TEXT: Scene: The Apartment. Raj: Howard's capsule should be re-entering the atmosphere any minute. Leonard: It'll be good to have him back. Raj: The Fantastic Four reunited. Sheldon: Yeah, you had a good run, Fake Wolowitz. We'll remember you with nostalgic fondness, the way we do the dial-up modem, the VHS tape, or, or Leonard's gym membership. Raj: We're not kicking him out. Stuart and I have become good friends. Sheldon: Okay, one vote for, one vote against. Leonard, you're the tiebreaker. Leonard: I don't have a problem with Stuart. Besides, he gives us a twenty percent discount at his comic book store. Sheldon: Well, I don't sell my friendship that cheaply. Stuart: I can go thirty. Sheldon: Welcome aboard, old chum. Raj: Okay, the NASA Web site says Howard's final descent has begun. Sheldon: He left a boy, he returns a boy-sized hero. Scene: The Soyuz Capsule. Howard is screaming. Dimitri: Loops, calm down! Howard (singing): Baruch atah, Adonai, Eloheinu. Melech haolam, hamotzi. Lechem min haaretz Mike: What's that? Howard: The Jewish prayer for eating bread! We don't have one for falling out of space! We did it! We're on the ground! We survived! Mike: That was just the parachute. We still have another six miles to go. (Howard screams again) Credits sequence. Scene: The Airport Arrivals Hall. Bernadette: Waiting for my husband. Man in Suit: That's nice. Bernadette: He's coming back from outer space. Man in Suit: I think this flight's coming from Houston. Bernadette: No, I mean, he... Never mind. There he is! Howie! Various others (all at once): Howie! Howie! Howard: Whoa, thank you. Great to be back on Earth.
SUMMARY:
After they lose badly to Penny and Amy at Pictionary and Penny declares she can beat them at anything, Sheldon and Leonard challenge the women to a series of games and the girls proceed to easily defeat the boys each time. Meanwhile, Howard returns to Earth and expects a grand welcome from friends and public, but only Bernadette greets him at the airport, the grand public welcome being reserved for Howie Mandel, who was on the plane with him and doesn't believe that Howard is actually an astronaut. The couple go to Bernadette's apartment to enjoy their "honeymoon" which is cut short when Bernadette quickly falls asleep, having taken Benadryl for her cold. Howard leaves for his home, where he is shocked to discover his mother having an affair with his (now former) dentist. At Raj's apartment he finds Stuart now stays with Raj and has replaced him as Raj's best friend, both even planning to go to a Sound of Music singalong, something he used to only do with Howard. He leaves for Leonard and Sheldon's apartment, but immediately exits when Leonard, Sheldon, Penny and Amy, still engaged in their contest, shoo him away. He finally ends up alone in a diner, where a waitress recognizes him from the news and gives him a free piece of pie. However, as he starts eating, he sneezes and realizes he caught Bernadette's cold.