TV Recap: ‘The Big Bang Theory’, “The Guitarist Amplification”

In the latest episode of The Big Bang Theory, Leonard and Penny weather their very first fight. Penny tells Leonard that one of her ex-boyfriends is coming into town and needs a place to sleep. Kindly, Penny offered to pick up her guitar-playing, starving artist ex and agreed to let him sleep on her couch. When she shares this with Leonard, however, he is none too pleased.

The fight escalates and continues throughout the rest of the episode, bringing out some of Sheldon’s weird childhood psychoses. Apparently, Sheldon’s parents used to fight and argue all the time, so Sheldon is scarred by all the yelling that went on. When Leonard and Penny start yelling in the middle of his apartment, he freaks out and attempts to drown out the sound of their yelling with the blender. Leonard and Penny agree that their fight is most definitely over, although we realize that it is only just beginning.

Most of the episode is surrounded around the theme of couples fighting: Raj and Howard yell at each other in the middle of a comic book store about nothing of importance, Raj and his parents argue via internet video chat, Howard and his mother fight, and neither Leonard nor Penny will budge on the issue of Penny’s ex. Unfortunately, Sheldon always seems to wind up in the wrong place at the wrong time, as he is subjected to everyone of these fights at some point or another throughout the episode.

Sheldon attempts to get Penny to go and apologize to Leonard for not being considerate of his feelings, and Sheldon attempts to get Leonard to apologize to Penny for being too controlling. Both of these plans seem to backfire more than anything, as the fighting just continues. A final fight in Sheldon’s apartment between Leonard and Penny sends Sheldon running for the streets. After realizes that Sheldon has bolted, Leonard and Penny put aside their differences to go out and find their friend.

After searching the streets of the city, Leonard finally bets that Sheldon will be in his favorite comic book store (featured earlier in the episode). Sure enough, the pair find Sheldon sitting in a corner surrounded by comic books and toy robots. The two apologize and promise to not fight in front of him anymore, so as not to arouse his childhood neuroses. Sheldon only agrees to leave with the two of them if they buy him the robot and one of the comic books.

The final scene finds Leonard and Penny in bed, discussing how Penny’s ex surely found somewhere else to sleep. As Penny comments, “He’s a musician, he’ll sleep in his own vomit if he has to.”

Next scene: Guitarist asleep on Sheldon’s couch. “I should have asked for a lot more than the robot and the comic book,” Sheldon admits begrudgingly. End of episode.

This episode really just brought up the real-life conflicts that many people deal with all the time. Leonard and Penny went through their first fight as a couple. Raj and Howard fought (pettily) as friends, mostly to emphasize Sheldon’s problems with people fighting, however. Raj had a typical tiff with his parents, ending with him caving in to their demands. We gained a little insight into Sheldon’s childhood, and while it is sad that his parents fought constantly, the humorous spin on the whole scenario made it bearable.

The next new episode of The Big Bang Theory will air Monday, November 16 at 9:30 p.m. on CBS. To catch up on past episodes, browse through photos, and chat with other fans visit www.cbs.com/primetime/big_bang_theory.