There's really nothing that gets underneath Sheldon Cooper's skin like a blow to his ego.

On The Big Bang Theory Season 10 Episode 9, Sheldon has to deal with professional jealousy when one of his colleagues wins an important fellowship.

The Big Bang Theory Photos from "The Geology Elevation"

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That colleague? It's Bert – a character we've seen more and more of recently, and who went on a date with Amy during their break-up.

The thing is, Sheldon's feelings of jealousy are completely normal. Be honest. You've experienced something like this before, on some level, right? Of course you have.

But for Sheldon, dealing with that emotion is not an easy task, and it causes him to act out.

It speaks again to something I talk about a lot. Even though it's humorous, Sheldon's inability to deal with emotions is a genuine struggle for him. His friends try to explain that the feelings are normal, and in doing so even call out Penny's super short hair cut – maybe my favorite moment of this episode!

Naturally, Sheldon's attempts at expressing his anger backfire.

Leonard has this great idea to get Sheldon to throw a large rock in sort of a symbolic gesture of letting go, but instead that rock defeats him – and puts him in a lot of pain.

That's also pretty symbolic. The reason Sheldon is talking about the rock in the first place is because Bert is a geologist, and it was thanks to his research in that field that he won the fellowship.

If rock is so great, how come paper beats it?
Sheldon

Permalink: If rock is so great, how come paper beats it?

But as Sheldon tries to let go of the rock, the rock just hurts him worse. It crushes him.

I appreciate these kinds of episodes that focus on the academics, and as much as I think it's fun to see Sheldon struggle with an emotion like this and get hurt in ways you only see with slapstick comedy, I continue to want to see more focus on Leonard.

A similar storyline, but with Leonard as the one who is jealous, would be welcome. His character feels more and more marginalized.

Meanwhile, Howard's remote control Stephen Hawking doll is... well, it's something, isn't it?

Bernadette points out that the doll is inappropriate, but Howard isn't convinced. I think that's because he made the doll as someone who saw Stephen Hawking as a hero. But, he reevaluates and gets everyone else's opinion, and decides that yes, it's a bit much.

While you're bothering the world's most famous scientist, be sure to show him how funny he looks getting stuck under our dishwasher.
Bernadette

Permalink: While you're bothering the world's most famous scientist, be sure to show him how funny he...

Stephen Hawking, on the other hand, thinks a remote control doll of himself would be pretty fabulous.

Other thoughts:

I would be so excited if Howard won that award next time. It drives me crazy that he gets such a hard time about his degree and his field.
Doesn't it seem like a missed opportunity that we don't actually see the slapstick of Sheldon getting hurt?
I love that moment when Penny starts to talk some sense into Sheldon. Their friendship is one of my favorite things.

What did you think of this episode of The Big Bang Theory? Share your thoughts in the comments below!

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