"The Engagement Reaction" is an episode of The Big Bang Theory that first aired on May 12, 2011. Directed by Howard Murray. Teleplay by Chuck Lorre, Steven Molaro and Steve Holland, based on a story by Bill Prady, Eric Kaplan and Jim Reynolds.
When Howard breaks the news that he's engaged to Bernadette to his mother, the old woman ends up in the hospital. When they hear the news, Leonard and Penny are ready to drop everything to go to the hospital to comfort Howard.
Sheldon of course is reluctant to go to the hospital, and it is only by appealing to his vain desire to be thought of as a hero that he agrees to come along.
Sheldon is so eager to avoid infection that he avoids a potentially ill man... and winds up in a quarantine room with a severely ill man.
Tropes
- Jerkass: Raj and Sheldon. The former plays on Sheldon's aversion to germs to troll him and tries playing mind games with Leonard when Priya and Penny are spending time together (likely still sore about Leonard dating his sister), while the latter is in his usual It's All About Me mindset.
- No Sympathy:
- Due to being worried about Howard's mother, everyone ignores Sheldon's pleas to drive him back to the apartment.
- Bernadette towards the end when she yells at Howard for making her believe their engagement caused a heart attack even though that's what he genuinely thought given the timing. note
- Odd Friendship: Penny muses to Priya how weird it is that she genuinely considers Howard to be her friend in spite of their history up to that point.Penny: You know, once he tried to stick his tongue down my throat and I broke his nose?
Priya: That's a little easier to believe than "he's your friend". - Sarcasm-Blind: Surprisingly not Sheldon this time, but Mrs. Wolowitz:Mrs. Wolowitz: Did you know [Bernadette's] going to school to become a microbiologist?
Howard: ...No, she never mentioned it.
Mrs. Wolowitz: I bet she did and you didn't listen! - Shaped Like Itself:Howard: It may have been a heart attack or a heart attack-like event.
Penny: What's the difference?
Sheldon: A heart attack-like event is an event that's like a heart attack. - Terrified of Germs: The focus of Sheldon's plotline. First he freaks out over accidentally drinking from Leonard's glass at the Cheesecake Factory, then again when Raj makes Sheldon believe he drank from his glass. Later the gang go to the hospital to visit Howard's mother, which naturally makes Sheldon apprehensive, but that's nothing compared to what happens at the end, when he accidentally wanders into a quarantined room and has to be locked inside.Penny: Oh, don't tell me you're afraid of germs.
Sheldon: Not all germs. Just the ones that will kill me. The same way I'm not afraid of all steak knives, just the ones that might be plunged in my thorax. - What the Hell, Hero?: How Penny motivates Sheldon to go to the hospital to give Howard moral support.Penny: Okay, you know what? You are unbelievable. You buy all these superhero T-shirts, but when it’s time for you to step up and do the right thing, you just hide in the laundry room!
