ennaxor

I can't remember right now if they gave us a reason then or not, but a few times they've asked the audience not to make a specific reaction because they said it would be harder to edit together later with that reaction there.

At the taping tonight they showed us The Toast Derivation... The Cheesecake Factory scene remained intact. A couple other scenes were shortened, that I noticed: They cut out Penny eating the yogurt, before Bernadette and Amy arrive. And when Kripke and Zack are singing, and Stuart walks in from his shower, they ended it early so you don't see Stuart join in after he talks to Sheldon.

Now for tonight's episode: it's called The Prestidigitation Approximation. And my usual request - please don't copy and paste elsewhere, just link to the forum.

The Prestidigitation Approximation

Scene 1 - Leonard’s room

Leonard and Priya are in bed, waking up. She asks him if he slept well, he says he did. He says he wants to ask her something - was it racist that last night he wanted to try out things from the Kama Sutra? Priya says (not seriously), just because you have an Indian girlfriend you have to try out the different positions from the ancient manual on sex. Leonard says if she finds a book called Crazy Sex with White Guys, he wouldn’t mind. (On one take Johnny forgot the line, and asked “what’s the book called?”)

He had put on his glasses, but Priya takes them off, telling him he has beautiful eyes, and asks if he’s ever considered contacts. He says he tried in the 7th grade, but he couldn’t get used to them. She says that’s too bad. He says yeah, he could have been the coolest cello playing debate club president at his high school. Then Leonard’s line was changed to he could have been the coolest debate club president that got stuffed into his own cello case.

Priya sets his glasses aside, saying it’s too bad he doesn’t have contacts now so he could see that they’re going to do, and leans over to start kissing him. Leonard says it’s okay, he can figure it out from the context.

Scene 2 - Cafeteria

Sheldon, Raj, and Howard are at a table. Howard asks Raj if he wants to see the new magic trick he’s been working on. Sheldon asks Howard if he thinks he should really be spending his time on magic tricks. Even though he’s just an engineer, he says that Howard might one day invent something that will earn him a thank you in someone else’s Nobel Prize speech.

Raj says he does want to see it, so Howard hands him a deck of cards, tells him to mix them up, then pick one. Raj picks a card, puts it back, and as Howard shuffles it he asks that Raj’s birthday is October 6, right? (Simon had some trouble shuffling on the first take, and needed to do it again.) Raj says yes. Howard says October, 10, one plus zero is one, plus six is seven, then counts out seven cards and asks if that was Raj’s card.

Raj says yes, that’s amazing. Sheldon says hardly, and that magic tricks are just meant to impress simple minded people, but then I think he asked Howard how he did it. Howard says surely the future Nobel Prize winner can figure it out on his own, and Sheldon says to give him a minute. So Sheldon’s trying to think it through, and after a few seconds Howard starts singing the Jeopardy song. Sheldon tells him to stop it, and Howard says sorry, the correct answer is "what is stop it." On the second take they changed it, so after Sheldon starts thinking it through, Howard says to Raj, "Have you ever noticed how when he's thinking really hard, sometimes it smells like bacon?" And Raj nods and smiles.

Then Leonard walks in, without his glasses, running into people (causing food to spill all over the place), finally reaches their table, and announces that he got contacts (the ending with Leonard was pre-taped).

Scene 3 - Guys’ apartment

Sheldon, Raj, Howard, and Penny are all eating, and Howard’s showing Penny the trick. She counts off 3 cards, flips over the last one, and is impressed that it was the card she chose. Sheldon says that all magic tricks are just manipulation and misdirection. Howard asks him how he did it then. Sheldon says he has more important things to think about than Howard’s trick, but then after a couple seconds says the cards are marked.

Howard says he thought Sheldon didn’t have time to think about the trick, and Sheldon says he caught him on his break. Howard says the cards aren’t marked, and Sheldon can inspect them if he wants, and Sheldon says he’s not going to waste any more time on the trick… but then he grabs for the cards to inspect them. Penny tells him that the fun is in not knowing, and Sheldon asks if that was the motto at her community college.

Leonard and Priya then walk in, carrying shopping bags; Leonard still doesn’t have his glasses, and is wearing new clothes (a dress shirt, vest, and tie). Penny tells Leonard he looks good, and congratulates Priya on getting him to wear new clothes. She starts to say she couldn’t even get him to get rid of his hoodie when the two of them were - but then cuts herself off and tells Leonard again that he looks great.

They head back to Leonard’s room to hang up his clothes, and on the way Leonard runs into the wall. On the first take, he said something about how he was still adjusting to the contacts. Then his line was changed to him enthusiastically saying something like, “Contacts! I should have gotten them years ago!”

Once they’re gone, Howard asks Raj if he’s gotten used to them doing it every night yet. Penny answers that she doesn’t care, she’s not dating Leonard anymore, and he can sleep with whoever he wants. Howard clarifies that he was asking Raj. Penny says oh, oopsies.

Sheldon’s still looking through the deck, convinced that they’re marked somehow. Howard tells him they’re not, and Sheldon could go grab a different deck if he wants, and he’ll still do the trick. Sheldon asks if Howard expects him to believe that the deck isn’t manipulated at all in some way, and Howard says, “I’m telling you to believe in magic, Muggle!”

Penny, out of nowhere, says that she, for one, is happy for Leonard and that he’s seeing someone. The guys all stare at her, and she adds something like, “She says even though nobody asked her.”

Scene 4 - Leonard’s room

Priya’s hanging clothes in Leonard’s closet, and asks how many Star Trek uniforms he has. He says two, one dress and one casual. Priya says that it’s a little strange how Penny spends so much time over, and Leonard tells her that they’re just friends. Priya asks him how he’d feel if she hung around one of her ex-boyfriends, and he says yeah, he wouldn’t like it.

Priya basically says that he needs to talk to Penny and tell her they can’t hang out anymore, and he reluctantly agrees. Priya says that he doesn’t sound too sure, but Leonard says no, it’s fine, and he actually has lots of experience in the get lost conversation, though this is the first time that he’ll be the one giving it. They hug, and Leonard says she smells really good… or this might just be his other senses becoming stronger.

Then they kiss, and Leonard asks her if he would be able to get his hands on a Captain Uhura costume, if she’d consider wearing it. Priya says that it’s a cause of both pain and embarrassment to her and her family that Raj actually owns that costume, and she asks that Leonard not bring it up again.

Scene 5 - Living room

The other three guys and Penny are still there, Howard doing the trick again with Raj, Sheldon deep in thought. Penny asks him if he’s figured out the trick yet. Sheldon opens his mouth, but doesn’t say anything. Penny says aw, he looks like her little nephew when he can’t figure out how he got her nose.

Howard says that he has some more remedial magic tricks for Sheldon if he wants, then picks up a pencil and loosely shakes it back and forth (so it looks like it’s bending), and says look, it’s rubber! Penny says she thinks she’s figured out the card trick, and Sheldon says no, if he can’t figure it out, than she certainly can’t, it’s axiomatic.

Penny stands up to whisper the answer in Howard’s ear, who confirms yes, she got it. Penny sits back down with a smile and says, “Not bad for someone who doesn’t know what axiomatic means.”

Scene 6 - Laundry room

Penny’s folding clothes when Leonard enters (wearing his regular clothes, and glasses). He hesitates, but then walks in and says hi, and she says hi back and asks where his contacts were. Leonard says that one is upstairs, and the other is in the back of his skull. (Johnny messed up this line a couple times, and after the second time said “f*** me!”

He starts to put clothes into the washing machine, and Penny asks if that’s his new shirt from Priya. He says yes, and she says that’s silk, he can’t wash it, it’ll be ruined. Then she asks what would he do without her, and he laughs a little, uncomfortable. She’s done folding her clothes, so she picks up her basket and says she’ll see him later, but he stops her, and says he has to tell her something.

He asks if she’s familiar with Darwin’s observations of the finches on the Galapagos Islands. She asks if there’s a movie about it. He says no, and she says no then. Leonard says that Darwin saw that when two groups of finches were competing for the same food source, eventually the beaks on one group changed so they would have a different good sources. (Johnny messed up this line on one take, saying something like, “When the finches, what do they - I don’t even like finches!”)

Penny says ok… Leonard asks her if she can think of a lesson they can take from that to apply to their own lives. Penny asks, a bird in the hand is worth two in the bush? First Leonard said sure, that’s close enough. Then his line was changed to yes, that has birds in it, too. Penny smiles and says she likes talking to him, she always learns something, then leaves. Leonard watches her go, then says to himself he doesn’t care, he’s going to count that.

Scene 7 - Leonard’s room

Leonard and Priya are kissing (Leonard’s face not initially visible), and she asks if he has to wear that, moving to the side to reveal a weird protection thing taped over one of Leonard’s eyes. He says the doctor didn’t want him to rub it at night, and it was either this or a plastic cone around his neck.

Priya asks if he talked to Penny, and he says yes, indeed, he did. She asks if Penny understood, and Leonard says that she understood what he said, case closed. Priya asks if she was upset, and Leonard says maybe, but that doesn’t matter, he’s dating Priya now, not Penny. Priya hopes he wasn’t too harsh on her. Leonard asks if the autumn is harsh for killing the flowers, or if that’s just nature’s way.

They start kissing again, and Sheldon knocks on the door, telling Leonard he thinks he’s figured out Howard’s trick. Leonard says he’s not opening the door. Sheldon says suite yourself, then fans out the cards under the door, and tells Leonard to pick one, put it back, and prepare to be amazing. After a few seconds (while Leonard’s totally ignoring the instructions and still kissing Priya), Sheldon asks if he’s picked a card. Leonard says yes.

Sheldon takes the cards back, then slides one under the door and asks Leonard if that was it. Leonard says no. Sheldon says drat, then tries another card. Leonard says no again. Sheldon says he’ll be right back.

Scene 8 - Living room

Sheldon’s at his laptop, and behind him has two cameras set up facing the coffee table, which he’s covered with a black cloth and has a deck of cards sitting on top. After setting it up, Sheldon goes to the table and does a back and forth with himself, telling himself to pick a card, put it back (“Do you remember your card?” “Of course I do, I have an eidetic memory!”), and then shuffle them. Then he leaves the cards there and goes back to his computer, which is processing the images.

Leonard walks in and asks what he’s doing, and Sheldon says he’s reverse engineering Howard’s magic trick. Leonard asks why he’s got infrared cameras set up, and Sheldon says that he’s measuring the heat left on the cards to tell which one was picked. And he tells Leonard that if he wants to have kids, he might want to switch from briefs to boxers, because his testicles are looking a little warm.

Leonard backs away from the cameras and looks at Sheldon’s computer, and asks if he’s connected to some national laboratory database. Sheldon says yes, he’s using their super computer to analyze shuffling patterns. Leonard says that he can’t do that, the department of defense uses that computer. Sheldon says it’s fine, they’re not being attacked right now. Leonard says he’s going to go before the black helicopters arrive, and leaves.

The computer then picks what it thinks was Sheldon’s card, but it’s wrong. Sheldon wonders if maybe Howard’s using a radioactive tracer, and then wonders where he could get uranium 256 at this time of the night. Then he turns back to his laptop, come on, Craigslist!

Scene 9 - Cafeteria

Sheldon, Raj, and Howard at a table. Sheldon tells Howard that not only has he figured out his magic trick, but he’s improved on it, and asks if they’d like to see. Howard says sure, and turns to Raj to see what he thinks. Raj says beefaroni and a show, you can’t beat that!

Sheldon spreads out the cards, has Howard pick one, then says “Bippity boppity boo!” as he waves a wand over the back of the card, which makes a beeping noise. Howard asks him what’s with the wand and the beeping. Sheldon says the wand is for showmanship, and the beep is none of his business. His phone then beeps, alerting him to a text message, which he says he needs to read and it has nothing at all to do with the magic trick. He checks his phone, says his dry cleaning is done, then tells Howard which card he picked.

Raj says that the cards all have little barcodes on the back of them, and that Sheldon’s wand was reading them and sending the information to his phone. Howard tells Sheldon to watch how it’s done, and spreads the cards again and asks Raj to pick one. Raj does, and this time we see over his shoulder what card he has.

Howard makes a guess, which is wrong, but Raj acts like it’s right. Howard says to Sheldon, “Bippity boppity booyah!” Sheldon storms out, I think saying something about uranium? Raj asks Howard when he’s going to tell Sheldon the truth, and Howard says when it stops being fun. Then Raj said, so never then (Raj’s last line was cut when they redid the scene).

Scene 10 - Restaurant

Leonard and Priya are at an Indian restaurant. Leonard asks if it’s racist that he took her there. She says no, she lives Indian food. Leonard says, “Or, as you probably call it at home, just food.” Priya asks why he’s wearing his glasses, and he says that he knew he’d be eating curry, and he only wanted one part of his body to burn at a time. Priya tells him that her firm has offered her a job in LA, and Leonard asks if that means she’s staying permanently. She says maybe, and asks what he thinks. He says he thinks that sounds great, and reaches out to hold her hand.

Then suddenly Penny’s knocking on the window by their table, waving hi, and tells them she’ll be right in. Leonard says small world, and Priya says to Leonard, you talked to her right? And Leonard said, yeah, he said he talked to her, they talked. Penny walks up to their table and says what a coinkidink, she was just going to meet Howard and Bernadette for a movie, and says they should join them. Leonard says no, no. Penny asks are you sure, it’s one of those sci-fi movies, and Leonard still insists no.

Penny congratulates Priya again on Leonard’s new clothes, and then asks if he told her how she saved his silk shirt. Priya says no, and Penny tells her that Leonard was about to put it in the washing machine, with all his underwear, when Penny to the rescue! And Penny ruffles Leonard’s hair, and tells Priya while she’s at it, she should have him get a good haircut.

Leonard looks at his watch and asks Penny if the movie was at 7:30, and she says no, 8. She asks how the food is, says it looks good, and takes a bite off of Leonard’s plate. Then she apologizes, says she knows they’re on a date, and she’ll go, but they can hang out whenever. She takes a few steps towards the entrance, before hurrying back saying “hot hot hot,” and grabbing Leonard’s cup to drink from it, saying that it really sneaks up on you. She leaves, Priya stares at Leonard, who says that Penny’s right, it is spicy.

They ended up redoing this whole scene at the end of the night, for a couple of reasons (as Bill Prady explained to us). First, they realized the episode was going to run too long, so they wanted to tape a shorter version of the scene. Second, they didn’t think that Penny’s outfit was appropriate for the season, so they wanted to fix that. When they finished the tag, they did curtain call as usual, then said you could either leave if you had to, or stay to watch them redo the scene.

So when they redid it, the opening between just Leonard and Priya stayed the same. Leonard’s response when Priya asked if he’d talked to Penny was different, but I can’t remember now what it was. When Penny comes in, she just says what a coinkidink, then says something like look at Leonard in his new fancy-ass grown up clothes, and tells Priya he finally doesn’t look like a boy mannequin. Penny asks if Leonard told her about the silk shirt, and says he almost put it in the washer with all his Spiderman underwear, before Penny to the rescue. Then she asked about if the food was good, and from there to the end it was the same.

After the first take, when they redid it, Johnny and Kaley came over to the audience to thank us “night owls,” as Johnny put it, for staying (probably half to two-thirds of the audience stuck around). They said it really meant a lot to them that we stayed, and our feedback and reactions were important, and Kaley said she didn’t think that anyone was going to stay,

Scene 11 - Stairs

Leonard (wearing his regular clothes, but not his glasses), knocks on Penny’s door, after a hesitation, and Penny comes out, ready to go to work. Leonard says it’s not important, he can tell her later, but she tells him to tell her now, and walk down the stairs with him. He says he’s got a favor to ask, and she says sure, anything, and he tells her to move out.

Onto the third floor… She asks what, and he says it doesn’t have to be far, and if she’s looking to start a family, some county has a good school system. Penny asks what this is about, and he says it’s not about anything, can’t a friend just ask another friend to move?

Second floor… Penny says okay, she knows this is about Priya, and that Priya doesn’t like them spending time together. Leonard, relieved, says finally, he said it. Penny says that she actually likes Priya, and she knows Priya doesn’t like her. Leonard says that’s not true, but Penny says it is, and Leonard agrees. Penny said it’s fine, and from now on she’ll give them space. Leonard asks how much space; they are neighbors, after all, he can hear her toilet flush. She asks, really? He says he doesn’t listen for it, but it’s nice to know “there’s nothing wrong with your plumbing - the building’s plumbing.”

Entrance lobby… Penny says she understands, Leonard’s in a new relationship, and she’s happy for him, and they should just shake hands and part as friends. Leonard says or they could still hang out and keep it on the down-low. Penny asks if he’s really that kind of guy. He says no, and he felt silly saying down-low anyway. Penny tells Leonard goodbye, and briefly places her hand on his face before leaving. Leonard watches her go, then after a couple seconds calls out Penny, wait, and tries to follow her, but runs into the doorframe. He curses his contacts, and heads slowly back up the stairs.

Scene 12 - Cafeteria

Howard and Raj at a table, Sheldon walks up and joins them, looking upset. Raj asks “why so glum, chum?” and Sheldon says apparently you can’t hack into a national computer and try to buy uranium on the same night without the department of defense telling your mother. Howard asks “have you figured out the trick yet?” and Sheldon mimic’s him, repeating the question.

Howard says look, I’ll show you one more time, and spreads out the cards for Raj to pick, but Sheldon says wait, he wants to pick the card, make sure there’s no monkey business going on. Sheldon picks on, and Raj leans back to see, then places two fingers on the left side of his chest. Howard guesses two of hearts, causing Sheldon to once again storm out. I think it was here that Howard makes some comment like, sure, he’s going to win the Nobel Prize.