Warning! Spoilers ahead for the Young Sheldon series finale.
Adult Sheldon’s appearance in the Young Sheldon finale may have also revealed the possibility that The Big Bang Theory‘s Leonard is dead. Similar to its parent series, CBS stages a special one-hour send-off for the Coopers as Sheldon wraps up his time in Texas and moves to California. The first half of the series capper is focused on the family dealing with George’s unexpected death in Young Sheldon season 7, episode 12, “A New Home and a Traditional Texas Torture.” After the Cooper patriarch’s funeral service, however, the family comedy/drama shifts its storytelling to the clan moving forward.
To establish a connection with the flagship series, the Young Sheldon finale brought Jim Parsons and Mayim Bialik to physically appear as adult Sheldon and Amy from the future. This marks the pair’s first on-screen return since The Big Bang Theory ended in 2019. Beyond their cameos benefit to the prequel’s storytelling, it also allows CBS to offer an update on how the Pasadena gang is doing in the future. Unfortunately, instead of a happy revelation, the Cooper-Fowler couple’s involvement implies that Leonard may already be gone thanks to a couple of new clues to his dark fate.
Unfortunately, no other The Big Bang Theory character appears in the Young Sheldon finale, but there are two particular reveals suggesting that Sheldon’s best friend is dead. Firstly, Sheldon and Amy continue to refer to their son as Leonard. Their firstborn’s name was long confirmed in the spinoff and was inspired by Sheldon’s love for both Leonard Hofstadter and Leonard Nimoy. Oddly, they don’t have the need to nickname him differently. It would be weird, not to mention confusing, to have both of them be called the exact same name when they are part of a single social circle.
To back this idea up, Sheldon only brings up Leonard’s wife in the closing moments of the Young Sheldon finale. As the couple walks out of his office to attend Leonard’s hockey game in Pasadena, Amy mentions that their daughter wants to take acting classes, to which Sheldon quips that this is what happens when they let Penny babysit. Chuck Lorre and his team know full well how vital Easter eggs and references are. So, while name-dropping Penny sounds innocuous, considering her friendship with Sheldon, the writers must have known that not mentioning or showing Leonard would have narrative implications.
It shouldn’t be difficult to include Leonard’s name during adult Sheldon and Amy’s final Young Sheldon conversation anyway. The pair could have easily inserted him into the discussion when they brought up Penny’s babysitting of their unnamed daughter. Amy could have also mentioned him when Sheldon claimed that he has always been an agreeable person. Instead, there isn’t any acknowledgment of Leonard’s current existence in their lives. Considering his friendship with Sheldon and romance with Penny, the writers must have known that the lack of information about him post-The Big Bang Theory would pose questions about his whereabouts.
The Young Sheldon finale doesn’t explicitly reveal how far into the future adult Sheldon and Amy are from. However, based on their comments, it’s safe to say that their son is in her early adolescence while their daughter is a few years younger than him. That means it would have been more than a decade since they won the Nobel Prize in Physics, making them and Leonard in their 50s, which is not old by all means. However, considering Leonard’s well-established health issues, which include sleep apnea and asthma, he may have died in the last several years.
Understandably, the Young Sheldon finale’s priority isn’t paying tribute to The Big Bang Theory. While the prequel stands on the shoulders of its parent series, it has already come a long way from its early days of only catering to Sheldon and focusing on expanding his story. Young Sheldon has eventually found its identity, stepping outside The Big Bang Theory‘s shadow and becoming a proper family comedy/drama, and it is the better for it. This is the reason why its two-part finale devotes the majority of its time to the family dynamics in the aftermath of George’s death.
That being said, the series capper isn’t the only opportunity for the spinoff to acknowledge Leonard. Throughout its seven-year run, Young Sheldon featured a plethora of references to The Big Bang Theory. It brought back Simon Helberg as Howard and Bialik as Amy (before her cameo) for its voiceovers. Despite these, not once did The Big Bang Theory prequel mention Leonard and his friendship with Sheldon. While Young Sheldon never mentioned Raj and Bernadette, the show is able to get away with it because they weren’t as close to the socially-inept genius as Penny and her husband.
The Chuck Lorre and Bill Prady-created TV franchise will continue via a couple of spinoffs. To start, Georgie and Mandy’s sequel series titled Georgie And Mandy’s First Marriage will premiere in the fall, focusing on the couple as they start a new life as parents to Baby Cece. Considering the timeline, it may be tricky, but if it has the same format as its predecessor, with Adult Georgie narrating the events of his marriage to Mandy, the writers can slip in details about Leonard, especially since the pair quickly developed a kinship when they met in The Big Bang Theory.
If that isn’t an option, Lorre is also working on a separate The Big Bang Theory spinoff. Details about the new show are still under wraps, but it is expected to be more connected to the nerd-centric sitcom than Young Sheldon. Given this, there’s a bigger opportunity to reveal details about Leonard’s whereabouts and status post-The Big Bang Theory. No release date has been set for the upcoming endeavor, which means that the viewers may have to wait a while longer, but it’s better than not having any prospects with regard to this matter.
Finally, a clarification on Leonard’s status can be revealed via a The Big Bang Theory reunion — something that has been clamored for a while now. There were hopes that the Young Sheldon finale could feature the complete Pasadena gang in light of Parsons and Bialik’s confirmed appearance. That didn’t happen, but it doesn’t mean that a proper get-together with the rest of the cast is out of the question in the future.