TBBT Penny’s Most Disheartening Finale Plot Twist Was Actually Foreseen Years Before
The character has always been seen as a mother figure against her own will.
Though The Big Bang Theory is surely a lot of fun that fans wouldn’t mind rewatching every year even after the show’s definite ending that came around five years ago, it still left a lot of unresolved issues regarding some of its leading, yet pretty much unfairly treated characters.
Unlike the series’ male leads who have been seen getting through all the obstacles and achieving what they’ve always inspired to, The Big Bang Theory’s Penny never even got a chance to fulfill at least one of her life goals.
Initially introduced as a luckless actress trying her best to become prominent in Hollywood, Penny’s biggest professional dream was just abandoned when she started seeing no use in it and eventually opted for working as a sales rep, a job that didn’t make her happy either.
The Big Bang Theory finale made things even worse, revealing that Penny was pregnant, but the seemingly happy news doesn’t appear to be that positive after the show completely ignored the character’s real thoughts on the whole matter.
Throughout The Big Bang Theory’s long run, Penny repeatedly stated that she didn’t see herself as a mother and wouldn’t like to have kids in the future, something that caused her several fights with her husband Leonard who every so often seemed to be selfishly persistent about him and Penny starting a family.
However, The Big Bang Theory final episode proved that Leonard’s biggest wish and Penny’s worst nightmare did come true as the latter announced that she was expecting a child. Ironically, that plot twist was spoiled years before the show’s final season, and in a very controversial way.
In season 8 episode 16, titled The Intimacy Acceleration, Penny and Sheldon are seen trying an intimacy test that could eventually help them become closer to each other. When the experiment is over, Sheldon suddenly opens up to Penny about his true vision of her, stating that he once thought of her as his mother.
It doesn’t really come as a surprise considering that Penny also frequently thought of Sheldon as a child hidden in a grown-up body and thus was trying to take care of him when he couldn’t. Sheldon’s revelation is expectedly received as his other cringey statement, though Penny surely would have never thought it would become her reality.
The Big Bang Theory prequel, Young Sheldon, has recently given an update on Penny in its finale, suggesting that she was feeling just fine interacting with kids and possibly changed her opinion, though it’s still a disheartening truth that Penny’s initial wishes were never taken seriously by either her husband, or the show’s creators as a whole.