"The Dumpling Paradox" is an episode of The Big Bang Theory that first aired on November 5, 2007. Directed by Mark Cendrowski. Teleplay by Lee Aronsohn and Jennifer Glickman based on a story by the show's creators.
Penny's friend Christy (Brooke D'Orsay) from Nebraska shows up at Penny's apartment. As Howard, Leonard, Raj and Sheldon prepare to play "Halo" (presumably Halo 3), Penny tells them about Christy, how promiscuous she is. With that, Howard is gone. So Penny's pressed to substitute for Howard, and she turns out to be surprisingly good, leading Sheldon to accuse her of cheating.
Annoyed, Penny leaves, but she soon comes back, aghast: Christy and Howard are having sex in Penny's apartment. Leonard offers to let Penny sleep in his room or on the couch, despite Sheldon's objections. Penny chooses the couch and lays down to sleep. Raj feels trapped, so he leaves quietly.
The next day, Penny tells Christy that she needs to find somewhere else to go. Howard decides that Christy will go with him to "Casa de Wolowitz," which puzzles Christy because she didn't even know what Howard's last name is. Penny warns Howard that Christy is a gold digger. Howard is not the least bit troubled by this.
Howard's absence from the group's usual activities severely troubles Sheldon. At the Chinese restaurant, Sheldon gets extremely worked up about splitting the four dumplings they usually get. Leonard asks the waiter, Chen (James Hong), if they can get an order of dumplings with just three. But the restaurant is inflexible about that sort of thing...
At the next Halo night, Sheldon asks Penny to join him and Leonard and Raj at the game. But Penny is going dancing. Fed up with the disruptions to his routine, Sheldon goes to confront Howard at Howard's house. Howard lives with his mother (Carol Ann Susi), who strongly disapproves of Christy.
And so, with that, the status quo is restored and the four guys return to their normal routine.
Tropes
- Better than Sex: Sheldon doesn't see why any sane person could choose sex over Halo III. The graphics aren't nearly as good, just for one thing!
- Early-Installment Weirdness: For the now familiar Idiosyncratic Wipe with the subatomic particles, there is still a bell tree sound but now also with the more familiar whoosh.
- Fight for the Last Bite: The episode gets its name for a scene in which the guys minus Howard, who is dating one of Penny's friends, are eating at a Chinese restaurant and debate what to do with the leftover dumpling.
- Gold Digger: Christy will sleep with anyone who buys her things. Mrs. Wolowitz even refers to her as one.
- Ignore The Fan Service: Penny brings a group of attractive friends over on Halo Night. The guys are too focused in the game to notice.
- Mistaken for Foreigner: Sheldon jumps to the conclusion that their waiter Chen is an immigrant who was born in China. When complaining that Howard "is putting his needs ahead of the collective good." Sheldon gestures to Chen and says "Where he comes from, that's punishable by death." Chen actually hails from Sacramento, California.note
- Plot Hole: The episode starts on Halo Night, which is established to be Wednesday night, the next morning, which therefore is Thursday morning, Sheldon complains that Penny, still asleep on the couch, is disrupting his Saturday morning routine.
- With Howard unavailable, Leonard makes a joke about cutting Raj in half so they can still play Halo as teams. Raj, who at this point is unable to speak around women unless he's intoxicated, replies to Leonard with Penny in the room, and while sober.
- Sore Loser: When Penny continuously kills Sheldon's character when they are playing Halo, Sheldon gets fed up and accuses Penny of cheating, stating nobody can be as attractive as her and as skilled at video games at the same time. Penny doesn't get angry at his accusations though, and simply kills his character again when he is walking out of the room.
