Young Sheldon Reveals The Truth About George Cooper's Affair - But There's A Problem
"Young Sheldon" may sometimes play fast and loose with canon events from Sheldon's childhood that were first established in "The Big Bang Theory." However, the show has yet to skip over any of his major milestones, even if "Young Sheldon" shakes up those "TBBT" memories a bit. This happens in "Ants on a Log and a Cheating Winker," the fourth episode of the 7th and final season of "Young Sheldon," which addresses George's (Lance Barber) affair.
This canon event is established in "The Hot Tub Contamination," the fifth episode of "TBBT" Season 10, when Sheldon (Jim Parsons) shares a story from his childhood with Penny (Kaley Cuoco) and explains that he walked in on his father having sex with another woman. This storyline finally comes to pass on Season 7 of "Young Sheldon," although not exactly the way Sheldon recalled.
In "Ants on a Log," young Sheldon (Iain Armitage), home from studying in Germany, chooses to spend the night in his college dorm room rather than sleep on the sofa or in the garage, since Georgie (Montana Jordan), Mandy (Emily Osment), and CeCe are staying in his old room. When he returns the next day, he overhears his dad talking to a mystery woman named Helga, so he knocks and opens the door. Sheldon freezes for a moment, believing he's witnessing his dad having an affair, before closing the door and leaving the house. However, the mystery woman is actually Sheldon's mom, Mary (Zoe Perry), wearing a blonde wig and sexy barmaid costume which she brought home from Germany.
The scene doesn't line up with what Sheldon said in TBBT
In "The Big Bang Theory," Sheldon tells Penny that he caught his dad cheating on his mom when he returned home early for spring break because "they ran out of math to teach" him at college. He also claimed to know that his mom was at Bible study so the woman couldn't have been her. However, there are some major discrepancies between his story and what happens on "Young Sheldon."
For one, it's the end of summer, not spring break, and Sheldon doesn't lock eyes with his dad or run off to his room like he says. In the spin-off, his parents clearly don't notice him opening the door and since his room is occupied, he just leaves the house. In spite of these inconsistencies, Jim Parsons' voiceover about this being the moment he creates his signature triple knock proves this is the incident Sheldon tells Penny about in "TBBT." In "Young Sheldon" he says: "From then on, I added extra knocks so people could get their pants on." This is very similar to what he told Penny: "It's also why I never open a door without knocking three times. I mean, the first one's traditional, but two and three are for people to get their pants on."
George cheating on Mary is a canon event that "Young Sheldon" and "TBBT" fans still can't get over. Thankfully, it seems adult Sheldon was just mistaken about what he saw, as he didn't realize Helga was just his mom's alter-ego.
Young Sheldon's biggest continuity errors have been about George
"Young Sheldon" might have been able to spin George's affair into nothing more than an adventurous romp with his wife. But the character has been the cause of some major continuity errors between the two shows as Sheldon and Mary's (Laurie Metcalf) recollection of him on "The Big Bang Theory" doesn't line up with Lance Barber's portrayal of him. They often describe George as having been very uncaring, but from the onset, "Young Sheldon" shows that was not the case.
To allow for character development, the show depicts a much more humanized version of George who comes across as a kind and caring father. George and Sheldon actually have a close bond in the spin-off sitcom, which makes the Sheldon of "TBBT" look like an unreliable narrator at times. "Young Sheldon" executive producer Steve Holland told TVLine that he and co-creators Chuck Lorre and Steven Molaro ultimately had to make their peace with the spin-off contradicting the original series. "Our head canon is that Sheldon on 'Big Bang' was telling much harsher versions of the stories of his dad," he explained. "And those may not have been entirely accurate either. They were certainly from his point of view, but that point of view has shifted."