The Space Probe Disintegration

"The Space Probe Disintegration" is the twelfth episode of the eighth season of the sitcom The Big Bang Theory. The episode will air on Thursday, January 8, 2015.

Summary
The girls take Leonard and Sheldon shopping while Raj worries about the Pluto space probe he worked on operating.

Extended Plot
With Leonard and Sheldon are getting ready to play a board game and Sheldon asks him what color he wants his play piece to be. Leonard wants green; however, that is Sheldon's color. Sheldon is willing to compromise to blue and yellow which is also green. Amy and Penny show up ready to leave. The guys "good" news is that they have already ordered lunch and they four of them can play the Lord of the Rings version of Risk for the next eight hours. The girls want them to agree to do something they want to do since they usually do what the guys want to do like video nights, game, night and watching movies with director commentaries. Amy is mad that George Lucas can talk all the way through the movie and if she utters one word, she is banished to the kitchen. Even Sheldon agrees to let the girls decide. Penny suggests horseback riding (Kaley's hobby), but Amy has a narrow pelvis. Ice skating is also out since Amy has brittle ankles. Amy wants to do basket weaving at a Wilshire Blvd. craft store, though Penny doesn't. Penny then insists that they find something that the guys will hate to do since she went with Leonard to the Dr. Who convention. Sheldon starts to make suggestions because he is a problem solver. Penny wonders if Amy had any part of her body that is normal. Amy gives Penny a smile that creeps her out.

At Howard and Bernadette's Apartment, Raj is worried about the New Horizons spacecraft which he worked on. It is scheduled to be turned back on as it approaches Pluto and he is worried that it will operate. It spacecraft could have been hit by space ice which could have destroyed it. He can't even bear to watch the movie "Frozen" anymore.

Back in apartment 4A, the two couples are still wondering what to do. First they talk about seeing the Philharmonic which has a Beethoven concert. Sheldon reminds Penny that it is the composer and not the movie about the Saint Bernard. Penny wonders why she and Amy  can't agree on something. Amy always goes along with Penny which Leonard finds interesting since they want the guys to follow her ideas. Sheldon then suggests that they go back to the basics and go clothes shopping while the guys sit in uncomfortable chairs holding their purses. Both of them would hate that. Finally they decide on shopping, Penny's favorite past-time. This activity is at Sheldon's suggestion for something that he and Leonard will hate. Sheldon says that it's settled though Penny feels he takes all the fun out of it.

Raj is getting more nervous as it is still over two hours to go. Howard doesn't help as he starts another "I've been in space" story. Raj then decides that if he makes a basket shots into the waste can he can assume that the space probe will operate. Howard thinks that that is definitely less crazy. After he makes his shot, Howard tells him to settle down; however he HAS to try the best two out of three shots.

Sheldon and Leonard are sitting outside the dressing rooms. Sheldon is uncomfortable staring at all the panties in the lingerie section. He wanted to know why girls make such a production about buying clothes. Penny reminds him that his mother has his pants sent from the Wal-Mart in Houston. It seemed that the salesman at Wal-Mart knows Sheldon's personal style. There is also no cell phone service in the store. Sheldon thinks that there must be things to do before smart phones were invented so he tries to look them up on his smart phone. Son of a biscuit. Now he wants to complain to their corporate office that they have no Wi-Fi, but he can't call him either. Son of a biscuit! Leonard and Sheldon start to play an invisible version of Risk: The Lord of the Rings Edition with Leonard rolling the invisible dice and winning. After mentioning that they should stay and wait for the girls and make compromises for them, Sheldon surprises Leonard when he says that he makes compromises for him all the time. He didn't mention the lettuce that was stuck in his tooth at lunch even though others were laughing at him. Leonard explains that that is not a compromise like he drives Sheldon everywhere because he won't learn how to drive. Amy has taught Sheldon to drive, but he finds it scary and doesn't want to take away Leonard's purpose in life.

Howard and Raj go out for a drive to calm Raj down. He wants to go to temple and though Howard thinks he means a Hebrew temple, Raj is heading for a Hindu temple. Howard is worried that they might rip his heart out like in Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom. Even though the Imperialistic movie makes the Hindu religion seems like barbarians, Raj still loves that film. Howard is also surprised that he is going since in ten years he never talked about his religious beliefs.

Penny and Amy are trying on clothes. Penny has on something that would go well in the "hookers and whores" division at work. She asks Amy why she does everything Penny wants. Amy replied that if she got any other friends, she would do exactly what they asked. She is glad that she met Penny before a cult got to her. Penny says that was then and now she is a woman who is smart, has great friends, a boyfriend, but zero fashion sense as Amy exits the changing stall. Penny agrees to do what Amy wants to do, and that's basket weaving at the Crafts Festival Museum.

Leonard and Sheldon are still talking compromises. Sheldon put the apple pancake mix out of alphabetical order on a lower shelf so Leonard could reach it and make Sheldon his breakfast. Leonard compromises because he can't adjust the temperature in his own home, he can't whistle, he can't wear squeaky shoes, and he hasn't moved in with Penny because the last time he mentioned it, Sheldon ran away. Sheldon asked that given his past history, why is he bringing it up. Leonard explains that Sheldon has no idea how much he inconveniences that lives of everybody around him due to his behavior which is exhausting. Sheldon feels that Leonard is mean to him due to his sarcastic comments and eye-rolls. He replies that all he can't think of a life without his best friend in it. Then Sheldon tells him that if he wants to move out and live with Penny, he should. Leonard doesn't want him to get upset; however, both start to cry over losing their roommate and best friend. They agree that he should do it in stages and the two nights a week at Penny's apartment gets reduced to once a week and Leonard can whistle in the apartment when Sheldon is not there.

Howard and Raj arrive at a Hindu temple and Raj starts to describe the architecture. Howard is worried that he is dressed right. Raj always feels that when entering the temple, everything is going to be all right since were all part of the same cosmos and were all interconnected. His philosophizing stops someone hits his car with their car door. He starts yelling at an older Indian man. In the middle of this out-burst, Howard gets a message and tells Raj that the probe is working fine. Raj calms down.

The other guys are making baskets at the Crafts Festival Museum and Leonard doesn't find it boring. Penny tells Leonard not to let Amy know or they'll be there every Sunday. Sheldon is not making a basket; he's making a 16th century Chinese warrior hat.

Finally, Leonard and Penny are celebrating their new life living together in Penny's apartment. The both are real proud of Sheldon who is sleeping on the couch and calls out for them to keep the noise down.

Critics

 * Jesse Schedeen at IGN - The early portions of the episode were fairly dry and... transitioned into more serious territory..(which) led to some actual progress... Elsewhere, Raj and Howard featured in a smaller subplot... (which) could just as easily have been inserted into (any episode, but) it worked simply as a more lighthearted counterpoint to the relationship drama unfolding across town.

Trivia

 * First new episode broadcast in 2015.
 * Sheldon's rule that Leonard can't whistle was first mentioned in "The Friendship Algorithm" (S2E13). However, Sheldon does eventually allow Leonard to whistle while he is out of the apartment, whereas in "The Friendship Algorithm", Leonard actually whistles with Howard and Raj in apartment 4A when Sheldon is away.
 * Leonard and Sheldon like to play Risk: The Lord of the Rings Edition.
 * Penny may be celebrating their new life together, but since they were probably occasionally sleeping together in Penny's bed, one night a week is not real change.
 * "New Horizons" a NASA space probe launched to study the planet planet Pluto, it's moons and bodies in the Kuiper belt. The mission profile was proposed by a team led by principal investigator Alan Stern of the Southwest Research Institute. After several delays on the launch site, "New Horizons" was launched on 19 January 2006 from Cape Canaveral, directly into an Earth-and-solar-escape trajectory with an Earth-relative speed of about 36,373 mph. It set the record for the highest launch speed of a human-made object from Earth. "New Horizons" should perform a flyby of the Pluto system on 14 July 2015, long after Raj received his confirmation that his experiment was working in this episode.
 * Sheldon is aware of how difficult he can be.
 * Sheldon does not let Leonard wear squeaky shoes. He is a scientist, not a clown.
 * Second episode to display Sheldon's talent for making exotic clothing. First was "The Luminous Fish Effect".

Quotes
Sheldon: (repeated): Son of a biscuit.

Sheldon: (repeated): It's what I do.