Buried in Plot Holes: Young Sheldon's Season 6 Finale Ruins TBBT Canon (Again)
The season 6 finale has just aired, and we are left with a whirlwind of emotions in the aftertaste. Boy, did the writers bury themselves deeper in inconsistencies!
In season 6, Young Sheldon introduces the whole Sheldon-goes-to-Germany storyline, creating yet another mess within The Big Bang Theory 's canon.
As you may recall, adult Sheldon shared a while back that he was a visiting professor at the University of Heidelberg in Germany at the age of 15-16.
The prequel revealed that he actually traveled to Germany to study and was 13 years old at the time. That is not news.
In the season 1 episode of The Big Bang Theory, Sheldon also told Penny that he was left all alone in Germany when he was sick and his mom had to fly back to Texas to help his father because their house suffered during the tornado season.
Sounds familiar?
This is considered to be one of the biggest plot holes in The Big Bang Theory as it suggests that George was still alive when Sheldon was 15 years old, while the show later repeatedly established that his dad died when Sheldon was just 14.
In the season 6 finale of Young Sheldon, Sheldon and Mary fly to Germany together during the tornado season, but it is actually Connie's house that gets destroyed. This cements several canon inconsistencies.
First, Sheldon is still 13, and not 15 in Germany. Second, he is still not a visiting professor, just a student.
Third, Mary is probably not flying back home as it's not her house affected by the tornado, so Sheldon won't have to cope with being sick all on his own.
While the first two points definitely stand, the third one is a playground for possibilities. Season 7 could see Mary stay with Sheldon and ruin another piece of TBBT's canon.
It could also go in a totally different direction, with Mary flying back to help out.
In that case, the whole thing about the Coopers' house getting ruined and George still being in the picture can just be chalked up to Sheldon's bad memory.
It's still an inconsistency since Sheldon is said to have a photographic memory, but it's the lesser of two evils. At least, it can explain why George is still alive.
Sheldon's poor memory could also explain why Georgie and Mandy are getting married a year earlier than they are supposed to, but that's a story for another time.