Paige is integral to Young Sheldon, so it’s curious why Sheldon (Jim Parsons) never mentioned Paige (McKenna Grace) in The Big Bang Theory. Young Sheldon has been criticized for its lax approach to continuity, creating many new significant events and characters in Sheldon’s past that cause issues with the Big Bang Theory timeline, such as the prominence of Paige. Young Sheldon season 5 did include more ties to TBBT, even bringing in Simon Helberg as Howard Wolowitz and Mayim Bialik as Amy Farah Fowler-Cooper for voice cameos. However, one outstanding Big Bang Theory continuity issue was highlighted with the return of Paige on Young Sheldon‘s 100th episode.
Introduced in Young Sheldon season 2, Paige is the younger Sheldon’s (Iain Armitage) fellow child prodigy and one-time crush. Sheldon and Paige’s relationship is complicated, primarily because of Sheldon’s irritation with her. Paige is effortlessly smart but doesn’t have the same social issues he does. It’s possible that Sheldon intentionally kept Paige’s existence a secret because he didn’t want his Pasadena friends to learn that there was someone with comparable intellect, though this seems trivial even for him. Considering how important her friendship ended up being to him though, there is still some question as to why Paige was never mentioned in The Big Bang Theory.
The wildly successful Big Bang Theory spinoff series Young Sheldon has followed the genius for six seasons, and here’s what we know about season 7.
There’s No Official Reason Sheldon Never Brings Up Paige In TBBT
There Is Still The Possibility Young Sheldon Provides An Answer
Young Sheldon has never given an official reason behind why Paige was never mentioned in The Big Bang Theory, but there are ways this could eventually be addressed. While the pair’s relationship has been tumultuous thus far because of their intellectual rivalry, they’re still considered friends. So much so that in Young Sheldon‘s 100th episode, Paige reaches out to Sheldon for an odd favor. It’s worth noting that when her parents broke up, Paige started rebelling, and Sheldon became more empathetic toward her.
However, Sheldon’s kindness could backfire, leaving him more pessimistic about friends and forcing him to fully sever ties with her. Whatever she does, it could hurt him so deeply that he doesn’t want to bring it up ever again. This isn’t the first time that a prominent Young Sheldon character was never mentioned on The Big Bang Theory. It’s worth noting that Sheldon’s childhood best friend’s existence was never known until a grown-up Tam (Robert Wu) arrived in Pasadena. But, it’s been explained that the pair had a falling out, so the spin-off could perhaps go down a similar narrative route when explaining why he never talked about Paige.
Young Sheldon has arrived on Netflix and quickly has become a hit, raising questions about whether this could extend its run beyond season 7.
Paige Might Be Why Sheldon Starts TBBT So Broken
But Sheldon May Also Just See Her As A Childhood Crush
While Paige’s Young Sheldon role is never brought up in The Big Bang Theory, it could be that the original series shows the effects of their relationship. Sheldon may see Paige, and all the issues surrounding her, as his biggest failure. When Leonard first meets Sheldon, he has no furniture, no friends, and has become so heavily focused on his work that he rejects nearly all human norms. What’s extremely poignant, too, is that he views romantic entanglements as inherently pointless before eventually succumbing to Amy (which he actively resisted at first).
Sheldon struggles to understand his own emotions but is sentimental about his childhood. The dissonance that she causes could be very hard to overcome, thus why he never mentions Paige in The Big Bang Theory. It’s also possible that so much time has passed that there’s no reason to mention her. Sheldon may simply see Paige as a childhood crush, and any mention of her to Amy might wound their relationship. Though the younger Sheldon has a connection to her, it is not implausible to think adult Sheldon would become less sentimental over time.
While Young Sheldon’s shorter final season means the show could avoid George Sr’.s death, this Big Bang Theory canon event should appear in season 7.
Paige Returned In Young Sheldon Season 6
Her Darker Path Could Hint At Why Paige Isn’t Mentioned In TBBT
Given the fact that Paige left Young Sheldon for a time, the fact Sheldon didn’t mention Paige in The Big Bang Theory could have been explained because she wasn’t present for a significant enough portion of his childhood. However, Paige returned in season 6, and her story remains fairly dark and disturbing. It is possible that Sheldon saw Paige as a tragic tale and didn’t want to bring her up as well. He has always hidden his pain outside rare instances. Paige returned for two episodes in the sixth season and was still struggling. She ran away from home and that is when she came across Sheldon again.
There was a man she was pursuing romantically, but she was growing more awkward around other people, and she took off with Missy on a road trip to Florida. However, that road trip ended when the police pulled them over and Paige blurted out that she was only 13, which saw her taken back to her mother once again. Sheldon takes his entire life seriously and struggles when others don’t do the same — especially those he respects.
Having an intellectual rival who goes to parties, has relationships, and runs away from home at only 13 years old might have been too much for him to emotionally process properly, and so like many things, he chooses to stubbornly not think about it. With these actions on Young Sheldon, he might have seen the other side of the coin and wanted to forget that could ever happen. With Young Sheldon season 7 being the final entry in the spin-off, there’s only a handful of time for the show to answer why Paige was never mentioned in The Big Bang Theory.
