The Boyfriend Complexity

"The Boyfriend Complexity" is the ninth episode of the fourth season of the   The Big Bang Theory. This episode first aired on November 18, 2010.

Summary
Penny asks Leonard to lie to her visiting father (Keith Carradine) about them getting back together, while Howard, Raj, and Bernadette spend the entire night monitoring a in the telescope lab.

Extended Plot
Leonard is flattered when he shows up at Penny's door and gets a kiss from Penny. Later, Penny informs him that her critical father Wyatt is visiting, and she asks him to pretend that they're back together because he's the only boyfriend she's ever had that her father likes. Leonard is initially wary of the idea, but gleefully plays along. He gets taken out to dinner and Wyatt calls him a "keeper". Penny also suffers through her father's stories about how stupid her past boyfriends were. Leonard does get Penny to say "I love you" and confess, which she finally does while her father and Leonard are Wii fishing. Penny's father confronts her about the hoax; then, after Penny leaves the room, he begs Leonard to get back together with Penny because he wants who won't grow up in a  and knows Penny's next boyfriend(s) won't provide them. Leonard plays along as Wyatt pretends to angrily throw him out of Penny's apartment.

Meanwhile, Howard and Raj spend the night in a control room for a ground-based operating in, hoping to find the star Epsilon Eridani dim, which would be evidence of a  orbiting it. Raj gets mad at Howard when he discovers that Howard invited his girlfriend Bernadette until he discovers that Bernadette brought wine. When an intoxicated Raj complains that "no girl ever wants to kiss him", Bernadette shows sympathy for him and he attempts to kiss her. Howard attempts to stop Raj, but they accidentally kiss. The following morning, when asked by Leonard and Sheldon, both act awkward around each other.

Critics
"The stories were generally pleasant and innocuous though. The banter about super heroes was fun and the guys disbelief that Penny could actually be interested in Leonard again was used to good effect. I also very much appreciated Leonard and Penny being smart enough not to include Sheldon in their lies...Another wasted opportunity but it was passable entertainment nonetheless." - The TV Critic's Review

Quotes
Howard: You wanna talk brave? How about 's undocumented Mexican gardener...

Leonard: He's not braver than the guy that uses the bathroom after.

Sheldon: As usual, you're all wrong. The bravest person in the Marvel Universe is the doctor who gives his prostate exam.

Leonard: You'll never guessed what happened to me!

Sheldon: You went out in the hallway, stumbled into an inter-dimensional portal, which brought you five thousand years into the future where you took advantage of the advanced technology to build a time machine, and now you're back to bring us all with you to the year 7010, where we are transported to work at the Thinkatorium, by telepathically controlled flying dolphins?

Leonard: No.

Sheldon: Aw.

Leonard: Hold on, do you actually want me to deceive your father with some sham, play-acting and kissing, 'cause I'm good with that.

Wyatt: It's nice to have dinner with a boyfriend of Penny's who knows how to use a napkin.

Leonard: So, Howard, you get to play with Raj's big telescope last night?

(Howard and Raj misunderstand the statement and overreact.)

Raj: He never touched my telescope!

Howard: Way to go shutting up!

Raj: I did shut up, now you shut up!

Howard: Fine!

(Leonard and Sheldon look at each other with concern and confusion.)

Raj: ... I can't believe you didn't call me this morning...

Trivia

 * Penny's father's name is changed from Season 2's "The Maternal Capacitance" when [Penny referred to him as "Bob", however in this episode his name is Wyatt.
 * Leonard is the only boyfriend that Penny's parents liked.
 * Though pushed by Leonard, Penny does tell him that she "loves" him in this episode.
 * Penny's father Wyatt calls Leonard a "keeper" as a boyfriend.
 * The majority of events in this episode take place on a Thursday Night as Thursday is "pizza night" . At the end of the night, when Leonard is forcing a kiss out of Penny, Sheldon comes walking up the stairs with a laundry basket. Sheldon does his laundry on Saturday nights.
 * Sheldon demonstrates his ignorance of the law in this episode, in the sequence involving the "updated Roommate agreement". He refers to amounts to be paid by Leonard to compensate Sheldon for "Penny's transgressions" as "fines", whereas such amounts are properly understood at law as  (but which may be considered ).
 * Sheldon remarks to Raj, "That’s even factoring in your difficulty in parsing American comic book idioms like  and ." These exemplary comic book idioms are attributed to mutant powers of the X-Men characters Nightcrawler and Wolverine, respectively. Specifically, "BAMF" is the resulting sound Nightcrawler makes when he teleports, and "SNIKT" is the sound of Wolverine's claws being extended — a metallic noise.