TEXT: Scene: The cafeteria. Sheldon is drawing on a napkin. Raj: What are you drawing over there? Sheldon: It's a hypothetical containment field for a Frisbee-sized wormhole that could serve as a portal to a parallel universe. Howard: Oh, you silly doodlebug. Leonard: You know, a lot of scientists believe that making contact with other life-forms would probably not end well for us. Sheldon: It's a Frisbee-sized wormhole, Leonard. You can block it with a Frisbee. Calm down. (Hands Howard the napkin) Howard: Do you expect me to build this? Sheldon: I expect you to wipe the pudding off your chin. Gentlemen. Howard: Have you guys ever noticed that Sheldon always disappears every day at two forty-five? Leonard: Really? Raj: He probably just goes to the bathroom. Leonard: Actually, no, he goes to the bathroom at eight a.m. with optional follow-ups at one forty-five and seven ten high-fibre Fridays. Raj: It's sad that you know that. Leonard: Oh, that's just the tip of the sadness iceberg. Howard: I'm looking at his public calendar. Two forty-five to three-oh-five, nothing. Yesterday, two forty-five to three-oh-five, nothing, last week, nothing, last month, nothing. He never has anything booked during that time. Raj: Twenty minutes a day, completely unaccounted for. Howard: We should figure out where he goes. Raj: Ooh, this is exciting. Like one of my classic murder mystery dinner parties. Leonard: Right, the case of who murdered three Saturday nights of my life? Howard: Colonel Koothrapali in the kitchen with the olive spread. Raj: It was tapenade and you guys suck. Credits sequence. Scene: Penny's apartment. Penny is texting. Penny: So, how was work today? Leonard: Well, I spent most of the afternoon growing isotopically pure crystals for neutrino detection. Penny: That sounds like fun. Leonard: Yeah, it was
SUMMARY:
Leonard is jealous of Penny's British classmate Cole who works with her on an oral class project, afraid Cole is hitting on her. Confronting him on the staircase, he tries to frighten him off Penny, unaware he is uninterested. She overhears them and is furious at Leonard's lack of trust. In the Caltech cafeteria, Leonard discusses his problem with Alex, who flirts with him, unbeknown to him. He later tells Penny of his insecurity about other men hitting on her, and she finally confesses her love for him. Leonard says that this is the first time she said that she loves him. Meanwhile, Howard and Raj wonder what Sheldon does from 2:45 to 3:05 pm daily. They see him enter a storage room in Caltech's basement. They break in at midnight to find only the number "43" on a chalkboard and nothing else. They try to discover its meaning using their science, mathematics and popular media knowledge but to no avail. Howard installs a "borrowed" Mars Rover camera to spy on Sheldon. Finding the camera, he fakes a video of himself in the room under attack by an alien creature after he opens a small wormhole to find life in the 44th parallel universe, the first "43" being lifeless. He admonishes them for spying and reveals he relaxes in the room from his difficulties in daily life, but will not explain "43" because they don't need or deserve to know. In the final scene, the audience sees Sheldon playing with a hacky sack in the room: "43" is his maximum number of consecutive hits.