Sheldon tries to cure his phobia of birds, while Leonard and Penny experiment with hanging out alone.
Sheldon has a phobia of birds? Since When?
Sheldon was treed by a chicken as a child.
I loved just looking at that blue jay. It was so pretty, haha. And very cute when Sheldon finally warmed up to it 
I loved how Amy was making all those snide remarks too.
On the other hand, was I the only one who’s wanted to slap Leonard a few times this past season? I mean, has he always been this…“good-bad guy?” I really don’t remember it from previous seasons.
I think that was actually a Black-throated Magpie, native to Mexico. It was much too big and long-tailed to be a Blue jay.
Ah, yeah, definitely looks like it. I thought it was pretty big.
definitely a body double bird. I see bluejays daily and that was no bluejay.
I loved Penny’s face when Leonard expected her to pay her own way.
When Sheldon closed the drapes on the bird at the beginning, I thought they would center a joke around Sheldon’s “cage” being covered. Like he would setlle down and fall asleep on a newspaper or something.
I thought Penny came off worse. Leonard said some uncomplimentary things to her, but didn’t sabotage her in front of the guy she was after. Penny shot Leonard down in front of…
…Laura.
And it was an odd episode for Sheldon. His comments about wearing glitter to play Vegas or a t-shirt to drink wine around a burning trash can evidenced an awareness of cultural tropes that was distinctly out of character.
Not to mention his sudden apparent pride in his native state. This is the second episode this seson in which he’s made a reference to himself as a Texan. I’d always thought he regarded his home state as an intellectual wasteland he was happy to flee.
I loved the line about half of Leonard’s porn collection being animated.
I always thought that Sheldon was perfectly well aware of society and its rules but chooses not to play by them because he’s such a singular intellect. He’s not sheltered, he’s just unabashedly pretentious. Sure there may be shortcomings as a result of being a child genius. One trait is that he can’t detect sarcasm, but he at least understands the idea of sarcasm and how/why it operates.
As for Texas? It’s a wonderful dichotomy to have. Leonard was the son of east-coast intellectuals and Sheldon a kid from the trailer park. As brilliant as nature has blessed Sheldon, you can’t deny the nurture he received as being a homespun texan well versed in the ways of football, shooting, and all sorts of white trashery. he also has good manners, and I wouldn’t be surprised if he had a few weeks of cotillion training in him.
LEONARD - ugh. I hate him. Jackassery to the nth degree. How many times can you explain to an ex that the only reason you did anything in the relationship was to get at her goodies? How many times can you get away with it before any sort of lashback? We get it. You are the cassanova of all nerds. Hot women everywhere in the BBT universe are charmed by your nonthreatening nature and “good guy” vibes.
Except… yeah. he’s not a good guy. he’s a terrible guy. he’s a jackass. he misleads hot nerds. he cheats on his serious long-distance gf. he’s an intellectual elitist to penny. he couldn’t remember laura’s name. most strikingly - often he’s a completely unnecessary d-bag to sheldon. I just don’t get it. I know that Leonard is supposed to be the straight man, but i just see a completely unlikable character squinting and floundering across the screen.
Did anyone else catach Raj’s comment about getting a tatoo:
I just betcha do, sweetie.
And here’s the Barenaked Ladies commercial for Big Bang in syndication Five Nights A Week
The line “and Howard Wolowitz” cracks me up. It just fits the music perfectly.
Actually, all he said was “I go back and forth.” A lot more innocent.
He does. Sheldon is quite a good dancer. His mother made him. This came out in Season 4’s episode “The Agreement Dissection.”
Another bad episode…I think that makes three for me now.
I thought Leonard was very uncharacteristically asshole-y and thought Sheldon and bird was just painfully unfunny.
Oh well…try again next week
I did not think that this was a very good episode, myself. The “Sheldon and the bird” segment was only mildly amusing. Like you pointed out, Leonard is getting to be a pit of a jerk – at one point in his life, I suppose that he could complain about never having a “hot woman”, but he certainly can’t use that excuse for boorish behavior now!
I think Leonard’s behavior is typical of someone who’s rarely had his way with women and then finally gets some. He’s coming out of his shell but hasn’t quite found his footing, hence the smarmy douchebaggery. He seems to think acting that way is what women like (and let’s face it, too many of them do). And I’m sure he’s still smarting at being dumped by Penny which would explain the potshots - hell, the ex-wife and I do the same thing even though we get along like Leonard and Penny. 
Good point!
I liked this episode. The back and forth between Leonard and Penny was funny, and Sheldon and the bird had its moments too.
But the best line of the show for me was Wolowitz when they were about to begin watching Star Wars: “If we don’t start soon, George Lucas is gonna change it again…”
I wondered about that myself, considering that their range doesn’t include Southern California.
Leonard is becoming a less and less likable character. At first it was just the occasional fed-up remark to Sheldon or argument with Penny, and otherwise he was a lovable geek. Not anymore. It’s like now that Howard is engaged, Howard’s sleaziness has found a new home in Leonard, and this has made Leonard decide that he may as well become boring, rude, and disloyal as well.
The part with Sheldon and the bird was amusing, though. And Raj’s comment about getting a hummingbird (or a dolphin) tattoo was one of the highlights of this episode, for me anyway.