The Pancake Batter Anomaly

The Pancake Batter Anomaly is the eleventh episode of the first season of the CBS sitcom The Big Bang Theory. It aired on March 31st, 2008.

Plot Summary
After Penny returns home from Nebraska and picks up her mail from Leonard, she mentions that most of her relatives were sick.

Hearing this, Sheldon becomes paranoid and takes every precaution to not catch the virus. Though his efforts are unsuccessful, Leonard quickly escapes from Sheldon's grasp, which leaves Penny to take care of him. Sheldon quickly turns into a very needy man.

Extended Plot
The episode opens with Leonard losing at Sheldon's hand in a game of 3-dimensional Chess. Penny has just returned from Nebraska and stops by for her mail, she adds "It was the worst trip. Everyone got sick over the weekend".

Sheldon being a "mysophobe" (a fear of germs), springs up, distances himself from Penny and starts spraying the area, as he is afraid he may catch a cold. Leonard quickly dismissed this as another one of Sheldon's overreactions. Later that night, Sheldon asks Leonard to place a measuring cup in the bathroom so Sheldon can measure his urine output to make sure his kidney isn't shutting down. Leonard quickly becomes angry because he mixes Pancake Batter in that cup. After Sheldon proves to Leonard that the measuring cup was always used to measure urine, Leonard says "I guess I owe the Betty Crocker company a letter of apology". By the next morning, Sheldon discovers he is sick. Evidently, this has happened before as Leonard quickly mobilizes and dashes out of the house to avoid Sheldon. Leonard, Howard and Raj decide to go to a "Planet Of The Apes" marathon screening to lay low and avoid him. Meanwhile, at the Cheesecake Factory, Penny stumbles upon Sheldon who demands for soup and slightly terrorizes the customers. At the screening, Leonard gets a call from Penny, who asks for his help with the Sheldon crisis, but he makes up an excuse preventing him from helping her, though he feels guilty about it. After Penny drops Sheldon off at his apartment, out of sympathy she gets pulled into taking care of him. Back at the screening, just as the ten and a half hour marathon started, Howard accidentally breaks Leonard's glasses, rendering him blind. Sheldon begs Penny to rub some lotion on his chest, he also asks her to sing Soft Kitty to him, a song his mother always sang to him when he was sick. As Leonard doesn't want to watch the marathon blurred by his short-sightedness, Leonard, Howard and Raj go back to the apartment in an attempt to retrieve Leonard's spare glasses, Leonard is caught by Penny. Meanwhile, Howard and Raj abandon Leonard. An angered Penny alerts Sheldon of Leonard's presence, Leonard, still blinded, makes a mad dash to escape but runs into one of the house's pillar. The episode ends showing Leonard with an ice bag over his hurt head and a sick Sheldon.

Quotes
(Howard is asleep, when the phone rings.)

Mrs Wolowitz: HOWARD, IT'S THE PHONE!

Howard: I know it's the phone Ma, I HEAR THE PHONE!

Mrs Wolowitz: WELL, WHO'S CALLING AT THIS UNGODLY HOUR?!

Howard: I don't know!

Mrs Wolowitz: WELL, ASK THEM WHY THEY'RE CALLING AT THIS UNGODLY HOUR!

Howard: How can I ask them, WHEN I'M TALKING TO YOU?!

Howard: Hello?

Leonard (in his apartment Lobby hiding from Sheldon.): Hey Howard, it's Leonard, code: Milky Green.

Howard: Oh no, not Milky Green.

Leonard: Affirmative, with fever.

Mrs. Wolowitz: WHO'S ON THE PHONE?!

Howard: IT'S LEONARD!

Mrs. Wolowitz: WHY IS HE CALLING?!

Howard: SHELDON'S SICK!

Mrs. 'Wolowitz: WERE YOU PLAYING WITH HIM?!

Howard: FOR GOD'S SAKE MA, I'M 26 YEARS OLD!

Mrs. Wolowitz: EXCUSE ME, MR. GROWN-UP! WHAT DO YOU WANT FOR BREAKFAST?!

Howard: CHOCOLATE MILK AND EGGOS, PLEASE!

Leonard: Howard, listen....

(Phone beeps.)

Howard: Hang on, call waiting.

Leonard: Wha... No, don't...

(Howard takes the call.)

Howard: Hello?

Sheldon: Howard, I'm sick!

(Howard realizes it's Sheldon and doesn't know what to do until he decides to pretend to be his mother answering.)

Howard as Mrs. Wolowitz: UH, HOWARD'S SLEEPING, THIS IS HIS MOTHER! WHY ARE YOU CALLING AT THIS UNGODLY HOUR?!

Sheldon: I need Soup!

Howard as Mrs. Wolowitz: THEN CALL YOUR OWN MOTHER!

(Raj reaches for some popcorn)

Howard: Get your stinkin' paws off my popcorn you damn dirty ape.

Critics
"A very dull episode. The humor is built around Sheldon being annoying and it just isn’t convincing or funny." - The TV Critic's Review

Trivia

 * Code Milky Green is a code for when Sheldon is sick.
 * This is the episode where the song Soft Kitty is introduced where Penny learns it and sings it to sick Sheldon.
 * This is only the second time Sheldon has been sick by himself. The first was when he was 15, at the Heidelberg Institute in Germany as a visiting professor. However, he ended up with a blistered intestine due to the sausage -based cuisine there.
 * Sheldon had no caretaker in Germany, after his mother returned to Texas to help deal with their aluminum house slipping off its cinder blocks due to tornado season.


 * Sheldon eventually convinced his non-English speaking housekeeper to serve as sick nurse. The housekeeper promptly asked in German, "Would you like an enema ?"


 * Leonard advises Sheldon to "get some rest and drink plenty of fluids". With characteristic appreciation and charm, Sheldon responds, "What else would I drink? Gases? Solids? Ionized plasma?"
 * Even under the stress of illness, Sheldon retained his rapier wit sufficiently to crack a "physics funny". It's "common knowledge" from Physics 101 class that gases and plasma are also fluids, just like liquids, and make refreshing "virgin" drinks.


 * Bazinga !