While Mary’s anger at Brenda in Young Sheldon season 6 makes sense, this fight also sets up The Big Bang Theory character’s gradual devolution.
Young Sheldon’s Mary has a lot in common with her incarnation in The Big Bang Theory, but the younger version of the character is also different in some important ways. Young Sheldon’s Mary is less bitter than her The Big Bang Theory self and her worldview is more optimistic.
While she is prone to scolding, she is not the angry figure seen in The Big Bang Theory and this could be because the early death of her husband George Sr left her feeling despondent.
However, much like Young Sheldon season 6’s Missy plot proves that Sheldon’s sister never wanted a staid life even in her adolescence, the outing is also proving that Mary’s bitterness could predate George Sr’s death.
In Young Sheldon season 6, episode 17, “A German Folk Song and an Actual Adult,” Mary gets into a fight with her neighbor Brenda when she discovers that her husband feels more able to confide in Brenda than her and, in the process, Mary reveals some of her struggles with her perceived personality.
This foreshadowed her character shift in The Big Bang Theory, displaying some of the anger that later calcified into bitterness. In “A German Folk Song and an Actual Adult,” Mary and Brenda’s fight proves that Mary has no home anymore, whether it is her church or her marriage.
She is not welcome in the church since Georgie got Mandy pregnant but, as she notes in her tense conversation with Mary, she feels she’s too “churchy” to be a fun friend to her husband or Brenda.
Much like Meemaw’s character shift between Young Sheldon and The Big Bang Theory could be caused by her attempts to act as a better role model for Missy, Mary’s bitterness in the earlier show could be down to her sense that she doesn’t belong.
In The Big Bang Theory, Mary's older self is a bitter (if undeniably funny) presence, and her inability to connect with others after losing her job at the church could explain why this happened. In Young Sheldon season 6, Mary already feels adrift and unmoored and this is likely to only get worse when George Sr dies
. Although George Sr’s death could be the biggest catalyst that caused Mary’s anger at the world, her admission that she doesn’t feel appreciated by anyone in “A German Folk Song and an Actual Adult” proves that Sheldon’s mother wasn’t thriving before this incident.
Young Sheldon season 6 explained Sheldon’s worst character traits with a surprisingly sad justification and the spinoff could do the same for Mary’s bitterness and self-imposed isolation in season 6. Throughout The Big Bang Theory,
Mary is quick to shut down attempts at friendly conversation from Penny or Leonard with a sharp aside or a mean remark (although she does soften up somewhat by the end of the series). The cause of her bitterness was never explained in The Big Bang Theory, but Young Sheldon season 6 set it up when Mary admitted to Brenda that she felt like no one really understood her.
Young Sheldon Season 7 Can Make Mary’s Story Less Sad
However, there is an alternative explanation for Mary’s bitter distance in The Big Bang Theory, and it is a far funnier one. The Young Sheldon season 6 finale saw Mary joining Sheldon on his way to Germany and this trip could have brought her closer to him and given her another ally in her struggles.
However, Young Sheldon’s season 6 finale also reminded viewers that Sheldon tends to be pretty detached from the intense emotions of others. When he faces a problem (even a minor issue like someone unknowingly taking his spot on the couch), Sheldon can emote quite a bit. However, he struggles to empathize.
As such, Young Sheldon season 7 could reveal that Mary’s apparent coldness in The Big Bang Theory is actually just the result of her spending too much time with her son. Having struggled to find confidantes at a time when her marriage was in disarray, Mary could have grown closer to Sheldon during the summer in Germany.
If this is the case, Young Sheldon season 7 could see her start to unwittingly imitate Sheldon’s standoffish persona. With this alternative explanation, Young Sheldon could explain Mary’s The Big Bang Theory changes without getting too downbeat in the process.
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