The Thespian Catalyst

The Thespian Catalyst is the fourteenth episode of the fourth season of The Big Bang Theory.

Plot Summary
Sheldon gets a lot of negative response about a lecture he did. After talking to Amy, Sheldon took the initiative to study as an actor under Penny because he believes this will help him entertain his audience. Meanwhile, Raj has been without a girlfriend for too long is having various of hallucination that involves Bernadette romantically.

Extended Plot
Sheldon gives a lecture in a class, as usual he makes his condescending comments. Meanwhile, the gang is enjoying the tweets of the people at Sheldon's lecture which are all negative towards Sheldon, then Sheldon arrives home and as usual expects that his lecture was positively monumental to his audiences lives. Then the gang proceeds to alert Sheldon of the negative tweets, this makes Sheldon dissatisfied. Later at the Cheesecake Factory, Leonard, Howard and Raj are discussing about how Sheldon was depressed although he initially didn't want to give the lecture, Raj tells how its sad to "accidentally walk into a gay bar and have no one hit on you". This makes Leonard and Howard think Raj's deprivation of woman company has caused some issues. Bernadette comforts and reassures Raj. Amy tries to cheer Sheldon up, failing that she proposes he take acting lessons as it is the responsibility of the teacher to "communicate as well as entertain and engage". Sheldon goes to Penny to ask for acting lessons, she agrees after he offers to pay her. Raj has a hallucination in which Howard has been offered a fellowship, but he has to leave the country and while he is away Raj must satisfy Bernadette's sexual needs, Raj willingly agrees to it. Sheldon's first acting class ends up stressing Penny. Meanwhile, Raj is having another hallucination, this time Howard got hit by a truck and is not going to make it but he was able to convey his last wishes, which is for Raj to take care of Bernadette sexually, again he agrees. In Sheldon's second acting class, Penny and Sheldon act out a script that Sheldon printed out that he wrote when he was ten years old; "Where No Sheldon Has Gone Before", eventually this brings out very emotional feelings from Sheldon as he cried because he didn't want Spock to take him away in the play. Raj is once again hallucinating. This time Bernadette approaches him infuriated, but the scene quickly changes into a Bollywood thumb|300px|left|The dance routine at the end of the episode style dance routine.

Quotes
When Sheldon breaks down and starts crying, Penny calls his mother and tells her, "Mrs. Cooper, hey its Penny, yah, I think I broke your son."

Trivia

 * Raj considers Labradoodleto have high sex appeal.
 * One of the apparel Sheldon wears, more specifically in the scene where he knocks on Penny's door earlier in the episode, contains a number 73. This is a reference to the episode The Alien Parasite Hypothesis.

Goofs

 * When Sheldon is asking Penny for acting lessons, the latter looks directly at the camera, and therefore the audience, mid-way through the scene, thus unintentionally 'breaking the fourth wall."