Penny gives her fans a sexy Christmas valediction as Big Bang Theory signs off until the new year...

"The Justice League Recombination"

The Big Bang Theory sends its nerd male adherents off to Christmas pretty happy this week, by squeezing Kaley Cuoco into a tight Wonder Woman costume; but most female fans will have to make do with the foam muscles of Sheldon and Co., who are determined to scoop this year's comic store New Year's Eve Group Costume prize by turning up with a genuine girl and a guy with real muscles.

Yep, Penny's back with Zack, the man with almost infinite Final Frontier between the ears; but it's better than being alone on New Year's Eve. And surely a primate like Zack has no feelings to hurt anyway...?

Not so, as the geeks gang up on him at the episode's start when he declares that he wants to 'talk science' with them. A subsequent and hilarious apology - largely effected by a box of Milk Duds - leads our heroes to reason that they have a better chance of winning the costume prize if Raj surrenders the Wonder Woman costume to Penny this year and Leonard foregoes being Superman in favour of the chisel-jawed Zack (a fine 'comedy dunce' performance by Thomas Smith).

But behind this effort at seasonal conviviality there are tensions tighter than a superhero's leotard, as Penny is clearly pining for Leonard after a year away from him, and Leonard seems to feel the same. Even so, he does the decent thing and befriends Zack...

The non-Cuoco highlight of 'Justice League Recombination' was the final sequence in which we see Sheldon, who has been dressed as The Flash for most of this episode, run off like a bolt of lightning to vent spleen in the Grand Canyon, leaving street-signs spinning in his wake. Now that's a great exit for Big Bang Theory until it returns with the tantalizing 'The Bus Pants Utilization' on January 6th 2011.

This was probably the weakest episode of season four, and even so it soars, Superman-like, over most of the competition. Merry Christmas, nerds.

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