Warning! Spoilers ahead for Young Sheldon season 6.
Young Sheldon season 6 just explained The Big Bang Theory plot twist about Sheldon’s relationship with Leonard Nimoy and Stan Lee. Aside from his scientific ventures, Sheldon’s other biggest interest is pop culture, particularly Star Trek and Marvel. Given this, he idolized both Nimoy, who played Sheldon’s favorite, Spock, and Lee, who pioneered Marvel Comics and created many iconic fictional characters. So, it was surprising to learn that both Nimoy and Lee have restraining orders against Sheldon. Three years after The Big Bang Theory wrapped up, Young Sheldon season 6 finally reveals the reason why.
Despite the socially-inept genius being the titular character of the family sitcom, Sheldon has become Young Sheldon‘s worst part – not because he became more annoying, but because of how he’s integrated into its storytelling. While the rest of the Coopers deal with home woes like George and Mary’s work issues and Georgie and Mandy’s tricky pregnant situation, he’s usually at East Texas Tech dealing with his own affairs. This makes him out of place on his own show. Young Sheldon season 6 remedies that by introducing a school plot line that gets his parents involved.
Why Sheldon Has Many Restraining Orders From Leonard Nimoy & Stan Lee
After Sheldon comes up with the idea to create a grant database, he begins the process of getting the ball rolling for his project. Sadly for him, it has become so much more complicated with other people trying to manipulate him for their own gain, including Dr. Linkletter. In an effort to convince Sheldon to give him credit for the database idea, he gives him “an authentic signature from Richard Feynman” in the Young Sheldon season 6 fall finale. The socially-inept genius is initially thrilled about it until he notices that it’s from a restraining order which he figures is ”a really great way to get autographs.”
Sheldon himself says that he will keep this unorthodox idea in mind, which appears to explain why he has restraining orders from Nimoy and Lee — two of his biggest idols. So, while it’s possible that overeagerness and lack of self-awareness could make him do strange things, this floats the idea that Sheldon may have been intentionally hassling the people he looks up to, so he could get autographed restraining orders for them. It’s an odd but ingenious way to get what he wants from them, which fits with his personality.
Who Else Does Sheldon Have A Restraining Order From?
TBBT’s Sheldon is worse than Young Sheldon and its version of the Cooper genius, but they’re still the same person since CBS maintains that the shows exist in the same reality. So while Sheldon didn’t use this trick during his days in Texas, it’s possible that he developed the confidence he needed to finally do it when he moved to Pasadena. Aside from Nimoy and Lee, he also got restraining orders from Carl Sagan, Bill Nye, and maybe even Zachary Quinto. These are the only ones revealed on The Big Bang Theory, but considering how effective Dr. Linkletter’s restraining order scheme is, there’s probably more.
Young Sheldon season 6 airs Thursdays on CBS.
