Young Sheldon Season 7 Brought Back An Important Part Of Sheldon’s Character From The Big Bang Theory
Young Sheldon season 7 episode 2 brought back a pivotal part of Sheldon’s Big Bang Theory characterization, thus justifying one of his worse traits.
While Young Sheldon’s entire premise centers around Sheldon’s child prodigy status, The Big Bang Theory’s spinoff brought back a pivotal part of this characterization in season 7, episode 2. The appeal of Young Sheldon was instantly obvious from the moment The Big Bang Theory’s spinoff was first announced. Sheldon was a self-centered child prodigy who grew up in small-town Texas in a religious family, meaning there was plenty of built-in conflict for the main character to face. Not only that, but The Big Bang Theory had already proved that Sheldon’s upbringing didn’t discourage his obstinate tendencies.
As such, viewers knew before the spinoff even began that Young Sheldon’s protagonist would be an insensitive young genius stranded in an ill-fitting location. However, by Young Sheldon’s season 6 finale, this original premise had been largely abandoned. Not only did Sheldon’s family members grow on viewers and end up getting more screen time as a result, but the character’s fish out of water status also got old after a while. As a result, the spinoff’s later seasons pulled their focus away from Sheldon’s struggle to fit in and toward his family’s storylines. Season 7 doubled down on this.
Young Sheldon Season 7’s First Sheldon Story Challenged Him
Sheldon’s episode 2 story proved he can be outsmarted
In Young Sheldon session 7, episode 2, “A Roulette Wheel and a Piano Playing Dog,” Sheldon was dismayed to learn that he was the slowest learner in his new class. This was an unfamiliar experience that humbled him, eventually resulting in Sheldon getting tutoring lessons from a classmate to catch up. Already, Young Sheldon season 7 reversed its original premise by making Mary a fish out of water in Sheldon’s world of academia, but this subplot took the idea even further by stripping Sheldon of his prodigy status. As his professor noted, he is not special among a class of geniuses.
The show’s title character spent a long stretch of the episode struggling with this idea and Sheldon even considered moving home instead of taking tutoring lessons. This wouldn’t come as a surprise to The Big Bang Theory viewers since Sheldon was often surprisingly quick to collapse under pressure in that earlier show. Although it is easy to forget since he was so stubborn, Sheldon was extremely sensitive about his perceived professional and academic shortcomings. Young Sheldon brought back this character detail when he dug in his heels and refused any help. This attitude also mirrored a supporting character’s storyline.
Young Sheldon Season 7 Used Sheldon’s Germany Trip Right
Sheldon’s summer abroad is broadening his horizons in season 7
In Young Sheldon season 7 episode 1 Meemaw started a fight with Dale when he mocked her for not getting tornado insurance. While Dale’s comments were insensitive, Meemaw later admitted that she reacted so strongly because she felt embarrassed by the oversight. It is easy to see where Sheldon got his pride as Sheldon’s reaction to the offer of tutoring echoed Meemaw’s anger over Dale mocking her. The similarity between these subplots allowed Young Sheldon to bring its focus back to the show’s protagonist after the season 6 finale and the season 7 premiere mostly ignored him.
Furthermore, Sheldon’s trip to Germany proved that Sheldon struggled with acclimating to the world outside Texas despite talking a big game about wanting to conquer academia. Sheldon spent much of the spinoff’s earlier seasons complaining that he was wasted in Texas and implying that Young Sheldon’s cast of characters didn’t know just how exceptional he was. However, in “A Roulette Wheel and a Piano Playing Dog,” Sheldon was quick to ask his mother if they could return to his hometown early since he doesn’t like being challenged. The Big Bang Theory explored Sheldon’s vulnerability in similar storylines.
Young Sheldon Season 7’s Germany Story Set Up A Recurring TBBT Theme
The Big Bang Theory’s obstinate Sheldon makes even more sense now
In The Big Bang Theory season 1, episode 13, “The Bat Jar Conjecture,” and season 7, episode 6, “The Romance Resonance,” Sheldon made major blunders and found it almost impossible to recover from these mistakes. This seems surprising since Young Sheldon saw him finally acquiesce to his tutor and actually listen instead of obstinately insisting he knew better. However, instead of being humbled by the experience, this one-off learning moment instead convinced Sheldon that he was already a sufficiently humble genius. This justified his persistent inability to take instruction in The Big Bang Theory since Sheldon thought he already humbled himself in Young Sheldon.
Since Sheldon used his lone experience of academic inadequacy as an excuse to get more over-confident than ever, it is no surprise that he was so single-minded in The Big Bang Theory. Although The Big Bang Theory’s finale did finally see him thank his friends and family for all their help and support, this hard-won admission only came after years of Sheldon viewing himself as a singularly gifted genius. Young Sheldon explained this character quirk from The Big Bang Theory by revealing that Sheldon was humbled once before, but he didn’t learn the right lesson from the experience.