"The Big Bang Theory" - October 20, 2008 episode

Leonard arrives home exhausted in the morning, and Sheldon comes out to tell him that they have to go return his Star Wars sheets because he doesn't like how Darth Vader is staring at him. Leonard says that he's just gotten home, and he had told Sheldon that he'd be working nights for a few weeks because it's the only time he has access to certain equipment for his experiments, and since Sheldon doesn't drive and refuses to take the bus (since they won't let him use the bungee cord strap he devised as a make-shift seatbelt), Leonard had told him to arrange another way to get to work, but Sheldon had neglected to do so. Sheldon then knocks on Penny's door and invokes the "favor" clause of their friendship. (Oh, and for equal time, later in the show, Sheldon makes a comment that he likes the blue like Luke Skywalker's lightsabre. And then it's even funnier when he says the blue before it was digitally enhanced. Geek!)

Penny is driving Sheldon, but along the way, he is babbling incessantly, whether it's about the lit "check engine light" on her car that she's been ignoring for a month, the route that she decides to take that's different from Leonard's and that contains multiple speed bumps, that she doesn't want to play brain teaser games involving the elements with him, that her drinking coffee while driving is a distraction, and such. It was funny to watch her take the speed bumps at full speed and his reaction to that, even though in real life, it bugs me to no end when people don't slow down at speed bumps because I find it incredibly painful to ride in a car doing that. He infuriates her so much that she pulls over and orders him out of her car, leaving him on the sidewalk.

At the end of the day, Sheldon expects Leonard to drive him home, but Leonard says he just got to work and Sheldon needs to find another way. Sheldon knows he can't ask Penny again, so he coerces Howard into driving him, but Howard drives a scooter, so with both of them on it, hilarity and panic and terror ensue. Next, it's shown that Howard also left Sheldon on the side of the curb, and Raj is now the one driving Sheldon, but meanwhile, Sheldon says he has to stop at the comic book store and Souplantation and he still has to return his sheets, which does not appear to have happened since Sheldon is later seen asking Penny if she'll take him to return the sheets, but she slams the door in his face.

The next morning, when Sheldon comes out of his room, the entire gang is sitting there, and they stage an intervention - they've already made an appointment for Sheldon at the DMV to get his learner's permit because they just can't deal with him not driving anymore. Penny drives Sheldon and Howard ends up tagging along. Penny later expresses surprise that Sheldon didn't get his license as a teenager like everyone else, and Sheldon has this long-ass explanation for some thesis thing he was doing instead. Very impressive on pulling it off on the part of the actor! No, I have no idea what he said or what any of it meant. When Sheldon is given his test questions, he starts arguing about the questions with the woman at the counter, and she eventually gets so fed up with him that she approves his learner's permit just to get rid of him.

Howard hooks up some kind of high-tech driving simulator that was previously used by the military (it's really impressive!) so that Sheldon can practice. Sheldon makes a production of putting on his imaginary seat belt and when he expresses concern about whether the vehicle has air bags, Penny says she'll just hit him with a pillow if need be. Good quick delivery on that line. Sheldon tries the simulator but is completely unable to grasp how to handle driving, and from the noises made by Leonard and Howard and Penny, not to mention the screams and crashes coming from the simulator, he is apparently plowing through people and things equally. There is a final crash at the end, after which Penny hits him in the face with the pillow. The move in and of itself was hilarious, but it was even funnier because Sheldon and Penny were both fighting back laughter, but Penny especially looked like she was about to burst out laughing.

The next day, Sheldon is still trying to master the simulator, but he is failing miserably, and he is unable to quite explain to Leonard how he ended up driving through the second floor of the Glendale Galleria. He finally gives up out of frustration, but when Leonard questions him, Sheldon says he never quits anything but that he is too evolved to drive.

Howard, Raj and Leonard see Sheldon coming out of his office in a robe, and Leonard explains that Sheldon just decided to sleep at the lab while Leonard is doing his experiments so Sheldon wouldn't have to figure out how to get to and from work. When it's pointed out that Leonard's experiments ended a week ago, Leonard just smiles and confirms that they did end the previous week.

The very end of the show is a bit weird, with two cleaning women finding mysterious clues and being very frightened about what they might find, when a robe-clad Sheldon is seen at the soda machine, and he's got a sort of hood on, which makes him look mysterious in the dim light, kind of like Batman or the phantom of the opera. He takes off, with his robe fluttering behind him like a cape.

Ummm, ok...


And can I just say, I know exactly how irritating it is when someone always needs to bum a ride somewhere because they have no other way of getting there.