The Psychic Vortex is the 12th episode of the 3rd season of The Big Bang Theory.
Main Plot: Leonard laughs at Penny for trusting psychics, and they get over a fight of whether science or supernatural thinking prevails.
Secondary Plot: Raj manages to get a date but realizes he needs to keep it as a Double Date and he requires Sheldon to do it as well even though Sheldon has no interest.
Tropes
- Arbitrary Skepticism: Penny believes in psychics, ghosts and astrology, but not healing crystals.Leonard: Really, that's the line? Psychics are real but crystals are voodoo?
Penny: Oh, voodoo's real. You don't want to mess with voodoo. - Bait-and-Switch: In The Stinger, Sheldon brings Abby home, and she wants to spend the night with him. He agrees, so Abby goes to his bedroom... while Sheldon sleeps in Leonard's room.
- Double Date: Between Leonard and Penny and Howard and Bernadette. Sheldon and Raj also do the same.
- Fetishized Abuser: While Leonard says (but not actually thinking so) that he may have been out-of-line when dismissing psychics, Penny refuses to admit that she disrespects Leonard's beliefs as well.
- Insane Troll Logic: Penny defends that her psychic is not a phony because she has her own website. Leonard snarks that having a website doesn't necessarily mean that person is credible and legitimately accurate. Anyone can have their own website as long as they pay some sort of fee. Penny can't think of a rebuttal so she just calls Leonard a jerk.
- Jerkass: Howard continues to mock Leonard on his failed date with Penny for this episode. His Venn Diagram about women who want to date the latter is a blatant case of Kick the Dog and Hypocritical Humor because Leonard had been with Penny, Joyce Kim, Leslie Winkle and Stephanie all before Howard started dating Bernadette!
- Magic Versus Science: Between Penny and Leonard respectively. Penny defends her psychic has genuine foreseeable knowledge and truthful as while Leonard just thinks Penny is being conned out of her money by a scammer and backs his argument up with statistics and experimental findings.
- Manchild: Sheldon. Raj has to bribe him with a Green Lantern lantern prop to go with him to the singles mixer, and insists on taking him with it. Later, Raj bribes him again with The Incredible Hulk hands signed by Stan Lee, which he plays with enthusiastically.
- Mundane Utility: Leonard takes out his frustration with Penny by melting action figures with the university's high-power laser.
- Romantic Wingman: Raj takes Sheldon with him to the university singles mixer as his wingman.Sheldon: What is my function as wingman?
Raj: You help me run my game.
Sheldon: Okay. What is your game?
Raj: When I lie through my teeth to a woman, you nod and agree.
