Amy and Sheldon are taping an episode of Fun with Flags when Amy gets an e-mail from Fermilab researchers claiming to have run an experiment that confirms their super-asymmetry theory. Kevin Campbell (Kal Penn) and Greg Pemberton (Sean Astin) had a failing kaon particle decay experiment with results that made no sense until a colleague alerted them to Amy and Sheldon's paper.
Though at first happy to meet Campbell and Pemberton, Sheldon starts to worry the visitors might try to steal his Nobel Prize. Raj tries to reassure Sheldon that won't happen, but Howard and Leonard cite a couple of precedents that make Sheldon even more concerned.
Sheldon confronts Campbell and Pemberton. They reassure him they don't want to cut him out of the Nobel Prize nomination, but only three persons can win a Nobel Prize. So they want to cut Amy out, since she's a neuroscientist, not a physicist.
Sheldon talks to Amy, she's actually willing to bow out of the nomination so that Sheldon has a shot at the Nobel Prize. But Sheldon feels he deserves the award in great part because of Amy's contribution. Sheldon tells President Siebert (Joshua Malina) that Amy must be on the university's nomination.
Meanwhile, the anti-inflammatory drug Bernadette has been working on for the past five years at ZanGen Pharmaceuticals has just been approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for use by the general public. This means that a marketing team needs to be put together, and Bernadette has already decided Penny will lead the team, even though she's reluctant.
Tropes
- Accidental Discovery: Drs. Pemberton and Campbell came upon Super Asymmetry by accident. They were conducting experiments and the results didn't make sense to them until they came upon Sheldon and Amy's paper.Sheldon: So you weren't even thinking about super asymmetry?
Dr. Campbell: Thinking about it? We don't even understand it. - Continuity Nod to "The Bow Tie Asymmetry": In this episode, Amy and Sheldon dine at the same hall where they got married, with Mark Hamill (As Himself) officiating, in the earlier episode.Amy: The last time we were in this room, we were getting married.Sheldon: I remember. It's a lot less impressive without Mark Hamill in it.
- Friend-or-Idol Decision: Because only three people are allowed to share a Nobel Prize, Drs. Campbell and Pemberton think Amy should be the one to opt out, since she's not a physicist. This leaves Sheldon seriously conflicted.Sheldon: So you really think I'm the kind of man who would sell out his partner for a chance of winning a Nobel Prize?
Dr. Pemberton: Are you?
Sheldon: Boy, I hope not! - Imagined Innuendo: When Penny and the others hear Amy and Sheldon shout "We did it!" from their apartment, they all assume that Amy and Sheldon just had unscheduled sex. Later, Amy and Sheldon go to Leonard and Penny's apartment and deliver their good news, but it's not immediately clear that the good news is not that they had unscheduled sex, until it doesn't make any sense that Amy and Sheldon could have had sex without knowing it until Campbell and Pemberton tell them so.
- I Want My Beloved to Be Happy: Amy is willing to withdraw her name from the Nobel Prize nomination if it means Sheldon will win the Nobel he'd been dreaming of all his life.Amy: This has been your lifelong dream. And you may not get another chance. I don't want to be the reason that you don't win a Nobel.
Sheldon: But you're the only reason I deserve one.
Amy: But if your best shot is with them, I think you should take it.
Sheldon: Is this what you really want?
Amy: I want you to be happy. - Shout-Out:
- To Black Mirror, Star Trek: Discovery and The Walking Dead (2010): three streaming shows the guys are each watching, but each of them is at a different point in each series, so they can't talk about these shows without giving each other spoilers.
- To Ellen DeGeneres: Campbell and Pemberton are going to a taping of the comedian's daytime talk show.
