Young Sheldon’s Ming-Na Wen Plot Explains A Big Bang Theory Character Flaw

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Sheldon was often paranoid about Penny pulling one over on him in The Big Bang Theory despite also thinking he was smarter than her, an internal contradiction that Young Sheldon offered an answer for via Ming-Na Wen’s cameo. Sheldon Cooper and Penny were always bound to butt heads onThe Big Bang Theory. Penny was free-spirited and fun-loving where Sheldon was uptight and cautious, and Kaley Cuoco’s Big Bang Theory heroine was also deeply unpretentious where Sheldon was often insufferably smug about his superior intellect.

However, one of Sheldon’s character flaws always jarred with his stated view of Penny. Throughout The Big Bang Theory (particularly in earlier seasons before he softened up somewhat), Sheldon is often suspicious of Penny and distrusts her motives. This should theoretically jar with the fact that he thinks himself far smarter than her, making his conviction that she can fool him seemingly misplaced.

Related: Young Sheldon Sets Up Sheldon’s Second Darkest George Story

However, Ming-Na Wen’s Carol Lee outsmarting Sheldon in Young Sheldon season 5 explained this The Big Bang Theory character detail. Much like one Young Sheldon season 5 episode justified Sheldon’s obsession with his spot by illustrating his struggles sharing a room with Missy, Carol Lee’s role on the show explained why The Big Bang Theory’s version of Sheldon is so oddly suspicious of Penny while still patronizing her intellect. By booby-trapping her office and catching Sheldon in the act of trying to sabotage her work, Lee proves that the character had a format experience of a glamorous, charismatic woman wooing his co-workers and tricking him into exposing his intellectual insecurities — thus making his paranoid distrust of Penny make