Warning: Contains SPOILERS for Young Sheldon season 6.
It was never easy to see why The Big Bang Theory’s Mary Cooper found so much comfort in her faith when the church was so cruel to her, but Young Sheldon season 6 has made her motivations even more muddled. From the moment she is first introduced in The Big Bang Theory, Sheldon’s devoutly religious mother Mary is defined by her faith. At first glance, Mary Cooper could not seem less like Sheldon thanks to this intense religious conviction, but Sheldon and Mary’s surprising similarities come to the surface in Young Sheldon season 6.
However, one thing that Young Sheldon season 6 doesn’t explain is why Mary finds so much solace in the church when the institution repeatedly lets her down in her hour of need. Early in Young Sheldon season 6, Mary was kicked out of the church because the community found out about Georgie getting Mandy pregnant, a move that made her eventual reconciliation with the institution seem unlikely. Now, according to the synopsis for Young Sheldon season 6, episode 8, ”Legalese and a Whole Hoo-Ha,” the church has set its sights on shutting down Meemaw’s video store gambling setup. Young Sheldon season 6 needs to explain why Mary would return to the church after these repeated infractions.
The Big Bang Theory’s Version of Mary Cooper
Young Sheldon explained the obsession with credit that The Big Bang Theory’s Sheldon held onto until that show’s series finale, but the spinoff never justified Mary Cooper’s deeply religious, stern countenance. In The Big Bang Theory, Mary is a stereotypical god-fearing Christian whose faith defines her personal interactions, and her intense religious conviction leads to frequent clashes with Sheldon. However, this doesn’t line up with the Mary Cooper seen in Young Sheldon, who seemed to experience some relief when she let go of the church at the start of season 6 after the institution kicked her out when she needed their support.
How Young Sheldon Changed Mary
In Young Sheldon, Mary Cooper is still a stick in the mud, but less stuck in her ways. She can loosen up and, occasionally in Young Sheldon season 6, disregard her pious views. Much like Meemaw’s character changed after Young Sheldon and became sterner, less playful, and more like her daughter, Mary also seems to have let her faith calcify into something more bitter and exclusionary before The Big Bang Theory began. The sudden death of her husband George Sr. seems like the obvious catalyst for this significant character shift, but even this traumatic event doesn’t account for Mary’s ability to disregard the ways that the church mistreated her.
Young Sheldon Season 6 Shook Mary’s Faith
In Young Sheldon season 6, Mary questioned whether she should still be giving so much to an institution that clearly doesn’t care about her. As a result, she ended up drinking, dancing, having fun, and reigniting her relationship with George Sr. for the first time in years. One of the saddest parts of George Sr.’s impending death was how Mary appeared to come out of her shell and become a more self-actualized, confident version of herself when she escaped the church’s influence.
However, viewers who have seen The Big Bang Theory’s judgmental, narrow-minded version of Mary knew that this change was temporary. People often seek out religion when faced with an inexplicable tragedy. However, the church singled out Mary and made her a pariah despite her years of service and, judging by the next episode’s synopsis, tried to take down Meemaw’s gambling ring even after Mary left. They systematically targeted the Coopers, making Mary’s return to her faith hard to justify.
George Sr’s Death Brings Mary Back To Church (But Why?)
Young Sheldon has justified details as small as Penny and Missy’s friendship in The Big Bang Theory, so it is not unfair for viewers to expect a storyline that would justify Mary’s apparent about-face. Of course, there is one potential reason that the spinoff hasn’t explained Mary’s return to her faith. The reality could be that Mary found solace in the church after George Sr’s death, despite the institution’s mistreatment of her because she felt she had nowhere else to turn. This is a depressing prospect and might be too dark a story for a family sitcom like Young Sheldon to effectively handle.
Why Mary’s Faith Isn’t Explored In Young Sheldon
However, it is a phenomenon found in victims of trauma, some of whom seek out the source of their trauma thanks to the comfort of familiarity. Like fellow working-class family sitcom The Conners, Young Sheldon does occasionally take on darker, heavier subject matter, so there is a chance that this is the explanation season 6 is setting up. If this is the case, Young Sheldon needs to handle this revelation with care. Currently, it seems exceedingly unlikely that Mary Cooper would return to the church for any reason, both because her life has improved since she left and because the institution publicly shamed and rejected her.
However, The Big Bang Theory’s version of Mary already made it clear that, according to the show’s canon, the character’s religion is a big part of her life in later years. As such, Young Sheldon needs to find a way to marry these two seemingly conflicting stories. If George Sr.’s tragic Young Sheldon death brings Mary back to the church, it would make sense for this experience to leave her less optimistic and more embittered. Young Sheldon season 6 can use this opportunity to establish how Mary Cooper came to be the angry, judgmental version of herself seen in The Big Bang Theory.
How Young Sheldon Can Set Up The Big Bang Theory’s Mary Cooper
It would be sad to see Mary admit that the church is the only place she feels safe despite their mistreatment of her, but this would also explain how she became so much more mean-spirited in the years between Young Sheldon and The Big Bang Theory. The loss of George Sr. explains her return to the church, but the church’s failure to apologize to her or atone for how they treated her could explain why the older version of Mary is so bitter. Thus, Young Sheldon season 6 could take its confusing Mary storyline and use it to explain The Big Bang Theory version of her character, provided the show is not afraid of this sadder, heavier plot.
Young Sheldon season 6 airs Thursdays on CBS.
