Episode 18 – The Prestidigitation Approximation (418)
Priya takes Leonard shopping and gets him classier clothes compared to his hoodies and t-shirts. She also convinces him to wear contact lenses instead of his glasses. Not long after Penny comments on this, Priya tells Leonard that she is uncomfortable with having Penny around her boyfriend every day. She convinces him to tell Penny to leave him alone. Though Leonard is uncomfortable with this, he does indeed try to tell Penny to stay away with an obscure anecdote about Charles Darwin’s finches. Penny doesn’t get the right message, but Leonard takes comfort in the fact that he tried. Later, Penny interrupts Leonard’s date with Priya and is completely oblivious to what’s going on. Leonard is pressured to convince Penny to leave once more, though he is once again unable to say it directly. Penny eventually forces herself to part with Leonard, though the latter immediately attempts to go after his ex-girlfriend, only to crash into the doorframe (after a few other accidents during the episode) due to his uncomfortable new contact lenses.
Meanwhile, Howard shows Sheldon a card trick in which a volunteer picks a card and, after shuffling the deck, Howard tells the volunteer his/her card. Raj and Penny both try out the trick and are amazed by it. Though at first his attitude is dismissive, Sheldon eventually becomes obsessed with discovering the trick’s secret, as even Penny could figure it out. He goes as far as to hack a supercomputer at Oak Ridge, obtaining a barcoded deck of cards and even tries to order Uranium-235. Howard then takes it to the next level by guessing the card the volunteer picked without touching anything. It is then revealed that the card trick is no more than a hoax in which Raj and Penny willingly pretended that Howard was successful. When Sheldon wants Howard to perform the trick on him in the end, Raj manages to get a peek on Sheldon’s card and uses hand signals to tell Howard the right answer. Sheldon is puzzled once more and leaves angrily, while Howard and Raj both laugh gleefully.
Recurring characters: Aarti Mann as Priya Koothrappali.
Title reference: Howard’s faux prestidigitation magic card trick.
Directed by Mark Cendrowski.
Written by Story: Bill Prady, Steve Holland & Eddie Gorodetsky / Teleplay: Chuck Lorre, Steven Molaro & Eric Kaplan.
Originally aired on March 10, 2011.
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