The Vacation Solution

The Vacation Solution is the sixteenth episode of the fifth season of the CBS sitcom ''The Big Bang Theory. ''It is set to air on February 9th, 2012.

Summary
Sheldon is forced to take a vacation by the university president. After trying to sneak into his lab, Sheldon goes to work with Amy in her biology lab. She has him cleaning laboratory glassware and counting growth cultures in Petri dishes and failing at both tasks. Sheldon insists that with his intelligence he can do more. When Amy lets him try to dissect a brain, he faints after he cuts his thumb. Later he does go back to apologize after drinking virgin piña coladas in a bar with Howard.

Bernadette's father wants Howard to sign a pre-nuptial agreement which he unfortunately hears about through the nerd grapevine. He's reluctant to sign, and tells her that he'll go talk to her father himself. When Bernadette explains her father still carries his police revolver, he decides to put off the discussion until after he's up on the International Space Station.

Title Reference
The title is derived from the solution to Sheldon's dilemma of where to have his forced vacation, by working with Amy at her laboratory.

Quotes
Sheldon: (to Howard) 10 seconds ago you didn't know who Richard Feynman was, and now you're an expert?

Raj: ''Mr. Roper is dead? You can't just spring that on a guy!''

Sheldon: (Carrying a tray of beakers) ''Here you go! This is now the only lab with glassware washed by a man with two doctorates and a restraining order signed by Carl Sagan.''

Amy: (Inspects a beaker) ''Soap spots! Wash 'em again.''

Sheldon:'' You're being ridiculous! Those are perfectly clean''.

Amy: ''Sheldon, this beaker used to contain cerebral spinal fluid from an elephant that died of syphilis. If it's in fact, perfectly clean, drink from it!''

Sheldon: (Picks up the tray of beakers again) Biologists are mean!

Penny: Ha ha, you cut your thumb and fainted!

Sheldon: ''What do we start with? Slicing some genes? Clone a sheep? Perhaps grow a human ear on a mouse's back? Haha! ''(laughs)

Amy: I'm excited to work with my boyfriend, it's gonna be romantic.

Sheldon: Way to kill the mood.

Amy: Are we nervous doctor Cooper?

Sheldon: ''No. What you see is a man trembling with confidence...  Does the locus coeruleus usually bleed that much?''

Amy: No, but your thumb does.

Sheldon: Oh dear! (faints)

Amy: Yeah, YOU'RE a biologist.

Sheldon: ''I have plenty of experience in biology. I bought a Tamagotchi in 1998.''

..And....it's still alive.

Sheldon: ''Excuse me, but you have Doctor Cooper in your lab! Are you gonna make him do the dishes? That's like asking The Incredible Hulk to open a pickle jar.''

Raj: No 'hi Raj!', no 'how are you, Raj?', just straight to 'Where's the other white guy?'?

Trivia

 * Joshua Malina, who plays President Siebert, last appeared during Season 4 's The Benefactor Factor. This is his second appearance on the show.
 * In The Peanut Reaction, Howard gets Leonard an autographed copy of The Feynman Lectures on Physics as Sheldon partly complains about gift giving on hearing this, so Sheldon's assertion of Howard's complete ignorance regarding Feynman in The Vacation Solution is inconsistent. Yet, the matter can be attributed to "Sheldon’s patented blend of condescension" (as Howard mused in The Flaming Spittoon Acquisition), for Sheldon ignores Howard's claim that every scientist in the world knows of Feynman.
 * In The Luminous Fish Effect, based on the work of Japanese scientists, Sheldon inserts DNA from luminous jellyfish into a goldfish, successfully creating a fish nightlight. He also reveals his idea of what DNA would look like in a silicon-based life form. Hence, he is more skilled in biology than the misgivings of the episode of this article. It is possible he is just not skilled at neurobiology, though.
 * Sheldon had a restraining order from Carl Sagan, which wouldn't exist any more, as Carl Sagan has passed away.
 * Bernadette's father still has his gun, as a fashion statement, even though he is retired as a police officer. She also says that he is racist, homophobic, anti-semetic and hates Jimmy Carter, gardeners, Sean Penn, the Second Vatican Council, gun control, organic food, the designated Hitler rule and recyling.
 * The Wolowitz's have adjoining plots in the Mount Sinai Memorial Park Cemetery, next to Norman Fell's.
 * Sheldon won't go to Hawaii, as it was the place of the finale of LOST, has active volcanoes and is a former lepor colony. He also won't go to Florida because he went there on a family vacation and a seagull took his hotdog.
 * Penny sees no love in sex, thinking of it as a casual thing.
 * The brain slice that Sheldon was trying to slice appears to be a slice from a midsection of the frontal lobe or close. The locus coeruleus is located in the a nucleus in the pons  (part of the brainstem). ...and its is not the size of a single hair, as Amy said.
 * This is the first time we hear Sheldon laugh properly, which is over a physics madlib. The only other time he has laughed like that is when made a multiplication error. Leonard says that isn't funny as it was published.
 * Unlike the other guys, Amy won't stand for Sheldon's narcissism and condesention.

Video
342px|The Vacation Solution Promo 342px|left|The Vacation Solution Sneak Peek

Reference
Based on the taping report generously provided by the user ennaxor.

Please don't add fake facts to this page.