S11.E04: The Explosion Implosion

[Bort]

Quote

Wolowitz and Sheldon bond when they drive to the desert to shoot off a model rocket. Also, when Leonard's mom finds a new best friend in Penny, it rubs Leonard the wrong way.

[Browncoat]

This episode has just started and I'm already pissed off.  Like a daughter might not be interested in model rockets?  Like a son HAS to be interested in sports?  None of the four of them were!

[Spartan Girl]

Yeah, that irritated me too.

But good moments of this episode were Sheldon and Howard bonding over fathers, and the Beverly/Penny stuff. Plus, Sheldon actually drove a car and Beverly told Leonard she was proud of him (even just for marrying Penny).

[anna0852]

I read that is more Howard being concerned that his kid is going to like sports and he won't be able to connect with him. Not that a boy has to like sports. And honestly given that all four of them reference quite a bit of childhood bullying due to their so-called nerdy interests, maybe in the back of Howard said he's thinking about how to make sure his son fits in better than he did and therefore has a better childhood experience.

[CherryAmes]

Yeah I agree I didn't see that conversation as being that girls couldn't do things, especially when they say that what Bernadette can't teach him, Penny can,  but more as Howard didn't feel that he knows how to parent a son.  If the show goes on long enough (perish the thought) I'd hope they'd be pretty 21st century with Hallie and BabyBoy Wolowitz.  On a related topic I don't think Howard is the best person to be parenting a daughter given his past history!

I loved the way Raj tried to bond over unsatisfactory fathers - made a nice change from creepy Raj.

Edited October 17, 2017 by CherryAmes

[anna0852]

Actually he might be the perfect dad for a daughter. Not only is he going to have it made evidently clear to him about what a pig he used to be, but he's going to be able to teach her how to avoid the pigs out there. After all he's the master and therefore his daughter won't fall for any of those tricks.

[CherryAmes]

"Ooh, dour, meow."  Lol.  Lots of good lines in this one and I particularly liked that Penny and Leonard got a storyline.  The writers also managed to get a good balance using all the characters.  Amy was more of a cameo this time but the few minutes she was on screen were minutes well used.

Edited October 17, 2017 by CherryAmes

[CleoCaesar]

I liked this one. Some really nice moments - Sheldon telling Howard he'd be a good father to a son, Leonard's mom saying something kind to Leonard, Amy and Leonard's attempt at a good talk, Penny and Beverly becoming gal pals, and Raj not being a creep. AND NO STUART.

[cdp73]

Amy: you'll have a little version of Howard

Bernadette:  I already have a little version of Howard.

[SmithW6079]

A few seconds of Sheldon not being a dick to Howard doesn't make up for him being an nasty asshole the entire rest of the episode. This is why Sheldon remains my least favorite character. 

[Sarah 103]

1 hour ago, Spartan Girl said:

But good moments of this episode were Sheldon and Howard bonding over fathers, and the Beverly/Penny stuff. Plus, Sheldon actually drove a car and Beverly told Leonard she was proud of him (even just for marrying Penny).

I thought Beverly had a good point in that Penny doesn't complain about Leonard. They could have bonded over his odd habits/idiosyncrasies, but they didn't. 

1 hour ago, anna0852 said:

Actually he might be the perfect dad for a daughter. Not only is he going to have it made evidently clear to him about what a pig he used to be, but he's going to be able to teach her how to avoid the pigs out there. After all he's the master and therefore his daughter won't fall for any of those tricks.

Agreed. I remember reading somewhere (and this could be total myth) is that the guys who were the biggest players or at least thought of themselves that way tend to be the most protective of their daughters. 

[vibeology]

2 hours ago, anna0852 said:

Actually he might be the perfect dad for a daughter. Not only is he going to have it made evidently clear to him about what a pig he used to be, but he's going to be able to teach her how to avoid the pigs out there. After all he's the master and therefore his daughter won't fall for any of those tricks.

I would much prefer if he teaches his son not to be a creepy harasser. 

[biakbiak]

Given how much Bernadette brags about how much money she makes, I wish she had just donated the barely used clothes to people in need and bought a few new ones to replace the overly gendered ones she donated.

[Mystery]

1 hour ago, SmithW6079 said:

A few seconds of Sheldon not being a dick to Howard doesn't make up for him being an nasty asshole the entire rest of the episode. This is why Sheldon remains my least favorite character. 

Cosign. Most episodes I'm just thinking, why does anyone put up with him?

 

32 minutes ago, biakbiak said:

Given how much Bernadette brags about how much money she makes, I wish she had just donated the barely used clothes to people in need and bought a few new ones to replace the overly gendered ones she donated.

I assumed that they were going to goodwill or someplace, but maybe because I was remembering the episode where they were donating/taking clothes from the bin. 

I actually like Penny and Beverly. I was surprised to hear "dour" pronounced "dower" but I see online that now that's okay. My sixth-grade teacher is spinning in her grave (if she's dead). 

[Sarah 103]

41 minutes ago, biakbiak said:

Given how much Bernadette brags about how much money she makes, I wish she had just donated the barely used clothes to people in need and bought a few new ones to replace the overly gendered ones she donated.

I thought that's what she was doing. Wasn't her original plan to go through the baby stuff and figure what she wanted to keep/use again and what she wanted to get rid of? I thought the stuff she was getting rid of was going to Goodwill or something like that. Did she say she planned to throw them in the trash and I missed it? 

[biakbiak]

1 minute ago, Sarah 103 said:

Did she say she planned to throw them in the trash and I missed it? 

She and Raj were shown repurposing the clothes to make them appropriate for a boy, hence Raj attempting to embroider a a baseball and bat on a perfectly fine pink shirt and Bernadette pointing out it looked like genitals. 

[AnnaRose]

28 minutes ago, Mystery said:

I actually like Penny and Beverly. I was surprised to hear "dour" pronounced "dower" but I see online that now that's okay. My sixth-grade teacher is spinning in her grave (if she's dead). 

I've never heard dour pronounced any other way.

[dungeonwriter]

Still feel like it's three different shows tacked together. 

Howard and Bernadette's issues seem really annoying. Yes, it's a boy. You have a daughter named for a comet, and is the daughter of an astronaut/engineer and a microbiologist. Both kids can like model rockets. I know it was touched on, but they could have just dealt with it in Howard having a son and dealing with his abandonment issues, but after Halley, it just feels late. 

Raj is so pathetic, it's painful. 

I liked the Penny/Beverly subplot. My mother and sister in law really like each other, and it can be weird for my brother to see them bonding. I've seen him look in on them chatting in the garden with a slightly panicked look of "they're plotting against me, I feel it" and it's kinda adorable. (It's even cuter when my niece is sitting with them, all the women in his life plotting together) So I enjoyed it, it felt very real. 

Sheldon is a terrible person. His emotional abuse is getting as cruel as Beverly and making Young Sheldon very worrying. 

[PinkRibbons]

Just as I was thinking this would be a Mayim-lite episode entirely, they pull out that great scene with her and Johnny. It was a neat bit of acting, the two conversations at once, and the two of them are a favorite unexpected pairing of mine. (There's something kind of sweet about watching them knowing the actors have known each other since they were fourteen. And it's documented on film. I almost want a side by side comparison of those scenes now, no joke, just to see how they have and haven't changed.) I did however expect and really wish that the conversation would delve into Amy's professional background, as she's in a field similar to Leonard's mother. I mean, granted she works more with dead people parts while Beverly writes horrible books about a live son she terrorized, but I'd actually like to hear Amy's thoughts on Beverly as a professional peer. (Back in the day I used to hope she was studying Leonard to write a book completely refuting anything Beverly ever wrote about him.)

Just a somewhat topical aside; my father didn't care either way what gender my sister was going to be since he never wanted kids in the first place and only agreed to them to get my mother to marry him, but apparently he actively rooted for me to be a girl too because it would cost him less on clothing. Flashforward 30 years or so when my sister was pregnant with my father's first grandchild, and he'd decided he wanted it to be a girl because now he thinks having girls was awesome. (And seriously, he lives a sweet life. The man deeply enjoys being fussed over and henpecked.) Hilariously he was the only one in the family rooting for a girl because my sister went into labor without any name she liked for a girl, so having a boy was a huge relief. (And in the end, Papa is still crazy about the baby with no reservations.)

[Snow Fairy]

5 hours ago, biakbiak said:

She and Raj were shown repurposing the clothes to make them appropriate for a boy, hence Raj attempting to embroider a a baseball and bat on a perfectly fine pink shirt and Bernadette pointing out it looked like genitals. 

I thought Bernadette let him repurpose clothes so he could do something to help. Not because she really wanted or needed that to be done

[Katy M]

7 hours ago, biakbiak said:

Given how much Bernadette brags about how much money she makes, I wish she had just donated the barely used clothes to people in need and bought a few new ones to replace the overly gendered ones she donated.

Just because you make a lot of money, doesn't mean that you have to throw money away.  Reusing is a good thing, even if you're doing it yourself and not going trough a third party.  Maybe she'll donate the money she saves to a food bank.

[CherryAmes]

3 hours ago, Snow Fairy said:

I thought Bernadette let him repurpose clothes so he could do something to help. Not because she really wanted or needed that to be done

She was definitely humouring him IMO and let him play around with a few items of clothing.  Given the piles of clothes there was plenty there that was still going to be donated somewhere because given the way she was carefully folding and sorting the clothes there is no way she was planning to toss them out!  If that had been the plan they'd have been going into a garbage bag not being neatly folded and placed in a pile!

 

1 hour ago, Katy M said:

Just because you make a lot of money, doesn't mean that you have to throw money away

Bernadette has always said this about money.  The show has made it clear from the start of their relationship that Bernadette is careful what they spend their money on and Howard is the child-man who needs to be on an allowance.  

Edited October 17, 2017 by CherryAmes

[CleoCaesar]

9 hours ago, Mystery said:

I was surprised to hear "dour" pronounced "dower" but I see online that now that's okay. My sixth-grade teacher is spinning in her grave (if she's dead). 

As far as I know, "dower" is the only pronunciation of "dour" (i.e. rhymes with "sour"). What did your sixth-grade teacher think it was?

[Bort]

1 hour ago, CherryAmes said:

Bernadette has always said this about money.  The show has made it clear from the start of their relationship that Bernadette is careful what they spend their money on and Howard is the child-man who needs to be on an allowance.  

Judging from Howard's concern last season, I think it's reasonable to assume that all surplus money is going into some sort of savings or bond to save for the kids' college funds. In fact, we haven't seen Howard blow money on frivolous crap since news of the first kid's impending arrival.

[hoodooznoodooz]

16 minutes ago, CleoCaesar said:

As far as I know, "dower" is the only pronunciation of "dour" (i.e. rhymes with "sour"). What did your sixth-grade teacher think it was?

I was waiting for Mystery to reply, but then I decided to just google it. You can pronounce it to rhyme with tour or tower. I had no idea. 

[Snarklepuss]

11 minutes ago, CleoCaesar said:

As far as I know, "dower" is the only pronunciation of "dour" (i.e. rhymes with "sour"). What did your sixth-grade teacher think it was?

I'm seeing two accepted ways to pronounce it online.  One is dow-er and one is doo-er.  I'm pushing 60 and I don't remember too many people saying doo-er in my lifetime to be honest.  This may be a regional thing.  I'm from the Northeast (NYC).

[Katy M]

7 minutes ago, hoodooznoodooz said:

I was waiting for Mystery to reply, but then I decided to just google it. You can pronounce it to rhyme with tour or tower. I had no idea. 

So, you could have a dour door, pronounced door door?  OK, a door can't be dour, but I've never heard it pronounced any other way either.

[snarkylady]

8 hours ago, PinkRibbons said:

Just as I was thinking this would be a Mayim-lite episode entirely, they pull out that great scene with her and Johnny. It was a neat bit of acting, the two conversations at once, and the two of them are a favorite unexpected pairing of mine.

I enjoyed this scene way more than anything else in the episode.

[anna0852]

13 hours ago, vibeology said:

I would much prefer if he teaches his son not to be a creepy harasser. 

I absolutely agree!

[Quark]

I liked this episode.

I wonder if we might be meeting Howard's Father soon?

[MaryMitch]

30 minutes ago, Quark said:

I liked this episode.

I wonder if we might be meeting Howard's Father soon?

I was thinking that too. Something in the show triggered that thought, but I can't remember what it was.  I would like to see him, but I hope they don't make him some kind of returning hero.

[anna0852]

There is no way they would treat Howard's father like some sort of returning hero. Howard clearly loathes the man and has a lot of issues about it.

[HurricaneVal]

15 hours ago, Sarah 103 said:

I thought Beverly had a good point in that Penny doesn't complain about Leonard.

This was a very good point.  Penny might joke around with and about Leonard within their circle of friends, but she knows Beverly has in the past and has the potential in the future to be very hurtful toward Leonard.  So she protects Leonard from that potential as best she can.  We also didn't see Penny do that during the phone calls or Skype sessions, just Beverly pointing it out.  And that was nice that we didn't get hit over the head by it.

[LoneHaranguer]

3 hours ago, Snarklepuss said:

I'm seeing two accepted ways to pronounce it online.  One is dow-er and one is doo-er.  I'm pushing 60 and I don't remember too many people saying doo-er in my lifetime to be honest.  This may be a regional thing.  I'm from the Northeast (NYC).

Yes, the "our" words seem to be a particular target for regional variation since that combination of letters are pronounced a variety of ways depending on the preceding letter(s). If you watch reality shows, you may have noticed that "tour" also seems to have two pronunciations, "tur" and "tor". neither of which is consistent with the ones for "dour".

[wendyg]

Doo-er is the Scottish pronunciation. It does not rhyme with door. (The Scots also may say floo-ers and whoo-ers.)

It rhymes with moor and tour.

[Katy M]

6 minutes ago, wendyg said:

Doo-er is the Scottish pronunciation. It does not rhyme with door. (The Scots also may say floo-ers and whoo-ers.)

It rhymes with moor and tour.

I don't think that clears anything up because the way I speak tour and moor rhymes with door.

[biakbiak]

4 hours ago, kariyaki said:

Judging from Howard's concern last season, I think it's reasonable to assume that all surplus money is going into some sort of savings or bond to save for the kids' college funds. In fact, we haven't seen Howard blow money on frivolous crap since news of the first kid's impending arrival.

To me Howard's concern last year was just as nonsensical as Raj having massive amounts of debt.

Yes, Judy because you have money you don't have to spend it, I am just sick to death of Bernadette's constant bragging about it.

[Browncoat]

17 hours ago, anna0852 said:

I read that is more Howard being concerned that his kid is going to like sports and he won't be able to connect with him.

Funny how they aren't concerned that their daughter might be sporty.

[Zoe]

24 minutes ago, Browncoat said:

Funny how they aren't concerned that their daughter might be sporty.

Bernadette already has that covered.

[iMonrey]

Quote

You can pronounce it to rhyme with tour or tower. I had no idea.

Weird, I have never heard anyone pronounce it to rhyme with tour before. But then again, "dour" isn't a word you often hear in casual conversation.

I wish we had a better sense of what Leonard's brother is like (and doesn't he have a sister too?) - why have we never met him? Clearly Beverly prefers Leonards sibling(s); I believe one is an attorney? I seem to recall she mentioned he argued a case in front of the Supreme Court. It's weird how randomly this show introduces us to family members. We've met Sheldon's sister but never his brother, we've met Raj's sister and both his parents, we've met both of Bernie's parents but not one of her siblings (and she's supposed to have a lot of them, because she mentioned she had to look after them when she was growing up). 

Anyway, Beverly's elitism makes it hard to believe she'd ever bond with someone as lowbrow as Penny, frankly. 

[Bort]

14 minutes ago, iMonrey said:

Beverly's elitism makes it hard to believe she'd ever bond with someone as lowbrow as Penny, frankly.

Beverly was striking me as particularly lonely. While we've never met Leonard's siblings, I wouldn't find it a huge stretch to assume that she's alienated them just as much as she has Leonard. He runs for the hills when she calls, I bet they do the same.

[Katy M]

20 minutes ago, kariyaki said:

Beverly was striking me as particularly lonely. While we've never met Leonard's siblings, I wouldn't find it a huge stretch to assume that she's alienated them just as much as she has Leonard. He runs for the hills when she calls, I bet they do the same.

She probably just raised them to be as cold as she is.  So, they may not run for the hills when she calls, but no chit chat.  Get to the point.  As much as she complains about Leonard, he has probably given her the most emotional relationship and it's just recently that she realized that she wants this. 

I'm also glad that Penny realized that complaining about Leonard to his mother, about anything, even something small would be a bad idea.  Normally, it probably wouldn't be a big deal to just casually mention to your MIL that your husband snores, or has no fashion sense, or something small (you should obviously never complain about the big things, or complain about lots of things), but in this case, any little thing would have been blown out of proportion.

[Bort]

I don't think Penny doesn't complain about Leonard because she's talking to his mother. The takeaway I had to that scene was Penny realizing that she has no complaints about him. They've shown their marriage to be of them rather comfortable with each other. They knew each other for quite awhile, dated on and off for the better part of a decade, they know each others' quirks, poke fun at each other about them, but none of it seems to really bother the other.

[Katy M]

40 minutes ago, kariyaki said:

I don't think Penny doesn't complain about Leonard because she's talking to his mother. The takeaway I had to that scene was Penny realizing that she has no complaints about him. They've shown their marriage to be of them rather comfortable with each other. They knew each other for quite awhile, dated on and off for the better part of a decade, they know each others' quirks, poke fun at each other about them, but none of it seems to really bother the other.

We've seen her complain about him before, though, to Bernadette and Amy. Even to Sheldon, I think.  Everybody does it.  But, it would be crossing a line to say anything negative to him about his mother considering their relationship.

[LoneHaranguer]

2 hours ago, iMonrey said:

we've met Raj's sister and both his parents

Have we met any of his brothers? We haven't met his other sister. Raj referred to Priya as his baby sister, so any girly hand-me-downs wouldn't have been hers.

2 hours ago, iMonrey said:

Anyway, Beverly's elitism makes it hard to believe she'd ever bond with someone as lowbrow as Penny, frankly.

Well, they did get drunk together one night. I think she appreciates that Penny has gone from being the lowly waitress she had dismissed as having little in the way of career prospects to someone with a respectable job making twice as much as Leonard. BTW, what did Beverly call Penny at the end, before she saw it was Leonard she was talking to? I didn't catch it.

[Driad]

IIRC, Beverly once mentioned that her other son married a woman who was about to become a judge. For Penny to be Beverly's favorite daughter-in-law, maybe the other said something injudicious.

[Mystery]

8 hours ago, hoodooznoodooz said:

I was waiting for Mystery to reply, but then I decided to just google it. You can pronounce it to rhyme with tour or tower. I had no idea. 

Right, she pronounced it like "tour." Massachusetts, Catholic school (but she wasn't a nun so she was the *slightest* bit less scary!) 

I like "dower" better. It just seems more reasonable. 

I forgot I was going to add this link. Maybe she was (like, centuries) older than I thought she was! https://www.grammarphobia.com/blog/2011/04/dour.html

Edited October 17, 2017 by Mystery

[Snarklepuss]

6 hours ago, MaryMitch said:

I was thinking that too. Something in the show triggered that thought, but I can't remember what it was.  I would like to see him, but I hope they don't make him some kind of returning hero.

Something about this show must have made all of us think that because I had the same thought and I couldn't figure out why.  Subliminal suggestion perhaps?

5 hours ago, wendyg said:

Doo-er is the Scottish pronunciation. It does not rhyme with door. (The Scots also may say floo-ers and whoo-ers.)

It rhymes with moor and tour.

I thought that too.  My father used to call a friend of his a "dour Scot" and used that pronunciation, but in regular conversation he would say "dow-er".

[LoneHaranguer]

2 hours ago, Driad said:

IIRC, Beverly once mentioned that her other son married a woman who was about to become a judge. For Penny to be Beverly's favorite daughter-in-law, maybe the other said something injudicious.

Did the marriage fall through? When Beverly mentioned the medalist/judge on her S3 visit, her other son had only just gotten engaged to her, so he could have actually married someone else, or remarried since then.

[Chit Chat]

Quote

To me Howard's concern last year was just as nonsensical as Raj having massive amounts of debt.

I agree.  A son or daughter can gravitate towards sports if he/she so chooses  without a parent having ever participated in said sport.  I loved music and playing in the band.  Neither of my parents had ever done anything musically, but they sure enjoyed watching our marching band!  If Howard's son or daughter has an inclination for sports, he & Bernadette will more than likely be right there cheering him/her on every step of the way, and they will more than likely enjoy it, just because it's their kid out there participating and hopefully having fun!   Whether they are interested in sports or not, Howard and Bernadette will be awesome parents at encouraging their academic side, given their success in their respective fields.   Howard should be able to handle any situation that finds his child to be the outsider or "nerd," or any other situation in which the child might not feel like he/she fits in.  He and his friends are experts in finding those who share their interests and how to say 'to hell' with the bullies!  

I'm with Sheldon: "Quit your whining or I'll give you something to cry about!"