"The Tangerine Factor" is an episode of The Big Bang Theory that first aired on May 19, 2008. Directed by Mark Cendrowski. Teleplay by Lee Aronsohn and Steven Molaro based on a story by Chuck Lorre and Bill Prady.
Penny angrily dumps a man who posted private details of their sexual encounters on a public blog. Seeing an opportunity, Leonard goes to talk to Penny, but unwittingly winds up convincing her to give the guy a second chance.
But that man already moved on to sex with another woman, one whom presumably he will also blog about. Penny's heartbroken. Leonard tries talking to Penny again, and this time takes an opening to suggest that maybe the two of them should go out on a date. Penny agrees.
Both Leonard and Penny turn to Sheldon for advice, and he gives advice, but he doesn't really care what happens to their romantic relationship. Sheldon has a much more pressing issue: a Chinese restaurant, the Szechuan Palace, is passing orange chicken off as tangerine chicken. To properly confront them, Sheldon decides he must learn Mandarin Chinese. Howard teaches Sheldon.
At the restaurant, Sheldon confronts Chen (James Hong) in Mandarin, but instead of saying anything about the orange chicken, Sheldon says some nonsense about mucus and a tangerine bicycle. Chen asks in English that someone call the police about a crazy man.
Tropes
- Brick Joke: Penny throws her boyfriend's iPod out the window. Some time later, Raj comes in with the iPod in hand, now cracked and useless (he plans to sell it as "slightly used" on eBay).
- Gay Best Friend: Discussed when Leonard, in his attempt to cheer up Penny, ends up inadvertently convincing her to go and makeup with her ex instead.
- Leonard: Huh, maybe I am her gay friend.
- Heartbreak And Icecream: When Leonard visits Penny after her breakup, she's in the middle of junk food binge, eating an entire tub of ice cream, with copious amounts of chocolate sauce, and wolfing down whipped cream directly from the can.
- My Hovercraft Is Full of Eels: Sheldon tries to learn Mandarin to confront the owners of their favorite Chinese restaurant about their mandarin chicken. Unfortunately, his grasp is not as firm as he thinks it is, so he ends up saying things like "Long live concrete?", "Your monkey sleeps inside me.", and "Oxen are in my bed! Many, many oxen!"
- Running Gag: Sheldon using Schrödinger's Cat as advice about Penny and Leonard dating. Penny has trouble understanding it, but with Leonard all he has to do is mention it once and Leonard gets it immediately.
- Season Finale: The show's first season finale has a Sequel Hook for Season 2: how does Leonard and Penny's date go? And maybe some viewers also care whether or not Sheldon ever eats at the Szechuan Palace again.
