Well after the series signed off in 2019,The Big Bang Theoryremains one of television’s most successful sitcoms, even coming in as2024’s “most-binged title” in streaming. While some elements of the showhaven’t aged well, it’s hard to deny that the series consistently delivereddownright hilarious momentsin its 12-season run. If there’s one fault to be had, it’s this: there’s a sameness to which characters interact with one another. It’s either a story that embraces the entire gang, an episode where the guys are together in one storyline and the girls in another, or an episode that switches between the paired-off couples.
For example, it’s rare to see an episode where Sheldon (Jim Parsons) and Raj (Kunal Nayyar) are together, with the only one that springs immediately to mind being Season 8’s “The Expedition Approximation,” which saw the pair test to see if they can handle an underground scientific expedition. That’s what makes Season 7’s “The Scavenger Vortex” one of the series' best. Not only does it mix up the pairings of the main cast to brilliant effect,it places them in a competitive scenario that exposes new sides to the characters that have never been revealed before.
Raj Releases the Hounds in ‘The Big Bang Theory’ Episode “The Scavenger Vortex”
At the Cheesecake Factory,Raj bemoans the fact that no one attended his mystery dinner, but he’s got something in mind that he’s sure will be better received: a scavenger hunt. The gang agrees, although Sheldon does need to confirm if they really agree it’s a good idea. They all gather at Leonard (Johnny Galecki) and Sheldon’s apartment, where Raj announces that they will need to solve ten puzzles to find a golden coin that he’s hidden somewhere in Pasadena. After some debate, they decide to make teams of two by drawing names from a hat, driven by no one wanting to be paired with the presumptive liability, which is Penny (Kaley Cuoco)… including Leonard.
With the teams selected — Leonard and Bernadette (Melissa Rauch), Howard (Simon Helberg) and Amy (Mayim Bialik), and, much to his chagrin, Sheldon and Penny — they are off. The teams need to assemble a puzzle to figure out the first clue, andit’s here that we first see just how the dynamics of the teams are going to play out. Penny is putting pieces together that fit, but Sheldon insists they should start with the edges. Amy, who shows exceptional skill with puzzles from having done many while growing up, tells Howard she’s sorry he didn’t get to team up with Bernadette, only he’s absolutely fine with it, likening playing a game with Bernadette to “getting in a steel cage with a wolverine.” Surely that can’t be true. Not sweet Bernie?!? Oh, yeah. Bernie’s a competitive badass. Leonard gets yelled at, belittled for slowing her down, and is generally pushed to think and move faster byThe Big Bang Theory’s version of Wolverine.
‘The Big Bang Theory’ Never Knew What To Do With One of Its Main Characters
It felt like this character was made to be laughed at, rather than laughed with.
The scavenger hunt takes the teams to the comic book store, the planetarium,the La Brea Tar Pits, and the Caltech geology lab. As the game progresses, Sheldon and Penny have their classic comedy duo dynamic. Leonard regrets more and more that he didn’t pair with Penny, and Bernadette convinces him that Penny believes he’s a pantywaist (but only to keep him from quitting the game and causing them to lose).Amy and Howard, on the other hand, are getting along fabulously, having discovered they share a mutual love forNeil Diamond, and spend the time between points singing along to “Sweet Caroline” in the car.
Eventually, Penny, Leonard, and Bernadette make their way back to the apartment (Sheldon stays behind in the laundry room, the second to last stop of the hunt, to pre-soak the shirt that Raj put a spot on to point to the next stop, “Sheldon’s spot”) — and tear the couch apart, only the coin isn’t there. Enter Raj, carrying a pipe and wearing a smoking jacket, who tells them to check their pockets. To their surprise, theyeachhave a gold coin,with Raj explaining that when they’re having fun together, they are already champions. Leonard can’t believe it, and Penny thinks it’s the stupidest thing she’s ever heard. Bernadette, denied a proper win, tells him that he sucks… “so hard.” As for Howard and Amy, they gave up on the game ages ago, and are seen in The Cheesecake Factory doing Neil Diamond karaoke together.
“The Scavenger Vortex” Features the Main Characters of ‘The Big Bang Theory’ at Their Funniest
Competition brings out the best inThe Big Bang Theorycast, with episodes like the brilliant Howard vs. Sheldon episode “The Parking Spot Escalation” being particular highlights. So an episode like “The Scavenger Vortex,” which sees the group as a whole competing against each otherandagainst their partners is as good as it gets. But what really makes the episode work as well as it does is in the pairings.The Penny and Sheldon pairinghas always been one of the series' greatest strengths, and the storyline allows for their disparate personalities to play off of one another to great effect.
The revelation is in the “new” pairings, the characters that rarely get paired together. The Leonard/Bernadette team brings out that edge in Bernadette that has always been teased at, but this time allows Rauch to go all-out with unfiltered perfection. Galecki plays the straight man arguably the best out of the entire cast, and while that’s usually up against Sheldon’s quirks, it’s refreshing to see him bring that skill alive with a different partner.
The Amy and Howard team, however, steals the show. The moment that they find that common interest in Neil Diamond, their relationship goes from tentative to infectiously joyful. They are so blissfully caught up in the fun that they’re having thatthe scavenger hunt becomes secondary. It’s not forced in the least, occurring innocently and so naturally that it catches us by surprise. Who knew Amy even had such a fun side to her, or that Howard would be the one to share in that? “The Scavenger Vortex” would be theonly time thatThe Big Bang Theoryexplored the comedy potentialin those pairings, which is a real shame given how well they came off. But it makes the episode a unique entry in its history, and truth be told, even if every episode is a winner, “The Scavenger Vortex” is the one with the coin in its pocket.
The Big Bang Theory
A woman who moves into an apartment across the hall from two brilliant but socially awkward physicists shows them how little they know about life outside of the laboratory.
