The Big Bang Theory S8E11 - "The Clean Room Infiltration" Recap

Raj can't host a Christmas party since his father will be coming to town and still feeling down about the divorce. Amy opts to host instead, having always wanted to host a Victoria era Christmas dinner. Before the party, Leonard and Howard are working together in a clean lab (that must stay clean) but become alarmed when they accidentally let a pigeon in. They call Raj for help getting the bird out so Raj must leave his father at Amy's place with Penny and Amy, who are preparing for the party.

Bernadette and Sheldon are driving to the Christmas dinner and Sheldon tells her that he and Amy have agree not to exchange gifts. But he decides to go against it by getting her one as revenge for making him go to a Christmas dinner he doesn't wish to attend and for kissing him in public under the mistletoe. He hopes that she will feel bad for not being to fulfil the social contract of giving him a gift since he will be getting her one. He's also hopeful that it'll keep her from ever making him celebrate the holiday again.

Leonard and Howard get into an argument catalysed by their inability to catch the bird and Raj tells them they need to work it out and stop fighting, having had enough fighting from his parents. Bernadette and Sheldon arrive at the mall, where he begins to search for a gift to make Amy feel small and worthless. Amy is boring Penny and Raj's father with her traditional Victorian era party games.

Howard and Leonard are still trying to catch the bird but Howard feels horrible when he injures the pigeon by blasting it with a fire extinguisher. It stirs up memories of accidentally killing a bird as a child. Leonard finds an article on doing CPR on a bird and Howard employs the method but when he goes to release the pigeon, a crow flies into the lab. Howard and Leonard are prepared to take the blame for comprising the integrity of the lab but when Penny calls and they tell her what happened, she convinces them to erase their names from the sign-up sheet for the lab and leave. They head back to the party with Raj.

Sheldon gets his photo taken with Santa, frames it, and puts in a recorded personalised Christmas message as a present to Amy. When Amy gets the present, she loves it. Sheldon is delighted at having potentially ruined Christmas but then Amy presents him with a box of his Mee-Maw's Christmas cookies, as she had called to get the recipe. He loves his gift too, amazed to be enjoying Christmas.

The Big Bang Theory airs on Thursdays on CBS at 8PM.