- Leonard becomes concerned when his date with Penny ends abruptly and she starts blowing him off. When told the truth, Sheldon would rather move out than keep Penny's reasons a secret from Leonard.
- After his and Penny's first date, Leonard is in denial about what Penny's non-committal attitude toward a second date means. In reality and what Penny divulges to Sheldon in confidence is that her non-committal attitude is due to feeling intellectually inadequate, so much so that she even lied to Leonard about finishing community college. She is afraid that Leonard will ultimately get bored with her. The problem with Sheldon is that she told him this information before she vowed him to secrecy. Knowing that there is no way he can keep this secret from Leonard, Sheldon takes extreme measures to ensure that he keeps his promise to Penny. But these measures have a profound effect on both Howard and Raj, who may force Sheldon back to the situation of telling Leonard.—Huggo
- Following the Season 1 finale, Leonard (Johnny Galecki) and Penny (Kaley Cuoco) return from their first date while Howard (Simon Helberg) and Raj (Kunal Nayyar) spy on them using a webcam in the hall between their apartments. Leonard, spotting the camera, suggests going over to her apartment, but she misunderstands him (that Leonard is suggesting that they go to bed after their first date) and tells him to "slow things down". The kiss between Leonard and Penny also goes very awkwardly. Still Leonard feels confident that he had a good date with Penny
The guys try to convince Leonard that the date went badly (she wanted to slow things down), which he denies. Penny later tells Sheldon (Jim Parsons) that she lied to Leonard about graduating from community college, feeling he would not want to date a woman who is not smart, and makes Sheldon promise not to tell him. Penny knows that before her Leonard has only dated really smart women with PHDs and Masters and so on, and feels that after a point he will get bored with her. So, she lied about being a graduate from community college. Sheldon thinks Leonard will eventually bore with Penny since she doesn't understand particle physics and doesn't speak Klingon and doesn't know any card tricks.
Penny starts to avoid Leonard and wants to talk to Sheldon. But Sheldon cannot tell Leonard as that would divulge the secret. Sheldon cannot easily keep secrets, and moves out of the apartment to escape his inner conflict as this was the only option left to him (he takes away his emergency bag recommended by the Pasadena Disaster council and Sarah Conner) (he doesn't give Leonard any reason and Raj was the only option left after Howard bailed hearing that Sheldon wants to stay with "friends").
He first stays with Raj, but after Sheldon criticizes Aishwarya Rai, comparing her unfavorably to Madhuri Dixit (He calls Aishwarya a poor man's Madhuri Dixit, and tells Raj that he doesn't know too much about Bollywood movies.. Raj is offended as he is a big fan of Aishwarya, whom he thinks is a Goddess and in front of her Madhuri looks like a cheap prostitute), Raj leaves him at Howard's house. Sheldon talks instead of sleeping (Sheldon is not comfortable sleeping on an air mattress.. Even after giving Sheldon his own bed, Sheldon is not able to sleep as he complains about the Halle Berry poster staring at him from the ceiling. He then compares his top 5 cat-women and then his top X-men.. He continually changes his choices, driving Howard mad), so Howard gives him his mom's Valium, which fails to work, and finally takes him back to the apartment.
The drugged Sheldon tells Leonard the secret that Penny lied about completing community college. The next morning, Leonard suggests Penny should join Pasadena City College, but after she asks, says he does not mind dating someone who is not smart, at which she slams her door in his face.
Title reference: Howard calling Leonard a "bad fish" in his relationship with Penny.
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