The Electric Can Opener Fluctuation
Big Bang Theory episode
Chronology	Season 3, Episode 1
Airdate	September 21, 2009
Guest star(s)	Laurie Metcalf as Mary Cooper John Ross Bowie as Barry Kripke
Teleplay	Steven Molaro, Chuck Lorre & Jim Reynolds
Story	Bill Prady, Lee Aronsohn & Steve Holland
Director	Mark Cendrowski
Episode guide
← "The Monopolar Expedition"	→ "The Jiminy Conjecture"
Season guide
← Season 2	→ Season 4

"The Electric Can Opener Fluctuation" is the first episode of the third season of the American sitcom The Big Bang Theory. This episode first aired on September 21, 2009.

Contents 1 Summary 2 Extended Plot 3 Critics 4 Quotes 5 Notes 5.1 Science 5.2 Culture 5.3 Title 6 Trivia 7 Gallery 8 Comments

SummaryEdit

Sheldon is humiliated by the guys tampering with the data they gathered at the North Pole, while Penny finally shows her feelings for Leonard.

Extended Plot Edit

Following his return from the North Pole, Sheldon is very excited over the prospects that his research, has yielded, whereas Raj, Howard, and Leonard are just glad to be home after spending three months at the North Pole with Sheldon. Penny is happier than most that Leonard has returned and passionately kisses him when he knocks on her door to announce their return. He gladly returns the affection while Penny drags him into her apartment. After they get into the apartment, Howard and Raj confess to Sheldon that the positive results that he received in the Arctic was really static from an electric can opener they kept turning on and off. Furious, especially at Leonard, who thought up the idea, Sheldon confronts him at Penny's apartment, much to his dismay. Leonard explains that he did this because Sheldon was being absolutely unbearable during the expedition when he wasn't getting the results he wanted (plans to kill him were even brought up and discussed). To make matters worse, Sheldon already contacted everyone at the university that he had positive results. Crushed that his best friend has destroyed his dreams and humiliated him (and ignoring the fact that he brought what had happened on himself), Sheldon retreats to his bedroom.

Penny to comfort him; however, she makes Sheldon realize he missed Comic Con and the new Star Trek movie.

The next day, Sheldon still refuses to forgive Leonard, and is suffering ridicule by everyone in the Physics department, especially Kripke. As a result, he resigns and runs away home to Texas. Although reluctant to go and wait any longer to hook up with Penny, Leonard agrees to go. Penny insists that he go help Sheldon and that she will be back here waiting for him. 

At his mother's home, Sheldon becomes increasingly annoyed by his mother's Christian lifestyle. When the group gets to her home to bring him back, he is reluctant. Sheldon says that he will stay in Texas to teach them evolution, which Mary Cooper tells him is just his opinion. Quickly, he forgives the guys and they head back to Pasadena.

Back at home, Penny and Leonard finally hook up, but both of them now feel their relationship has gotten weird.

CriticsEdit

"I don’t think this show is in terminal decline just yet. Of course my standards for it and desires for it are different to its producers. But I still think it will stay fresher for longer with a little more care and attention than it currently receives." - The TV Critic's Review

QuotesEdit

(Leonard, Howard and Raj are at Sheldon's mother's place in Galveston, Texas, trying to get Sheldon to come home with them. Howard is wearing a goofy cowboy hat and a mustache. Leonard rings the doorbell.)

Leonard: Can you please take that stupid hat off?

Howard: No, I wanna blend in.

Raj: To what, Toy Story?

(Leonard chuckles at Raj's remark. Mary Cooper opens the door.)

Mary: Hi, boys.

Howard (with Texan accent): Howdy, Ma'am.

Mary: Howdy to you too, you got here quick.

Leonard: Ah, we took the Red Eye.

Mary: Well come on in.

Howard (with Texan accent): Thank you kindly.

Mary: Can I, can I get you something to drink?

Leonard: Uh, no, thank you.

Howard (with Texan accent): Uh, if ya'll don't mind, I'm hankering for a Lone Star Beer.

Mary: There's no alcohol in this household, stop talking like that and lose the hat.

Howard (In normal voice): Sorry, I'll take a Diet Yoo-hoo if you have it.

Mary: You'll take a coke. (To Raj) What about you, Raj, is it? Oh you still having trouble talking to the ladies? (chuckles) Because you know at our church, we have a woman who's an amazing healer. Mostly she does, uh, crutch and wheelchair people, but I bet she'd be willing to take a shot at whatever third world demon is running around inside of you.

Leonard: Uh, if you don't mind, Mrs. Cooper there's a 3:05 non-stop back to Los Angeles and you have no idea how much I wanna be on it.

Mary: A girl?

Leonard: Uh, yes ma'am.

Mary: Good, I've been praying for you.

(Sheldon walks into the room.)

Mary: Oh. Sheldon.

Sheldon: What are they doing here?

Leonard: Uh we came to apologize.

Howard: Again.

Leonard: And bring you home, so why don't you pack up your stuff and we'll head back.

Sheldon: No. This is my home now. Thanks to you, my career is over. And I will spend the rest of my life in Texas, trying to teach evolution to creationists.

Mary: You watch your mouth, Shelly. Everyone's entitled to their opinion.

Sheldon: Evolution isn't an opinion, it's fact.

Mary: And that is your opinion.

Sheldon (To the guys): I forgive you, let's go home.

(Goes to pack his stuff.)

Mary: Don't tell me prayer doesn't work.

Notes Edit

• Chuck Lorre's vanity card [1]
• This episode was watched by 12.96 million people with a rating of 4.7 (adults 18-49).

Science Edit

• Sheldon's experience was to track slow moving magnetic monopoles at the magnetic North Pole.

Culture Edit

• Sheldon believes his work on Magnetic Monopoles will gain him a Nobel Prize.
• Howard and Leonard make reference that Sheldon has " Vulcan hearing".
• Sheldon makes reference to emoticons (himself being :D, then Raj noting he became :O following the revelation).

TitleEdit

• The title refers to the appliance that Leonard, Howard and Raj used to give Sheldon false results in lieu of killing him.

Trivia Edit

• This is the first of four episodes to have a "Previously on The Big Bang Theory" review of past events. It summarizes "The Monopolar Expedition" and is narrated by Kaley Cuoco. The other three are "The Cohabitation Formulation", "The Skank Reflex Analysis", and "The Date Night Variable".
• Leonard says, "You can still publish the actual results." Since it was a NSF expedition, it is not simply a decision to publish the results.
• Sheldon doesn't seem surprised that Leonard and Penny are beginning to date, as he was the one who correctly hypothesized that Penny wants him in the previous season finale, just before the gang's expedition.
• Penny described a scene from the movie Star Trek in this episode, meaning she probably saw it even though the others didn't, which could indicate that she has begun to like their nerdy things. This was the only time she knew something about Star Trek that Sheldon didn't.
• Sheldon's beard looks like the one Spock has in the "mirror universe" episode "Mirror, Mirror". Along with that, Howard and Leonard mention about his Vulcan hearing.
• When Howard says to Mary he'll take a Diet Yoohoo, in the DVD, she says he'll take a Coca-Cola Coke, but on T.V., she says "you'll take a cola".
• Raj suggests Howard's hat is reminiscent of Woody's in Toy Story. Laurie Metcalf(who plays Mary Cooper) is in all three Toy Story  films.
• Howard previously referred to cyanoacrylates in "The Work Song Nanocluster", as Leonard attempts to define them in this episode.
• It is mentioned throughout the episode that the four guys slept together naked in the Arctic one night when the heat went out.
• The preserved snow flake from North Pole appears again in the later episode "The Toast Derivation".
• In the commentary for this episode on the DVD release, it was mentioned that the actors actually grew real beards for filming, but were told to shave them so that the make-up department could put fake ones on. It is never stated why this decision was made.
• This season premiere episode takes place three/four months after the last episode of the previous season.

GalleryEdit

Episodes | Season 3

The Electric Can Opener Fluctuation • The Jiminy Conjecture • The Gothowitz Deviation • The Pirate Solution • The Creepy Candy Coating Corollary • The Cornhusker Vortex • The Guitarist Amplification • The Adhesive Duck Deficiency • The Vengeance Formulation • The Gorilla Experiment • The Maternal Congruence • The Psychic Vortex • The Bozeman Reaction • The Einstein Approximation • The Large Hadron Collision • The Excelsior Acquisition • The Precious Fragmentation • The Pants Alternative • The Wheaton Recurrence • The Spaghetti Catalyst • The Plimpton Stimulation • The Staircase Implementation • The Lunar Excitation