Research Lab, and mid game Penny casually announces that her old flame Justin is going to crash on her couch while he looks for session work, which sends Leonard into a spiral. The fight escalates fast, with Leonard calling the plan idiotic and Penny snapping back that it is her friend, her couch, and her life. Sheldon is so upset by the shouting that he starts crying, comparing the fight to his parents, and later at the Cheesecake Factory he tries to fix things by telling Penny, on Leonard's behalf, that she is oversensitive, has a temper, and that Leonard hates her stuffed animals and her driving, which of course backfires completely.

I actually gave this one a lot of thought. In my view Leonard had a perfectly sane reason to be uneasy about an ex-boyfriend sleeping on Penny's couch, but it was on Penny to have an actual conversation with him about it instead of just announcing it mid game. I said the communication was a fail on both sides, but that Penny handled it badly by exploding and treating it as a direct insult when it was not. As I put it, it was not that Penny had given him any reason not to trust her, it was that Leonard did not trust some stranger named Justin, and you cannot blame a guy for trying to protect what he has finally achieved after all the exes and near misses.

The episode ends with Penny finally sending Justin on his way, then rewarding Sheldon for talking her down by buying him a robot and a comic book at the store where they run into an awkward Time Bandits screening invite. Penny tells Sheldon that no matter what happens between her and Leonard, they will always love him, and I noted how long Sheldon just stares at her after she says always, which was a small but sweet button on the episode.

Penny's dislocated shoulder turns Sheldon into her reluctant caretaker on The Adhesive Duck Deficiency

While the guys go camping, Sheldon stays behind to finish a paper, orders Thai food for one, and brags about taking down a local muffin shop with a harsh Yelp review before Penny calls out for help after slipping in the shower and dislocating her shoulder. Neither of them can drive well, so Sheldon has to help her get dressed, citing the mythological rule against looking, like Lot's wife or Perseus and Medusa, before admitting the hero always peeks anyway. That is how he discovers her tattoo does not say courage like she thought, it actually says soup.

At the hospital, Sheldon fills out her intake form with total bluntness, asking if she is pregnant, guessing she might have migraines, and writing down possible Tourette's after she snaps at him. Once she is drugged up, he ends up singing Soft Kitty to her, reversing the usual dynamic where she takes care of him. I said this was one of my favorite pairings in the whole show, calling it pure magic anytime Sheldon and Penny share a scene, and I loved how subtle and dry his comedy was during the paperwork.

Back at the campsite, Howard tries to impress two women he assumes are middle school teachers his age, only to find out they are more like fifty five and menopausal, complete with homemade cookies I joked had to have something in them. Howard then tells a story about losing his virginity to his cousin Genie, which I flatly said was pretty bad, adding that I was not even going to touch that one.

Sheldon's revenge on Kripke and Howard's Cheesecake Factory proposal steal The Vengeance Formulation

After Kripke sabotages Sheldon's live NPR Science Friday interview and humiliates him on air, Sheldon wants payback, at one point half jokingly suggesting poisoning Kripke before Raj talks him down to something non lethal. Sheldon rigs a chemical foam reaction using hydrogen peroxide, potassium iodide and dish soap to go off in Kripke's office, but the prank instead detonates in front of the university president and board of directors, and gets posted straight to YouTube with Leonard and Raj credited alongside Sheldon. I joked that Sheldon really did not need to leave that much evidence behind.

The bigger story for me was Howard, who has not called Bernadette in a week because he is holding out for a fantasy more like Megan Fox or Halle Berry. Sheldon weighs in that biologically Howard is justified in seeking an optimum mate, though whether that serves humanity is another question entirely. When Bernadette finally confronts Howard about where the relationship is going, he blurts out a marriage proposal, which she shoots down since they have not even had sex yet, though she does ask when his break is.

Howard redeems himself later by serenading Bernadette with a guitar in the restaurant, dedicating the song to a great gal he has done wrong. I completely lost it over this moment, saying if a guy did that for me in public I would be in love, calling it romantic, hot, hilarious and cringeworthy all at once. I shared my own story about a boy in high school who nervously tried to sing me a song he wrote, messing it up over and over while I patiently gave him what I called a solid ten tries, only to later find out he was actually a talented singer. I called Howard's moment a full one hundred percent win and predicted Raj will get a girlfriend before Sheldon does, saying Sheldon is going to be the hard one to crack.

Penny secretly asks Sheldon to teach her physics in The Gorilla Experiment

Bernadette joins the group for dinner, and Sheldon is obsessed with seating arrangements, only to be charmed when Bernadette laughs at his jokes even though, as she admits privately, she does not find them funny, she just says he lights up when she laughs. Feeling left out while Leonard, Howard and Bernadette talk shop, Penny privately asks Sheldon to secretly teach her enough physics that she can talk to Leonard about his job, launching what Sheldon dubs Project Gorilla, complete with a college ruled notebook and a lecture that starts all the way back with ancient Greek etymology.

Meanwhile Howard gets jealous after Leonard invites Bernadette to watch his experiment, texting her that Leonard's work is stupid, all while dealing with his mother yelling through the house about lamb stew. Penny eventually does make it to Leonard's lab, and thanks to Sheldon's crash course she offhandedly compares his experiment to one already conducted in the Netherlands, essentially describing the same quantum interference effect he thought was original. I said flat out that this was not a compliment, it was a diss, and called it an epic ending to the episode.

I really liked Bernadette in this one, calling her cute and funny, and I said Leonard came across as genuinely cool and confident for once, happy and solid in his relationship. As I wrapped up, I noted Howard nearly lost his girlfriend again over his own insecurities and joked that Bernadette clearly puts up with his unusual personality, so he had better not mess it up going forward.

Which storyline do you think caused more damage, Leonard and Penny's fight over Justin, or Howard's jealousy over Bernadette watching Leonard's experiment?