The Big Bang Theory – “The Scavenger Vortex”

Season Seven, Episode Three

Grade: C-

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Let’s get this straight, I really really wanted to like this episode. Actually, I started out loving this episode because the idea of having all our main characters participating in a scavenger hunt just sounds awesome. It also provided interesting options whether or not we would see couples versus each other, or the better option of mixing and matching the couples. But after the first puzzle is completed, everything goes steeply downhill.

Here are the teams for the scavenger hunt: Pussy Leonard with the super-competitive Bernadette; Bowling ball carrying Sheldon with the weakest link Penny; and the Neil Diamond loving tandem of Howard and Amy. Once again, this is a great setup for an episode, but The Big Bang theory messed this one up. Instead of cashing in on the opportunity of certain characters being alone with one another, the plots resolved rather ineffectively and sparsely funny. Sure, it was hilarious when Bernadette was screaming at Leonard (at first), but it got old quick. Same goes for Howard and Amy rocking to Neil Diamond in the car, but them leaving the hunt to sing at karaoke was just redundant.

The best plot involved Sheldon and Penny (is anyone surprised at this point?), but that really had to do with their already established chemistry due to plenty of scenes together in the past. Also, it’s because their plot was the least annoying, since it’s nothing new seeing Sheldon being a know-it-all and Penny trying to prove herself to the genius crew. And at this point, the writers are just trying to find ways to keep Raj relevant (who’s more useless, Raj or Winston in New Girl?).

In the end, why did they even partake in this kind of game? Sure, these guys play games all the time without any real reward, but they just got done rejecting Raj’s mystery dinner event, what made them so excited about a scavenger hunt? And let me just say that not even giving us the satisfaction of a real winning team took all the fun away from watching the episode. Seeing Bernadette smack Leonard for losing would’ve been great, or seeing Penny out-performing all the geniuses would’ve been great as well. Also, I don’t buy that Sheldon would’ve been fine with being co-winner with everyone else. This was a throw-away episode with so much potential.