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•The boys' desire to become Arctic explorers makes Penny reconsider her romantic options in the season finale of The Big Bang Theory(CBS, 8 ET/PT), a show that has truly come into its own this year. Even Howard's mother may show a little love tonight — in preparation, let's hope, for Emmy voters showing this excellent sitcom the love it deserves come nomination time.

•Love, or sex, is in the air at the House (Fox, 8 ET/PT) season finale as well, as House and Cuddy (Lisa Edelstein) respond to their post-detox coupling. There's also a medical mystery to be solved, along with a clinic visit from Carl Reiner.

•Brace yourself: There are a lot of twists in tonight's exciting outing of 24 (Fox, 9 ET/PT), including one that raises any number of oh-not-again red flags. Before you panic, though, keep in mind that what counts at 24 isn't the familiarity of the cliffhanger crisis, it's the novelty of the solution. And this year, the show has done an admirable job of finding new and more sensible ways of digging itself out of old holes. Keep your fingers crossed that it can do so yet again next week; for now, there's still much to enjoy before you get to the cliff, including some great exchanges between Mary Lynn Rajskub and Janeane Garofalo.