Leonard and Penny

Leonard and Penny's relationship has been a major subject in the series since the beginning of season one. Almost all the season finales involve Leonard's complex relationship with Penny in some way.



Leonard's Opinion of Penny
Leonard began liking Penny when she moved in the Pilot episode. He began doing chores for her, such as going to get a TV from her ex-boyfriend Kurt. It wasn't until he got the courage to ask her out that they began dating. They had a few fights but Leonard always liked her and they always managed to stay together. He was concerned about leaving her alone when he was arranged to go with the others to the North Pole. When he returned in Season 3 the first thing he did was go see Penny which she greeted with a kiss. He gave her a snow-flake which she loved and they began dating. Leonard was very happy with Penny and told her in The Wheaton Recurrence that he loved her which suprised her. Later in the episode Will Wheaton breaks them up so his team could win a bowling match against Sheldon's team. Leonard was devastated by this and, which Sheldonpointedout, cried about it. He even sniffed the pillow she slept on and listened to  depressing and romantic songs. In Season 4 he began dating Priya and she insisted that he stopped talking to Penny and letting her over to their apartment. Even though he was dating Priya, Leonard was reluctant to stop talking to Penny but she agreed not to hang out with Leonard as much to help his relationship. He has since broken up with Priya and gotten back together with Penny.

Penny's Opinion of Leonard
When Penny first met Leonard, she only thought as him as a neighbor and a friend and had no romantic feelings for him at first. She asked favors of him and talked and visited him nearly everyday. She ate take-outs with him and the others. Later on, she confessed she wanted to go out with a guy like him and with that, Leonard asked her out which she accepted. They went out a few times and fell out a lot. At the end of Season 2, the episode The Monopolar Expedition, Leonard and the others were arranged to go to the North Pole for three months. In that episode, she gave him a blanket with sleeves and hugged him, which made Leonard concerned about leaving her, but when he asked her about it, she said it was just a going away present. After he left and she closed the door, she whispered, "It means I wish you weren't going." When he returned at the beginning of Season 3, he went to see Penny, which she greeted him with a passionate kiss. Leonard gave her a snowflake which she loved and they began going out again.

In the episode The Wheaton Recurrence, Leonard told her he loved her, which suprised her because she wasn't ready for it, but they both got over it when they had to help Sheldon win a bet against Wil Wheaton in a bowling match. Wil Wheaton told Penny that it would be kinder to break-up with Leonard right away, which later revealed to be a trick to win the bet, but Penny had already broken up with Leonard, believing it would help him.

In Season 4, Priya wanted Leonard to stop hanging out so much with Penny. Penny agreed to it to help Leonard move on with his relationship. Penny hated Priya because of that and got upset with not talking to Leonard as much. At the end of Season 4, she admitted to Raj she regretted breaking up with Leonard. However, she is somewhat reluctant to start up a relationship with him again.

Restarting their relationship
In The Recombination Hypothesis, Leonard decided to ask Penny out on a date and envisioned a possible ending of what that date. In his fantasy, things did not go well the second time around, but he decided to go ahead and ask her out anyway, and Penny agreed to go. The episode ended with Penny envisioning a shotgun wedding with her and Leonard, a possible reason for her reluctance to go out with him again and her need to pick up her birth control pills. Leonard and Penny's fantasies regarding their possible reconciliation proved to have their merits when in the following episode, The Beta Test Initiation, it was shown that the two were contemplating to be official again. However, to avoid the mistakes from their first time together, they decided to take things slow by treating the relationship as a Beta test, and even went to the length of presenting each other Bug reports to settle any issues.

Things seemed to be going well by the end of the episode, with Penny kissing Leonard at his doorstep after their date and at the shooting range. In The Friendship Contraction, it was apparent that the two are definitely in a relationship again, albeit them taking things slow this time around, and the Beta test that was still very much going on. During a blackout at the apartment, Leonard opted to hang out with Penny at her apartment and the two were about to make out when Sheldon interrupted them.

In The Launch Acceleration, Penny suggested that they move up their relationship and get intimate, however Leonard ruined the mood when he asked her to marry him. They later met and this time around, Penny did not run away like she did previously when he confessed his love for her, instead, she managed to muster up the courage to turn down his proposal and they remained dating. During The Countdown Reflection, there was some friction between the two of them about the proposal, but when Howard was being launched they were holding hands to comfort each other.

In The Date Night Variable, Raj who was butting into their date, insisted that Penny tell Leonard how she felt, but she was not ready and threw him out of the apartment. Leonard wants to talk to Penny about their relationship, but Penny says that she has had a hard day and want to just hang. Penny is expressing doubts about her feelings for Leonard, though she claims to be happy with the relationship in The Decoupling Fluctuation. She almost tells Leonard about her doubts and then ends up sleeping with him after lookinginto his sad eyes.