THE BIG BANG THEORY Returns with Twice the Bang

The Big Bang Theory returned last night with the first two episodes of its fifth season. “The Skank Reflex Analysis” picks up the day after Penny and Raj got drunk and slept together in Leonard’s bed. Mortified, Penny rushed out of the apartment, saying “This is not what it looks like.”

Penny’s statement intrigued Sheldon to the point that he ruled out Raj and Penny having sex, because that was exactly what it looked like. When Leonard told him they did have sex, Sheldon finally caught on–and continued needling Leonard over how he must feel about his friends’ indiscretion.

In a handful of reviews last season, I mentioned being dissatisfied with Big Bang‘s tendency to bring up potential longer storylines and not follow through on many of them. I was glad to see “The Skank Reflex Analysis” deal not only with Raj and Penny’s night together, but also with Raj’s secret pining for Howard’s fiancee, Bernadette.

I don’t know about other Big Bang fans, but I’m still rooting for Leonard and Penny to reconcile. Raj and Penny’s sleeping together could have set that back for years, but Leonard was more upset with Raj than with Penny–probably because Leonard hoped to make his long-distance relationship with Priya work. Raj and Penny’s night together did drive a wedge between friendships, but later in the episode, beer in hand, Raj admitted to Penny that, though they slept together, they didn’t have sex.

In terms of dramatic structure, the premiere nicely took the gang from distrust back to friendship, thanks in no small part to a noble sacrifice Sheldon made on the paintball field.

In the end, Penny considered moving back to Nebraska, having not landed one acting job since moving to L.A. Leonard hoped she wasn’t moving because of him. In the middle of their conversation, Penny’s agent called with the news she’d landed a part in a commercial for hemorrhoid cream. Yes, Penny’s decision to leave did hint that she would finally land a job, but after four seasons, she deserved it, and viewers deserved the payoff. Well done.

In the second episode of the night, “The Infestation Hypothesis,” Sheldon admires a chair Penny has just bought. He sits in it and finds it perfect, which if you know Sheldon, was remarkable in itself.

When Penny revealed she saw the chair on the street and paid a homeless man to help her bring it in, Sheldon jumped out of the chair, desperate to cleanse himself. He spent the rest of the episode trying to convince Penny to throw out the chair.

In my opinion, Sheldon has overreacted many, many times, but this wasn’t one of them. I wouldn’t touch a chair off the street, no matter how much I was assured it had been cleaned.

Sheldon’s final attempt to get to Penny involved having Amy try to convince her to throw out the chair. The writers are even more aware than I am how often Sheldon has been made to look like a hopeless worrywart. In this case, he was right to worry; a creepy crawler living in the chair sent Penny and Amy screaming from the apartment to get vaccinated.

I like that Big Bang has widened its focus over four seasons and smoothly added new characters to the mix. I look forward to another fun season.