Everyone’s plans went awry on The Big Bang Theory season 8, episode 5! Check out our recap and share your thoughts on “The Focus Attenuation.”
Light bulb moment
Leonard, Sheldon, Howard, and Raj discuss unpursued ideas, and decide to take a weekend to cook up an idea. In response, the girls instantly make plans to go to Las Vegas.
A bad start
On Idea Night, the guys get instantly distracted by the idea of watching The Social Network. Leonard looks through their idea book, but finds that most of them are sexual in nature.
Sheldon proposes inventing the hoverboard from Back to the Future II, which means the guys have to watch the movie.
School days
Penny, Amy, and Bernadette plan a wild night in Vegas, but like the boys, their plans are interrupted by the future. Penny’s big test for work was moved up, and she now only has two days to study. Penny tells Amy and Bernadette to start partying, and she will meet up with them after beginning to study.
Bernadette and Amy drink dangerously large margaritas in a bar. Amy compliments Bernadette’s body, and it looks like things aren’t going to get any less weird after that.
The internet strikes back
While watching Back to the Future II, the guys get hung up on the technicalities of time travel, alternate futures, and grammatical tenses. Leonard is upset that their attempts to focus have failed, so they go to the University lab.
Unfortunately, internet research leads to further distraction. (Or: These guys are human after all!) Leonard suggests punishing themselves to keep from being distracted, so the guys stick duct tape to their hairy forearms. Alas, the positive punishment leads to a tape-pulling contest and a mandatory rewatch of Ghostbusters, which the boys return to the apartment to watch properly.
Sweet revenge
Utterly plastered, Amy and Bernadette stagger back to Penny in the room. They want her to go out with them, but she can’t leave yet. Amy tries unsuccessfully to steal her notes. They finally succeed in coaxing Penny out to a strip club, but the conscientious student has brought her laptop along.
But Penny has her revenge in the morning, as Amy and Bernadette are too desperately hungover to go out to the pool with her.