Plot
The guys take Leonard on a road trip to Mexico for his bachelor party. Penny, Bernadette, and Amy have a "girls night." Amy wants to make a change. Penny calls her dad to tell him the news about her elopement. He shares some upsetting news.
Tropes
- Abusive Parents: Amy's mother locked her in "the sin closet" when she rebelled. It's Played for Laughs.
- The Alcoholic: Penny's brother just got his tenth "one month sober" chip.(Your mom) can make a necklace out of them.
- The Bus Came Back: Penny's father Wyatt returns in this episode after his first appearance in Season 4.
- Epic Fail: In trying to replace a flat tire, the guys end up burning down the van.
- Flushing Toilet, Screaming Shower: Disscussed; when Penny is asked if she wants to go to a strip club for their girls night, she responds that if she wants to see a naked dancing man, she just flushes the toilet while Leonard is in the shower.
- Gilligan Cut: Sheldon asks how the guys are going to get him to go along in their trip to Mexico. Cut to Sheldon tied up and blindfolded as the others load him into the van.
- Misery Poker: The episode ends with Penny, Leonard, and Sheldon comparing the hands they had been dealt. Leonard wins.
- Percussive Maintenance: In this case, Percussive Shock.
- Photographic Memory: Thanks to his eidetic memory, Sheldon knows the lyrics and music to "We Will Rock You." Leonard is not the least bit impressed.
- Poisonous Captive: Sheldon really doesn't want to go to Mexico.
- The Precious, Precious Car: Howard borrowed Richard Feynman's old college van for the ride to Mexico. It ends up burning down.
- Science Hero: A mild example, as the guys use various physics principles to try and loosen the lug nuts.
- Shout-Out:
- To Jane Fonda: Sheldon posits that Feynman's van could have secret compartments filled with Jane Fonda workout videos, which Mexican customs would then consider to be contraband.
- To Star Trek: Amy signed a relationship agreement with Sheldon which, among other strange provisions, forbade any cosmetic surgery except to look like a Klingon.
- Stag Party: The guys plan to give Leonard a belated bachelor party. It gets sidetracked by a flat tire that they try to replace and leads to the van burning down.
- There Is No Kill Like Overkill: When everything else fails to loosen the bolt from the flat tire, the guys make some thermite and try to burn it out. It ends up setting the whole van ablaze.
