The Meteorite Manifestation

"The Meteorite Manifestation" is the fourteenth episode of the twelfth season of the sitcom The Big Bang Theory. The episode aired on Thursday, January 31, 2019.

Summary
Sheldon is thrilled to help Bernadette and Wolowitz navigate bureaucratic paperwork, until he discovers they are breaking the law. Also, Leonard is disappointed when his friends exclude him from a scientific project.

Extended Plot
Howard and Bernadette prepare to use their hot tub when their new neighbor’s floodlights come on blinding them. Bernadette is reluctant to change in front of them. The balcony looks over their fence and their neighbors’ only suggestion is to plant some trees. Also the lights are operated by motion sensors so they have to be still to such them off. Bernadette wonders how Howard is going to make motionless love to her.

In Leonard’s lab, he is showing Sheldon, Howard and Raj is new europium laser. Howard is having a problem with his neighbors while Sheldon still has his Nobel Prize submission problem. Bert comes in and asks Raj as an astrophysicist to look at a meteorite with him. Leonard wants to cut it open with his new laser, but Bert want to use water-cooled saw. Both Raj and Howard leave to check it out. Leonard doesn’t care because he still has his real cool new laser.

Howard and Bernadette go to city zoning office or the “zone-zone” to see what can do about their neighbors. The clerk tells them that they can check if their neighbor had a permit. The Wolowitzes need to go to the Office of Code Compliance and fil out a form for a unsaid, an encumbrance or an encroachment. There is a different form for each of them.

At the comic book store, Leonard is going through a rack of comic and then suddenly sneezes. Stuart tells him that he just bought a rack of comic books. Leonard says that is just his allergies, however Stuart offers him something from his collection of medicines. Raj comes in and tells about the unique spectrographic signature they found in Bert’s meteorite. Leonard again offers to use his laser to cut open the meteorite which really bothers Stuart. He asks them if they haven’t learned anything from reading all the comic books he sells. Space viruses. Pod people. Raj thinks that Stuart is being a bit crazy. Denise retorts that Stuart is the only one making any sense. Raj jokes that it’s nice that Stuart and Denise have found each other. Raj then turns down Leonard’s offer again.

Having dinner in apartment 4A, Howard complains that a day at the zoning office solved nothing. Sheldon gets excites that they could spend the day their and then Bernadette asks him to help them out. Leonard tells them that Raj is working on his stupid meteorite as he sneezes saying that heh is feeling rundown. Sheldon looks tiffed and then marches Amy, Howard and Bernadette into his apartment making sure that they all use Purell before entering.

Back in apartment 4A, a sickly Leonard can’t stop complaining about the guys not using his new laser. Penny suggest that Leonard is just being jealous. Also she offers to get him some medicine, but Stuart gave him some at the comic book store. Penny wonders that Stuart needs all of his medicine. Penny offers to sleep on the couch, but Leonard says that he’ll take the couch. Penny quickly accept the idea, calls him snot-bag and runs off for the bedroom.

Sheldon and Amy inspect the Wolowitz backyard and Sheldon thinks that that is classic encroachment. When their floodlights snap on, Sheldon says that they must be at least 10,000 lumens. Howard quips that when you have lumens you should make lumen-ade. Sheldon asks if that is a joke. Then Sheldon fins out that Howard didn’t have a permit to build their deck which worries Sheldon. Howard also didn’t get a permit for their bathroom improvements. Sheldon is horrified.

Driving home Sheldon is discussed that he doesn’t really know his friends and that they are rule breakers. Poor Amy is about to drive into oncoming traffic because Sheldon is complaining to his wife so much. Of course that would also break the rules. Sheldon wants to get his friends back on the side of Johnny Law. Amy is appalled since Howard would have to tear out all of their improvements and it would probably end their friendship. Sheldon retorts that only animals build decks without permits. Amy replies that animals don’t have decks. Hasn’t Amy heard of beavers and their dams?

Leonard goes into the geology lab and sees the fancy water-cooled saw. He tries to take the meteorite, but it’s too heavy, so he rolls it out on a chair.

At the city zoning office, Sheldon finds the clerk’s “zone-zone” joke funny. Sheldon wants to know if he should turn a code violator in. He philosophically debates the clerk on whether he should turn in law breakers. The clerk won’t make the decision for Sheldon.

As Leonard is about to cut into the meteorite Raj and Bert run in wanting to know what he was doing. He cuts it open and they find a glowing purple light emitting form it. Raj finds it pretty. Leonard approaches it and gets zapped. His eyes start to glow and he attacks Raj and Bert taking a bite out of them.

Leonard finds himself waking up on the couch and Penny tells him that he’s having a bad dream. As Penny check his temperature, Leonard’s eyes start to glow again and he attacks Penny. Her scream wakes him up as she comes running down the hall. Leonard asks what color his eyes are and Penny can’t decide between green and brown. As least he is finally awake.

Sheldon comes to talk to Howard and Bernadette. He had thought of turning them in, but he decide that the unwritten rules of friendship override the city zoning office regulations. He also looked into their neighbor’s balcony and found out that it did encroach their property line. He had so much pent up energy that he turned their neighbors’ in.

Leonard visits the geology lab and apologizes since he was jealous. Bert calls his device Terry Brad-saw. Leonard explains about his dream and Bert thinks it’s cool that Leonard attacked him first.

Howard and Bernadette are having wine watching their neighbor tear out the balcony. Their neighbors apologize for the noise and they wonder who Sheldon Cooper is who filed the complaint. Sheldon Cooper? The Wolowitzes have never heard of him.

Finally at the comic book store, they had had no customers all afternoon and they don’t see anyone out on the street. Maybe cutting open the meteorite unleashed a space plague. Stuart locks the door as he and Denise wonder if they are the last couple on earth. Denise agrees that they’ll have to start repopulating the planet. Denise agrees to do that and runs off to brush her teeth. Sheldon shows up and Stuart tells them that they are closed. Sheldon is going to mention this on Yelp.

Credits

 * Guest starring:
 * Kevin Sussman as Stuart
 * Brian Posehn as Bert
 * Lauren Lapkus as Denise
 * Andy Daly as Nathan
 * Joel McCrary as Andy
 * Minerva Garcia as Linda
 * Teleplay: Eric Kaplan, Tara Hernandez & Jeremy Howe
 * Story: Chuck Lorre, Steve Holland & Maria Ferrari

Critics

 * To be entered.
 * IMDb user review

Trivia

 * The guys are working again with Bert the geologist when he wants to cut into a meteorite.
 * Denise returns to the comic book store.
 * Denise is closer to Stuart's personality than she was portrayed earlier. Like Stuart, she worries about what alien presence might be in the meteor being cut open and whether they are the last people on earth when everything gets quiet and no one is around.
 * Denise has played the clarinet for ten years.

Quotes
To be entered.