It's Columbus Day and Thanksgiving is approaching, but Raj in particular is not in a thankful mood. His research stalled six months ago with no hope of success. With no job, his visa to stay in the United States becomes invalid which means that he will be deported back to India. Although Penny comes up with the obvious solution of Raj getting another job, jobs for astrophysicists are few and far between, with no guarantee of Raj even getting the job if there was one. With extra moneys just received from the university for his own research, Sheldon kind of offers Raj a job, but the nature of the offer is somewhat unclear, as would be Sheldon and Raj's working relationship. But a byproduct of Raj and Sheldon spending more time together is that Howard no longer has his best friend with who to hang out. So Howard decides to hang out with Leonard and Penny instead, who lose their much wanted alone time.