Episode 11 – The Speckerman Recurrence (511)
Leonard is contacted by Jimmy Speckerman (Lance Barber), a former high-school classmate who bullied him on a regular basis, with a potential business proposition. Leonard, initially hesitant, decides to go along with it in order to confront Speckerman. When they do meet, Speckerman greets Leonard like an old friend and happily recounts their school life together, completely oblivious to Leonard’s discomfort. He then proposes his idea—glasses that turn all movies into 3D. Sheldon, fed up with Leonard’s refusal to confront Speckerman, immediately attacks him for his bullying ways, presenting him with a list Leonard drafted of all the things Speckerman did to him, and the gang leave. Speckerman is shocked to read the list. Later on, he turns up at the apartment drunk and weepy, begging Leonard’s forgiveness and saying that he “wins.” The next morning, however, a hungover Speckerman, forgetting his apology the night before, scoffs at Leonard for having held a grudge against him for so many years, before referring to him by his old nickname “Nancy,” leading an angry Leonard to order him out of his apartment. Leonard ends up shoving Speckerman, who is enraged and chases Leonard and Sheldon out of their own apartment.
Meanwhile, Amy and Bernadette, while hanging out in Penny’s apartment, discuss their own trouble with bullies. Penny, however, absent-mindedly mentions having pranked a girl who got good grades by tying her up and leaving her in a cornfield, revealing that she was a bully herself. Realizing this, she feels awful and tries to make amends by calling the people she bullied to apologize. When she is coldly rebuffed in the attempt, Amy suggests that she could make herself feel better by doing something altruistic. After declining to serve soup or build houses for the poor, she finally agrees to donate some of her clothes, as they only take up her space. When she throws her clothes in the container, she discovers a large pile of second-hand clothes she likes and immediately begins helping herself, much to Bernadette’s dismay and Amy’s excitement. The next evening, while at the Clothes Bank, collecting more donated clothes, Penny suddenly realises the immorality of what she is doing, and they leave. Bernadette, however, runs back to collect a pair of shoes she liked, justifying her actions by the fact that she works at a soup kitchen.
Title reference: Jimmy Speckerman—Leonard’s high-school bully re-entering his life.
Directed by Anthony Rich.
Written by Story: Chuck Lorre, Bill Prady & Steve Holland / Teleplay: Steven Molaro, Eric Kaplan & Anthony Del Broccolo.
Originally aired on December 8, 2011.
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