The Pirate Solution (12 Oct. 2009)

Raj must find a new job or be sent back to India, but Sheldon has a solution, which leaves Leonard and Penny dealing with Howard as third wheel.

Director:

Mark Cendrowski

Writers:

Chuck Lorre (creator), Bill Prady (creator),

Stars:

Johnny Galecki, Jim Parsons, Kaley Cuoco

Cast

Episode complete credited cast:
Johnny Galecki	...	Leonard Hofstadter
Jim Parsons	...	Sheldon Cooper
Kaley Cuoco	...	Penny
Simon Helberg	...	Howard Wolowitz
Kunal Nayyar	...	Raj Koothrappali
Elizabeth Bogush	...	Dr. Catherine Millstone
Oliver Muirhead	...	Professor Laughlin

Storyline

It's Columbus Day and Thanksgiving is approaching, but Raj in particular is not in a thankful mood. His research stalled six months ago with no hope of success. With no job, his visa to stay in the United States becomes invalid which means that he will be deported back to India. Although Penny comes up with the obvious solution of Raj getting another job, jobs for astrophysicists are few and far between, with no guarantee of Raj even getting the job if there was one. With extra moneys just received from the university for his own research, Sheldon kind of offers Raj a job, but the nature of the offer is somewhat unclear, as would be Sheldon and Raj's working relationship. But a byproduct of Raj and Sheldon spending more time together is that Howard no longer has his best friend with who to hang out. So Howard decides to hang out with Leonard and Penny instead, who lose their much wanted alone time.

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Plot Keywords:

columbus day | beefaroni | scrambled egg | sherry | reference to christopher columbus | 

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Genres:

Comedy

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Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

12 October 2009 (USA)

Filming Locations:

Stage 25, Warner Brothers Burbank Studios - 4000 Warner Boulevard, Burbank, California, USA

Company Credits

Production Co:

Chuck Lorre Productions, Warner Bros. Television

Technical Specs

Runtime:

20 min

Sound Mix:

Stereo

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.78 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

The title refers to Sheldon's comment on Raj's possible deportation back to India, that an alternative is for Raj to "wander the high seas as a stateless pirate."

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Goofs

At the beginning, the four main characters are watching the movie "Gremlins." Sheldon says that the movie baffles him, stating that "The instructions are very clear: don't feed the Gremlins after midnight, don't get the Gremlins wet. How hard is that?" However, the creature in the movie is a Mogwai; the Gremlins are only created after the rules have been broken.

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Quotes

Leonard Hofstadter: I've always been a little confused about this. Why don't Hindus eat beef?
Raj Koothrappali: We believe cows are gods.
Sheldon Cooper: Not technically. In Hinduism, cattle are thought to be *like* god.
Leonard Hofstadter: Do not tell me about my own culture, Sheldon! In the mood I'm in, I'll take you out - I swear to cow!

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Crazy Credits

CHUCK LORRE PRODUCTIONS, #262 As best as I can tell, life is intolerable. Oh, not always of course. A case can be made for all the big wonders and little blessings and blah, blah, blah. But when you really boil it down, our entire existence rests on a few really ugly premises. First, life, and by that I mean the big life, life with a capital L, must ingest other life in order for it to remain life. Or, put another way, in order to witness the miracle of creation, we must continually eat, and then poop out, a little bit of that miracle. Second, one of the charming side effects of sentient life is emotional pain. The fact that dead and fermenting plant life creates alcohol - a terrific anesthetic for emotional pain - might cause one to think that this is, by nature, a compassionate universe. Think again. Keep dulling that pain with booze and you wind up, if you're lucky, in a church basement sharing your tears with complete strangers. If you're not lucky, you wind up on a waiting list for a motorcyclist's liver. And finally, there is the ever-present knowledge of death. In order to "more fully appreciate the gift of life," we all get to ponder a violently sudden or slow and agonizingly painful descent into oblivion -- after which our beloved bodies turn into the stuff of nightmares. Which brings me back to my original premise: life is intolerable. But rather than go gently into that creepy night, I've decided to start a petition to protest the fundamental conditions of existence. I know it's not much, but it's a start. And damnit, I'm just the guy to do it! The petition is available at chucklorre.com. Sign on now and make your voice heard before you're dead and your vocal chords are being eaten by a swarm of disgusting bugs.

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Connections

References Gremlins (1984)

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Soundtracks

"Eye of the Tiger"
(uncredited)
Written by Jim Peterik and Frankie Sullivan
Performed by Survivor

User Reviews

The Pirate Solution is another hilarious episode of "The Big Bang Theory"

Having previously squandered his money on a project that didn't work out, Raj faces deportation unless he gets another job. His first offer from a British professor seems to work out until another associate turns out to be a woman so Raj drinks from a bottle from a nearby table that allows him to lose his inhibitions about communicating with the opposite sex to the point of offering this female doctor to share a hot tub. So with him losing that job, Sheldon offers Raj an opportunity to work for him. Raj eventually accepts under certain conditions which Sheldon automatically rejects. Raj accepts anyway. Meanwhile, best friend Howard feels lonely so he crashes into Leonard and Penny just as they're about to make love...Another hilarious episode of "The Big Bang Theory". Always love to hear Sheldon say, "Bazinga!" whenever he makes a joke or saying someone's name three times whenever he's knocking on a door and he needs to talk. And I just smile when Raj does a trick with his fingers that I recognized as something the late Stan Laurel did in some of his movies. So on that note, The Pirate Solution is another very funny episode of "The Big Bang Theory."