Warning! Spoilers ahead for Young Sheldon season 6.
Sheldon's Young Sheldon season 6 arc could explain one of the oldest The Big Bang Theory plot lines. As Young Sheldon embraces its familial elements, its storytelling also diversifies. After relegating Sheldon to a supporting character in season 5, Young Sheldon season 6 gives the boy genius his own plot line at East Texas Tech as he takes on a new project of creating a grant database. The whole process has become more complicated than necessary because few people want to cash in on his invention. While the storyline remains unresolved, the way it's shaping up could offer an explanation for a long-running The Big Bang Theory narrative involving Sheldon.
Almost four years since Sheldon's adult storyline ended with The Big Bang Theory finale, CBS continues to explore the fan-favorite character via its prequel spin-off. This allows Young Sheldon to explain certain nuisances about the character that can make them more endearing, despite some of his annoying qualities. Other times, however, the family sitcom reveals new information that highlights just how sad and tragic Sheldon's childhood was which was recently the case on Young Sheldon season 6.
Young Sheldon Season 6 Explains The Roommate Agreement
In an effort to emphasize just how odd Sheldon is on The Big Bang Theory, the show introduced the ridiculous Roommate Agreement that Leonard was strictly subjected to. Throughout the nerd-centric sitcom’s run, the contract was the center of its narrative, but as ridiculous as it is, Sheldon has a traumatic reason for creating it. As seen in the Young Sheldon season 6 fall finale, several people who are supposed to look after Sheldon try to take advantage of him as he creates a potentially lucrative database. Because of this experience, he starts to be heavily guarded and suspicious - which appears to be the root of the Roommate Agreement.
The fact that the Roommate Agreement features highly specific clauses - not to mention details about several far-fetched scenarios - proves Sheldon’s efforts to cover all of his bases in case his roommate attempts to take advantage of or manipulate him. Luckily for him, Leonard was mostly understanding of Sheldon’s Roommate Agreement, and compassionate towards him in general. He was usually compliant with the rules laid out by the socially-inept genius, except for a few times when he tried resisting them.
Young Sheldon Season 6 Makes The Roommate Agreement Very Different
The Roommate Agreement in The Big Bang Theory was mostly used as a comedic plot device. However, this new reveal on Young Sheldon season 6 totally changes how it is viewed. Instead of something that Sheldon did just to make other people suffer, the prequel shows that he actually had a justified reason to do it. It’s not clear if Sheldon ever told any member of the Pasadena gang about his experience with the grant database creation, but considering how tolerant they were of his other quirks, it’s highly likely that they suspected something like this had previously happened in Sheldon's life.
Young Sheldon season 6 airs Thursdays on CBS.