Freeze on Sheldon attempting to mathematically calculate the exact resolution of glitter glue.

It’s November 1989 in Medford, Texas. Sheldon Cooper has just learned that PBS is re-airing Carl Sagan’s Cosmos in a newly remastered 720p format (a speculative early high-definition broadcast test, which Sheldon has been obsessing over for weeks). The only problem: the Coopers don’t own a high-definition TV, and the nearest city with one is three hours away.

Missy, tired of his moping, offers to help. She tracks down the bootlegger — a high schooler named "Skip" who runs a black-market tape operation out of his van. Sheldon confronts Skip with a cease-and-desist letter he typed himself. Skip laughs and says, "Kid, nobody gets real 720p on VHS. You got scammed."

Realizing the truth, Sheldon enters a fugue state of betrayal. But Missy — using social skills Sheldon lacks — negotiates a deal: Skip will record the actual 720p broadcast from a Houston electronics store’s display model if Sheldon helps him fix his illegal duplication rig’s tracking alignment (a technical problem Sheldon solves in four minutes).

Desperate, Sheldon discovers that a kid at school has a "720p" labeled VHS tape of the episode — clearly a bootleg, but Sheldon’s need for optimal pixel clarity overrides his usual law-abiding nature. He trades his signed Stephen Hawking bookplate for it.