The Dead Hooker Juxtaposition
Big Bang Theory episode
Chronology	Season 2, Episode 19
Airdate	March 30, 2009
Guest star(s)	Valerie Azlynn as Alicia Carol Ann Susi as Mrs. Wolowitz
Teleplay	Steven Molaro
Story	Steven Molaro
Director	Mark Cendrowski
Episode guide
← "The Work Song Nanocluster"	→ "The Hofstadter Isotope"
Season guide
← Season 1	→ Season 3

"The Dead Hooker Juxtaposition" is the nineteenth episode of the second season of the American sitcom The Big Bang Theory. This episode first aired on March 30, 2009.

Contents 1 Summary 2 Extended Plot 3 Notes 4 Critics 5 Quotes 6 Trivia 7 Gallery 8 Comments

SummaryEdit

Penny is not the only girl in town when another, more successful actress named Alicia moves into the building and the guys can't do enough for her.

Extended PlotEdit

Sheldon is horrified upon hearing the news that the people in the apartment above him are moving out.

Since they made almost no noise, Sheldon considered these people to be great upstairs neighbors even though he'd never met them. Howard offers to take the apartment, but is quickly deterred by his mother upon telling her that he would be leaving. Sheldon and Leonard are the first to greet the new tenant in the lobby, while Sheldon checks her boxes for anything noisy. The new tenant named Alicia moves in upstairs, and becomes an immediate rival to Penny. Alicia is also an aspiring actress, and Penny sees that she uses the guys for whatever she needs, albeit Sheldon who couldn't care less about her attention.

Penny hangs out in Sheldon and Leonard's apartment and Sheldon, out of context, mentions a fact about rival queen bees that inspires Penny to fight back for the guys' attention. Dressed in her best clothes, Penny visits the guys in Alicia's apartment and tells them a science joke that backfires on her. In the laundry room, Alicia mentions that she'd gotten a role on CSI as a dead hooker before asking Penny about how much physicists made and mentioning that the guys would be painting her apartment later. Penny calls Alicia out on it, Alicia calls Penny a bitch and accuses her of doing the same thing. Penny and Alicia get into a fight that spills out into the lobby, where it is witnessed by the guys.

Later, a bruised Penny is having dinner with the guys in Sheldon and Leonard's apartment. Hearing Alicia turn on music upstairs, Sheldon immediately blames Leonard for setting up her stereo on the DTS setting. Immediately after, they hear the bed beginning to move, and Sheldon mistakes it for Alicia "jumping on the bed".

NotesEdit

• Title Reference: The episode name refers to the juxtaposition, or placement, of Alicia in the apartment building, and her role as a dead prostitute on CSI.
• Chuck Lorre's vanity card [1]
• This episode was watched by 9.77 million people with a rating of 3.8 (adults 18-49).

CriticsEdit

"Excellent stuff. It’s sad in a way that it has taken two seasons to finally produce a proper character episode for Penny. But when it is this good, I won’t complain." - The TV Critic's Review

QuotesEdit

Howard: ENOUGH WITH THE GUILT, MA, WE'LL STILL SEE EACH OTHER, AND I'LL COME OVER EVERY NIGHT AND HAVE YOU FOR DINNER!

Mrs. Wolowitz: THE HELL YOU WILL! WHAT AM I RUNNING HERE, A FANCY RESTURANT?! DOES THIS LIKE OLIVE GARDEN?!

Howard: OKAY, I GET IT, YOU'RE ANGRY... YOU DON'T WANNA SEE YOUR LITTLE BIRD LEAVE THE NEST!

Mrs. Wolowitz: LITTLE BIRD?! YOU'RE ALMOST 30! FLY, FOR GOD'S SAKE!

Howard: FINE! I'LL STAY! YOU'RE HAPPY, CRAZY OL' LADY! I SURE AS HELL HOPE SO BECAUSE YOU'RE RUININ' MY LIFE!

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Sheldon (to Penny):Ah, mimicry. I've been working on my impression of Admiral Ackbar. "It's a trap!"... You have to imagine me with a giant squid head.

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Howard: Oh my god! Girl fight! (Grabs Leonard's arms)

Leonard: What are you doing?!

Howard: I know you, you're stupid enough to break it up!

---

Penny: They aren't like other guys. They're Special.

Alicia: Okay, they're special and..?

Penny: Well let's see how can I explain this. Um. They don't know how to use their shields.

Alicia: Shields?

Penny: Yeah, You know like in Star Trek and you're in battle, and you raise the shields. (Realizing what she said) Where the hell did that come from?

---

TriviaEdit

• This is the highest rated episode by The TV Critic.
• Valerie Azlynn has, in fact, been in a CSI:NY episode, but not as a prostitute.
• Sheldon has a lifting belt now, as he stated otherwise in "The Big Bran Hypothesis".
• When Sheldon and Leonard meet Alicia for the first time, the dialogue among the three are quite analogous to that when Sheldon and Leonard first met Penny in the pilot: repetitive "hello's" and Leonard's redundant explanation.
• Penny is seen wearing a Penny Blossom that she made in the previous episode.
• The line "The horror" was referencing the film Apocalypse Now.
• The line "They're here" was referencing the film Poltergeist.
• The pink spotted dog seen in the milk crate during Alicia's discussion with Sheldon while she is moving in can be seen previously in Season 2 on Penny's dining room table.
• In the scene where the gang leaves Sheldon and Penny with the Chinese food Penny bought, her rant is poorly edited in that the whole time she goes from fork to chop sticks and then back and forth the whole time she rants.

GalleryEdit

Episodes | Season 2

The Bad Fish Paradigm • The Codpiece Topology • The Barbarian Sublimation • The Griffin Equivalency • The Euclid Alternative • The Cooper-Nowitzki Theorem • The Panty Piñata Polarization • The Lizard-Spock Expansion • The White Asparagus Triangulation • The Vartabedian Conundrum • The Bath Item Gift Hypothesis • The Killer Robot Instability • The Friendship Algorithm • The Financial Permeability • The Maternal Capacitance • The Cushion Saturation • The Terminator Decoupling • The Work Song Nanocluster • The Dead Hooker Juxtaposition • The Hofstadter Isotope • The Vegas Renormalization • The Classified Materials Turbulence • The Monopolar Expedition