Outside, a cricket chirps. In the garage, a future is dialing up, one baud at a time.

“Dad, I’m handshaking with a server in Plano. Terminating the connection now would cause a checksum error.”

The episode’s hidden A-plot is Mary’s ulcer. Not from George’s beer or Missy’s sass. From love. From loving a boy who will never understand why she needs him to just come inside for dinner without a peer-reviewed justification.

“Sheldon. Phone. Now.”

Mary kneels beside him. “He got your stubbornness.”

They don’t fix it with a speech. George walks to RadioShack the next morning. He buys a second phone line. It costs his weekly lunch money. He installs it himself, cross-wiring it with a curse word every third breath.