Warning: Contains SPOILERS for Young Sheldon season 6, episode 18.
One throwaway joke in Young Sheldon season 6 allowed the spinoff to set up an iconic scene from The Big Bang Theory. While Young Sheldon’s canon often contradicts the story of The Big Bang Theory, this doesn’t mean that the nostalgic family sitcom cannot set up some classic moments from the earlier show. For example, Young Sheldon and The Big Bang Theory may differ when it comes to Meemaw’s personality or the date of George Sr.’s sudden death. However, the spinoff is still able to explain where Sheldon acquired his strange habit of collecting restraining orders as autographs or why the character cared so much about his “spot” on the couch.
Even amidst Young Sheldon season 6’s dark Missy story, the show still finds time to set up some of Sheldon’s future foibles in the spinoff. For example, when Missy went missing in Young Sheldon season 6, episode 16, “A Stolen Truck and Going on the Lam,” Sheldon spent the episode suggesting outlandish but potentially clever ways to track her down. He was ignored by his inactive family, who mocked his ideas but failed to come up with anything better as an alternative. In the process, it became increasingly obvious why Sheldon has such a bitter, disparaging view of his family’s intellectual shortcomings in The Big Bang Theory.
Sheldon Gave Mary A Great TBBT Comeback
In Young Sheldon season 6, episode 18, “Little Green Men and a Fella’s Marriage Proposal,” Sheldon tells Mary, “You have your stories; I have mine.” But Mary flipped this on him decades later in The Big Bang Theory. Specifically, Young Sheldon’s Mary asked whether Sheldon believed in aliens, and when he said he did, she wondered if these aliens were Christian. This prompted his pithy retort, which came back to bite him in The Big Bang Theory season 3, episode 1, “The Electric Can Opener Fluctuation,” when Mary stated that everyone is entitled to their opinion. Sheldon said that evolution wasn’t an opinion but rather a fact.
Despite Sheldon’s characteristic bluntness, Mary immediately replied, “And that is your opinion,” a retort that effectively repackaged his “you have your stories, I have mine” comment a generation later. Notably, Sheldon had no reply in “The Electric Can Opener Fluctuation” and ended up moving out of his mother’s house and back in with Leonard due to his frustration. However, while Mary’s comeback might have shut him down in The Big Bang Theory, he effectively said the same thing to her decades earlier when trying to discourage his mother from talking over an episode of Star Trek.
Young Sheldon Shows Mary And Sheldon’s Surprising Similarities
While Mary and Sheldon may have divergent worldviews, this doesn’t necessarily mean they are very different characters. In Young Sheldon and The Big Bang Theory, Mary and Sheldon believe in totally opposing ideologies, but they are similarly dogmatic and obstinate. For all of Young Sheldon season 6’s plot holes, the show undeniably showcases where Sheldon got his unyielding attitude. However, as Mary’s infamous line in The Big Bang Theory proves, there were also times when Young Sheldon’s hero inadvertently inspired his mother over the years.
