Young Sheldon directly contradicts Amy's (Mayim Bialik) story about a gift she gave Sheldon (Jim Parsons) in The Big Bang Theory, creating a plot hole — but there's more to the contradiction than just that. Debuting in 2017, the CBS prequel spin-off was created by the same minds behind its parent show in Chuck Lorre and Steve Molaro. Given this, one would assume that it would be easy to preserve continuity between the two series, but that's not the case.
Set in 1989, Young Sheldon features Sheldon's years as a high school student in Galveston, Texas — years before he moved to Pasadena, met Leonard, and the rest of the gang. Instead, the prequel series focuses on his family life with parents George Sr. (Lance Barber) and Mary (Zoe Perry), siblings Georgie (Montana Jordan), and Missy (Raegan Revord), as well as Meemaw (Annie Potts). With The Big Bang Theory wrapped up, CBS is positioning the offshoot to fill the void left by the long-running sitcom since it essentially features the same lead character. Unfortunately, with a string of timeline-breaking details, some fans of the original show are hesitant to support Young Sheldon.
The latest Young Sheldon unearthed a detail that directly contradicted something that's established in The Big Bang Theory revolving around the origins of Sheldon's whistle as spotted by u/MuzaffarAbd on Reddit. In season 3, episode 10 of the period show, Sheldon, Missy, and a troubled Paige (McKenna Grace) visit the mall to unwind. The girls find body glitter and are interested in getting it, but they do not have any money to purchase the item. Missy refuses to steal the item, but Paige brazenly does and unfortunately for her, Sheldon catches her in the act of putting the small battle in her jacket pocket. Being a stickler for the rules, he threatens to rat them out, pulling a whistle from his backpack until Paige returned the offending item. Earlier in the episode, Sheldon already laid out the contents of his bag on their way to the mall, revealing that aside from the whistle, he also has a lot of other paraphernalia to ensure his safety in case he ever gets lost.
While the events of Young Sheldon take place before The Big Bang Theory, the latter was released first, therefore, it was able to fill in some narrative gaps and establish certain information regarding Sheldon, his family, and friends. In the parent show's season 8, episode 19 titled "The Skywalker Incursion," Sheldon and Leonard (Johnny Galecki) get ready for their speech at U.C. Berkeley. Sheldon then pulls up a special bag he carries when there's a chance that he might use public bathrooms. Among the contents of the bag are sanitary wipes and a mirror (in case the person in the other stall is a pervert), and a whistle. Amy proudly reveals that she was the one who gave his then-boyfriend the item in case something happens to him.
It's worth noting, however, that the whistle Sheldon had in Young Sheldon was red, while the one featured in The Big Bang Theory was yellow, confirming they're different. Still, it raises some questions since Amy made it sound like she was the one who introduced the socially-inept genius to the importance of a danger whistle. This clearly wasn't the case though, as he was already carrying one long before they met. If anything, Sheldon would logically have continued to carry a whistle with him when he moved to Pasadena, given that he would be all by himself. Perhaps he was even using his old one, after all, the show proved that he tended to hold onto items that he deemed valuable; chances are that he only replaced it when Amy introduced the new whistle.