Paige Swanson is one of Young Sheldon’s main antagonists in that prequel show to the now-defunct, award-winning “The Big Bang Theory“. While Young Sheldon isn’t the kind of prequel spinoff that could have praises for continuity in its storyline, the show has a big audience and has been on the air for six seasons. Still, across the seasons, the show leaves us with explanations that shed light on why Sheldon Cooper is so quirky and socially awkward in his adult years.
However, there’s a piece of the puzzle missing, and that relates to Paige. There’s one big outstanding Big Bang Theory continuity issue when Paige returns for Young Sheldon’s 100th episode: The Paige from Young Sheldon is Sheldon Cooper’s fellow child prodigy and one-time crush.
Moreover, the pair’s relationship is depicted as complicated, primarily because of Sheldon’s irritation with her. Paige is seen as smart as Sheldon but doesn’t have his social issues. Since she’s such a consistent part of Sheldon’s childhood, how come Shelly never talked about her on The Big Bang Theory?
Paige Secretly Likes Sheldon
As stated earlier, Young Sheldon can’t be praised for storyline continuity. But in Season 5, during the 100th episode of the spinoff, we see a tidbit of information that helps us piece everything together. In this episode, we see how Sheldon nerds out while waiting on a lecture that Paige also attends.
After the lecture, Paige shows up to Sheldon’s dorm room and asks him to hang out with her, but Sheldon rebukes her passes. Paige insists, lets herself in, and begins to talk with Shelly. They’re interrupted by a fellow roommate who invites them over for games, they go, and Sheldon’s roommates tease her, and she leaves.
Sheldon talks to her to know what’s wrong. Still, Paige’s answers are evasive and indicative of a girl that feels she’s not being taken seriously and wants to find some meaning. Still, Sheldon is so disconnected from social touch that he misses Paige’s innuendos and goes on with his life, which results in Paige losing interest in him and dealing with the stress of being the oddball to factors other than dating.
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What Happened To Paige In Young Sheldon?
Putting the pieces together, we see that Paige snapped, dropped out of college, and faced a lot of emotional troubles as she had to deal with her folks getting a divorce. Poor Paige is too young to get a job, and we see her bouncing around college parties and starts making wrong decisions that eventually land her and Missy facing the cops in Florida. All in all, in my opinion, Paige’s story arc is the result of lazy scriptwriting, something characteristic of a show like Young Sheldon.
Why Does Sheldon Never Talk About Paige In The Big Bang Theory?
Having considered all those factors, it —kinda— of makes sense that Sheldon never talks about Paige in his adult years. A socially flawed character would keep such an influential character like Paige from his childhood, a rival antagonist with whom he had a crush, a secret from his nerd buddies because he wouldn’t want to let his Pasadena friends learn that there was someone with comparable intellect that didn’t struggle with the social norm. This last aspect was sort of the glue that held together weird dudes like Sheldon, Howard, Raj, and Leonard.
Fans of The Big Bang Theory and Young Sheldon know just how insecure Shelly can be, and since Paige is equal to, if not better, than him, it makes sense that he decides not to talk about her in his adulthood. There’s no official reason Sheldon Cooper never brings up Paige Swanson in The Big Bang Theory.
However, if CBS wants to offer a real explanation as to why Sheldon never talked about her in The Big Bang Theory, the network and screenwriters could easily do. Hell, it’s even a great topic to bring out to the next ComicCon Q&A session!
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