What Young Sheldon's finale reveals about The Big Bang Theory
A new house, Shamy's children, Penny as a babysitter and many other nods that suggest what the geeks of Pasadena have become.
This May 16, 2024, exactly five years to the day after the end of Big Bang Theory (Thursday May 16, 2019), Young Sheldon bowed out. The sitcom ended in the United States with a double episode which, obviously, focused largely on the death of George Cooper, Sheldon's father who died of a heart attack when his son was just a young teenager. . After showing the moving funeral of the patriarch, the series concluded with a gift for fans of Big Bang Theory : the return of Sheldon and Amy!
Jim Parsons And Mayim Bialik returned to play Sheldon Cooper and Amy Farrah Fowler. And not just for a cameo or a post-credits scene. The last episode is entirely structured around this flashforwardwhich shows what has become of the heroes of TBBT and who explains that Young Sheldon was in fact, all this time, the rendering into images of the memoirs that Dr. Cooper is writing in his office. This is why he was the narrator for all 141 episodes.
When does the finale scene with Sheldon and Amy take place?
It does not take place in 2024, because that would not work with the end of The Big Bang Theory. “It's a vague period. We were very careful to be vague and not date it too specifically“, announces the showrunner in Variety. “They didn't have kids at the end of 'Big Bang' and we're not saying how old the kids are in this scene for that reason. It's probably set a few years in the future…”
Leonard, this sporty son of Sheldon and Amy
We have known since season 4 of Young Sheldon that Sheldon and Amy's son is named Leonard, in homage to the couple's best friend. But we learn in this sequence that the young boy is a great sportsman, passionate about hockey. To the great dismay of his father, who takes it upon himself to support him despite everything. He plays for the Pasadena Penguins.
Sheldon and Amy still live in Pasadena
Which tells us in passing that the Cooper-Farah-Fowler couple did not move very far. While they are clearly no longer in the apartment at 2311 North Los Robles Avenue, they have purchased a house still in the area. A beautiful house with a large garden, certainly paid for with Nobel Prize money!
Sheldon and Amy also have a daughter
Leonard Cooper has a little sister. But his name is not revealed : “Why do you have to say the girl's name? It would be weird to say, well, her name is Sally… See?” explains the showrunner to justify his choice to TVLine. In any case, little Cooper loves the theater… like Penny!
Penny and Leonard still live nearby
We hear that Penny comes from time to time to babysit for the couple. Which suggests that she and Leonard don't live very far away. Even though they clearly no longer live in their apartment The Big Bang Theory. How do we know? The famous brown leather sofa, which sat in the living room for 12 seasons, is now in Sheldon's office! “I think they all still live around here,” replies the showrunner in TVline. “We wanted to show the house that Sheldon and Amy now live in because we wanted to make sure people didn't think they still lived in the apartment…”
Office winks
This finale of Young Sheldon took care to dwell several times on the details of Dr. Cooper's office. We were able to see Sheldon's Nobel Prize, a framed photo of the couple in Stockholm, the famous DNA model, a Flash cup, a Rubik's Cube coaster… “In our minds, a lot of the things in this Sheldon office are things Amy asked him to store in his office! Like: You can keep it but you put this in your office!“Besides, we also learn that Amy threw away all of Sheldon's crazy pop t-shirts without telling him…
David Saltzberg, the consultant from the start
The very last scene of Young Sheldon shows the young hero upon his arrival at the California Institute of Technology, to begin his life as a student, which will lead him to his profession as a researcher and then to the Nobel Prize. The production was able to film, for the first time in the franchise's history, on the real Caltech campus. There Sheldon meets David Saltzberg, a real experimental particle physicist… who was the first scientific consultant on Big Bang Theory and who spent 18 years advising authors, until the end of Young Sheldon !