Young Sheldon puts the “cop out” in cop out. This Big Bang Theory prequel has been chock-full of contradictions from the start. In The Big Bang Theory, Sheldon reveals he caught his dad in bed with another woman. All Young Sheldon viewers were bracing for themselves for this. Sheldon openly says it happened on The Big Bang Theory. There logically (as Spock would say) must be an episode of Young Sheldon where that happens. For that not to happen would change the character of George. Sheldon catching George in bed with another woman must be inevitable. Or is it? In what may be one of the biggest cop outs of television history, Sheldon walks into his parent’s room, to catch his dad sleeping with….Sheldon’s mom disguised as another woman.
This was hardly the only contradiction in Young Sheldon. What a viewer of The Big Bang Theory would expect from Young Sheldon is …a young Sheldon. We expect a child version of the Sheldon from Big Bang Theory essentially being raised by hillbillies. Meemaw is described as a Texas version of Roseanne.
Perhaps the biggest contradiction was Sheldon’s father was not at all like he is described on The Big Bang Theory. For the most part, Sheldon portrayed his father as highly flawed. On Big Bang Theory, George Sr. is described as an alcoholic, who “coasted” through parenting. Young Sheldon portrayed him as quite a caring father. Sheldon’s mother Mary has had an “emotional affair” with Pastor Rob. However, as bad as the parents’ marriage was, it was never what we are told on The Big Bang Theory. In fact, nothing was. George Sr. never shot the television set. On Big Bang Theory, a drugged Sheldon implied he caught the mother smoking in the car, and she said Jesus was ok with it but they couldn’t tell their father. Mary did smoke but not to the extent we were led to believe.
We all knew George Sr’s death was coming, and it would be quite difficult to get around this one. But he died off-screen. Another cop out. The father’s death aside, Young Sheldon has never been parallel to The Big Bang Theory.
Many wondered if the series finale would acknowledge this? It didn’t.
The series finale was a traditional episode of Young Sheldon, with George’s funeral. We simply saw the adults Amy and Sheldon. We didn’t even see The Big Bang Theory apartment. It did not have to be this way.
There were two other ways Young Sheldon could have ended.
A ) They acknowledged all the cop outs and contradictions, possibly breaking down the 4th wall. Adult Sheldon admits he exaggerated. Possibly we see other Big Bang Theory characters. We saw a slight clue that this could have happened in the promo, where adult Amy asked Sheldon “what are you writing, your memoirs or a fantasy novel?”
B) They acknowledge the cop outs and contradictions, possibly break down the 4th wall. But adult Sheldon ends it on a cliffhanger. He implies the series may have been only what he wanted to remember from his childhood or what he wanted his childhood to be. We don’t know what is real- the entire Young Sheldon series or the stories we were told on The Big Bang Theory. It would hardly be the first or only time Sheldon has exaggerated or twisted something. And what about everything Mary has said about George on The Big Bang Theory? We are left to have our own theory about what is true.
When Amy asked Sheldon the “memoirs or fantasy novel” question, she was talking about one comment Sheldon made, but this “memoirs or fantasy novel” question could easily be applied to the entire series.
