Young Sheldon Shows How Much Abuse His Big Bang Theory Friends Endured

Warning! Spoilers ahead for Young Sheldon season 5, episode 14.

CBS’ Young Sheldon highlights just how much abuse Sheldon’s friends had to endure on The Big Bang Theory. The prequel series returned with a fresh episode following a short break for the Winter Olympics. But Young Sheldon season 5, episode 14, “A Free Scratcher and Feminine Wiles,” proved to be worth all the wait, especially since it featured the much-awaited guest appearance from Ming-Na Wen, whose Dr. Carol Lee butted head with Sheldon (Iain Armitage). 

The conflict between the pair was somewhat expected. After all, Sheldon has a tendency to not get along with most people. But when Dr. Linkletter (Ed Begley Jr.) and Dr. Sturgis (Wallace Shawn) started disagreeing over how to best handle a study, East Texas Tech President Hegemayer (Wendy Wallace) opted to send Dr. Lee to sort things out. As the director of the experimental cosmology department, she expertly took over the project, but while both Dr. Linkletter and Dr. Sturgis were more than okay with it, Sheldon wasn’t.

As his professors agree on how to move forward with the experiment, Sheldon just grows snarkier about it. At one point, Drs. Lee and Sturgis begin conversing in Mandarin, with the latter saying that Sheldon doesn’t really have a shut-off button, meaning he’ll continue to blab until he gets his way. Sturgis isn’t wrong; he knows how Sheldon is considering how much time he’s spent with the child prodigy. This is because they’re far too similar — they’re both genius social recluses, and Sheldon sees Sturgis as his mentor. The professor has willingly hung out with Sheldon, but the fact that even he knows how overbearing and annoying Sheldon can be proves just how much Sheldon’s friends on The Big Bang Theory had to endure in terms of his petty tantrums and misbehaviors. What makes this worse is that Leonard (Johnny Galecki) and the rest of the Pasadena gang were pretty much forced to deal with his bad behavior no matter what.

It was never explained in The Big Bang Theory why Sheldon’s friends stuck with him, despite him being such a poor friend in return. Leonard’s living situation with Sheldon was practical, but he could’ve eventually moved out once his job became more stable. But instead of doing that, he and his other friends stayed and continued to hang out with Sheldon. Multiple times in the sitcom, they tried to justify the socially inept genius’ behavior by explaining that Sheldon wasn’t being intentionally mean. However, Young Sheldon season 5 proves that Sheldon knows when he’s being difficult, The Big Bang Theory‘s justification doesn’t really hold up as to why they continued to be friends with him. Of course, there were arguments and conflicts involving him, especially when he was being truly atrocious. But at the end of the day, they always ultimately patched things up and remained pals. 

Over the years, Sheldon gradually became better in terms of socializing with other people. While he did have some occasional slips like on The Big Bang Theory finale where he ruthlessly invalidated his friends’ feelings, he eventually realized his mistake and made up for it. Now, Young Sheldon‘s challenge is to not overdevelop his character so there’s a smoother transition between Armitage’s version and Parsons’ at the beginning of the original sitcom. 

Young Sheldon season 5 airs Thursdays on CBS.

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