THE BIG BANG THEORY Has a Rhinitis Revelation

Sheldon’s mother Mary (Laurie Metcalfe) visits for a weekend, and while she reconnects with the rest of the gang, Sheldon feels she isn’t spending enough time with him.

Mary Cooper is one of the most complex characters on The Big Bang Theory. On the surface, she’s a politically incorrect born-again Christian hoping to convert non-believers. In a deeper level, she’s the warmest, most nurturing Big Bang parent we’ve seen. (Howard’s mother is also nurturing, but she’s never appeared onscreen.) Leonard, Penny, Raj, and Howard all feel comfortable opening up to her, and it’s a chance for viewers to see what’s currently motivating or bothering them.

Traditionally, Sheldon is annoyed by Mary’s refusal to let scientific fact shake her faith. He envies Leonard’s childhood in comparison to his, and gets along better with Leonard’s coldly professional scientist mother than his own. For most of the weekend, Sheldon tried to get Mary to do what he wanted, and he responded childishly when she refused. It’s easy to say Sheldon was in the wrong here. He couldn’t expect to receive the same level of attention from Mary he did when he was a child. On the other hand, I can see how he would cherish that attention and want as much of it as he could get.

“The Rhinitis Revelation” honored Mary’s history on Big Bang in that it opened with just Leonard, Sheldon, and Mary, and gradually brought in the supporting characters, allowing Mary to catch up with them. The revelation hinted at in the title was Sheldon realizing that, as intelligent as he was, he was prone to the same emotions as the common man.

If Sheldon actually had this revelation, he didn’t act on it for long. By the end of the episode, he was still arguing with Mary, wanting to be babied. This ending is fine by me. If Sheldon had seen the error of his ways and started to accept a more mature relationship with Mary in a single weekend, I don’t know that I would have believed it.