Should you watch it, wiki it, or wait for the recap? Watch it.
When Penny’s newfound financial independence leads to a disagreement about money to Leonard, the pair seek Howard and Bernadette’s advice to resolve the matter. Meanwhile, in preparation for a mining expedition, Raj and Sheldon simulate mining conditions. Will Raj and Sheldon survive their own experiment? And will Penny and Leonard resolve their monetary issues?
“The Expedition Approximation” is the sixth episode of the eighth season of The Big Bang Theory. It’s a good episode, as it provides some character development for our characters, as well as tapping into the premise of the series – which is the fact that they’re all scientists.
This episode also (hopefully) marks the return of tighter scripting and fuller plots, as the next few episodes also feature more action and watchable moments.
Highlights
Sheldon-Raj pairing
We seldom see these two characters together – mainly because there’s hardly any conflict between them. Raj is perfectly content with Sheldon’s superiority, and Sheldon has no inherent racism. Thank goodness they’ve done away with the whole “Raj can’t talk to women unless he’s on alcohol” quirk – that was boring. Anyway, because there’s not much conflict between the pair, the story takes a different turn from the usual jibes we’re accustomed to.
Raj’s personal moment with Sheldon in the “mines”
In a (rare) moment of character development for Raj, he shares more of his backstory with Sheldon, which doesn’t involve any jokes about India. It’s a moment of vulnerability which helps us to connect better with Raj, and makes him more of a person than a foreign caricature. Of course, they treacle cut the moment before it becomes too sappy, but this was a good way to deliver more background about Raj.
The plot feels full and complete, but not rushed
There’s two, then three different plot threads in this episode, which leads to a more organic story and an episode that feels properly paced (rather than the past few which felt like they were padding out the 22 minutes with jokes instead of stories). It works out much better here, since we’re not only cutting between two stories at a time, and it allows for the branching plot threads to cross into each other without sacrificing parallel storylines.
Letdowns
Howard’s character regression
Although Bernadette is the dominant one in the relationship, this episode really shrinks Howard down into his usual, convenient stereotype. I’m calling out this lazy bit of writing here – surely Howard could have resolved the situation without shrinking back into a little boy? And no, the resolution to their quarrel is not satisfactory. Making love doesn’t solve everything (as much as we would like to).
The money plot is boring
It is. It’s very ordinary. The way that Penny and Leonard resolve it isn’t so much a resolution as it is a random segue into making love. And they’ve used that plot device way too many times to solve problems. No. I don’t think anyone ever watched The Big Bang Theory and thought “hey it would be interesting to see them fight over money!”
“The Expedition Approximation” is a good character episode, and marks an improvement in the quality of Season 8 overall. The next few episodes will be just as good! I hope.
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