'The Big Bang Theory': Sheldon embraces chaos...for an hour or two

Dr. Sheldon Cooper's (Jim Parsons) world is defined by order. And when that routine is interrupted, chaos ensues. Such was the theme of Thursday's (Feb. 23) episode of "The Big Bang Theory."

[Spoiler Alert]

Sheldon's barber is in the hospital, which is only a problem because it coincides with the physicist's need for his regular (and we mean regular) haircut. After an initial stage of panic, he realizes that the order of the universe hasn't changed despite not getting a follicle trimming. This causes him to question the universe in its entirety.

Sheldon now decides to live life to the fullest or at least his version of it. This entails playing bongos at 3 a.m., much to the dismay of Leonard (Johnny Galecki) and probably the rest of the apartment complex. But this devil-may-care lifestyle quickly catches up with him. So he finally relents and allows Penny (Kaley Cuoco) to cut his hair. You can probably guess how that turns out.

As for Howard (Simon Helberg), he's adjusting poorly to life as an astronaut in training. Between the zero gravity testing and overnight survival training, he's well on his way to being a broken man. Luckily he has a woman (or two) in his life who is willing to help him cope. Our guess is that he will ultimately back out of this before the whole thing is done.

In the spirit of Sheldon's laissez-faire attitude, we're not going to assign a rating to Thursday's episode. Let's just say it was "groovy."