The Big Bang Theory Events Young Sheldon Season 7 Must Address
When The Big Bang Theory spinoff Young Sheldon debuted seven years ago, it seemingly tried to distinguish itself from the major sitcom that reshaped the TV universe. Sheldon ditched the live audience, lost the multi-cam set up, and went for more of a Wonder Years or Everyone Hates Chris vibe, focussing mainly on family values and 22-minute stories of morality.
That’s not to say that Young Sheldon forgot where it came from, however. The show has borrowed several Big Bang story threads in order to create continuity and expand on Sheldon Cooper’s history. Yet there are some major holes that haven’t been addressed that fans of both shows have noticed.
With Young Sheldon’s final season just around the corner, here are some of the biggest questions left unanswered in the Big Bang universe.
Sheldon Starting at Caltech
It’s perhaps a forgone conclusion, but the narrative of Young Sheldon almost has to end when he begins his adventures at the California Institute of Technology a.k.a. Caltech. Granted, it’s unlikely that we’ll see Sheldon meeting his new family of Leonard, Penny, Raj, Howard or his eventual wife, Amy, but it would be hard to imagine going the entire final season without some kind of cameo from any combination of these characters.
Sheldon and Leonard’s first meeting was one of the Big Bang’s most memorable episodes, so repeating that moment would also be a waste of time. But for a character that absolutely hates change, Sheldon moving to California is an absolute colossal moment in the boy’s life. It quite literally puts the ‘big’ in the Big Bang, which means that it’s likely the last episode (at the very least) is going to tackle this major event.
Whether it’s merely a moment where young Sheldon (Iain Armitage) enters the famous (and famously massive) empty apartment, or audiences actually get to see Dr. Cooper begin his new role at Caltech remains to be seen, but it certainly cannot be ignored.
Meemaw’s Shift in Character
Jim Parson’s Sheldon in The Big Bang Theory often spoke highly of his adored Meemaw. His grandmother was a massive influence on Sheldon, and hearing the stories of how much she meant to him brought some much needed warmth to the character and was a necessary reprieve from Sheldon’s otherwise emotionally withdrawn nature.
When Young Sheldon’s first season was on the air, Meemaw, or rather, Connie made her debut in the third episode, and audiences could see exactly why Sheldon held her in such esteem. Television mainstay Annie Potts has portrayed Connie in almost every episode of the show’s run, and her Meemaw is a wise, sass-talking, adventure having Southern Belle. The love she has for her grandchildren is only rivaled by her free-spirited nature, which is what makes the dynamic between she and Sheldon, and she and her own daughter so interesting.
This was a far cry from the time beloved American actor June Squibb portrayed Meemaw in season 9 of The Big Bang Theory. There, the minute grand-matriarch was just as stern and conservative as her daughter, Sheldon’s mother, Mary Cooper (played by Laurie Metcalf in several episodes of Big Bang). That’s a major shift in character in what isn’t necessarily a large amount of time. But why? It’s likely the writers of Young Sheldon chose to ignore the one episode where Squibb showed an older, hardened Meemaw to make the character more lovable and fun, but if they were extra clever, they could use the final season to explain the change.
In the season 6 finale, a tornado ravages Sheldon’s hometown of Medford. While he and his mother fly safely overhead to his summer program in Germany, his poor family has a series of near misses, and in Meemaw’s case, she loses quite a lot. Her house seemingly got the worst of it, and in what’s left of the wreckage, she can barely find the money she had stashed away from her illegal gambling racket. Could this be the catalyst for Meemaw to straighten up, and give up her adventuring ways? Could it be a massive emotional break for her? Not exactly a storyline befitting a sitcom, but in what is expected to be a fairly dark season, perhaps a fitting way to connect the two portrayals of the character.
George Senior’s Infidelity
On that same note of character shifts, Parson’s Sheldon seemingly had a tumultuous relationship with his father. In the stories Sheldon told during Big Bang, he made it seem as if George Sr. was an emotionally unavailable alcoholic and philanderer.