The Raiders Minimization

"The Raiders Minimization" is the fourth episode of the seventh season of the  The Big Bang Theory. The episode aired on October 10, 2013.

Summary
After Sheldon and Amy watch an Indiana Jones movie together, she points out a plot flaw that ruins the movie for Sheldon who decides to plot some revenge. After Leonard's mother publishes a book about his childhood problems, Leonard finds that he can maniplulate Penny when she starts to feelsorry for him.

Extended Plot
After watching, Sheldon asks Amy what she thought and she replied that it was "Good" which offends Sheldon since it is one of his favorite movies. Amy restated that she enjoyed it. Sheldon told her that she was going to be "losing (her) virginity”, but she didn't realize that he meant she was going to be seeing the Raiders movie for the first time. Sheldon apologized for his choice of words and changed it to "You are about to have your world rocked on my couch." She found the movie very entertaining except for the large plot hole. Sheldon tells her that it was made by two of the most gifted film makers of our time, Steven Spielberg and George Lucas. Sheldon has watched it 36 times except for the snakes and the face melting that he won't watch after dark. Sheldon defies her to find a plot hole to make his jaw drop. Amy explains that if Indiana Jones were not in the movie, the plot would still be intact. The Nazis would still find the Ark of the Covenant, taken it to the island, opened it up and all died. Sheldon does open his mouth with his jaw hanging and Amy closes his mouth for him.

Leonard and Penny run into each other in the lobby. Penny is getting her mail while Leonard is returning from the comic book store. Amy and Sheldon were having their date night and Leonard thought him being around would make it more awkward than they already make it. Sheldon asks Penny how school is going and she shows him her new book, The Disappointed Child by Dr. Beverly Hofstadter which was on the recommended reading list for her psychology class. Leonard is thrilled since it details every horrible story from his childhood. Potty training, bed wetting, masturbation. He begs her to get another book or at least not talk to him about it. Penny then mentions his breast feeding crisis. Ii seems that Leonard preferred the left side and his mother got a little lopsided. Penny then exclaims, "Oh my God. You still do that!"

At the cafeteria, Raj asks which celebrity he looks the most like. Halle Berry. Raj and Stuart are putting together dating web sites and that is one of the questions. Sheldon joins them busily reading, one of Amy's favorite novels. Since Amy ruined Raiders, he wants to find something beloved to her and ruin it. Howard quips that her life is not enough. Raj asks how one can ruin raiders. Sheldon tells them what Amy said and they all groan now that Raiders is ruined. Howard tells the guys that it was Indiana who dug in the right place after the Nazis were digging in the wrong place, Leonard corrects him that if Indiana didn't take the head piece, they would have dug in the right place and found it. Everybody groans again.

Penny and Leonard are making dinner in her apartment and he has just one question abut the book. She wants to know why a five year old put on his mothers makeup and underwear. Leonard was pretending to be The Hulk using green make up and a bra to keep his muscles from sagging. He then pleads to stop talking about the book. Penny did get a check plus on her first homework assignment. She just thinks that occasionally people should open up about these things. Leonard explains that he was always mad at his mother and as The Hulk he wanted to smash his way out of the house because how was always the subject of his mother's little experiments. One Easter she wanted to know how long he would keep looking for Easter eggs when she put none out. The answer was June. Penny goes to hug him because she is so sorry and that she wished that she could do something to make him feel better. Leonard doesn't think so. Penny asks if he's sure about that and the whispers to him. He brightens up and tells her that he's not going to argue with a check plus student as Penny smiles.

Raj is applying makeup to Stuart to take his dating site photograph. Stuart asks why and Raj tells him that he wants to be fun and full of life and not like a body just pulled out of the river. Raj takes one bad photo and then tells him to turn away and then give him a reaction like he just saw the girl he wants to meet. Still no good. After another photo Raj tells him that its a little blurry, but that might help him out. They then started talking about their profile. Stuart's one word describing him is "unobjectionable" though he thought that that sounded too cocky. Raj put down as his best feature, his parent's money. Stuart put not applicable. Raj told him that he is a great artist and that he owns his own business, Neither of those traits will probably help get women. Then Raj asked if they can imply that he is well endowd, Stuart agrees since one of his balls is extra long. Sheldon asks why she couldn't have liked Ziggy because its full of plot holes. Next he looks at Garfield.

In apartment 4A, Sheldon tells Leonard that Pride and Prejudice is a "flawless masterpiece". Now he is looking at her favorite comic strip, Marmaduke. As a flaw Sheldon claims that he is such a large and undisciplined dog, why do the keep him. Leonard points out that they may have loved him since he was a puppy and didn't know how big he was going to get. Sheldon then replied, "Of course". Sheldon picks up the newspaper and says that Amy is also a fan of Garfield. He reads it, looks disappointed and then says that now he is a fan of it too. As Leonard complains about going to watch a football game at a sports bar, Sheldon asks if he knows of anything that Amy is fond of that has a bunch of flaws that she hasn't noticed. Leonard looking at and thinking of Sheldon, shakes his head and says goodbye.

Leonard wanders into Penny's apartment not looking too happy asking his girlfriend if she is ready to go. Penny tells him not to talk sports with the guys. Leonard told her that its like they never even heard of quid. He also wonders if they even have to go. Penny then says that he never seems to want to hang out with her friends and then wonders what's wrong. First she asks if this is about his mother. Leonard replies that not everything is about his mother. Penny tells him that they don't have to go if he doesn't want them to. Leonard immediately switches to that His mood is totally about his mother. Penny feels sorry for him and says that they can stay home and what the game here. Leonard then suggests that they watch his hobbit movie on DVD blue-ray with commentary.

Sheldon knocks on the door of Leonard's lab and asks if he is ready for lunch. A nervous Leonard shouts telling him to wait a second. When he opens the door, Penny is in their buttoning up her blouse. Penny says hi, kisses Leonard and tells him to hang in there today. Howard's eyes pop open impressed that he was getting sex at work. Leonard tells him to leave it alone since she is his girlfriend who just had sex with him at work. He explains that whenever he talks about how awful his mom was, penny will do anything to make him feel better. He's not proud of it, but he found out that it works. Leonard got her to watch a six part documentary on Monty Python that even Leonard didn't like. He just wanted to see if she got through it.

Sheldon is skyping with Amy who wants to know why he is having an unscheduled video-chat. The last time he did it was about finding a curly fry in his regular fries and he thought someone was trying to slip him a mickey. Sheldon is inviting Amy over to a spontaneous date night where they can watch "Little House on the Prairie" together. AMy thinks that that sounds lovely and then asks why he is rubbing his hands together in a truly villianish fashion. He claims to be putting on lotion and asks if she is in or out. Of course she is in. She is happy to have her boyfriend doing something for her. They both say goodnight until tomorrow. Afterwards Sheldon calls her a rube for thinking he was applying lotion when he had such soft hands.

At Howard and Bernadette's apartment, she asks why was so quiet that evening. Howard replies that he was thinking about her mom and how sad his childhood was. Bernie replies, "Yea, it must have bee tough." Now he can do the dishes while she takes a bath. Howard suggests that they take a bath together. Bernie then restates that she'll take a bath and he can do the dishes. Howard asks if he is going to get some comforting. Bernie give him, "Ah poor Howie. I'm going to take a bath." Bernadette then asks that what is up with him. Howard replies that he is sharing his pain, which Bernadette is not buying. Finally Howard admits that Leonard told him that this works with Penny so that they can have sex and watch Monty Python.

Raj and Stuart count down and then launch their dating profiles onto the Internet. Raj quips that his business is now open for business. Stuart adds that as far as the ladies know, he is confident and fun to be around. Raj's site gets a viewing from Jenny309. He hopes that that is not her waist size. Stuart says that he'll take her. Stuart then gets a bite. He claims that he should have tried this years ago and then he be divorces several times by now. Raj wonders if putting himself out on the Internet like this is like having the girls see him naked. Stuart disagrees because they are not running away screaming. Then he explains that the peanut sandwich she is eaten couldn't be right because it hadn't been invented yet. Amy has lost her smile. Then he tells her that if he knew it was about time travel he would have watched it much sooner. AMy switches it off and tells him that she knows he's trying to get back at her for her comments about Raiders. Sheldon says that that is silly like the doctor having a phone since they only existing in large cities then. Amy tells him that they are in a relationship and if he get angry at her, he should tell her. He shouldn't seek revenge, however that is what Sheldon's parents did. Amy tells him that that is not the way they are going to do it. Sheldon then tells her that not only did she ruin Raiders, she ruined the whole franchise except for the fourth on that was bad before she even got there. Amy apologized and then asked if he felt better. Sheldon he did except he then told her that Garfield can't hate Mondays that much since he doesn't have a job.

In the final scene of the episode, the guys all watch Raiders of the Lost Ark again and try to find some way in which Indiana Jones was essential to the plot, but fail.

Penny shows Leonard that she has bought a book written by his mother about embarrassing episodes in his life that was on the recommended reading list for her psychology class. Penny feels sorry for him and starts to do things for him to make him feel better. Leonard realizes what is happening and uses this reaction to manipulate Penny. Leonard mentions to Howard that he keeps referring to his lousy to get Penny's sympathy. Howard starts to talk about his sad childhood to get on Bernadette's good side which she immediately sees through. Afterwards, Howard mentions that Leonard is doing the same thing. Bernadette tells Penny the situation.

Leonard finds Penny scantily dressed on her couch. She tells him how badly she feels and that she is going to do something for him. She turns her laptop, leaves abruptly and Leonard finds himself with his mother. She then starts to discuss his sex life.

Raj and Stuart decide to fill out dating site profiles to find some women. After taking photos and posting their information, they find lots of women checking out their site, but no one is leaving messages. They find that they have never been so humiliated, so they head to a bar and then decide that direct rejection is even worse.

Critics

 * Jesse Schedeen of IGN: This week marked the second time an episode of The Big Bang Theory revolved around Raiders of the Lost Ark in some way...This portion of the episode was definitely the highlight. There were some great lines thrown out poking fun at the stagnant progress of Sheldon and Amy's love life...The episode spent too much time focusing on the latest micro-disaster in Leonard and Penny's relationship relative to the actual entertainment value it offered...The gag involving Leonard faking sadness over his rough childhood to score sex with Penny might have worked well in a smaller dose, but the episode just kept dragging it on to the point where you had to feel bad for Penny being tricked. It wasn't much funnier when Wolowitz tried the routine on Bernadette, though she at least had the brains to shoot him down. The whole subplot did have a nice payoff in the end as Leonard was confronted with his disapproving mother in the midst of undressing...Season 7 had aired three solid episodes in a row, so it was a bit disappointing to see the winning streak end this week. Hopefully next week's "The Workplace Proximity" will turn things around again as it places the spotlight back on Sheldon and Amy.[]

Trivia

 * Amy really likes the television series , as she told Howard in the previous episode, The Scavenger Vortex (S7E03).
 * Sheldon, Leonard, Raj, and Howard are all fans of the Raiders of the Lost Ark movie which was also the focus of the episode "The 21-Second Excitation". (S4E08)
 * Amy also likes the comics and  and the classic novel.
 * When Amy talks about the flaw in Raiders of the Lost Ark, the Apartment Flag on the refrigerator is upside down.
 * When Penny prepares to watch the football game, she wears a uniform of, the football team form her homeland, Nebraska. In The Cornhusker Vortex (S3E06), Leonard wore the uniform of the same team when he went to watch football game with Penny.

Quotes

 * Sheldon: So what'd you think?
 * Amy: It was good.
 * Sheldon: That's it? Good?
 * Amy: I enjoyed it. When you told me I was going to be "losing my virginity”, I didn't think you meant showing me "Raiders of the Lost Ark" for the first time.
 * Sheldon: My apologies. I chose my words poorly. I should've said 'You are about to have your world rocked on my couch."


 * Penny: I planned something very special for you.