Sunday, May 1, 2011

The Big Bang Theory 4.21: "The Agreement Dissection"

“Top of her class. Cambridge University. Licensed to practice law in three countries. And your face.”
-Leonard

“The Agreement Dissection” was a fun episode of “The Big Bang Theory,” mostly because Priya finally had a good purpose. I also liked that Sheldon got put in his place for a little while, even if he did win in the end. And I liked seeing Amy be a human being instead of a Sheldon clone. Her character has actually had an arc since she’s been introduced, and I think that’s a great thing. Sheldon is uncomfortable at the prospect of having “fun,” while Amy seems to be embracing it, and even seeking it out. I think watching their relationship progress is going to get really interesting. The episode overall was very cohesive. There wasn’t a silly, unrelated B story for the sake of having a B story. Everything that was happening was at least loosely connected to Leonard and Sheldon’s feud over the roommate agreement. I think that make for a fairly strong episode.

The episode opens with Sheldon really, really needing to use the bathroom. Which doesn’t sound like it could lead to a funny episode, but ultimately it does. Leonard is in the shower, but Sheldon decides it’s such an emergency he can enter the bathroom anyway. This is all fine until he realizes that Priya is in the shower, too. This greatly disturbs Sheldon for multiple reasons, and at first he tries to demand Leonard and Penny leave so he can use the toilet. When that doesn’t work, he ends up dashing across the hall to use Penny’s bathroom. Following this incident, Sheldon charges Leonard with two violations of the roommate agreement. Leonard is just going to go along with the crazy, not even caring what the charges are, but Priya, being the good lawyer she is, steps in. She takes a look at the roommate agreement and easily comes up with loopholes to clear Leonard of the “charges.” Leonard finally realizes that dating a lawyer who can help him stand up to Sheldon is damn fun. And I have to agree. I’m not generally at all a Priya fan, but her “lawyering,” as Marshall of HIMYM would call it, is awesome.

The gang gets used to not having to do what Sheldon says pretty quickly. They decide to have Greek food on Pizza night just to mess with Sheldon. This is again thanks to Priya’s lawyering skills. She nullifies the part of the contract about notice required to change food selections by reminding Sheldon that their pizza restaurant was changed without following the required process. The only thing I didn’t like about this scene was that there was a lot of ragging on Greek food. The gang gives the distinct impression that they’re only eating Greek food because Sheldon absolutely hates it, and they don’t like it much themselves. I personally think Greek food is amazing, so I was a little disappointed by that.

Sheldon can’t take the chaos in his apartment anymore, so he pays a visit to Penny. Penny says she’s about to leave for a girl’s night with Amy and Bernadette, but Sheldon is welcome to join them. Sheldon has no interest in going on a girl’s night until Penny mentions that there will likely be lots of Priya bashing. While sipping fancy drinks at a bar, the ladies begin to discuss how Sheldon’s never kissed a girl. Amy implies that she wants to kiss Sheldon, and Sheldon’s just kind of disgusted by her alcohol-buzzed behavior. The ladies then decide they want to see Sheldon dance, and Sheldon innocently mentions he learned several ballroom and Latin dances on the Cotillion circuit back in Texas. This of course means the ladies now absolutely have to take Sheldon dancing. Bernadette appeals to Sheldon’s cotillion-bred sense of etiquette to get him to agree. They all hop in a cab and get the driver to take them some place where they can waltz. Next thing we know, Sheldon and Amy are dancing, and it’s pretty darn cute. Meanwhile, an older man is hitting on Bernadette and Penny. Bernadette manages to fight him off by showing him her engagement ring, but Penny isn’t so lucky. It’s kind of amusing until the guy grabs her ass while they dance. Then it’s just kind of gross.

Things just get stranger and stranger for Sheldon and Amy as the night progresses. Sheldon drops Amy off at her apartment, and she invites him in for a nightcap. Sheldon is reluctant until Amy says she has YooHoo. Apparently chocolate soda is all it takes to get Sheldon Cooper over his social hang-ups. Amy’s apartment is just weird. She has a monkey who smokes- he’s part of an experiment she’s working on, and he isn’t very nice. Sheldon wants to talk to Amy about his roommate agreement problem, even though Amy is pretty buzzed. Amy suggests Sheldon take the approach of the monkey- he needs to fight back. Then she kisses him. And then she runs to the bathroom to vomit because she’s had too much to drink, after assuring Sheldon that the vomiting isn’t because of kissing him.

The next morning, Leonard wakes up to discover that Sheldon has drawn up a new, more carefully worded in his favor, roommate agreement. Leonard doesn’t see any reason why he should sign it until Sheldon, imitating a classic Star Trek episode, starts up a “self destruct” sequence on his computer. When the countdown ends, the computer will send of an e-mail to Priya’s parents letting them know she’s dating Leonard. Priya, who had been so adamant about Leonard standing up to Sheldon before, instantly surrenders. Leonard resists a little bit, mostly because he’s upset that it seems like Priya’s too embarrassed to tell her parents about him, but eventually he gives in and signs the new agreement. Like I said earlier, I was a little disappointed that Sheldon ultimately won, but I liked the rest of the episode enough to forgive that. The episode ends with Sheldon Skyping with a very hung over Amy. Rather than deal with the discomfort caused by their kiss, they decide to completely “reboot” their relationship. Which makes me a little sad, but I’ll get over it.

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