The Big Bang Theory: The Big Bear Precipitation (9x20)

Eh... not so great.

Cons:

With this show, I'm always lamenting wasted opportunities. Sheldon, Amy, Leonard and Penny all go out to a cabin in the woods for a couple's vacation, but instead of exploring the great outdoors, they end up inside playing "never have I ever." Is there any reason why they couldn't be doing that back home? I wish they could have mined the scenario for a few more comedic possibilities. Other than a joke about how Penny and Amy started a fire while the guys were discussing the scientific possibilities for the task, we didn't really get any jokes based on the fact that they were away on a vacation.

The game of "never have I ever" had some good comedic material, which I'll get to in a second, but it also attempted to provide a more serious plot thread for Penny and Leonard, and here it fell flat. Sheldon accidentally lets slip that Leonard has a secret bank account because he doesn't trust Penny with money. Penny is angry, pointing out that she makes more money than Leonard. But instead of exploring the power dynamics in their relationship, we instead get a shift in the plot thread when we learn that Penny hates her job and wants to quit, but has decided to stick it out to get out of debt. I wish we could have stuck with the power imbalance angle, instead of throwing in this new twist about Penny hating her job. That seems to come out of nowhere. And besides, if I were Penny, I'd be totally livid about the secret bank account. She forgave Leonard too easily.

The subplot focused on Raj being too involved in Bernadette's pregnancy, constantly helping Bernadette out and wanting to be involved with the kid. There were a few jokes that I liked, but what I don't like is the idea of Raj becoming Stuart 2.0 in Howard and Bernadette's relationship. The more of this season I watch, the more I realize that the writers have no idea what to do with Raj now that all the other characters are in serious long-term relationships. He's just floating along, either being awkward and irrelevant, or awkward and sexist.

Pros:

The "never have I ever" game provided us with a great story of how Sheldon once got arrested for jay-walking. Or, more accurately, he harassed a cop for not arresting him for jay-walking, and then got arrested. That was pretty funny. As the episode ends, we get Amy and Sheldon trying to come up with things that they haven't done, and all their ideas are really lame, like "never have I ever cancelled a dentist appointment" or "never have I ever touched a frisbee." Neither of them drink for many rounds, until Sheldon says "never have I ever pressed all the buttons in an elevator," and Amy takes a drink - "we all have a past." That was pretty fun.

In the subplot, I did like the part where Raj gets a ridiculously oversized teddy bear for Bernadette. When Howard tells him to back off with his involvement, Raj leaves with the teddy bear, and there was a lot of great physical comedy as he was trying to push the bear out the door. Bernadette starts crying later on, and she can't tell if they're real tears or pregnancy hormones. Howard rushes to bring Raj and the teddy bear back, and we later see Bernadette snuggling with the oversized toy. That was pretty cute.

That's all I've got here. A bit of a letdown, but nowadays that doesn't surprise me.

6/10