The Big Bang Theory: “The Platonic Permutation” Review

Sheldon and Amy celebrate Thanksgiving at the aquarium.

Thanksgiving is fast approaching, and everyone in the Big Bang Theory crew celebrated the holiday in their own way. But while this episode found equal space for everyone (even Raj’s girlfriend Emily), there weren’t a lot of memorable moments to be had this week. Only the Sheldon/Amy storyline saved this episode from total mediocrity.

The soup kitchen subplot had potential, at least. This time of year there’s always room for a story where characters put aside their own selfish desires and learn to think about other people for a change. That’s certainly where this episode seemed to be heading with Howard’s endless complaining about spending his Thanksgiving serving food to the homeless. Unfortunately, this subplot never really went anywhere. Howard’s whining grew old pretty quickly, and in general there wasn’t much humor to be had in these scenes. Nor did he wind up learning a valuable lesson about thankfulness or compassion or what have you. Instead, he was rewarded for his whining by meeting one of his heroes, Tesla Motors and SpaceX founder Elon Musk.

Musk is the latest in a long line of unexpected celebrity guest stars on this show. It’s impressive just how far the show’s reach extends in that regard. Sadly, this episode didn’t put Musk to very good use. Again, there was little humor to be had in his stiff, awkward interaction with Simon Helberg. The one development of note is that Howard may have found his chance to return to space. That could be an interesting twist in Howard’s ongoing search for his purpose in life, but we’ll see if the show actually picks up this thread again.

What better place to spend Thanksgiving?

The Leonard/Penny material was a little more entertaining, but not much. Their little Thanksgiving cook-athon ventured into familiar territory. Leonard is the dutiful, attentive one in the relationship, and Penny apparently can’t be bothered to remember his birthday. This mini-conflict was fine, but nothing we haven’t seen countless times in the past. Things didn’t really [pick up until the conclusion, when Leonard sauntered out wearing Penny’s orange lingerie. Granted, it was a pretty cheap, easy way to mine extra humor out of their squabbling, but it worked. Having the rest of the gang walk in on Leonard in the middle of his sexy dance was a fun way to cap things off.

Again, it was mainly the Sheldon/Amy storyline that carried the week. The two reached that critical point in their post-romantic relationship where they have to adjust to being platonic friends. The results were about as awkward as you’d expect, with Sheldon cycling through his pre-printed list of conversation topics and Amy reluctantly dishing out details on her recent dating renaissance. Honestly, it was nice to see the two characters trying to rebuild their relationship. There were some sweet moments this week (the Cheerio stash, for one) as they both put their best foot forward and tried to mend fences. We’ve barely even seen the two interact in person since their breakup, so their aquarium trip was a welcome way of bringing Sheldon and Amy back together without needlessly pushing them back into each other’s arms.

Their final phone conversation ended the episode on a appropriately downbeat note. Indeed, the resolution to this story, with Sheldon shooting down Amy’s offer to get back together, shows that the writers are still willing to explore the breakup at a natural pace without bringing it to a premature close as happened with Leonard and Penny’s marital crisis. It’s hard to know how optimistic to be in light of today’s spoiler-y announcement about details of the mid-season finale, but we can only hope that the writers will do what’s best for the characters.