On this week’s The Big Bang Theory, Sheldon and Amy decide to team up on their work, but can the two of them work together professionally?
When Amy tells Sheldon about her research, he finds it relates to quantum mechanics. Amy is doing experiments to discover when and where the event of awareness in the brain takes place. She is trying to show that the signal to move a muscle occurs before you even think to move it.
Sheldon finds this very interesting and starts to relate Amy’s experiment to physics, thinking it is the missing link into his own work. He turns to the white board to try and figure it out. When Amy sees what Sheldon is doing, they decide that they should collaborate. Amy, however, fears it may disrupt their relationship. Sheldon agrees and decides to write down some ground rules such as if they publish, his name goes first and he speaks first when they give a speech. Amy takes the notebook and tosses it out the window and tells him she will be making the ground rules.
Amy’s ground rules are: “we are on the same team, not in a competition,” “disagreements can happen politely, there is no need to call anyone stupid” and “there will be built in breaks and reward their successes with treats.”
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After a lot of work and a room full of white boards, they find their work isn’t coming together or making sense. The two of them begin arguing, but soon find that their arguing is helping them to figure things out and make some progress. It seems that their hormones are sharpening their skills. There is only one thing to do: abandon the ground rules.
The new ground rules are: “we are on the same team, but it is a competition,” “there are definitely stupid questions. Those that ask them can be told so to their stupid face,” “Fair topics for insult include educational pedigree, scientific field, educational prowess and mamas.”
Meanwhile, Penny bonds with Raj, who is temporarily living at the apartment. The two go shopping and do girly things together. This makes Leonard feel like a third wheel in his marriage. This prompts him to crash a trip to Target with Bernadette and Howard and be their third wheel. Leonard expresses his frustrations and they both agree that he should tell Penny and Raj how he feels.
Leonard confronts Penny and Raj, who are both wearing the same shirt, but the two of them just end up conversing about Leonard’s feelings without him. They apologize and tell Leonard he can talk, but he admits that they pretty much covered everything.