The Speckerman Recurrence

The Speckerman Recurrence is the eleventh episode of the fifth season of the CBS sitcom The Big Bang Theory. It aired on December 8, 2011. The extended gap between the airing of this episode and the previous episode, The Flaming Spittoon Acquisition, was due to Thanksgiving, where a rerun of an old episode was shown instead on the usual Thursday timeslot for the show.

Summary
Leonard faces off with his high school bully, Jimmy Speckerman (played by Lance Barber), who is making a comeback into his life. At the same time, regarding the issue of bullies, Penny realizes that she might have been one when she was in school.

Plot
A guy named Jimmy Speckerman contacts Leonard through Facebook, telling him he wants to meet for a drink. Leonardtells Penny and Sheldon that he was one of his high school bullies and struggles to decide whether to meet him, but decides to do it, and "say all the things he wanted to say in high school".



At the bar, Leonard is with the other guys, waiting for Jimmy to turn up. When he arrives, he surprises Leonard by acting nice, but for a reason: he would like Leonard to help him with his idea of creating glasses that would make any movie you watch 3D, and he came to Leonard, as he needed a nerd, but also because Leonard is the smartest person he knows.

Sheldon stands up for Leonard and tells Jimmy he should apologise for all the heinous acts he committed against Leonard as a teenager. They show him a list of all that he did to Leonard. Jimmy says that he thought they were only having some fun, where Leonard counters that it wasn't fun for him, and they leave.

A drunk Jimmy later shows up at Leonard's apartment, along with the list, and starts to apologise for all the things he did to him in the past. Leonard does not want him driving drunk, and takes him in for the night.

The next morning, Jimmy wakes up with no re-collection of apologising to Leonard, and takes his French toast and yet again calls him "Nancy". Taking a stand, Leonard tells Jimmy to get out of the apartment and actually shoves against him, not doing any damage. The guys are then seen running down the stairs to evade an angered Jimmy.

Meanwhile, regarding the issue of bullying, Amy and Bernadette talk about their bullies, but Penny says that she did not have bullies and just used to prank other girls. Amy and Bernadette point out that she actually was a bully, so feeling guilty for what she did, she calls all the people she tormented. But no one wants her apology, so Penny decides to do something for charity, to feel good about herself.



She decides to donate some of her clothes to a clothing bin, but when she goes to the bin, she finds so many cute clothes and decides to go back the next night and take some.

The girls return to collect some clothes, but then Penny realises what they are doing is wrong, so they decide to leave it and go. However, Bernadette decides to take some cute boots Penny showed her earlier, saying that its OK, as she serves soup to the poor.

Title Reference
The title for this episode is derived from the name of Leonard's high school bully, Jimmy Speckerman, and his comeback into Leonard's life, thus implying the recurrence of Speckerman.

Trivia

 * This is the last new episode for the year 2011; afterwards, the show will be on winter break. CBS will air episode twelve on January 12, 2012.
 * The character Jimmy Speckerman is introduced in this episode.
 * Sheldon implied that Leonard attended Princeton after Leonard placed an excess marshmallow in his hot chocolate - he attributed the reason that Leonard adds one for good luck to the kind of math done at Princeton.
 * The Newcomb Medal, of which both Leonard and Raj were recipients, is most likely an astronomy prize named for Simon Newcomb.
 * Leonard has a list of all the bullying he received from Jimmy Speckerman while in school, which included calling him Nancy, stapling his scrotum and supergluing Hershey's Kisses to his nipples.
 * Jimmy isn't the only bully Leonard has had. One guy peed in his Hawaiian Punch, one guy wegied him so hard, his tesiticle rescinded and he spent all of Christmas break waiting for it to come back down, one guy used his head to open a nut and another one made him eat his arm hair. His bully from home, a.k.a, his mother, was also the cause of his bedwetting until 14.
 * Bernadette's bully, Tammy Bockneck, once stole her clothes from her locker after gym and left an elf costume in there. The problem was, the costume was too big.
 * Among Amy's nicknames after the incident with the Rogain was "Gorilla-Fingers Fowler" and "Fuzzy-Fingers Fowler".
 * Sheldon doesn't see it, but with the way he belittle's everyone and dismisses all sciences except theoretical physics, it makes him a bully.
 * As a kid, Leonard could fit into a backpack. Though he claimed it was only successful with Jimmy's "help".

Quotes
Sheldon: One for good luck...must be the kind of math they do at Princeton.

Sheldon: ''Congatulations, the Newcomb Medal...Oh, please. That's a scientific equivalent of a smiley face sticker on your homework.''

Rajesh: ''Hey! I won a Newcomb Medal, too.''

Sheldon: My point.

Sheldon: ''Technically, Howard's the gearhead. Leonard's just a dime store laser jockey.''

Sheldon: ''I help the weak. It's yet another way I'm exactly like Batman.''

Sheldon: I'm not going to say I told you so, but we could have killed him.

Leonard: I might kill him right now.

Sheldon: ''The Dark Knight has your back. He's scared, but he has your back.''

Sheldon: Nobel Prize acceptance ceremony streaming live from Stockholm.

Sheldon: ''Look at these men...They've managed to win the top science prize in the world with no more understanding of the quantum underpinnings of the expansion of the early universe than God gave a goose. You should pay attention, Leonard. Someday this could be you up there.''

Sheldon: ''Look at Dr. Saul Perlmutter up there, clutching that Nobel Prize. What’s the matter, Saul? You afraid someone's going to steal it, like you stole Einstein’s cosmological constant?''

Sheldon: ''Oh, now Perlmutter's shaking the king's hand. Check for your watch, Gustaf. He might have lifted it.''

Leonard: Rekindles your faith in the basic goodness of people.

Sheldon: ''You know what would be nice? We open our home to Jimmy, and once he's asleep, we kill him.''

Sheldon: I said it would be nice, I didn't say we should do it.

Bernadette: ''I love this dress! How come I never see you wear it?''

Penny: Cause when I wear it it's a shirt...

Bernadette: Oh, they all went with Leonard to confront his High School bully.

Penny: Oh, ''terrific. High school quarterback against 4 mathletes.''

Amy:'' When Leonard gets back, I'd love to check his serotonin levels. Do you think he'd let me draw a syringe full of his blood?''

Penny: Mm, he's not crazy about needles, but if you get him to go jogging it'll just pour out of his nose.

''Bernadette: I don't think I can meet the girl who was always mean to me. Tammy Bockneck. One time, while I was in gym class, she stole all my clothes and left an elf costume in my locker.''

Penny: Oh, that's awful!

Bernadette: Worst part was it was too big.

Howard: Hey, we're here to support you, buddy..

Leonard: ''No, you're not. You're here to see if I'll get my underwear pulled'' over my head.

Howard: ''You wore underwear? You fool!''

Amy: ''Who would have thought? Fuzzy Fingers Fowler is best friends with a bully...''

Amy:'' Shh... That's how you wind up in the cornfield.''

Sheldon: ''You know the holidays are just around the corner. Maybe he just wants to see if he can lodge the other testicle up there.''

Leonard: I told you, that was a different guy.

Penny: ''Well, that's too bad. Could've spent New Year's Eve waiting for the ball to drop.''

Video
The Speckerman Recurrence Sneak Peek thumb|400px|left|The Speckerman Recurrence Promo