Will a hoverboard ever become a reality in my lifetime? Not if The Big Bang Theory gang is the only hope.

I've railed on The Big Bang Theory Season 8 pretty hard and thankfully that's come to an end. The Big Bang Theory Season 8 Episode 5 was hilarious from beginning to end and for the first time this season I laughed throughout the episode.

Watch The Big Bang Theory Season 8 Episode 5 Online

The separation of the girls and guys worked well and episodes almost always flow better when there are only two storylines happening. The guys got their nerd on, while we saw the girls break out of their shells and have fun. Or, in Penny's case -- she took off the party shoes and proved she's dedicated to bettering herself and doing well at her new job.

I loved the incorporation of movie references. Sheldon's excuse for each science retreat location was fitting, even if it's a bit surprising that he actually watched The Lake House. Perhaps, that was a date night movie he was forced to watch with Amy per the Relationship Agreement. As soon as a beach house was mentioned, you know Jaws was next.

As brilliant as the guys each are in their own right, when they get together it's a fiasco. At least, they didn't watch the Facebook movie. They had a little bit of restraint there. And, watching Back to the Future 2 actually made some sense given their goal of creating a hoverboard. It was research....

The funniest segment had to be when Sheldon was trying to figure out Biff's time travel timeline. In particular, Sheldon's fixation on using the proper tense stood out as a new twist on an old debate. It certainly has nothing to do with the hoverboard, but it's an amazing masterpiece of a sentence.

"Marty and Doc never had have had brought the time machine to 2015. That means 2015 Biff could also not had have had brought the almanac to 1955 Biff." - Sheldon

The ridiculousness continued with pigeons playing ping-pong, geographical body parts, negative reinforcement or positive punishment, and ended with Ghostbusters. The hoverboard will have to wait until another day. I hope they have a future science retreat to attempt to create it and perhaps with slightly less distractions. Though, what fun would that be?

The Las Vegas trip provided laughs as well. First of all, what the heck was Amy wearing? The yellow shirt and shoes were way too much even for her. If she ended up at the Barry Manilow cover band show, not even Copacabana would have justified that outfit. And, Penny's outfit ... whoa! Sexy. I'm not sure which was hotter that short black dress or her bikini at the end. It's a good thing Leonard wasn't there or she would never have gotten any studying done.

The twist with Bernadette and Amy partying it up and getting drunk, while Penny was the studious one was an entertaining switch. I'm looking forward to seeing this more serious Penny. She's played around long enough. Now it's time to see what she can really do when she puts in the effort.

She's put down the wine glass and hitting the books!

Penny turned the tables on Bernadette and Amy when she opened the curtains and let the sun shine in as she headed out to relax by the pool. Nice move.

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