The Cognition Regeneration

"The Cognition Regeneration" is the twenty-second episode of the tenth season of the sitcom The Big Bang Theory. The episode aired on April 27, 2017.

Summary
Leonard isn't thrilled when Penny considers taking a new job offered by her ex-boyfriend, Zack.

Extended Plot
To be entered

Credits

 * Guest starring:
 * Brian Thomas Smith as Zack Johnson
 * Teleplay: Dave Goetsch, Eric Kaplan & Jim Reynolds
 * Story: Steve Holland, Tara Hernandez & Jeremy Howe

Critics

 * Caroline Preece at Den of Geek! - I like how the show is following Penny’s career path at an almost realistic way, having her grow tired of the grind off-screen but not ignoring it completely. If nothing else, it’s more interesting than her trying and failing to be an actress but, as fun as Zach always is to have around, I’m not crazy about it being used to briefly introduce a love triangle. Perhaps this will be dropped given that Zach’s unseen fiance vetoed the idea, but it’s been obvious for a good long while that the show needs to do something new with Leonard and Penny. A competitor for her affections is an obvious route (and we know this show loves its obvious routes) to go down and would tie in with the idea that, now that they’re married, Leonard isn’t trying as hard in the relationship. Howard and Bernadette get a very small part of the episode with the latter making fun of her husband for being into juggling when he was younger. To get his own back Howard digs for dirt on her from Bernadette’s mother, and finds out that she used to be into ventriloquist dummies. The dummy in question - Tammy-Jo St Cloud - is terrifying, and the scene should be prefaced by a trigger warning for dummy-phobes.
 * IMDb user reviews

Trivia

 * Zack Johnson returns in this episode; his most recent episode was "The Fermentation Bifurcation".
 * Also, this is the second 22nd episode that Zack appears in after the previous season's "The Fermentation Bifurcation" (S9E22).
 * Raj says he never learnt Hindi, yet he was shown to speak Hindi in "The Vengeance Formulation" and "The Psychic Vortex".
 * Siri was last prominently featured in "The Beta Test Initiation". Zack incorrectly refers to it as "Sara".
 * Sheldon's struggle with memory issues continues from "The Recollection Dissipation".
 * Zack is revealed to be engaged.

Quotes
[first lines]
 * Leonard: We're pinned down!
 * Howard: We can't get through!
 * Raj: Sheldon, get over here and help!
 * Sheldon: OK, one second.
 * Leonard: Sheldon, why are you jumping up and down?
 * Sheldon: I'm trying to shoot!
 * Howard: Then use the 'Shoot' button not the 'Wonderful-thing-about-Tiggers' button!
 * Leonard: Aaaw.
 * Raj: That's it. We're dead.
 * Howard: Challenge them again.
 * Leonard: Doing it right now. They can't; there's an important Little League game :
 * Howard: No wonder they beat us; they're jocks.


 * Zack: What are the odds of running into you here?
 * Penny: Well, it's a bar, so pretty good.


 * Amy: What happened to learning the unicycle?
 * Sheldon: I stopped that; it was dumb. Uni-, bi-, tri-, menstrual; all cycles are dumb.


 * Amy: [Sheldon has just stormed out] His mother warned me. Everybody warned me. Actually, * he* warned me.

[last lines]
 * Sheldon: [walking along the sidewalk on very tall stilts] I'm doing it. I'm doing it. I'm tall, and I'm doing it. [wakes up in bed] Aw, man.