Episode 2 – The Codpiece Topology (202)
The guys return from a Renaissance fair (which gives the episode its name) and see Penny with a new guy, Eric (Travis Schuldt), prompting a jealous Leonard to pursue a relationship with fellow physicist Leslie Winkle. All the guys as well as Leslie humiliate Leonard for his apparent failure to keep Penny.
Leslie eventually agrees to date Leonard, repeatedly assuming the dominant role before conceding that he should “assume the male role”. Leonard convinces Sheldon to leave the apartment, to give his roommate and Leslie some privacy. On the staircase, while playing Super Mario 64 “on a poorly-coded Nintendo 64 emulator”, Sheldon explains to Penny that he feels uncomfortable with Leonard dating his arch enemy, Leslie, who is a “sloppy, arrogant, sub-par scientist”.
Sheldon returns to their apartment and formally approves the relationship between Leonard and Leslie, graciously overlooking that she actually believes loop quantum gravity instead of string theory. Leslie gets emotional and makes statements about Lorentz invariance and black hole entropy which Sheldon scoffs at. Leslie expects Leonard to back up her beliefs but finds that he shares Sheldon’s instead. Leslie then asks how they should raise the children as if it were a decision to raise their children in one religion or another. After learning about this “deal breaker,” which she believes is more serious than Leonard’s food allergy and shortness, she breaks up with him.
The title refers to Sheldon stating that the Renaissance Fair was a “Medieval/Age of Enlightenment/any-excuse-to-wear-a-codpiece fair”.
Directed by Mark Cendrowski.
Written by Chuck Lorre, Bill Prady & Lee Aronsohn.
Originally aired on September 29, 2008.
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