The Irish Pub Formulation

"The Irish Pub Formulation" is the sixth episode of the fourth season of the  sitcom The Big Bang Theory. This episode first aired on Thursday, October 28, 2010.

Summary
Leonard tries to hide from his friends that he's having a secret with Raj's sister, Priya. Sheldon gets involved and develops an elaborate overcomplicated convoluted  .

Extended Plot
At the Caltech cafeteria, the tastes like it's made of actual pieces of  which amuses Sheldon. Raj brings by his sister, Priya. She has a one-day layover in on the way to. Leonard and Howard had agreed not to hit on Raj’s sister, though Leonard and Priya did have a history together and it quickly heats up on her return to America.

That night, Sheldon is busy playing Zork via an. Leonard helps distract him since Priya snuck over from her brother’s apartment to spend the night with Leonard.

In the morning, after a lovely night with Priya, Leonard wonders if he should get a job in so that they could date. Priya doesn't feel that that is a good idea since her parents prefer with an Indian man. Still trying to hide from Sheldon, Leonard tries to distract him, but he still catches her walking out. Leonard then asks Sheldon to conceal his violation of a 2005 pinkie swear with Howard.

For Sheldon to keep a secret he must come up with a logical alternate explanation. He lies that Leonard went to a local and hooked up with the fun loving and morally loose Ms. Maggie McGarry. She works at Lucky Baldwin's tending bar with a head full of and a heart full of dreams. Sheldon even has a phone number, an automated message and a lock of Maggie's hair...from an.

Raj first worries about Priya ever being attracted to Howard and then asks Leonard about the new episode of "" which he missed due to his night with Priya. Leonard tries the Maggie McGarry alibi, but end up telling the truth. He admits to Raj he slept with Priya with both Howard and Raj going ballistic. After Leonard told him he offered Priya his heart and she stepped on it, Raj felt much better. Then everyone starts exposing and confessing things better left unsaid, including Sheldon putting s in Leonard's food as an experiment.

Finally, Sheldon preparing and serving one to Leonard, and confessing they were made with. Leonard then spits out the snow cone and leaves the apartment, upset.

Critics

 * TV Critic: "Bringing in family members is almost always a good idea in sitcoms as it helps root that character in a real relationship we can all relate to. The writers did nothing with Priya but she may come back one day. Her leap over the couch to hide from Sheldon was a nice visual gag...Raj's sister comes to town, she sleeps with Leonard who is betraying Howard by doing so. Who was the plot focused primarily on though? Yes that's right, Sheldon ...Feed Sheldon. Feed Sheldon. Feed Sheldon."
 * The A.V. Club gave this episode a C.
 * IMDb user reviews

Costume Notes

 * Leonard wears his Ames Brothers "Wisdom" shirt (the owl).. Hawkmanlogo.jpg


 * Sheldon wears his Hawkman logo t-shirt and his orange Aquaman II t-shirt.

Trivia

 * Bernadette and Amy don't get featured in this episode, because there is no regular and credited appearance by Melissa Rauch in the opening scene and no guest appearance in the ending credits by Mayim Bialik in this episode. There are no on-screen appearances by Bernadette and Amy for any scene of this episode and there is no mention of them either.
 * Sheldon's inability to keep a secret and his tendency to exaggerate lies were previously explored in "The Bad Fish Paradigm" (S2E1) and "The Loobenfeld Decay" (S1E10).
 * The previous episode and this episode are the only Big Bang Theory episodes in which Penny doesn't appear. She isn't even mentioned, as the writers wrote her out of this and the previous episode after Kaley Cuoco, the actress who plays Penny, broke her leg in a accident.
 * was shown in Penny's apartment before, but this time is the first time it is referenced in the show.
 * The "classic text-based computer game from the 1980s" that Sheldon plays, although unnamed in the show, is very likely to be  - which is characterized by the using of commands with prepositions, e.g. the command "hit troll with axe". Also, Zork is mentioned to be Sheldon's favorite in The Hofstadter Isotope (S2E20) and The Toast Derivation (S4E17).
 * Sheldon has a seminar the day after Priya spent the night with Leonard.
 * Priya's first appearance in the series, although it is claimed they all met before "Pilot".
 * In the car, Leonard says, "Okay fine, I’m, I’m a horrible human being, I’m the Darth Vader of Pasadena." He was compared to Darth Vader while likewise driving the car, in "The Large Hadron Collision". Sheldon retorts, "You’re far too short to be Darth Vader. At best you might be a turncoat Ewok." Darth Vader is 6'8" (2.03 m), an Ewok is about 3'3" (1 m), and Leonard is 5'5" (1.65 m).
 * Leonard is 1/32nd  Indian.
 * Sheldon seriously conceived an exaggeratedly complicated lie to cover Leonard, just like what he had done in "The Loobenfeld Decay".
 * Sheldon explains to Raj, "But that behavior is beyond the pale and cannot be tolerated. We are no longer friends." In "The Friendship Algorithm", Sheldon similarly remarked to Raj, "Maintaining five friendships promises to be a task. So, I’m going to have to let one of you go... Raj, you’re out." In both instances, he almost immediately rescinded his decision.
 * It's as if Sheldon really did come with a ("The Peanut Reaction"), as Leonard is able to repeat Sheldon's words about hating fun without even being present when he said it. Sheldon also made this evident in "The Bozeman Reaction" when he said on two occasions, "As you know, I’m not comfortable with prolonged good-byes and maudlin displays of emotion, so I prepared [a] short video."
 * Sheldon recalls April 12, 2005 at a, which was a . This detail is consistent with his old schedule of going to on Tuesdays as revealed in "The Hamburger Postulate".
 * Despite Howard complaining about the cobbler, he continues eating it while Sheldon explains "Train Day".
 * The mythical Maggie's hair sample came from a lab.
 * Sheldon has an oddly shaped.
 * Second episode where a main character's sister comes to Pasadena and her attractiveness causes problems. First was "The Porkchop Indeterminacy".
 * Aarti Mann  made her debut in this episode as  Priya Koothrappali.

Quotes

 * Sheldon: You know I can't keep a secret!
 * Leonard: You can if you try. Think about it this way: if I were and you were, you'd keep that secret, right?
 * Sheldon: Why do you get to be Batman?
 * Leonard: Because the Batman has the secret.
 * Sheldon: Alfred has secrets, too!
 * Leonard: Like what?
 * Sheldon: Alfred knows that  is . Which I've now just told to Batman! See, I cannot keep a secret! The fun starts with brunch at Carney’s in Studio City, a hot dog stand in a converted railroad dining car. Next stop, Travel Town, an outdoor museum featuring 43 railroad engines, cars and other rolling stock from the 1880s to the 1930s. Finally, we’re off to the glitz and glamour of Hollywood for dinner at, that’s right, the Hollywood Carney’s, a hot dog stand in a different converted railroad dining car.


 * Sheldon: You've asked me to lie on your behalf, and as you know, I am deeply uncomfortable with impromptu dishonest, so I've provided you with an iron clad alibi. You couldn't have spent last night with Priya, because you were with another woman.
 * Leonard: Oh, I’m so sure I’m going to regret this, but, who was I with?
 * Sheldon: The fun loving, and morally loose, Miss Maggie McGeary.
 * Leonard: Oh, God.
 * Sheldon: You met her at Pasadena’s most popular Irish watering hole, Lucky Baldwin’s, where Maggie spends her nights tending bar, with a head full of curls and a heart full of dreams.
 * Leonard: (reading a napkin Sheldon has handed him) Leonard, call me if you’re interested in coitus. Sincerely, Maggie McGeary.
 * Sheldon: And if anyone were to actually call that number they will hear this.
 * Mechanical voice on Sheldon’s phone: Top of the morning to you. You've reached Maggie McGeary. Leave a message after the wee little beep.
 * Sheldon: It’s pretty convincing, huh? And it wasn't even a real person. And here is the clincher. A lock of Maggie’s flaming auburn hair.
 * Leonard: Where did you get that?
 * Sheldon: From an orangutan in the primate lab.
 * Leonard: An orangutan?
 * Sheldon: Well, no-one’s going to run a DNA test on it, Leonard, honestly you over-think everything.


 * Howard: Raj, I just want to say that I would never betray your trust. Unlike Leonard, I respect you.
 * Leonard: Really? Was it out of respect that you didn't tell Raj about the time you dropped his iPhone in a urinal?
 * Raj: Dude, I put that thing on my face!
 * Sheldon: I think a more amusing violation of Raj's trust is when Howard convinced him that foreigners give presents to Americans on Thanksgiving.
 * Howard: Hey, I didn't see you giving back your Snoopy snow cone maker!
 * Raj: That was all a lie? This year's gifts are already wrapped!
 * Howard: And as long as we're talking about betraying our friends, how about the month Sheldon spent grinding up insects and mixing them into Leonard's food?
 * Sheldon: Excuse me! That was not a betrayal. That was an experiment to see at what concentration food starts tasting... mothy.
 * Leonard: You put moths in my food?!
 * Sheldon: For science!
 * Raj: I can't believe you kissed my sister with moth mouth!
 * Leonard: I can't believe you used Sheldon's toothbrush!
 * Sheldon: You used my toothbrush?!
 * Raj: Not the brush part! Just the little rubber thing to pick food from my teeth and massage my gums.