The Big Bang Theory Review: The Bitcoin Entanglement (Season 11 Episode 9)

On The Big Bang Theory Season 11 Episode 9, “The Bitcoin Entanglement,” Sheldon, Leonard, Howard, and Raj are after their digital fortune and a secret tape reveals something about Leonard and Penny’s relationship.

“The Bitcoin Entanglement,” to me, seems to be all about nostalgia. Featuring several events that took place seven years before the episode made me feel very emotional. And entertainment from the earlier seasons of the show, in my opinion, will always be superior to the more recent seasons.

The surprisingly long and all kinds of awesome cold open features the guys hanging out at Stuart’s comic book store. They talk about the premiere of Avatar, the budding relationship between Leonard and Penny, as well as Howard’s plans with his mother.

If you have been watching the show for as long as I have, I promise you that the cold open alone will make you feel extremely nostalgic. When you add into that all the other flashbacks that take place on the episode this episode quickly turns into one of the best episodes of the season so far.

“The Bitcoin Entanglement,” like the episode title says, is about Bitcoin. I have never really taken any time to understand what Bitcoins are, but it seems that they can actually be worth a whole lot of money. And by money, I mean real, actual US dollars.

I think Sheldon’s explanation of Bitcoin is both funny and probably true:

Sheldon: It’s just like actual money, expect you can’t see it, hold it, or spend it on anything.”

I have to mention here that while it hurts for me to admit that I laughed at a joke Stuart makes, because like I have mentioned before, HE IS THE WORST, I must say that I cracked up in a sort of “so relatable” — way when he says that money one can’t see, hold, or spend sounds like the kind of money he is familiar with.

Before the cold open ends, it’s revealed that Sheldon was not actually a part of the Bitcoin mining process seven years before which means that the guys won’t have to take him to account when they start to share this potentially large fortune they could make.

Sheldon, obviously, is unhappy with the development and it is clear from the very beginning of the episode that he is somehow involved in the problems that the guys face when they try to track down the coins they mined.

Raj: Mining for coins sounds so manly… Oooh, we should sing a mining song!

Like I mentioned, “The Bitcoin Entanglement” is filled with nostalgia. There’s Howard’s old bedroom at the house he used to share with his mother (now the house he shares with Bernadette and Halley), there’s the sound of Howard’s mother’s voice and hearing her call the guys Howard’s “little friends.” Major feelings of nostalgia are also generated through the reminder that seven years earlier Raj was still unable to talk to Penny.

As the guys hunt for the laptop that stores the bitcoins in the present the episode continually dips into the past to move the narrative forward by revealing information to the characters about the movements of the laptop. After being unable to get Howard’s laptop working, the guys mined the coins on Leonard’s laptop which he borrowed to Penny who then ended up giving the laptop to her ex Zach.

Though Zach still has the laptop, the coins are not stored on it anymore. This is when Sheldon comes back into the picture and reveals that he stored the coins on a flash drive that Leonard had on his keychain. Unfortunately, by losing that keychain the coins were also lost. So who’s really to blame? Sheldon, right?

Though I loved seeing the guys in a flashback I was possibly even more excited when a flashback of Penny, Bernadette, and Amy came to the screen. Back then, Amy and Bernadette worked together while Amy was just an annoying customer Penny was tired of serving. Considering their relationships now, this scene is definitely a proof that some character development has taken place.

Also, while Amy is having an awkward dinner with a man her mother has forced her to meet, Sheldon, Howard, Leonard, and Raj are seen eating in the background. To imagine that back then Amy had no idea that she was sitting in such a close proximity to her future husband.

The promos for the episode kept hyping up this secret video that would reveal something about Penny and Leonard’s relationship.

As a result of all the hype, my expectations for this video were pretty high. In the end, the video only shows that Penny broke up with Leonard because she was scared of how much she cared for him, which, in my opinion, is not really a super life-changing revelation since I think everyone must have known that for a while now.

It seems like the revelation was a big deal for Leonard, though, and it is nice to see him getting a confidence boost from it. It just kind of sucks that Leonard needs to see a video like that to be confident that Penny actually loves him.

“The Bitcoin Entanglement” proves that nostalgia works, at least when it comes to my personal preferences. I am definitely re-watching this episode later to bask in on the nostalgia a bit more before next week’s episode.

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

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The Big Bang Theory airs Thursdays at 8/7c on CBS.

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