Episode Guide :: Season 3

• 301
  The Electric Can Opener Fluctuation September 21, 2009
• 302
  The Jiminy Conjecture September 28, 2009
• 303
  The Gothowitz Deviation October 5, 2009
• 304
  The Pirate Solution October 12, 2009
• 305
  The Creepy Candy Coating Corollary October 19, 2009
• 306
  The Cornhusker Vortex November 2, 2009
• 307
  The Guitarist Amplification November 9, 2009
• 308
  The Adhesive Duck Deficiency November 16, 2009
• 309
  The Vengeance Formulation November 23, 2009
• 310
  The Gorilla Experiment December 7, 2009
• 311
  The Maternal Congruence December 14, 2009
• 312
  The Psychic Vortex January 11, 2010
• 313
  The Bozeman Reaction January 18, 2010
• 314
  The Einstein Approximation February 1, 2010
• 315
  The Large Hadron Collision February 8, 2010
• 316
  The Excelsior Acquisition March 1, 2010
• 317
  The Precious Fragmentation March 8, 2010
• 318
  The Pants Alternative March 22, 2010
• 319
  The Wheaton Recurrence April 12, 2010
• 320
  The Spaghetti Catalyst May 3, 2010
• 321
  The Plimpton Stimulation May 10, 2010
• 322
  The Staircase Implementation May 17, 2010
• 323
  The Lunar Excitation May 24, 2010

Season Recap

The Big Bang Theory's third season begins as the guys return from their three month expedition to the Arctic. After Sheldon learns that Leonard, Howard and Raj tampered with his evidence, he flees back to Texas. Sheldon quickly feels uncomfortable at home with his religious mother and returns to Pasadena. Up on Leonard's return from the Arctic, he and Penny are quick to begin a relationship. Their relationship continues through most of the season, ending when Leonard tells Penny he loves her - a situation not helped by the interference of Wil Wheaton.

Sheldon and Penny's strange friendship would continue to grow through the season, with Sheldon coming to the aid of an injured Penny and later his valiant attempts to teach her a little physics. Howard meets Bernadette Rostenkowski during the third season, with both of them bonding over their overbearing and interfering mothers. Howard and Bernadette continued to date even after Howard proposed in the early stage of their relationship. Bernadette abruptly broke things off with Howard towards the end of the season, though the reason wasn't revealed until next year.

In the third season finale, Sheldon reluctantly goes on a blind date after Howard threatens him with a dirty sock. Sheldon's blind date was with Amy Farrah Fowler, a neurobiologist whose Internet dating profile matched the one Howard and Raj set up for Sheldon without his permission. When Amy reveals she is only there because she has an agreement with her mother to date once year and that all forms of physical contact, up to and including coitus, are off the table, Sheldon offers to buy her a beverage.

The Big Bang Theory's third season contained twenty-three episodes aired between September 21, 2009 and May 24, 2010. For its third season, The Big Bang Theory moved to the Mondays at 9:30 slot on CBS, following the then-#1 sitcom Two and a Half Men. The show grew in popularity and finished the season as the #12 ranked show on TV.