'The Big Bang Theory' Recap: Of Pomp, Circumstance, Drones, and Cocoa Kisses

Here’s the good, the great, and the best of “The Graduation Transmission,” the 22nd episode of The Big Bang Theory’s eighth season:

The Good

Fun with drones! No, that’s not the name of Sheldon’s new podcast; it’s how Raj, Howard, and Sheldon are going to spend the episode. Well, not drones, plural, but one drone, that is, if the science wizards can figure out exactly how to get the drone operational.

Turns out, despite the genius-level intellects and, on Howard’s part, alleged technical and engineering skills, they can’t, and even after taking it apart, putting it back together, and laughing at Bernadette’s suggestion that they call tech support, the assembled friends can’t get the drone to fly around Sheldon and Leonard’s apartment.

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Suddenly, it takes off on its own, crashing into things and breaking them, flying dangerously close to their heads. But doesn’t it make us all feel better that a man who wants to solve string theory can just barely avoid getting clobbered by a toy?

The Great

Leonard has been invited to give the commencement address at his high school in New Jersey, and he’s invited Penny along to check out his old stomping grounds (including, he says, the exact spot where he used to get stomped). On their way to the airport, he gets a text that their flight has been canceled, as have their chances of catching another flight, because… storms.

But Penny, in one of her sweetest fiancée acts, calls Leonard’s alma mater and arranges for him to give his speech to the graduates via Skype. She even buys him a cap and gown — albeit a “sexy graduate” cap and gown from a costume store — and sits by his side as he looks into his laptop to speak to his fellow New Jerseyans. It’s one of the squee-ier moments in the couple’s recent romantic history.

And then there’s Leonard’s speech itself. After delivering an address so clichéd that he bores himself (and Penny, who, when he turns Skype on her, can be seen barely conscious), Leonard speaks from the heart instead. He tells the unpopular kids that what they’re doing now, be it building computers or practicing their cellos, is what will make them interesting and fun to know as they get older. “And when people do finally notice you, they’re going to find someone a lot cooler than they thought,” he says.

And to the graduates who were popular in high school?

Leonard: “It’s over, sorry.”

The Best

At last, a great episode for Raj, one of his best ever, in fact. After buying a very expensive drone, Raj gets a call from Papa Koothrappali, who is displeased to have received a bill that shows Raj spent a month’s rent on a toy helicopter. Raj explains that the purchase is a way to treat himself since he not only misses his family in India, but now has to deal with his parents’ impending divorce. Dr. K Sr. isn’t having any of his baby boy’s manipulation, however, and tells him he is cut off. He even tells him he’s cut off by cutting Raj off mid-sentence, prompting Raj to ask hopefully if he’s cutting off his speech or his cashflow… Dr. K says it’s all about the benjamins.

But Raj, freaked out at the prospect of having to live by the same financial standards as his pals — i.e. no more pricey, gadget-y goodies on mommy and daddy’s dime — isn’t ready to give up so quickly. He calls Mama K, ostensibly to make sure she’s OK. He also happens to mention that his father has cut his allowance, and gets his mom to think it’s because the newly-single Mr. K wants more disposable cash to spend on the many women she imagines (with a prompt from her loving son) her estranged hubs is squiring around town. And Raj’s emotional maneuvering — delivered in the sweet little boy voice he knows will pierce his mom’s heart — works: Pitted against her husband, she promises Raj an even bigger allowance.

“Helicopters for everybody!” Raj tells Leonard and Howard.

Later, he gets another call from his father, who’s now upset that something Raj said to his mother has her thinking Dr. K is a playboy. Raj plays dumb, but suggests his mother has a crazy imagination. That’s why, he tells his dad, he’s so happy he takes after him. Why, if he hadn’t been inspired by such a role model as his father, he’d never be a successful scientist.

Yep, Dr. K, like his wife before him, allows his son to wrap him around his little finger, and Raj ends the episode not only not cut off, but with two sizable stipends.

“Who wants to go to Vegas in a real helicopter?!” Raj offers his friends.

Big Bang Bits:

* Sheldon, cautioning Leonard to be careful around all those “pointy hats” that will be thrown in the air at the graduation ceremony: “It’s all pomp and circumstance until someone loses an eye.”

* Sheldon, responding to Leonard’s dismissal of his pointy hat concerns: “I wonder if they make ‘I told you so’ cards in Braille?”

* There has been far too little screen time for Amy Farrah Fowler in the last two episodes, and turns out there’s a very sad reason for that: Star Mayim Bialik shared via her blog that her father died earlier this month.

* We learn that another of Raj’s allowance purchases was a T-shirt cannon.

* The scene with Leonard modeling his super short graduation gown, sans pants, but with sneakers? That belongs on the BBT greatest hits reel.

* Howard’s still trying to defend the failure of his zero-gravity toilet. “It just wasn’t designed for Russian cosmonauts and their potato-based diets,” he tells Sheldon.

* Sheldon to Raj, about Howard’s engineering skills: “He can solve any problem, as long as it doesn’t originate in a Russian man’s colon.”

* Trivia: Leonard’s first kiss, at age 19, was with Geraldine Cocoa.

* There are just two episodes remaining in Season 8, with the season finale set to air on May 7.

The Big Bang Theory airs Thursdays at 8 p.m. on CBS.