Young Sheldon season 7 finally offers a satisfying explanation for why The Big Bang Theory’s Meemaw was so different from her younger self.
Although Young Sheldon season 7 still has more plot holes to patch up, its latest episode seems to explain Meemaw’s big character change in The Big Bang Theory. Young Sheldon’s entire cast of characters differs from their earlier incarnations in The Big Bang Theory. Mary is less bitter and judgmental in the spinoff, while Missy is much closer to her twin brother than she was in The Big Bang Theory. Georgie is more carefree than The Big Bang Theory’s version of Sheldon’s older brother, while Meemaw is more rebelious and free-spirited. However, the spinoff may have explained this last difference.
After Young Sheldon’s season 6 finale saw Meemaw’s house destroyed by a tornado, she doubled down on her attempts to make more money from her illegal gambling room. Even though this was a risky decision, Meemaw chose to add a roulette table and convinced Georgie to help her operate this new attraction. This came back to bite her in season 7, episode 7, “A Suitable Wedding and Skeletons in the Closet,” when the police raided the gambling room and caught Meemaw. Meemaw’s risky new plans for the gambling room finally fall apart, which explains her character change.
Meemaw’s Arrest Explains Her Big Bang Theory Personality Change
Young Sheldon’s Meemaw Sets Up Her More Mature Persona
Getting arrested leaving the usually rebelious, high-energy Meemaw deflated and defeated when she returned home to pick up her things during the episode’s final scene. Meemaw was much more sedate and self-serious in The Big Bang Theory than she is in Young Sheldon, and this season 7 outing appears to explain why. While Young Sheldon contradicts The Big Bang Theory at times in season 7, the revelation that Meemaw was arrested for running the gambling room was both a much-anticipated conclusion to this long-running subplot and a fitting explanation for her new, less rambunctious personality in the show earlier.
In The Big Bang Theory season 9, episode 14, “The Meemaw Materialization,” Meemaw is portrayed as a stern Southern grandmother who initially doesn’t approve of Amy. This flies in the face of Annie Potts’s portrayal of a reckless, risk-loving version of Meemaw in Young Sheldon. “A Suitable Wedding and Skeletons in the Closet” finally links both divergent versions of the character, since Meemaw’s arrest may have humbled her and forced her to keep a low profile. It is not yet whether Meemaw’s calmer attitude was all an act or the result of her being dispirited by the end of her criminal career.
Young Sheldon Season 7’s Meemaw Change Was Overdue
Meemaw’s TBBT and Young Sheldon Personalities Were Too Different
Much like Mary’s Young Sheldon season 7 story set up George Sr’s death, Meemaw’s arrest established the version of the character whom viewers met in The Big Bang Theory. It was fun and unexpected when Meemaw turned out to be a surprisingly fearless rebel early in Young Sheldon, but the spinoff needed to eventually explain what happened that caused her perspective to shift so dramatically between the two shows. The death of her son-in-law, George Sr, would have made sense, but may have been too downbeat. In contrast, Young Sheldon’s explanation was a perfect justification for Meemaw’s The Big Bang Theory character shift.
