The Egg Salad Equivalency

The Egg Salad Equivalency is the twelfth episode of the sixth season of the CBS sitcom, The BigBang Theory. The episode will probably air in January 3, 2013.

Summary
Alex is asking Leonard to dinner and Sheldon's reaction lands all the guys in front of the Human Resources Administrator. Penny is also feeling insecure in her relationship with Leonard.

Extended Plot
Sheldon and Leonard are playing giant Jenga with a stack taller than even Sheldon. Sheldon was at first skeptical about this new game, but he felt the looming threat of being crushed by a pile of lumber added a certain spice to the game. Sheldon talks in his sleep and has started to record himself all night long, Alex stops by to pick up Sheldon's tapes to review eight hours of "Sheldon after dark". Sheldon feels that what he says at night might be like his daytime conversations, pure gold. Alex asks Leonard if he has any plans for the weekend. Leonard indicates that he has to figure out where to store the giant Jenga game pieces. Alex is attending  a lecture on subatomic space-time by  Caltech  theoretical physicist  Kip Thorne which Leonard says sounds interesting. She invites Leonard to go with her. Leonard is planning to hang out with Penny, however, Alex tells him to bring her along. Leonard tells her that Penny isn't really into that. Alex replies that then maybe she can tell him about the lecture at work or over dinner sometime. Leonard is surprised by what seems to be a date suggestion and knocks over the Jenga pile. Sheldon returns after hearing the crash exclaiming that he wins.

At the Caltech cafeteria, Raj is listing cereal mascots to make a point that none of them are female characters. After Raj is finished, Leonard says that he has a problem since Alex asked him out. Raj is unhappy since he insists that he was working on Alex for weeks. Leonard reminds him that he can't even talk to her, but Raj insists that he talks to her with his eyes. Leonard says that she knows he has a girlfriend and that it feels weird. Raj remarks that Leonard is loving this situation. "To my bones!" is Leonard's reply. He's not going to do anything about it because he loves Penny, however, he finds it nice that a young attractive woman is "sniffing around the goods". Sheldon joins them asking what the day's topic of conversation is and they tell him about Alex. Sheldon is unhappy about the attention she is giving Leonard, since she works for him and should be totally focused on his needs. Leonard asks what he should do and Raj tells him to tell her that his heart belongs to Penny and let Raj comfort her broken heart while turning to him.

Sheldon tries to decide what to do about Alex Jensen  and asks Penny, Bernadette and Amy as  "Sheldon Cooper's Council of Ladies" which includes pink commemorative T-shirts. He tells them that he has a delicate workplace situation that needs their advice, but he will be using fake names. The man is Ricardo Shellyshally, a short bespectacled man who lives in the shadow of a brilliant roommate. Penny says that it's Leonard. Sheldon disagrees and says that he has red hair and recently served in the Mexican Navy. Penny looks amused. Sheldon continues that despite the fact that Shellyshally has a girlfriend, he has received inappropriate workplace flirtations from a colleague. Amy chirps in that it's his assistant Alex. Sheldon gives fake names for the woman (Condelisa) and his boss (Dr. Einstein von Brainstorm). Penny asks, "What the hell is going on between Leonard and Alex?" As usual, Sheldon says that the situation is not about Ricardo and Condelisa, it's about him or rather Dr. Einstein. Penny threatens to kill her, however Bernadette insists that Leonard would never cheat on her. Amy agrees, but she remarks that she has a lab of cocaine addicted monkeys that have nothing to lose and could end up in her car or her shower. After Sheldon finally acknowledges who they are talking about, he asks what he should be doing about it. Bernadette tells him that if she is doing something to make Leonard uncomfortable, he should talk to her. Sheldon replies that Leonard isn't uncomfortable because he is loving it. Sheldon remarks that he's strutting around like he's five foot six. This comment distresses Penny. Bernadette again says that he should talk to her. Sheldon was hoping for more advice than that and then takes his T-shirts back.

Sheldon in his office, he asks Alex what is on his schedule and she is surprised to find "Give Alex a talking to". She doesn't know what she did and Sheldon tells her that her ovaries are shooting so much Juicy Juice into her brain that she doesn't know which way is up. He tells her that she made an inappropriate sexual advance on Leonard which she denies. (It was an invitation to dinner.) He tells her that he is not sympathetic to her blight. His father had told him that a woman is like an egg salad sandwich left outside on a warm Texas day. They are full of eggs and only appealing for a short period of time. Alex tells him that the conversation is making her feel uncomfortable. Sheldon is also feeling uncomfortable. He continues that due to evolution, she is a slave to her desire to reproduce. To reduce her urges, he suggests that she flip through a book on sexually transmitted diseases showing her some of the illustrations. Alex getting more and more shocked, gets up and leaves.

Back in the hallway between apartments 4A and 4B, Penny returning from work meets a whistling Leonard heading down to do his laundry. Penny asks about his good mood and Leonard replies that Sheldon slept on the way to work and he got to listen to the radio for once. Penny asked again, and Leonard found a website that told you which Star Trek character he was and it only took him four times to be Captain Kirk. He told Penny that the day would even be better when he spends some time with his special girl. Penny asks if he means her or Alex since she knows the situation and that he likes being in it. Leonard looks stupefied and Penny leaves slamming the door saying, "Don't play dumb with me, Ricardo Shillyshally!" Leonard tells himself that he is missing something and then asks Sheldon if he told Penny. Sheldon said that he had and had gotten no good advice. He would have asked Leonard, but he had never given him any good advice on women either since he didn't know a uterus from a unicycle. Leonard tells him that you don't tell a guy's girlfriend that he is being hit on. Sheldon tells him that that advice is a little late, but that he may end up on "Sheldon Cooper's Council of Ladies." He then gets a call to report to the Human Resources Department since Alex has filed a complaint that he had acted inappropriate in the workplace. Leonard asked him what he did. Sheldon thinks about it and says that he did nothing because he is "a delight".

The Human Resources administrator tells Sheldon that Alex has filed a complaint. Sheldon can't see what is wrong since she has a front row seat as he makes scientific history and has free string cheese in his mini-refrigerator. Also yesterday he said that he led her from a life of sexual promiscuity. The HRA told Sheldon that he had said things that he shouldn't say in the workplace like calling her a slave to her sexual desires and calling her an egg salad sandwich. Sheldon said that he sees the confusion. He was not trying to single her out, he said that all women are slaves to their desires including the HRA, who is black. Again he calls her a slave, especially during certain points of her menstrual cycle. She then tells him that he better shut up. Sheldon doesn't feel like he should be persecuted since Leonard was bragging about his sexual prowess, Howard built a six breasted female robot using university resources and Raj had called the HRA "brown sugar" at the office Christmas party. On the last comment, Sheldon denies that that was racist since Raj is also brown.

Penny hears a noise, opens her apartment door and finds Leonard playing his cello with a musical apology to Penny about the Alex situation. First she says that she doesn't care about Alex, and then changes it to "I hate that bitch". She wonders whether she should be worried about their relationship. "Alex", she continues, "is smart enough to not have to look up words in the dictionary after she talks to you". Leonard asks her if Penny does that and she denies it. Penny remarks that she is feeling very insecure about their relationship, but Leonard reassures her that nothing is ever gong to happen between him and Alex. Being chased by all these women does make Leonard feel like Captain Kirk. Penny replies that if he keeps saying that, all these women are going to stop. Then he gets a call to report to the Human Resources Department, as do Howard and Raj.

Raj is getting ready for the "Human resources lady" by adding alcohol to his coffee. Howard says not to worry since he was often called in before he met Bernadette. Leonard announces that Sheldon basically threw them all under the bus during his interview. Howard turns out to be on a first name basis with the HRA due to past experiences. Sheldon shows up and announces that he is filing a complaint against the HRA because the explicit language she used during his interview made him uncomfortable. From her comments, Sheldon said that he knows now not to ask if she is menstruating though due to her behavior he thinks she is. Everyone was then ordered into her office.

Sheldon sits down and apologizes to Alex because it had been pointed out to him that his language in dealing with her was offensive. Sheldon has to take online sexual harassment training. Sheldon then asks Alex to take the on-line training for him as part of her duties because he is so busy. She doesn't look happy as he leaves the office.

Finally, Penny starts looking at science classes at her community college, since Alex can talk to Leonard about his work, and decides that they are all boring. Instead of trying to be a scientist, she decides to look like one and buys a pair of "smart" glasses. Leonard tells her that it won't help until he sees her with the glasses and exclaims that she looks real smart. Penny looks at him over the tops of her glasses and says "molecules" which gets Leonard very excited and he drags her into the bedroom.

Notes:

 * Title Reference: The title comes from a comment that Sheldon's father made about women.
 * This episode was watched by 19.25 million people for a 6.1 rating, a new record high viewership for TBBT.

Critics:
Oliver Sava of The A.V Club  gave the episode an A

Jesse Scheeden of IGN gave the episode a great review: 8.4 out of 10

Dhruv Rao of The DR Club  gave the episode a B

Trivia

 * Alex Jensen invites Leonard to join her in attending a lecture on subatomic spacetime by Caltech theoretical physicist Kip Thorne, one of the world's leading experts on the astrophysical implications of Einstein's general theory of relativity and a longtime friend of Stephen Hawking. Leonard then states that the lecture is Thorne's take on John Wheeler's quantum foam. A world renowned relativist, John Wheeler had mentored Kip Thorne as his doctoral adviser and devised the concept of quantum foam in 1955.
 * As the Richard P. Feynman Professor of Theoretical Physics Emeritus, Kip Thorne is retired. However, he still engages in research as a member of the TAPIR (Theoretical AstroPhysics Including Relativity) group (evidenced by the continued publication of technical articles in peer-reviewed physics journals ). Thus, the prospect of Thorne presenting such a lecture remains feasible.
 * Sheldon gets his friends involved when being inquired, which is exactly the same as he did in The Apology Insufficiency (S4E07).
 * Sheldon and Raj mention that Howard once built a sex robot with six breasts. The "artificial women" that Leonard mentioned in The Psychic Vortex (S3E12) and the "Lisatronic 3000" that Leonard mentioned in  The Holographic Excitation (S6E05) are possibly the previous mentioning of this.
 * This is the second appearance of Raj's Yorkie following The Transporter Malfunction, though the dog is much older.
 * Not only do Live+Same Day returns have the CBS comedy setting an even higher bar for total viewers (19.25 million), the episode topped its record haul among adults 18-49. The 6.1 rating bests Thursday's fast affiliate showing by a tenth of a point. (The 6.0 adults record was set on Feb. 8, 2010, and matched the next month.)

References:
Taping Reportby Kyzzx

Video