The Electric Can Opener Fluctuation

The Electric Can Opener Fluctuation is the first episode of the third season of the CBS sitcom, The Big Bang Theory. This episode first aired on September 21, 2009.

Note: This episode starts the long term relationship between Leonard and Penny, which becomes a driving force for the rest of the season.

Summary
Sheldon is humiliated by the guys tampering with the data they gathered at the North Pole, while Penny finally confronts her feelings for Leonard.

Extended Plot
Following his return from the North Pole, Sheldon is very excited over the prospects that his research, has yielded, whereas Raj, Howard, and Leonard are just glad to be home after spending three months at the  North Pole. Penny is happier than most that Leonard has returned and passionately kisses him when he knocks on her door.

After they get into the apartment, Howard and Raj confess to Sheldon that the positive results that he received in the Arctic was really static from an electric can opener they kept turning on and off. Furious, especially at Leonard, who thought up the idea, Sheldon confronts him at Penny's apartment, much to his dismay. Leonard explains that he did this because Sheldon was being absolutely unbearable during the expedition when he wasn't getting the results he wanted (plans to kill him were even brought up and discussed). To make matters worse, Sheldon already contacted everyone at the university that he had positive results. Crushed that his best friend has destroyed his dreams and humiliated him, Sheldon retreats to his bedroom.

The next day, Sheldon still refuses to forgive Leonard, and is suffering ridicule by everyone in the Physics department, especially Kripke. As a result, he resigns and runs away to Texas. Although reluctant to go and wait any longer to hook up with Penny, Leonard agrees to go. Penny insists that he go help Sheldon.

At his mother's home, Sheldon becomes increasingly annoyed by his mother 's Christian lifestyle. When the group gets to her home to bring him back, he is reluctant. However, he forgives them as a result of his mother's reluctance to believe in evolution.

Back at home, Penny and Leonard finally hook up, but both of them now feel their relationship has gotten weird.

Critics
" I don’t think this show is in terminal decline just yet. Of course my standards for it and desires for it are different to its producers. But I still think it will stay fresher for longer with a little more care and attention than it currently receives." - The TV Critic's Review

Quotes

 * (Leonard, Howard and Raj are at Sheldon's mother's place in Galveston, Texas, trying to get Sheldon to come home with them. Howard is wearing a goofy cowboy hat and a moustache. Leonard rings the doorbell.)
 * Leonard: Can you please take that stupid hat off?
 * Howard: No, I wanna blend in.
 * Raj: To what, Toy Story?
 * (Leonard chuckles at Raj's remark. Mary Cooper opens the door.)
 * Mary: Hi, boys.
 * Howard (with Texan accent): Howdy, Ma'am.
 * Mary: Howdy to you too, you got here quick.
 * Leonard: Ah, we took the Red Eye.
 * Mary: Well come on in.
 * Howard (with Texan accent): Thank you kindly.
 * Mary: Can I, can I get you something to drink?
 * Leonard: Uh, no, thank you.
 * Howard (with Texan accent): Uh, if ya'll don't mind, I'm hankering for a Lone Star Beer.
 * Mary: There's no alcohol in this household, stop talking like that and lose the hat.
 * Howard (In normal voice): Sorry, I'll take a Diet Yoo-hoo if you have it.
 * Mary: You'll take a coke. (To Raj) What about you, Raj, is it? Oh you still having trouble talking to the ladies? (chuckles) Because you know at our church, we have a woman who's an amazing healer. Mostly she does, uh, crutch and wheelchair people, but I bet she'd be willing to take a shot at whatever third world demon is running around inside of you.
 * Leonard: Uh, if you don't mind, Mrs. Cooper there's a 3:05 non-stop back to Los Angeles and you have no idea how much I wanna be on it.
 * Mary: A girl?
 * Leonard: Uh, yes ma'am.
 * Mary: Good, I've been praying for you.
 * (Sheldon walks into the room.)
 * Mary: Oh. Sheldon.
 * Sheldon: What are they doing here?
 * Leonard: Uh we came to apologize.
 * Howard: Again.
 * Leonard: And bring you home, so why don't you pack up your stuff and we'll head back.
 * Sheldon: No. This is my home now. Thanks to you, my career is over. And I will spend the rest of my life in Texas, trying to teach evolution to creationists.
 * Mary: You watch your mouth, Shelly. Everyone's entitled to their opinion.
 * Sheldon: Evolution isn't an opinion, it's fact.
 * Mary: And that is your opinion.
 * Sheldon (To the guys): I forgive you, let's go home.
 * (Goes to pack his stuff.)
 * Mary: Don't tell me prayer doesn't work (continues drinking her Diet Pepsi).

Science

 * Sheldon's experience was to track slow moving magnetic monopolesat the magnetic North Pole.

Culture

 * Sheldon believes his work on Magnetic Monopoleswill gain him a Nobel Prize.
 * Howard and Leonard make reference that Sheldon has "Vulcan hearing".
 * Sheldon makes reference to emoticons (himself being :D, then Raj noting he became :O following the revelation).

Title

 * The title refers to the appliance that Leonard, Howard and Raj used to give Sheldon false results in lieu of killing him.

Trivia

 * This is the first of four episodes to have a "Previously on The Big Bang Theory" review of past events. It summarizes The Monopolar Expedition and is narrated by Kaley Cuoco. The other three are The Cohabitation Formulation, The Skank Reflex Analysis, and The Date Night Variable.
 * Leonard says, "You can still publish the actual results." Since it was a NSF expedition, it is not simply a decision to publish the results.
 * Sheldon doesn't seem surprised that Leonard and Penny are beginning to date, as he was the one who correctly hypothesized that Penny wants him in the previous season finale, just before the gang's expedition.
 * Penny described a scene from the movie Star Trek in this episode, meaning she probably saw it even though the others didn't, which could indicate that she has begun to like their nerdy things. This was the only time she knew something about Star Trek that Sheldon didn't.
 * Sheldon's beard looks like the one Spock has in the "mirror universe" episode "Mirror, Mirror". Along with that, Howard and Leonard mention about his Vulcan hearing.
 * When Howard says to Mary he'll take a Diet Yoohoo, in the DVD, she says he'll take a Coke, but on T.V., she says he'll take a cola.
 * Raj suggests Howard's hat is reminiscent of Woody's in Toy Story. Metcalf Laurie Metcalf(who plays Mary Cooper) is in all three Toy Story   films.
 * Howard previously referred to cyanoacrylates in The Work Song Nanocluster, as Leonard attempts to define them in this episode.
 * It is mentioned throughout the episode that the four guys slept together naked in the Arctic one night when the heat went out.
 * The preserved snow flake from North Pole appears again in the later episode The Zarnecki Incursion (S4E17).
 * In the commentary for this episode on the DVD release, it was mentioned that the actors actually grew real beards for filming, but were told to shave them so that the make-up department could put fake ones on. It is never stated why this decision was made.
 * This season premiere episode takes place three/four months after the last episode of the previous season.