What if Penny was hiding a deep, dark secret from the guys since the very first episode? Too
hard to believe? Well keep watching, because we’re diving into a fan theory that changes everything.
If you really think about it, we barely know anything about The Big Bang Theory's Penny who,
until she marries Leonard in season 9, doesn't even have a last name. She's beautiful and blonde,
but that doesn't mean her supposed acting career is going anywhere. She can somehow afford to live
in the same apartment building as several working scientists in spite of her waitress' salary.
"You realize, Penny, that the technology that went into this
arm will one day make unskilled food servers such as yourself obsolete."
"Really? They're going to make a robot that spits on your hamburger?"
All the while, her character seems to have nothing at all in common with Leonard and his friends.
Yet she still spends almost all of her time hanging out with them,
eating Chinese food, and listening to them nerd out about subjects she doesn't seem to grasp.
It speaks to a crisis in the very foundation of the show's premise
that these inconsistencies are never probed, let alone explained. Look too hard at the character
Penny, and based on the sheer improbability of this one woman's choices and traits,
you'll see all the cracks that should have brought the entire structure of the series
crumbling down. Fortunately, there's a fan theory that provides an explanation
for all of these apparent plot holes, and its implications are pretty darn wild to comprehend.
According to this fan theory, first posited by Reddit user
numbertheory and picked up by Screen Rant, it's quite possible that Penny
is secretly a spy. That's right — move over The Americans, because Chuck Lorre's got an entirely
different story to tell about a deep-cover agent living among her unsuspecting marks.
The theory ties into the notion that the federal government has been spying on Sheldon and Leonard
ever since the latter broke up with Joyce Kim — a woman who was revealed to be a North Korean spy
in the episode The Staircase Implementation. An upset Leonard causes an explosion that takes out
the building's elevators, which may not interest local authorities for very long but — coupled
with the Kim incident — very well could have drawn the attention of the federal government.
Aware of Leonard and Sheldon's knowledge of a rocket fuel project,
they simply sent Penny in to monitor both men, according to the theory.
It sounds absurd, but it actually ties up all of the lingering confusion about her lifestyle.
Think about it: Penny, without even an identifiable last name, has been sent
into the men's lives to observe their antics. This explains why she spends so much time with two guys
who don't share her interests, why she doesn’t have any friends of her own, how she can afford
an apartment without a roommate, and why there's a lack of traction in her so-called acting career.
"When you were telling Kevin about your acting career did you mention your long
running role as waitress in a local production of The Cheesecake Factory?"
All obvious violations of Occam's razor aside, sometimes it's the explanation that
actually explains everything that's worthy of consideration — unlike the real-life Big
Bang Theory, ironically enough. You can think of it as a Unified Theory of Penny.
"No cops, be cool!"
If you're still having trouble wrapping your head around the possibility that Penny is
the spy next door, then consider this: Despite Penny's lack of multiple PhDs,
The Big Bang Theory makes it clear she's not an idiot — far from it,
in fact. Without the slow reveal of Penny's intelligence over the course of her
long character arc, would her relationship with the objectively brilliant Leonard even work?
Maybe — just maybe — she plays it all "babe in the woods" whenever the boys descend into science talk
just to keep their guard down. Maybe she feigns a total lack of understanding
to lure this apartment full of useful idiots into a false sense of security. If they knew
right from the get-go that Penny understood even a fraction of what they were saying,
maybe they would have been more guarded with the details of their work. Her performative ignorance
provides them with just the level of comfort they need to spill each and every classified bean.
All the while, if this theory is to be believed at least, Penny could be carefully recording
any and all information that may be of interest to federal intelligence.
Now go back and watch the entire series from the beginning with this new understanding.
It's a totally different show.
"That's about it. That's the story of Penny."
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