Recap / The Big Bang Theory S 5 E 16 The Vacation Solution

Plot

When the University forces Sheldon to take a vacation, he decides to spend it in Amy's lab. Meanwhile, Bernadette wants Howard to sign a pre-nup.

Tropes:

• Afraid of Blood: Sheldon cuts his thumb while helping Amy cut brain samples and faints at the sight of it.
• Arson, Murder, and Jaywalking: Sheldon's reasons for not going to Hawaii are that it's a former leper colony, that it has volcanoes, and that the disappointing ending to Lost was filmed there.
• Danger Takes A Back Seat: Leonard is driving to work, singing along to The Black Eyed Peas when suddenly Sheldon rises from the back seat and demands that he stop singing, scaring him.
• Hypocrite: Penny lays into Howard and demands he sign a pre-nup because he’s lucky to have Bernadette. Earlier this episode Penny talks about having cheated on one of her many boyfriends with his own brother. Pot and kettle anyone?
• Impossible Pickle Jar: Referenced when Amy asks Sheldon to wash her Petri dishes.
  Sheldon: Excuse me! You have Dr. Sheldon Cooper in your lab. You're gonna make him do dishes? That's like asking The Incredible Hulk to open a pickle jar!
• Incredibly Lame Fun: Sheldon invents Physics Mad Libs. No one else is impressed, but Sheldon finds it so funny he can't get through reading them without laughing.
• Nerds Speak Klingon: Howard had notes on the wedding invitations done in Klingon. Bernadette hopes her relatives think it's Hebrew.
• Never My Fault: Sheldon initially refuses to give a real apology to Amy for his rude behavior the previous day, instead making excuses for himself. When pressed he gives a very meek "sorry", but upon being told to clean the beakers again rudely says he's going to Epcot next year.
• Noodle Incident: Sheldon mentions having a restraining order from Carl Sagan.
• Prenup Blowup: Bernadette's father wants her and Howard to sign a prenup. Howard doesn't want to, but Penny tells him that he's lucky to have Bernadette and that he should sign anything she puts in front of him. Later, Bernadette says she's only doing it for her father's sake.
• Shout-Out:
  • To Scooby-Doo: When Sheldon tries to sneak into the university, he tells Leonard that if anyone asks what's in his back seat, to say that it's lobster traps, because that's how Velma got Shaggy and Scooby inside the old lighthouse.
  • Amy talks about the Curies studying radium together and dying of radiation, then saying "Screw Beauty and the Beast, that is the love story Disney should tell."
  • Howard mentions having a grave next to where the actor who played Mr. Roper in Three's Company is buried.
    Raj: Mr. Roper's dead?! You can't just spring that on a guy!
• Superficial Suggestion Box: When President Siebert, head of the science department, goes the guys, Sheldon asks if he will take action on the suggestions dropped in the suggestion box outside his office. Then Siebert tells Sheldon that he has accrued a large number of vacation days and needs to use them, and the suggestion box, which was installed outside his office by Sheldon himself without permission, has been stuffed with the suggestion, "Please make Sheldon Cooper go on vacation."
• Vacation Episode: Sheldon is forced to use his vacation days, which he doesn't want to do. He eventually decides to work with Amy in her lab instead of a proper vacation.
• What the Hell, Hero?: Penny gives one to both Howard and Sheldon that borders on "The Reason You Suck" Speech.