A Scrapped Sheldon & Leonard Joke Could Have Changed The Big Bang Theory

In the season 9 finale of "The Big Bang Theory," titled "The Convergence Convergence," Penny and Leonard Hofstadter (Kaley Cuoco and Johnny Galecki) decide to renew their vows after their disastrous Las Vegas elopement in that season's premiere, "The Matrimonial Momentum" (which, as it happens, is one of the lowest-rated episodes of the entire show). When everyone's families gather in Pasadena for the ceremony, something very unexpected happens ... which is that Leonard's father Alfred (Judd Hirsch) and Sheldon Cooper's (Jim Parsons) mother Mary, played by Laurie Metcalf, really hit it off. (Fun fact: Metcalf's daughter, Zoe Perry, plays a younger version of Mary on "Young Sheldon.") Leonard's mother Beverly, played by Christine Baranski, is also present — and not particularly pleased by this development.

After "The Convergence Convergence" aired in May of 2016, executive producer Steve Molaro spoke to Entertainment Weekly about the potential tryst between Alfred and Mary and what that could mean for longtime best friends Leonard and Sheldon. "I don't know what happened," Molaro demurred when he was asked by interviewer Natalie Abrams about the potential couple. "I know they were getting along quite well, and left to go to the same hotel for a nightcap, and turned off their phones. The details of exactly what happened, if we even ever find out all the details, will be left for the season premiere of season 10."

When Abrams asked how Sheldon and Leonard would react to a potential love connection between their parents, nothing that "this is potential for them to actually be brothers," Molaro teased the possibility of the two becoming stepbrothers and revealed that a joke about that very outcome nearly made it into the script. "It's inching toward that, isn't it?" Molaro said. "There was — it fell out of the script — a joke referring to them as potential brothers. I'm going to go with the word 'uncomfortable' probably is a good starting place for their primary emotion of where we leave them and where we will pick up."

In the season 9 finale and season 10 premiere of "The Big Bang Theory," Mary (who made regular appearances on the series) and Alfred (who made his debut in "The Convergence Convergence") meet while they're both attending the rehearsal dinner for Leonard and Penny's vow renewal, and in a twist that makes everybody but Penny really uncomfortable, they get along a little too well. (Penny, for her part, just thinks it's really funny.) They get along so well, in fact, that after they both realize they totally hate Beverly, Mary agrees to head back to the hotel with Alfred; even though they both happen to be staying there, it's pretty obvious the show wants us to think something's going to happen between them.

Then, in the season 10 premiere "The Conjugal Conjecture," everyone heads to the ceremony itself, and it's quite clear that they all believe Alfred and Mary hooked up. Sheldon, for one, is deeply disturbed. In fact, as the episode opens, the couple of the hour, Leonard and Penny, are being kept awake on the night before their wedding by Sheldon yammering in the room next to theirs wondering if Leonard's father is doing "unspeakable" things to his mother. ("Your parents are old. Anything unspeakable was finished by 9:30. Go to sleep," Penny quips.)

Sheldon is uncomfortable at the idea that he, Leonard, and Penny would continue cohabitating after a potential hookup — declaring that "a grown man living with his brother and his brother's wife is weird" — but at the wedding, both Alfred and Mary deny that anything physical happened and say they just talked. (Naturally, Sheldon approaches Alfred and bluntly asks him, "So, did you defile my mother or not?") Still, Alfred and Mary do say they plan to visit each other after they head home from the wedding, but the issue simply never comes up again.

To this day, fans can't figure out if Alfred and Mary really did hook up — and on the subreddit focused on "The Big Bang Theory," Redditor u/lally423 tried to crowdsource an answer in a thread titled "Did Alfred and Mary sleep together," writing, "I have [watched] the episode of Leonard and [Penny's] wedding numerous times and even still I'm not sure whether they slept together or not."

Literally nobody can agree. u/Ragnarsworld wrote in a response, "They did. It completely fits Mary's character," while u/NavdeepGusain didn't think so: "I don't think so. Even if they were attracted to one another, they would still know the implications of their actions if they sleep together." Meanwhile, on a different thread about the issue, u/_BubbleCat_ asked "Does anyone else ship [Leonard's] dad and Sheldon's mom" before writing, "Probably a dumb question lol. I just think they'd make a sweet couple and wanted to know if anyone else thought so too." Some Redditors did, but one, u/Nice-Penalty-8881, pointed out that it could never truly work: "Well I agree they do seem like a cute couple. But long term, with her being a devout Baptist and him being agnostic. I don't know if that would work."

In any case, there's no definitive answer regarding Alfred and Mary's potential romance ... but you can decide for yourself by checking out these two episodes of "The Big Bang Theory," the entirety of which is streaming on Max.