Plot
When Sheldon's barber gets sick, his entire routine is turned upside down when he refuses to find someone else to cut his hair. Meanwhile, Howard is having second thoughts about going into space.Tropes:
- All for Nothing: Sheldon feels this way about all his efforts to keep a schedule and control over his life when he becomes six days late for his haircut and nothing bad happens to him, believing he was just wasting his time for nothing.
- Bring My Brown Pants: Howard asks Bernadette to send him more underwear after finding out he's going to be tested on the centrifuge.
- Continuity Nod: Penny mentions various things she's done for Sheldon when asking to let her cut his hair.
- Gag Haircut: As Penny is finishing cutting Sheldon's hair, he gets tickled by the clippers and moves his head, causing her to accidentally shear a bald spot on the back of his head. Penny decides to keep quiet and considers moving away.
- Go Mad from the Isolation: Howard does not respond well to survival training.Howard: I ate a butterfly. It was so small... beautiful... and I was so hungry.
- Hypocrite: Sheldon has frequently used the Roommate Agreement to stop Leonard from doing activities that he dislikes or to force Leonard to abide by his wishes. This episode marks the first time Leonard has actually bought up the Roommate Agreementnote to try and get Sheldon to stop an activity but Sheldon just dismisses it as part of his Not Himself mindset.
- I'll Be in My Bunk: After picturing Sheldon with long hair, Amy excuses herself.Amy: I'm gonna go brush my teeth. It might take a while.
- This references an earlier episode where Amy mentioned using an electric toothbrush as part of her "relaxation techniques for ladies". She called it Gerard.
- Insane Troll Logic: Sheldon visits his sick barber in the hospital and says studies show people in comas are aware of everything going on around them, believing his barber will wake up and give him a haircut if he simply tells him to. Naturally, this doesn't work.
- Magic Feather: When Sheldon moved away, his mother told him that she sent his "haircut records" to his new barber to ease his mind. Even as an adult, Sheldon has no idea there is no such thing as haircut records.
- Madness-Induced Omnivore: Howard goes to NASA for astronaut training, but he responds very badly to the survival training exercises. As he tells Bernadette in a video call, he got so hungry he ate a butterfly.
- Nepotism: When Sheldon's usual barber is sick, his replacement is his nephew. Sheldon thinks this is part of the rampant nepotism in the barber industry.Sheldon: To paraphrase T. S. Eliot, this is the way the world ends, not with a bang, but with a nephew.
- Not Himself: Not getting a haircut makes Sheldon apathetic. He doesn't mind if Leonard sits on his spot, he plays the bongos at three in the morning, even wears his Tuesday pajamas on another day.
- Screw This, I'm Outta Here: Sheldon runs off instead of getting a haircut from a substitute barber. He was willing to try at first, but quickly changed his mind when the substitute was about to talk about his kid, causing Sheldon to get up and leave with a sudden "nope!" before running away.
- Staircase Tumble: Sheldon is playing bongos while walking down the stairs. Bad idea.
- A Taste of Their Own Medicine: After Sheldon annoyed him by playing bongos late into the night, Leonard returns the favor after Sheldon hurts himself falling down the stairs and is laid up in Amy's couch.
- Woken Up at an Ungodly Hour: Due to his identity crisis brought on by not getting his hair cut, Sheldon starts playing bongos at three in the morning, to Leonard's annoyance.
