TEXT: Scene: The apartment. Sheldon: Is anyone else troubled by the Spider-Man theme song? Leonard: Why would it trouble you? It's, like, your third favourite cartoon theme song. Sheldon: It is, right behind do-do-do-do-do Inspector Gadget., and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, heroes in a half-shell. Howard and Raj (together): Turtle power! Sheldon: However, the Spider-Man lyrics posit that Spider-Man, Spider-Man does whatever a spider can. Howard: Yeah, so? Sheldon: I can think of many things Spider-Man can't do that a spider can. One, crawl in your ear and die. Two, legally leave Guatemala without a passport. Three, have s*x with a spider. Raj: an we change the subject? Spiders give me the jeebie-jeebies. Howard: It's heebie-jeebies. Raj: I know, but that sounds anti-Semitic. Anyway, I was thinking we could have a little film festival tonight. The theme, movies that killed their franchises. Leonard: Oh. Like Jaws 4, Indiana Jones 4, Daredevil 1. Raj: Miss Congeniality 2: Armed and Fabulous. I mean, you know a movie's bad when my homegirl Sandy B can't save it. Leonard: Penny's working tonight, I'm in. Howard: Not me. I'm having dinner with Bernadette and her parents. Leonard: Fun. We know how much you love that. Howard: It's torture. Especially with her dad. We have nothing in common. Sheldon: You know what I like to do when I'm forced to speak with those beneath my intellectual station? I bring up an interesting topic, like the difference between Spider-Man and spiders. Howard: Thanks, Sheldon. I'll try that with my father-in-law. Sheldon: No, you can't use that one. That's mine. Uh, try this one for an ice-breaker. Uh, despite popular lore, there is no place in the continental United States, Alaska
SUMMARY:
Howard and Bernadette have dinner with her parents. He cannot start even a mundane conversation with his father-in-law as they have nothing in common. Bernadette asks her father to take Howard fishing to bond with him, and Howard and his father-in-law reluctantly accept. Howard, like Leonard and Raj, has no idea how to fish, so expert Penny teaches them the disgusting details. On the morning of the fishing trip, Howard and his father-in-law both admit their wives forced them into it. This actually bonds them, as they now share common ground (successful careers but dominating wives), and instead of fishing they visit the Palm Springs casino. Meanwhile, Amy comes down with flu. Sheldon reluctantly takes care of her, as their Relationship Agreement stipulates that either partner take care of the other when sick. Amy enjoys Sheldon's care as he never otherwise shows his caring and loving side. On recovering she feigns sickness so his care will continue, a lie exposed when Sheldon, concerned at Amy remaining sick despite his efforts, has her cheek swab cultured in a lab, revealing her recovery. Though he is reluctant to hurt her by doing so, she then enjoys him spanking her as a punishment.