Coupling is mostly known from quantum theory, where it means that a change in states of one of the coupled systems will instantaneously produce in a change in the other coupled system. You may also know it as a concept from probability theory, where it means a random variable which has two given random variables as marginal distributions. But it is also the name of a British sitcom that ran for four seasons at the start of the millennium. As most sitcoms, it revolves around a group of slightly unhinged people being needlessly mean to each other.
In this particular episode, two of the main characters have conflicting interests: Patrick wants to go home after having sex with his girlfriend Sally1 while she wants him to say and snuggle. But of course, they cannot come out and actually say these things. Instead, they engage in a battle of wits with Patrick coming up with one excuse after another, only to have them parried flawlessly by Sally.
Inexplicably, this very modern scene, is accompanied by a medieval scene of a knight and a lady playing a game of chess. They’re off to a bad start, because they have a white square in the left corner. We don’t see the start of the game. We do see some moves being played in close-up, but the position changes quite a bit between them. The one time there’s a clear overview of the whole board, it looks like this:2
The lady has white, which explains why Patrick wants to get away so quickly.3 White has somehow misplaced her queen in a wild but equally misplaced flurry of attacks. It works, though! Black seems to make some obviously illegal move on the queen’s side. Soon, he has to spend the night and put up with a mob of long, blonde hairs right in his schnozz.
Later on, possibly the next day, there is a dinner party. Once again Sally is trying to convince Patrick to stay over and once again she faces him on the chessboard. He opens with 1.e4, she answer 1. … d5. Not much later, he abandons the game. Possibly because she’s drunk, possibly because she played the Scandinavian.
Realism: 0/5 I don’t give failing grades for setting up the board wrongly, but I do for making illegal moves.
Probable winner: White, apparently, although that’s less likely than being spontaneously transported to a medieval scene with a bed randomly placed in the woods.
1. [He wants to sally forth, as it were.] ↩
2. [Without this diagram editor, you’ll have a bad time.] ↩
3. [To f6, probably.] ↩