The Cushion Saturation

"The Cushion Saturation" is the sixteenth episode of the second season of the   The Big Bang Theory. This episode first aired on March 2, 2009.

Summary
Penny accidentally shoots Sheldon's beloved sofa cushion with a paintball gun. He is deeply disturbed by this turn of events and is not happy with the cushion even once it has been dry cleaned. Meanwhile, Howard starts sleeping with Leslie Winkle. She uses her control over CalTech grant money to make him do things that she wants.

Extended Plot
Leonard, Sheldon, Howard, and Raj are playing and are losing badly, which Sheldon believes is due to Howard missing his physics department paintball strategy meeting. After everyone leaves Howard to die, Leslie Winkle shows up and, after discussing how they might die very soon, they kiss and end up having. While everybody's departmental budgets are getting cut, Howard is getting new equipment especially since Leslie is controlling the money and they are having a "" relationship.

Penny goes to Leonard for help on her computer after spending three hours shopping for shoes. Noticing the paintball gun, she picks it up and accidentally shoots Sheldon's leaving it with a big green spot.

Leslie and Howard have finish having sex as his transient was acting up. Howard's mother asking for help with her zipper, so Howard tells her to not come in. Leslie shouts that he has company. After Howard lies that she is, Howard's mother tells them to have fun and use protection.

Leonard tries, and fails, to clean it. Penny asks what they were going to do, while Leonard says that she had eighteen months to become "we". Penny turns the cushion over and puts her own butt print in it. Sheldon comes in, sits down and looks worried that something is not right. He turns the cushion over, finds the stain and Leonard immediately blames Penny.

The cushion is sent to the, however, Sheldon doesn't trust him since he also makes keys. He hops all over the apartment not comfortable to sit in any spot including when Howard gives him Raj's seat cushion.



Meanwhile, Leslie and Howard start sleeping together, and she invites him to a trip to the project in  and wants him to escort her to a relatives wedding. Howard realizes that she is just controlling him for sex. Leslie denies that and says the he is also arm candy.

After the cushion is back from being dry-cleaned, Sheldon is still not happy with it, and refuses to sit in it. Leonard tries to take his mind off of it by confessing that Szechuan Palace has been closed for two years, and his cashew chicken comes from Golden Dragon in Szechuan Palace containers. In the end, Sheldon is still unhappy with the dry-cleaned cushion.

Finally Penny has joined their weekend paintball expedition. Sheldon then kills Penny because of her cushion fiasco. Since Penny now can't shoot, Leonard kills Sheldon who then breaks the rules and then kills Leonard, prompting the others to "surrender, then (go to) ".

Quotes
Penny: What difference does it make?

Sheldon: What difference does it make?

Leonard: Here we go.

Sheldon: That is my spot. In an ever-changing world, it is a single point of consistency. If my life were expressed as a function in a four-dimensional, that spot, at the moment I first sat on it, would be [0,0,0,0].

Penny: Why don't you just eat in your desk chair?

Sheldon: Why don't I just eat in my desk chair?

Leonard: Here we go.

Sheldon: That is my desk chair. That is where I work. I don't eat in my desk chair, and I don't work in my spot -- I work in my desk chair and eat in my spot.

Leonard: Wackadoodle.

Leonard: We? No, no, no. You had your chance to be we for, like, a year and a half now. Right now, you are you, and you are screwed.

Trivia

 * Sheldon says, "If my life were expressed as a on a , that spot at the moment I first sat on it would be $$(0,0,0,0).$$" The time combines space and time in a single, four-dimensional  $$(\textrm {dim} \ \mathcal {M} = 4),$$ which is covered by  $$x^{\alpha}({\alpha} = 0,1,2,3).$$ Coordinate charts are used in the space-time manifold $$\mathcal {M}$$ to represent the . Usually, Cartesian coordinates $$x^{\alpha} = (ct,x,y,z)$$ are used, though  are also allowed. In the most general case, a number of overlapping coordinate charts is needed to cover the entire manifold. A  is identified with a Cartesian coordinate chart with a  placed at its.
 * Sheldon says that he does not eat in his desk chair, and he does not work in his spot. In The Cooper-Nowitzki Theorem, he does work in his spot.
 * In The Codpiece Topology, Leslie Winkle tells Leonard that she is "done with casual sex and fully committed to the traditional relationship paradigm". However, in this episode she seems to have abandoned the idea as she is sleeping with Howard outside of a romantic relationship.

Critics
"If Leslie and Howard stay together to form a relationship then this episode will have served a purpose." The TV Critic's Review