
Mensa-fied best friends and roommates Leonard and Sheldon, physicists who work at the California Institute of Technology, may be able to tell everybody more than they want to know about quantum physics, but getting through most basic social situations, especially ones involving women, totally baffles them. How lucky, then, that babe-alicious waitress/aspiring actress Penny moves in next door. Frequently seen hanging out with Leonard and Sheldon are friends and fellow Caltech scientists Wolowitz and Koothrappali. Will worlds collide? Does Einstein theorize in the woods?

Raj wants a girlfriend, so Penny introduces him to a woman he can communicate with.

Wil Wheaton invites Leonard and Sheldon to a party at his house; Howard receives an opportunity.

Howard's mom winds up in the hospital after hearing news of her son's engagement to Bernadette.

Sheldon finds himself competing with the gang for his mother's (Laurie Metcalf) attention when she visits.