The Big Bang Theory: The Deception Verification (7x02)

Announcement: Due to my extremely busy schedule and the absurd amount of television I will be blogging about, most of my posts will dramatically decrease in length. If an episode warrants special attention, I'll be sure to write more.

While not as strong as the premiere, this episode still had some good stuff going on. Leonard comes back early from his trip, but in an effort to spend a few days with Penny alone, he hides in her apartment and doesn't tell Sheldon that he's home. Sheldon suspects that Penny is being unfaithful to Leonard when he notices strange signs of a guest in her apartment. However, when he tries to catch her in the act, he sees Leonard.

This causes some drama in the Leonard and Sheldon friendship, and Sheldon feels betrayed by Leonard's lie. This entire betrayal thing is especially effective because it comes right after a scene with Sheldon and Stuart in the Comic Book store, where Sheldon is looking for a welcome home gift for Leonard.

Anyway, their fight doesn't even last the full episode. Leonard takes Sheldon on a fun day of errands, and all is forgiven. Wouldn't it have been cool if we had had a more lasting conflict between them? Nothing huge or anything, but just a few episodes where Leonard and Sheldon aren't getting along. Oh well. This show has its formulas, and it likes to stick with them.

In subplot news, Howard has been accidentally exposed to estrogen, which is making him act all "girly," obsessing about his weight and acting all moody. I was really not too pleased with this subplot. There were a lot of really obvious jokes. However, there were two moments that I did like. One was the dramatic speech that Howard made while the guys were having lunch: he says that Sheldon was only upset because he missed Leonard, and that Leonard should understand that. Ultimately, it is his interference that gets the two friends to forgive each other. The other fantastic moment was the groping scene with Raj. It sounds silly, but what made this moment hysterical was the nonchalant attitude they both had about it, like feeling each other's "boobs" was the most normal thing in the world. Then, of course, there was Bernadette in the background, silently horrified. It was funny that they never noticed her.

In the end, this was an okay episode. It could have pushed at some of the stuff a little harder, and kept the drama between Leonard and Sheldon a bit longer. Favorite line of the episode: in response to a quip from Amy about how Sheldon doesn't know anything about kissing, he responds with "Star Trek has kissing, smarty pants!"

7/10