Warning! Spoilers ahead for Young Sheldon season 6, episode 13.
Seeing Paige return in Young Sheldon season 6 is great, but her latest appearance effectively ruins one of the sweetest Sheldon and Amy moments in The Big Bang Theory. Sheldon’s fellow child prodigy re-emerges in the CBS family comedy. Instead of addressing her longstanding problems, however, Paige is worse than ever. In an effort to be a good quasi-friend, Sheldon attempts to make sure she’s okay, highlighting the character’s more human side. Sadly, it’s also detrimental to Sheldon’s The Big Bang Theory story with Amy.
The last time Paige was in Young Sheldon, she seemed like she was already on rock bottom. Clearly, that wasn’t the case. As she continues down this troubled path, she has become almost like a cautionary tale for the boy genius. Paige reveals how dark TBBT could have been as it offers an idea of how lonely Sheldon could have been had it not been for the Pasadena gang. Her appearance, however, is a double-edged sword because it also ruins a particular great The Big Bang Theory moment.
Sheldon Wouldn’t Let Amy In His Room Even After He Was In Love With Her
In Young Sheldon season 6, episode 13, Sheldon shadows Paige as she tries to hop from one college party to another. Throughout the night, they also bump into Missy, who takes over and talks Paige out of her self-destructive streak. The Cooper twins bring their friend to Sheldon’s dorm room where she spends the night. This cheapens Sheldon and Amy’s post-love confession moment in The Big Bang Theory. In “The Prom Equivalency,” they admitted their feelings towards each other first time, but despite Sheldon’s love for Amy, he still wouldn’t let her sit on his bed. Yet, in Young Sheldon season 6, he let Paige even sleep on it.
The mere existence of Paige in Sheldon’s life certainly changes how his story in The Big Bang Theory. For starters, it establishes that even at a young age, he is already aware that there are other child prodigies. In fact, even Missy believes that Paige is smarter than her twin brother. Young Sheldon has also attempted to introduce some kind of puppy love connection between the pair, with Sheldon realizing that he had a crush on her supposed rival. The plotline didn’t go anywhere because Paige just wasn’t interested, but it shows that Sheldon has been capable of being romantically attracted to someone long before he met Amy.
Why Sheldon Really Let Paige Sleep In His Room
Paige’s storyline further proves that Young Sheldon needs to ignore TBBT, fully. Since the character wasn’t mentioned in The Big Bang Theory, CBS can’t really develop her arc long-term. Her story is also beneficial to Sheldon as it gives the family sitcom to emphasize his humanity despite his lacking social skills. Granted that Sheldon did object to Missy leaving Paige in his dorm room, he ultimately agreed to it. If he didn’t really want to, he could have made a bigger fuss out of the matter. However, the fact that he essentially followed Paige around to ensure that she was safe confirms that Sheldon does care about her.
Young Sheldon season 6 airs Thursdays on CBS.