MONTHLY VINTAGE EPISODE - SEPT 2015

1.12 The Jerusalem Duality
Originally aired April 14, 2008
Written by Jennifer Glickman & Stephen Engel


"Dennis Kim, a child prodigy, is looking around theuniversity and seems to have outstripped Sheldon in every way. Sheldon decides to give up his own work and focus on other tasks. It annoys the guys so much that they try to distract Dennis in order to get Sheldon back to normal."







Major Gripe's thoughts on the subject:
http://www.thebigbangtheoryhq.com/#!the-...lity/c18jb

The lads take Richard Feynman's van to Mexico for Leonard's (post-dated) Bachelor Party.
Similarly the "girls" give a party for Penny.

Full report in the Time Machine forum. Or here, when I can be arsed writing a more eloquent summary.



Here's Feynman's van that the lads will be skiving off to Mexico in.




[Mini-Rant Unrelated To Episode But Pertinent To Show At Large]

We'll probably never grow tired of saying this around here, but it's so disappointing that they dropped Sheldon's overriding scientific devotion in favour of a ordinary romantic storyline.

Yes, they've broken them up, but now he's going to try to win her back, and then they'll reconcile, and the whole farrago continues.

Telling the story of a scientist and genius, and his efforts to unravel the mystery of the universe (whilst the puny human world with its ridiculous obsessions swirls around him) within a traditional sitcom format is highly unusual.
The boyfriend having to improve himself to fit the wishes of his girlfriend, and win her affections, is not only common, it's an insult to the original Sheldon, and to the concept that one can have a passion for one's work above and beyond all things.

Man pursing Truth in sitcom - Unique and honourable.
Man pursuing Woman in sitcom - Plebian.

Again, wouldn't have a problem if Sheldon was always written like this, but then again I wouldn't have watched the show to begin with, as the character wouldn't have interested me. It's that they started writing him one way, and having solidified his character, suddenly veered off in an almost opposite direction.

Then, salt into the wound, the romantic direction they chose for him was humiliating. It was infantile and unpassionate. He sulked, he was bored, she complained and manipulated. Now after one year he wants to propose, apparently. Why?

There's nothing less "fated" or passionate than being chosen for someone based on a computer algorithm (or as a plot device). Remember in Hitchhiker's there's the Nutrimatic Drinks Dispenser, which calculates exactly what your body requires, nutrient wise, and gives you that, rather than what you actually WANT. It tastes dreadful, but the Nutrimatic doesn't care. "Share and Enjoy", it chirps.

It's a choice made by the brain, not the heart. And even a bloody anti-romantic like myself knows that love doesn't work like that.

This is roughly how I feel about AFF being chosen for Sheldon simply because she was essentially identical to him, at first. That's how the dating program matched them up. (Although presumably it didn't ask her any questions about her feelings for absolutely every one of Sheldon's passions and hobbies. Ie, that they're "stupid" and "lame-o".)

Sheldon should not "love" with the same part of his nature that organises his breakfast cereal by fibre content.

But that's how he spoke in that Prom episode. Logical, dispassionate, wooden. The very fact that there's a Relationship Agreement, as there's a Roommate Agreement, puts it on the same plane as bathroom schedules.

I just don't think that Sheldon's heart would function that way, if he fell in love. I think rather that it would have been chaos from the get-go.

But they've gone with "baby steps" and tepidity for Sheldon with AFF (rather than say, combat and chaos with Penny), and that's their prerogative, but like Withnail going to the countryside, I think it was a dreadful mistake.