When Sheldon learns that his mother won't attend his wedding unless he invites his brother, Georgie (Jerry O'Connell), he and Leonard travel to Texas to settle the family feud. Also, the Wolowitz kids inadvertently infect Amy, Bernadette, Howard and Raj with pinkeye, freaking Amy out because her torturously scheduled wedding is just a week away.
Episode Tropes:
Left to right: George, Leonard, Sheldon
- Amusingly Short List: Leonard tries to list things Sheldon and his brother George have in common.Leonard: I... I know you two have your differences.
George: You mean pretty much everything about us?
Leonard: Well, not everything. You're both tall, you have the same last name. Maybe I shouldn't have started this like it was a list. - Big Brother Bully: Sheldon still holds his big brother in contempt for all the shit he put him through in his childhood. He remembers him as his tormentor.
- Big Brother Instinct: Sheldon still holds his big brother in contempt for all the shit he put him through in his childhood. Georgie was only trying to keep him out of trouble and from getting beat up from other kids.
- Commonality Connection: Georgie ends up bonding with Leonard over their mutual experience with running interference for the oblivious and often ungrateful Sheldon and dealing with their mothers preferring him over them.
- Does This Remind You of Anything?: Played for laughs. Amy does a Skype call with Sheldon while only showing her left side and claims she's working on her peripheral vision. Sheldon blames it on women's magazines and tells her that she shouldn't feel intimidated by airbrushed models.
- Dude, Where's My Respect?: George is resentful of Sheldon as, despite making ends meets and running a successful business, his mother still calls Sheldon her favorite.
- Gilligan Cut: Hilariously lampshaded by Leonard "I kept saying no. How am I here?"
- Go Through Me: When Howard comes downstairs with obvious signs of pinkeye, Penny blocks him from coming into the living room, ordering him away from Amy. Ironically, Amy gets pinkeye and Penny doesn't.
- Locked Out of the Loop: The basis behind Georgie and Sheldon's feud. Sheldon assumed that after his father died, his mother was fine because she would have told him if things weren't when he went to college and Georgie was a stubborn bully. Georgie reveals that no, things weren't fine and their mother was having a breakdown. As a result, he had to drop out of college to start supporting the family. No one told Sheldon because he was the baby, and Georgie says he didn't want to burden his little brother. There is a Beat, where Sheldon admits he can be oblivious and apologizes, having a Jerkass Realization. Georgie forgives him because he realizes that Sheldon didn't know how hard his older brother worked to keep things together, because no one told him.
- Not So Above It All: While Georgie has a valid defense for most of the resentment between Sheldon and him, he still chalks up him holding Sheldon down and farting on him as hilarious.
- Not That Kind of Doctor: Sheldon mocks Georgie calling himself "Dr. Tire", since he only had half a semester of community college.
- Once More, with Clarity: One of Sheldon's grudges against Georgie involves a Halloween costume he destroyed. When Leonard brings this up to Georgie while trying to make peace, Georgie reveals that the costume was Marie Curie. He messed it up to keep Sheldon from becoming a laughingstock, or being beat up.
- Outgrowing the Childish Name: Georgie goes by George now. Of course, Sheldon won't have it.Sheldon: Hello, Georgie.
Georgie: It's just George now.
Sheldon: Fine, George. No, I don't like it. Georgie. - Self-Made Man: Georgie is revealed to own a store chain called Dr. Tire Store, and a lot of it comes from working hard in order to help makes ends meet with his widowed mother and paying for Sheldon's college tuition.
- Sick Episode: While Leonard and Sheldon are out, the rest of the gang catch pinkeye from Howard's kids, all except Penny. Amy takes it the hardest, since her wedding is in a week, and is particularly angry at Penny for not catching it.
- Terrified of Germs: Amy freaks out when she comes down with pinkeye, knowing that her fiance hates sickness. Fortunately, she does manage to get medicine. By the time she and Sheldon have a video call, one side has largely cleared up, and Sheldon doesn't guess the real reason why she's only showing one side of her face.
- Unseen No More: Although being a main character in Young Sheldon for nearly a year at the time of this episode's airdate, Georgie makes his first appearance in The Big Bang Theory proper.
- Would Rather Suffer: Sheldon tries to invite Georgie personally because his mother refuses to come if he doesn't. Georgie, who carries some resentment, tells Sheldon that he'd rather eat a pregnant wildcat and poop out her kittens.
