Will Young Sheldon Have the Guts to Retcon TBBT's Biggest Canon Controversy?
Throughout The Big Bang Theory, viewers were introduced to several characters from Sheldon's past.
We met his mother (Laurie Metcalf), brother George Jr (Jerry O'Connell) and twin sister (Missy). As the show (and Sheldon's character) developed, we learnt more about his young life growing up as an incredibly bright but socially awkward kid in the fictional town of Medford, Texas.
These insights into his formative years deepened the character and raised questions in the minds of both viewers and writers. As a result, Young Sheldon was born, and we were afforded a chance to see his development for ourselves.
One of the things that many fans noticed about Young Sheldon was that some of what happens in the show doesn't seem to marry up with what we learned about his childhood in The Big Bang Theory. Now, this is no big deal. Childhood is remembered very much through the prism of adulthood and we can all relate to situations in which even the people we know were there can't quite agree on exactly what happened, where and when.
But one piece of TBBT canon that you'd expect to be accurate is featured in season 10 when Sheldon revealed that his habit of always knocking on a door three times stemmed from the time when, aged 13, he walked in on his dad having sex with a woman who wasn't his mum.
Naturally, this is something you'd expect him to remember in some detail.
However, in season 6 of Young Sheldon, Missy confronted her father about his burgeoning relationship with their neighbour Brenda. At this point in the show Sheldon and Missy were both 13 and George Sr and Brenda were yet to have any kind of intimate relationship.
So, with Missy voicing her concerns, you'd imagine that George Sr would, at the very least, make sure that should his and Brenda's feelings for one another get the better of them, they'd at least find somewhere that is not the Cooper household to hop into bed together.
This brings into question whether the showrunners will have the guts to retcon this moment. Which raises the question of how this sits with The Big Bang Theory canon.
But it needn't be a big issue. Sheldon is a kid that struggles to build relationships of any kind. He would certainly find the idea of adult relationships developing in stages to be a little strange. He may have stumbled upon his father and the neighbour and believed there was more to it than there really was at that time.
There is also the fact that he could always have found the couple in flagrante at the age of 14 or even 15 and simply recounted the tale incorrectly due to psychological immaturity preventing him from processing the information in his usual pragmatic way.
And this would only serve to deepen his character.