Line #4 Recap/TheBigBangTheoryS1E13TheBatJarConjecture


1	'''The Bat Jar Conjecture''' is the thirteenth episode from Season 1 of ''Series/TheBigBangTheory'', first aired April 21, 2008. Directed by Creator/MarkCendrowski. Teleplay by Bill Prady and Robert Cohen, based on a story by Stephen Engel and Jennifer Glickman.
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3	The guys decide to participate in the annual Physics Bowl. For their first practice round on a Saturday with Penny hosting, Sheldon keeps cutting in and trying to answer the questions for his partners. Leonard, Howard and Penny point out Sheldon is being selfish and he should share the glory with his teammates out of consideration.
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5	Sheldon refuses, wanting to keep hogging the spotlight all for himself and dismissing there's such a need to "share" the questions. Fed up with Sheldon's ego, Leonard boots him off the team with a Batman cookie jar as consolation. The rules require teams of four, so now Leonard's team is one short.
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7	Leonard fills in Sheldon's gap with his ex, Leslie (Creator/SaraGilbert), who is only convinced to join Leonard's team after finding out that Sheldon will be on an opposing team. Sheldon disparaged Leslie's scientific acumen, so the Physics Bowl presents an opportunity to get even.
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9	To fill out his team, Sheldon hires [=CalTech=]'s janitors and cafeteria workers. They are to sit quietly as Sheldon gives all the team's answers.
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11	On the day of the competition, Leslie's slightly surprised to find that the team is called the Perpetual Motion Squad and they're to wear shirts with the acronym PMS on them. Sheldon's team are the Army Ants, they wear uniforms inspired by ''[[Series/StarTrekTheOriginalSeries Star Trek]]''.
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13	Both teams do very well against each other in the Physics Bowl. After the next to last question, PMS has 1,175 points, with every team member answering questions, while the Army Ants are not far behind with 1,150 points, with Sheldon answering every question.
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15	The final question, for 100 points, requires solving a complicated equation. All PMS team members are stumped. Leonard gives a very weak guess, and Sheldon stays quiet until suddenly his teammate Dmitri (Creator/AdamGregor) answers "Negative 8 pi alpha". Sheldon lashes out at Dmitri, saying their arrangement was only Sheldon may answer questions.
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17	Dmitri explains he was a renowned physicist back in the Soviet Union before moving to America for a new life. Sheldon doesn't care for his background, and so Sheldon refuses to endorse Dmitri's answer as the team's answer, allowing Leonard's team to win. Leonard, while proud of his new trophy, wonders if Sheldon will ever realize the true potential of teamwork.
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19	!!Tropes
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21	* AlmightyJanitor: Dmitri.
22	--> '''Dmitri''': Here, I am janitor. [[RussianReversal In former Soviet Union, I am physicist]].
23	* ArtisticLicenseBiology: Sheldon remarks, "By that logic I should answer all the anthropology questions because I'm a mammal!" Anthropology encompasses the study of specifically humans and their ancestors regarding cultures and evolution, not mammals in general.
24	* ArtisticLicensePhysics: The final Physics Bowl question was badly written and the answer could not have been what was stated in this episode.
25	* BizarreAlienBiology: Referenced by Raj, who wonders why everyone on ''Series/StarTrekTheOriginalSeries'' has the same parts.
26	--> '''Raj''': How come no one ever said "Hey, Captain Kirk, get that thing out of my nose?"
27	* BlatantLies: At the end of the episode, Sheldon claims Leonard and the others didn't beat him, he forfeited, even though it was perfectly clear that Sheldon lost because he refused to let Dmitri answer the final question when he was unable to himself, and Sheldon never said he forfeited, simply letting the judge declare Leonard's team the winners. Leonard calls him out on this by rubbing his trophy in his face.
28	* CelebrityParadox: Raj cites two TV actresses who are also known to be gifted academics, "the girl who played TV's ''Series/{{Blossom}}''" (Creator/MayimBialik) and "the girl from ''Series/TheWonderYears''" (Creator/DanicaMcKellar). Both actresses would later appear in Season 3 of ''The Big Bang Theory'' playing characters other than themselves; jarringly, Bialik's character Amy Farrah Fowler -- who shares Bialik's specialty of neurobiology, which Raj mentions here -- would become a member of the ''main cast'' from Season 4 onwards.
29	* ComplainingAboutRescuesTheyDontLike: Sheldon complains to and scolds Dmitri for answering the Physics Bowl's final and notoriously difficult question instead of thanking him for it. Had he taken Dmitri's answer, or just sit there and ''stayed quiet'', Sheldon would have won the Physics Bowl and taken home the trophy.
30	* ConsolationPrize: Sheldon is given a Batman cookie jar to soften the blow of getting kicked off the Physics Bowl team. He's devastated, but keeps the jar.
31	* EmbarrassingInitials: Sheldon insists on naming his team the Army Ants and printing the letters [[TropaholicsAnonymous "AA"]] on their uniforms. While Leonard sees the problem with that, he proves himself no better, since he and the other guys name their team the Perpetual Motion Squad and wear T-shirts with the letters [[AllPeriodsArePMS "PMS"]] on them.
32	* EthnicMenialLabor: Aside from Dmitri, the low-level workers Sheldon gets to pad out his team are people of color.
33	* EvilLaugh: Raj demonstrates one.
34	* FanDisservice: Howard celebrates his team's victory by ripping his shirt off and dancing around bare-chested, to absolutely no one's delight.
35	* FourManBand: The Physics Bowl requires four people. Sheldon snarks that by that logic, they should also play bridge or enter the Olympic Bobsled competition.
36	** OnlySaneMan: Leonard
37	** TheSmartGuy: Leslie Winkle, who also doubles as TheHeart
38	** [[AllMenArePerverts The Pervert]] : Howard ("Mr. Wolowitz, this is your second warning")
39	** ButtMonkey: Raj
40	* GloryHound: Sheldon's main problem in this episode, as his desire to hog all the answers for himself is what both gets him kicked off the team and costs him the competition.
41	* HandWave: When Penny questions how Raj, who is stricken mute when in the presence of any woman, is going to compete in the physics bowl, Leonard vaguely explains that he actually has no trouble with public speaking, just direct conversation. This hits a snag once Leslie joins the team and Raj is ''still'' perfectly capable of competing while sitting right next to her. Even though in theory this still falls in with Leonard's explanation, as he never speaks to Leslie directly, it's outside of what he's shown to be capable of in other episodes.
42	* HowTheMightyHaveFallen: Dmitri. See AlmightyJanitor above.
43	* {{Hypocrite}}: Sheldon keeps defending him cutting off his friends' answers to the physics questions by stating it doesn't matter who answers, it only matters if it's correct. At the actual Physics Bowl, Sheldon falters at the final question (that comes out as the ''only'' one to matter) and he lashes out at Dmitri for answering on his part (all because Sheldon wants all the glory to himself) with Dmitri even calling out Sheldon failing to give an answer.
44	* TheNeedsOfTheMany: Sheldon seems adamant and immovable in his refusal to compete in the Physics Bowl. But all it takes to change his mind is to quote that famous line from ''Film/StarTrekIITheWrathOfKhan'' and Sheldon's convinced, he doesn't even question whether the group (the many) really has a genuine need to compete in the Physics Bowl.
45	* OhCrap: Sheldon has one when he realizes that [[SitcomArchNemesis Leslie Winkle]] has joined Leonard's team.
46	* PopCulturalOsmosisFailure: In TheStinger, Penny gives Sheldon and Leonard one final quiz to see who's smarter, this time covering pop culture. Penny asks questions about ''Series/TheBradyBunch'', Music/VanHalen, Creator/SeanPenn, Music/BritneySpears, etc. Both Sheldon and Leonard do miserably on the quiz. On a question about ''People'' magazine's Sexiest Man Alive, instead of challenging the clarity of the question, Sheldon guesses Creator/WilliamShatner and Leonard guesses Creator/PatrickStewart.
47	* RussianGuySuffersMost: Dmitri, the Russian guy on Sheldon's team, tries to help Sheldon win the Physics Bowl by answering the seemingly impossible-to-solve question at the end. Sheldon chews him out saying that Dmitri agreed not to answer any questions, leading to Dmitri sheepishly defend he was an expert physicist back in Russia.
48	* SaltTheEarth: Referenced as one of the ways the Romans conquered their enemies.
49	* StrawMisogynist: Sheldon telling Leslie she should abandon her particle atomic research for laundry and child-bearing.
50	* StrongAnts: Sheldon wants to name the team the Army Ants, because relative to their size, Army Ants are the strongest creatures.
51	* ThisIsForEmphasisBitch
52	--> '''Sheldon''': Oh, and another thing. It's on, bitch!
53	* WasItReallyWorthIt: Leonard asks Sheldon if losing as an individual means more to him than winning as a team and take only partial credit for victory. Sheldon most likely would have answered "Yes" if he understood this question when Leonard asked him.

Context Recap / TheBigBangTheoryS1E13TheBatJarConjecture