The Holiday Summation Season 10, Episode 12 -  Aired January 5, 2017

The Holiday Summation

When the gang gets together for the first time in the New Year, they catch each other up on their holidays. Sheldon and Amy recount the tale of their trip to Texas to see Sheldon's mother, Mary; Leonard and Penny chronicle their struggle with a Christmas tree, and Bernadette describes her first few days caring for Halley.

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Guest Stars: Kevin Sussman as Stuart, Laurie Metcalf as Mary Cooper, Pamela Adlon as Halley (O.S.)

Writers: Steven Molaro (Story), Eric Kaplan (Story), Tara Hernandez (Story), Steve Holland (Teleplay), Maria Ferrari (Teleplay), Jeremy Howe (Teleplay)

Director: Mark Cendrowski

Viewers: 16.8 million Households Rating: 10.5/17 Adults 18-49 Rating: 3.6/13

Available on iTunes

Episode Lists

  • Christmas Episodes Christmas Episodes

    Celebrate Christmas with Sheldon, Leonard, Penny, Howard, Raj, Amy and Bernadette in these classic Christmas episodes of The Big Bang Theory.

Episode Notes

  • The title refers to the gang sharing the stories of what they did over the holiday season.

Episode Quotes

Amy: Well, uh, Howard and Bernadette had their baby.
Mary Cooper: (gasps) Oh, that's wonderful! Now, have they decided to raise it Jewish or regular?
Sheldon: Welcome to Texas.

Bernadette: Everyone's a better mom than me.
Raj: Oh, don't take it so personally, maybe your baby's just a jerk.

Mary Cooper: Sheldon, if you're trying to prove me wrong, the tighty-whities on your head ain't changing my mind.

Sheldon: Oh, good Lord! Is that mistletoe? Don't you maniacs own a calendar?

Leonard: See you guys at work.
Raj: Be there bright and early.
Howard: Not me, paternity leave.
Sheldon: Oh! A small human wreaks havoc on his wife's genitals and he gets time off.
Howard: With pay, sucka!

News Stories

Title Date Posted
1012 'The Holiday Summation' Press Release December 20, 2016

CBS has issued the press release for the next episode of The Big Bang Theory, "The Holiday Summation", which airs Thursday, January 5. Laurie Metcalf reprises her role as Sheldon's mother, Mary Cooper.  Full story

Recap

In the apartment, Penny is preparing snacks as Leonard puts away their Christmas decorations before Sheldon shows up. When Sheldon and Amy arrive, they say they didn’t have a great time visiting his mother in Texas over the holidays. 

At the kitchenette, Sheldon tells Leonard and Penny the story of his trip with Amy see Mary. Flashing back to their drive from the airport, Amy points out this trip might be a good time to tell Mary that they’re living together. Sheldon doesn’t want a religious lecture, but Amy thinks there might not be one. Later, Sheldon and Amy sit down with Mary for dinner as she says grace. After they fill Mary in on the latest developments back home, Amy and Sheldon tell Mary they’re living together. When Mary thanks them for letting her know and says she’s thrilled, Sheldon is surprised there’s no judgmental lecture. Mary admits would prefer they weren’t living out of wedlock, but given Sheldon’s “special circumstances” she’s happy for them. Sheldon is offended by Mary’s suggestion that he would have lived his life alone, so he storms off. 

Sheldon tries to tell Leonard and Penny what happened next, even though he wasn’t in the room and couldn’t hear Amy and Mary were saying. Amy takes over and tells them she and Mary were in the living room, wondering whether somebody should go check on Sheldon. Mary thinks she should go as she was the one who upset Sheldon, but she’s not going to. When Sheldon comes out wearing scuba diving fins and with underpants on his head, he says he’s being the weirdo his mother thought him to be. Sheldon is upset at Amy for taking Mary’s side, especially since Mary was effectively saying Amy’s a weirdo too. 

Amy explains that they then got out of Mary’s house for a while by going for a drive. Amy tries to comfort Sheldon for his mother making him feel bad. When Amy says they should not let this ruin the trip, Sheldon says he regrets telling his mother they were living together. Amy admits she had already talked it over with Mary. Sheldon is offended that Amy thinks he can’t manage his own life. Amy tells him they’re in a relationship so they should help each other with their shortcomings. 

Back in the present, Howard and Bernadette arrive at the apartment with Halley and their two “sherpas”, Stuart and Raj. After they Howard puts a sleeping Halley in Leonard and Penny’s room, Sheldon and Penny put the food out. Sheldon wants to catch Bernadette up on their trip to Texas, from the beginning, but Penny interrupts and gives her the abridged version. Sheldon continues the story: He realizes his mother thinks of him as a child because he’s never had a rebellious phase, so he gets an earring, Mary makes him take it out, Amy puts alcohol on it ... and here they are. 

When Howard asks Leonard and Penny about their Christmas break, they explain that they had a big fight - perhaps the worst one they’ve had. The fight happened when Penny watched two episodes of Luke Cage without Leonard, but as they explain they were already on edge because of the tree: Leonard and Penny are dressed in Christmas costumes as they driving around in the daytime, when Penny finds a place where they’ll let you cut down your own Christmas tree. Hours later, they’re both covered in dirt and think it was a terrible idea. They want to stop fighting and salvage their evening, but when they stop at traffic lights the tree flies forward from the roof of the car and covers the windshield. Back home, they struggle to carry the tree up the stairs of the apartment building. When they eventually get it upstairs, it starts to rustles and animal noises can be heard from the tree. 

Back in the present, Leonard says they dumped the tree in the elevator shaft. Sheldon wants to ask about Bernadette’s baby, so long as she promises he won’t be forced to touch it. Bernadette says it’s been wonderful, but the story she tells them is less than happy: As Bernadette struggles to get Halley to stop crying, Howard, Raj and Stuart arrive home with baby products. When the baby starts crying again, Stuart goes to take care of it. Once they hear that Stuart got the baby to stop crying, Bernadette feels like a failure as a mother. In the present, Sheldon wonders how the story ended. When Leonard asks Stuart how he got the baby to sleep, he says he was just talking to Halley - it’s been said his voice puts people to sleep. Howard says it’s been hard to sleep with all the crying. He tells them about how he tried to comfort a crying Bernadette who couldn’t get Halley to sleep. 

Sheldon reads Bernadette a statistic from the Internet that 80% of new mothers experience “baby blues”. She feels comforted and admits that things have started to improve: When Howard checks on Halley, he finds Bernadette sharing a crib with the baby who is finally fast asleep. After Howard asks if it’s okay if he goes to bed, Bernadette says she think she’ll stay in the crib. Howard is proud of Bernadette and says he loves both his girls. Back in the present, Raj asks Stuart about his holidays. Stuart tells them he visited his grandmother in Bakersfield, but as soon as he starts talking everyone pretends to fall asleep. 

As everybody leaves Leonard and Penny’s apartment at the end of the night, Leonard says he’ll see them at work tomorrow. Howard points out he won’t be there, as he’s on paid paternity leave. After closing the door, Howard immediately comes back. He forgot the baby. He is still new to this.