Sitcom Sitters Chat Club #2 - Page 84

Forty-five days after leaving Pasadena, Sheldon finds himself in another train station in Kingman, Arizona with all of his possessions (and his pants) stolen. Sheldon calls Leonard to pick him up, and Leonard brings Amy along. When the two arrive at the police station where Sheldon is staying, they all go home, with Sheldon telling his friends that he did not actually leave any of the train stations while on his cross-country journey. Amy is hurt he left without telling her, called Leonard for help instead of her, and does not seem happy she is there, and says as much to Sheldon. Sheldon privately tells Leonard he did not call her because he was too embarrassed to admit that he couldn't make it on his own. Leonard convinces him to tell Amy, who accepts he is not perfect. Sheldon thinks his trip has left him ready to deal with change, but he immediately walks out of the apartment when he sees Penny's new haircut. He later shows Leonard and Penny his photos from the trains he was on.

Bernadette gets Penny a job interview with her pharmaceutical company as a salesperson despite Penny being very nervous about it. Penny does horribly in the interview but gets the job anyway after bonding with the interviewer over their shared fear of Bernadette.

Howard and Raj drop in on Howard's mother and are surprised to see Stuart still living with her. The bond Stuart shares with Debbie Wolowitz is very unsettling to Howard. Stuart shows up at Howard's to talk about it and they both accuse the other of trying to act like their father. Stuart refuses to leave Debbie's house and says Howard knows where to find him to apologize.

Sheldon is allowed to keep his job at the university and study what he wants in exchange for becoming a junior professor and teaching a class. Sheldon is not happy with the arrangement as he feels the students will not be smart enough to teach. Nobody signs up for Sheldon's class because of his reputation, but Howard decides to take it and earn his doctorate much to the surprise of Leonard and Raj. Despite Leonard telling Sheldon he is insecure and feels threatened by someone being on his intellectual level, Sheldon decides to focus on areas of physics that Howard does not understand. Howard gets him back by being a horrible student, launching a spitball that goes into Sheldon's mouth, and dropping the class. Howard then tries to make Sheldon feel inferior with difficult engineering questions, and succeeds. The guys eventually heal their relationship by inventing a quiz game featuring scientific topics.

Meanwhile, Bernadette feels Penny should start studying for her pharmaceutical job but Penny feels she can put it off and wait for them to train her. This leads to tension as Bernadette feels she is not taking the job seriously and Penny feels Bernadette is pushing too hard. Amy loves being in the middle, pretending to agree with both of them so she can spend time with each one alone and increase her bond of friendship by talking trash about the other woman. But her good times are short-lived when Bernadette and Penny apologize to each other. Bernadette helps Penny prepare for the job at her apartment, and the two decide to invite Amy for a girl's night out; Amy, who had been secretly eavesdropping outside Penny's door, rushes down the stairs to take Penny's call.