The Cushion Saturation Season 2, Episode 16 -  Aired March 2, 2009

The Cushion Saturation

Sheldon's world is turned upside down when Penny damages his "spot" by accidentally shooting a paintball gun at his prized couch cushion. Penny and Leonard struggle to help a difficult Sheldon through this testing time. Meanwhile, Wolowitz and Leslie Winkle start dating after a paintballing encounter of their own.

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Guest Stars: Sara Gilbert as Leslie Winkle, Carol Ann Susi as Mrs. Wolowitz

Writers: Chuck Lorre (Story), Bill Prady (Teleplay), Lee Aronsohn (Teleplay)

Director: Mark Cendrowski

Viewers: 10.8 million Households Rating: 6.6/10 Adults 18-49 Rating: 3.9/10

Available on iTunes

Episode Notes

  • The title refences Sheldon's couch cushion which Penny accidentally shot with a paintball gun.

> Sheldon's Spot

Sheldon describes his spot on the couch as a single point of consistency in an ever-changing world. He says if his life were expressed as a function on a four-dimensional Cartesian coordinate system, that spot at the moment he first sat on it would be 0,0,0,0.

> Weekly Calendar

Leonard tells Sheldon the cashew chicken he gets him on Monday nights isn't from Szechuan Palace, which closed down two years earlier, but Golden Dragon. Sheldon previously mentioned Monday night's are Thai food from Siam Palace, though it's not clear if they alternate.

Episode Quotes

Howard: [looking at his caller ID] Ooh, looks like I'm gonna have sex tonight. [answering phone] Hey, baby...
Penny: His right hand is calling him?

Penny: What are we gonna do?
Leonard: We? No, no, no. You had your chance to be "we" for like a year and a half now. Right now, you are you and you are screwed!

Leslie: Boy, your heart's racing. I must've really gotten you going.
Wolowitz: Well, it's partly you, partly my transient idiopathic arrhythmia.
Leslie: Sexy.

Raj: We need a plan. How about Operation Hammer of the Gods?
Leonard: I forget, which one is Hammer of the Gods?
Raj: We hide behind the dumpsters in the parking lot and ambush people when they come to pee.

Sheldon: Excuse me, but the problem is not solved. If your head had been accidentally amputated and we transplanted a dog's head in its place, would that be problem solved?
Leonard: If it were your head it would be.

Recap

The guys are losing badly at paintball and Sheldon blames it on the others' refusal to attend his strategy meeting. After everybody leaves Howard behind to cover them, Leslie Winkle arrives and soon starts kissing Howard. At the school's cafeteria, the guys are surprised when Leslie comes over to talk to Howard, who soon admits that he hooked up with Leslie.

Needing help with her laptop, Penny goes over to Sheldon and Leonard's apartment and makes the mistake of sitting in Sheldon's spot. After lecturing her on the importance of his spot, Sheldon leaves, while Leonard continues to help Penny with her laptop. When Penny notices the paintball gun, she accidentally shoots Sheldon's couch cushion. Elsewhere, Howard and Leslie are in bed when Howard's mother comes home.

After Penny and Leonard fail to clean Sheldon's cushion, they flip the couch cushion over hoping Sheldon will not realize. When he returns home and sits in his spot, he immediately senses something is not right and turns the cushion over to the huge paint blot. Penny promises to take the cushion to get cleaned, but in the meantime Sheldon must find somewhere else to sit.

After Howard answers a booty call from Leslie, he is pressured into attending her sister's wedding with Leslie using sex as leverage to get her way. When Sheldon's cushion returns from the dry cleaners, he is still not happy about his spot and will not sit on it. To distract him from the problem with his cushion, Leonard admits that Sheldon's favored Chinese restaurant has in fact been closed for two years and Leonard has been getting food elsewhere and passing it off as Szechuan Palace food.

When Penny joins the guys for their weekend paintball excursion, Sheldon shoots Penny to avenge his cushion. Since Penny can't shoot now, Leonard shoots Sheldon for him, who breaks the rules and kills Leonard anyway. After this, the rest of the gang decide to call off paintball and go to Denny's.