“They’re having fun wrong.” – Sheldon
Sheldon realizes that he isn’t the center of the friend group when everyone starts hanging out at Raj’s because that’s where Leonard is (because that’s where Priya is). At first, everyone enjoys having time without Sheldon, but as the episode progresses, they start to miss how he tells his stories and when his attempt to make a new friend group centered around himself fails miserably, they’re ready to take him back.
Meanwhile, the girls decide to take Penny out for a night on the town to get her mind off Leonard. At first, she resists, saying that for the first time, she’s happy being alone–but then she caves, and decides that a good old-fashioned one-night-stand might be exactly what she needs.
It was good to see how the world of the characters has shifted with the addition of Priya, and watching Sheldon come to the conclusion that he’s not the center of everything was a nice bit of comeuppance, even if he didn’t learn a thing from it. It’s Sheldon; you can’t expect him to learn anything like that. It was a little sad that he didn’t know any other people than Kripke, Stewart and Zack (who are all fun, but not one is a match for Sheldon), but, really, if they were any more suited to his temperament, they’d have already joined the group and been assimilated anyway.
I like how the girls are all bonding into their own little group, with the notable exception of Priya. It’ll be interesting to see if she tries to join them for their various Girls Nights, and how the Leonard-tension will be handled. Even if she doesn’t keep dating Leonard, she’s still Raj’s sister, so there’s a reason for her to stick around, and she’d be a nice counter to the awkwardness, geekiness and bimboness already present among the girls. Since she’s self-possessed and well-educated, she offers another take on womanhood. And that’s the last I’ll say before I go all feminist on this post.
More thoughts on The Big Bang Theory, “The Toast Derivation”:
* Overall, not much happened in this episode, but the ones where the recap is small are the ones where the characters get to just be who they are, without having to go through a lot of plot.
* All of a sudden, LeVar Burton is everywhere on the shows I watch. It’s always great to see him, so it’s not a complaint, it’s just amusing that he’s popped up on two geek-friendly shows in the past week.
* Sooner or later, everyone’s good influences are going to have to rub off on Sheldon. Hopefully, it’s closer to the sooner end of that spectrum.
* The title refers to the story, told more than once by different people, about how the ancient Romans used to put toasted bread in their wine. (You know, the more I know about how the ancient Romans ate, the less I want time travel to be invented)
This review originally appeared on TV Geek Army.