The Spaghetti Catalyst

Season 3 / Episode 20

 

 

One would imagine that if Sheldon Cooper was a child under your guardianship, you’d be fervently trying to flog him in the street for a fiver, a la Oliver Twist, rather than battle for custody over the little sod. Not so, apparently.

 

Leonard and Penny no longer having coitus has driven Sheldon into an unusual state of social awareness. Awareness he wants to have dinner with Penny, who has deigned to cater to his exquisite childhood cuisine of spaghetti with little hotdogs, and awareness (courtesy of Wolowitz) that his allegiance should be to “male comrades before women who sell their bodies for money”.

 

Sheldon being the only character ever shown to have an active conscience, he consequently also has a history of commendable overreactions to it. In this instance, smuggling raw hotdogs down his trousers in an effort to avoid upsetting Leonard, and to circumvent the social protocol that dictates he must shun Penny. 

 

One frenzied race from a hotdog seeking hellhound later, he and Penny share a charming, suspiciously pleasant meal together. Sheldon’s covert second meal of the evening, complete with the Jewish Hell of acid reflux.

 

As per usual with Sheldon’s private crises, Penny is oblivious but accommodating, and Leonard doesn’t care, until the private crisis knocks on his door at 3am. This leads to Sheldon’s self-designated surrogate parents/owners divvying up the delightful tasks involved in Sheldon’s grooming, feeding, and entertainment regimen.

 

Ultimately, at the end of a hard day of "pure Disney magic" and regurgitated junk food, ickle-wickle Shelly lies all tucked up in bed, in his mouse-ears, looking irritatingly adorable, with Penny cooing over him, and Leonard lamenting that he ever has to wake up. They leave, abandoning Sheldon to dreamland and the disquieting and inexplicably terrifying clutch of Goofy. “What’s the problem with Goofy?” “Wish I knew. He’s fine with Pluto.”

 

 

by Major Gripe