The Recollection Dissipation Season 10, Episode 20 -  Aired April 6, 2017

The Recollection Dissipation

When Sheldon double books himself and must work on projects with the guys and with Amy on the same day, he wears himself down and catches the flu. After Sheldon takes cold medicine to power through the illness, he loses track of an entire day ... and a notebook containing classified information.

Meanwhile, Bernadette has mixed feelings as her maternity leave comes to an end, while Howard worries that he did something to anger Bernadette.

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Guest Stars: Kevin Sussman as Stuart, Joel Murray as Doug

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

Director: Mark Cendrowski

Viewers: 12.59 million Households Rating: 8.5/15 Adults 18-49 Rating: 2.7/11

Available on iTunes

Episode Notes

  • The title refers to Sheldon's inability to remember the day he spent working on projects with Leonard and Howard, and Amy.

> Soft Kitty

When Sheldon finally admits he is sick and lets Amy take care of him, he gets her to sing "Soft Kitty" to him in three different languages (English, German and Mandarin) while playing an autoharp. Sheldon then asks Amy to sing the song in the Navajo language, though the episode ends before we see Amy do that.

Episode Quotes

Penny: Hey, since when do you do laundry on a Thursday?
Sheldon: Oh, I had an accident at work, I slipped and fell on my soup sack.
Penny: You know, there was a time I would say "What's a soup sack?" But I'm glad we're past that.

Penny: You know, there was a time I would say "God bless you," and then you would say "If you must invoke an imaginary deity, how about Thor?" And I would say, "How do you know I didn't mean Thor?" And then you would say "Touche," and that there ends the tale of why I no longer say "God bless you."
Sheldon: Well, we have had some fun, haven't we?
Penny: Oh, yeah.

Raj: Does this place look familiar?
Sheldon: It's hard to say.
Bartender: Hey, Sheldon's back!
Everybody: Sheldon!
Sheldon: It's getting clearer.

Stuart: Oh, thanks again for letting me use your laptop last night.
Bernadette: No problem.
Stuart: Was just doing my taxes.
Bernadette: Okay.
Stuart: Actually, if I could if I could just check one more-
Bernadette: Already cleared the browser history.
Stuart: You're a good woman.

Sheldon: My pants are missing, I don't remember anything. Penny, this is your youth. What do I do?

News Stories

Title Date Posted
1020 'The Recollection Dissipation' Press Release March 28, 2017

CBS has released the synopsis for the April 6 episode of The Big Bang Theory, "The Recollection Dissipation". Joel Murray (Dharma & Greg) guest stars as Doug in the episode.  Full story

Recap

In the apartment, Amy is confused when Leonard says he’ll be working with Sheldon the next day, as Sheldon had promised her he would work on their quantum perception project. When Sheldon arrives, Amy questions him about his double booking. Sheldon insists that he has a plan to work on both projects simultaneously. 

When Sheldon arrives at the lab after getting Amy up and running, he’s wearing a big backpack. Sheldon explains that it has access to water and soup, to keep him hydrated and fed without taking up too much time. Howard tells Sheldon they’re at a decision point on how to run the xenon stream, so he and Leonard tell Sheldon the pros & cons of their choices.  A little bit later, Sheldon arrives at Amy’s lab and tells her she’s got him for eight minutes. Amy says it’s silly to expect them to be able to do quality work if he keeps popping in and out like that, but at the whiteboard Sheldon has a number of good ideas for their project. 

Back with the guys in the lab, Howard and Leonard are arguing over the necessary RPM for the rate of spinning of the central axis. When Sheldon arrives, he gives them the right answer; they were both wrong. Later, Sheldon solves a problem on Amy’s board and rewards himself with a slurp of soup. Amy admits she was wrong about Sheldon being able to work on both projects, and later Leonard and Howard admit they were wrong as well. 

When Stuart goes in to Bernadette’s kitchen, he thanks her for letting him use his laptop last night. Bernadette says she’s trying to catch up on office emails before she goes back to work soon. When Stuart asks her how she’s feeling about her maternity leave coming to an end, Bernadette admits she’ll miss Halley but it’ll be nice to be out of the house and be intellectually stimulated. Bernadette thinks Halley will be in good hands with Stuart, her parents, and the daycare center. Still, Bernadette starts to get upset as she thinks about leaving Halley, and asks Stuart not to tell Howard how she’s feeling about returning to work. 

When Penny goes to the laundry room, she is surprised to find Sheldon there doing laundry on a Thursday. Sheldon explains he had an accident at work: he slipped and fell on his soup sack. After Sheldon sneezes twice, Penny wonders if he’s getting sick, but he insists he is too busy to get sick. Elsewhere, when Bernadette goes into her kitchen, she is surprised to find Stuart making dinner. Stuart says he was feeling bad about upsetting her earlier. Howard comes to the kitchen to say he was thinking of taking Halley to this zoo this weekend, so they could get in some family time before Bernadette goes back to work. When Howard mentions it’ll be easier for him to drop Halley off at daycare unless Bernadette wants to do it, she says she guesses it should be her but she sounds downbeat about the idea. 

The next morning, Sheldon is making toast for Amy, but she thinks he should go back to bed as he’s clearly sick. Sheldon concedes he might be a little under the weather, but it’s nothing some tea and cold medicine won’t fix. Amy thinks he should go to bed and get some sleep because she doesn’t want his germs around her. 

Later that day, Amy is taking care of Sheldon who’s under a blanket sleeping on the couch in Apartment 4A as Raj, Leonard and Penny watch on. When Amy wakes him up to ask him how he’s feeling, Sheldon has no idea how he got there or where the day has gone. Leonard says they came home from work and found him there; it’s now nine at night. Sheldon remembers Amy taking care of him in the morning and then he took cold medicine. Leonard admits Sheldon seemed loopy when he showed up at the lab. When Sheldon looks through his bag, he realizes his notebook which contains classified information about the Air Force project is missing. 

When Howard goes into the kitchen to talk to Stuart, he says Bernadette has being acting weird lately and he wonders if she’s said anything to Stuart. When Stuart insists she hasn’t said a word to him, Howard wonders what he might have done to anger Bernadette. Howard admits that six years ago he got a call to say that Bernadette’s aunt died, which he never passed on. Worse than that, he kept sending Bernadette Christmas cards from the deceased relative. 

In the apartment, Penny and Amy haven’t been able to find Sheldon’s notebook. Amy can’t understand how Sheldon could not remember a whole day. When Sheldon, Leonard and Raj return from 4B without the notebook, Sheldon thinks he’s going to prison for breaching his security clearance. When Amy asks if Sheldon can remember anything, he says he’s trying. Raj has the idea to look at Sheldon’s phone to see if it tracked him where he went. When he looks through the phone, Raj can see every place Sheldon went. The phone’s logs show that Sheldon went from the apartment to the university to a cowboy bar, prompting Sheldon to flash back to him dancing at a bar. 

When Howard goes into the kitchen to talk to Bernadette, she’s busy on her laptop. Bernadette wants to finish what she’s working on, but it’s clear Howard has something on his mind. When he admits it feels like something is bothering her lately, she insists it’s nothing to do with him. Bernadette admits she’s having a tough time about going back to work as it feels like there’s no right option; either she “abandons” Halley or gives up her career prospects. Howard says he doesn’t know the right choice either, but whatever they choose they can always change their minds if they’re unhappy. Howard then takes the opportunity to break the news about Bernadette’s aunt. 

When the guys arrive at the country bar where Sheldon was earlier, everybody knows his name. It turns out Sheldon even bought a round for the whole house. When Sheldon asks the bartender if he left a notebook there, the guy hands back the “top secret quantum guidance system” notebook. Evidently, Sheldon had told everybody all about their secret project; although he did make them pinky swear not to tell anyone else. After they guys get out of the bar in a hurry, the bartender erases work Sheldon did on the bar’s chalkboard. 

Back in their apartment, Sheldon thanks Amy for making him tea, which he’s drinking out of his hydration backpack. When Amy asks Sheldon if he needs anything else, he tells her she knows exactly what he needs. Amy gets out a keyboard and plays Soft Kitty for him - in English, German and Mandarin.