Tonight's Big Bang Theory attempted to answer a question that's been weighing on fans' minds for well over a year now: "What's Sheldon's deal?" Not in the "What part of the autistic spectrum does he fall on?" sense, but in terms of "So does he like chicks or dudes or what?" When fawning grad student Ramona Nowitzki starts hanging around Sheldon, bringing him dinner and rubbing his feet and cherishing his every pearl of wisdom, the gang flocks around to see what will happen–taking their seats in "the viewing area"–because they've often wondered exactly how a Sheldon Cooper handles the biological functions of mating. (Howard postulates that one day Sheldon will eat an enormous amount of Thai food and split into two Sheldons.)
It turns out that Sheldon has no romantic interest in Ramona; he just likes the adoration and the free food. And it's not entirely clear if Ramona has any sexual designs on Sheldon, either. Mainly she just wants to push him to be the best Sheldon he can be. To that end, she puts the kibosh on Halo and paintball and comics, and demands that Sheldon focus entirely on his work. When he cautiously suggests that he'd like to watch Battlestar Galactica, Ramona frowns. "I guess I can wait for the DVD," Sheldon says. "And then never ever watch it."
The whole situation resolves fairly cleverly. After Sheldon tries to get first Penny then Leonard to drive Ramona away–"I'm invoking The Skynet Clause of our friendship agreement," he declares to Leonard–he finally screws up the courage to shoo her away himself, after she asks to share credit on his completed theorem. And so the question "What's Sheldon's deal?" remains properly unresolved.
Aside from the wacky montage of Sheldon avoiding Ramona–strictly Benny Hill stuff–I thought "The Cooper-Nowitzki Theorem" was top-form BBT, and easily the most satisfying episode of the season so far. Even though it featured yet another Sheldon-driven plot, nearly everyone else got in a good line or two. I liked Howard preparing to prey on grad students once they put on "just enough winter weight to make them needy and vulnerable." And I thought Raj had an especially good night, starting with his dismay when he learns that it's okay to date grad students "if you can talk to them," and continuing to his little impromptu rap when he learned that Howard's mom was cooking brisket for dinner. ("B-to-the-R-to-the-I-S-K….")