Jim Parsons' Best Episodes In The Big Bang Theory

Few modern television characters have entered the popular lexicon as thoroughly as Sheldon Cooper, played by Jim Parsons in "The Big Bang Theory" (later portrayed as a kid by Iain Armitage in the prequel series "Young Sheldon"). A child prodigy from Galveston, Texas, Sheldon earned his Ph.D. at age 16 before moving to Los Angeles to work as a theoretical physicist at Caltech. Despite being a brilliant scientist, Sheldon often has difficulty engaging in everyday life, and is socially maladroit to the extreme. Any interruption to his strictly regimented routine sends him into a tailspin, and he doesn't suffer fools lightly. Yet with the help of his roommate Leonard (Johnny Galecki), his neighbor Penny (Kaley Cuoco), his girlfriend Amy (Mayim Bialik), and his friends Howard (Simon Pegg), Raj (Kunal Nayyar), and Bernadette (Melissa Rauch), Sheldon eventually grows into a (somewhat) more open-hearted guy.

Created by Chuck Lorre and Bill Prady, "The Big Bang Theory" ran for 12 seasons on CBS, during which time Parsons earned six Emmy nominations and four wins for best actor in a comedy series. Of the show's whopping 279 episodes, how many count as Sheldon standouts? Let's take a look back at Jim Parsons' best episodes in "The Big Bang Theory," narrowed down to 12 highlights (one from each season).

Parsons earned his first Emmy nomination for the second season of "The Big Bang Theory." He chose "The Bath Item Gift Hypothesis" as his episode submission, and it's easy to see why, since it shows off so many dimensions of Sheldon's character: his obsessiveness, his prickliness, and even his sweetness. It also shows how he (begrudgingly) allows Penny into his tightly structured life, forcing him to change.

An avowed atheist, Sheldon has no use for Christmas, so he's shocked when Penny gives him a gift for the holidays. Desperate to find a present of equal value to hers, he enlists Raj and Howard to go shopping with him. He settles on a basket of bath items, but still unsure of which ones will be the equivalent of her gift to him, he buys a wide variety to cover his bases. It turns out that was a good call, since Penny got him a napkin that was both autographed and used by Leonard Nimoy. Overcome with emotions (and the prospect of creating his own little Spock from Nimoy's DNA), he gives her both every bath item imaginable and a rare Sheldon hug. It's one of the first signs that Sheldon's hardened shell is starting to crack, as he lets new people get close enough to literally touch him.

In "The Agreement Dissection," Sheldon finds himself bristling at Leonard's burgeoning relationship with Raj's sister, Priya (Aarti Mann). Things come to a head when Sheldon catches the two taking a shower together, thus violating multiple rules in their roommate agreement. Yet Priya uses her skills as an attorney to get the charges thrown out. She later violates Sheldon's very particular eating schedule by ordering Greek food for the guys on pizza night. He seeks refuge with Penny, who's organized a girls' night with Amy and Bernadette so they can trash-talk Leonard's new girlfriend. 

After some drinks and dancing, Sheldon takes Amy back to her apartment, where she encourages him to stand up to Priya. The two share a kiss before Amy drunkenly throws up in her bathroom. The next day, Sheldon blackmails Leonard into a revised agreement by threatening to tell Priya's parents about their relationship. A severely hungover Amy calls Sheldon to ask if anything happened between them last night, and he assures her that it didn't. Aside from the hilarity of learning that Sheldon used to dance at debutante balls as a child (which he demonstrates on the dance floor), this installment also shows him beginning to grow through his relationship with Amy, which at this point was just an on-again, off-again flirtation.

Sheldon is obsessed with all things nerdy, from "Star Wars" to comic books. In "The Habitation Configuration," he scores a major win when he convinces Wil Wheaton to appear on his Youtube show "Fun With Flags" for a special "Star Trek" themed episode. But things go awry during taping when Amy doesn't get along with their famous guest. She asks Sheldon to tell Wheaton to leave, and when he refuses, Amy storms out. Sheldon recounts their confrontation with Penny at the Cheesecake Factory bar, and she chides him for failing to stand up for his girlfriend. She encourages Sheldon to channel his inner Texan and confront Wheaton, which he does with the aid of a little liquid courage. Sheldon goes to Wheaton's home and demands he apologize to Amy, later vomiting in his shrubs. He makes up with Amy, and they reshoot the podcast with special guest LeVar Burton — who also can't get along with her.

In addition to tapping into Sheldon's nerdiest obsessions, it also showcases his continual growth through his relationship with Amy, as he begrudgingly realizes that he really does care for her. Plus, just like in "The Pants Alternative," it gives Parsons another opportunity to indulge in one of comedy's oldest staples: Playing drunk.

Before meeting Amy, Sheldon's closest relationship was with his roommate, Leonard, who was also (almost by default) his best friend. Although he'd hate to admit it, Sheldon cares deeply about Leonard, and that's on full display in the eighth season episode "The Septum Deviation." Of course, Sheldon being Sheldon, any open display of emotions causes him to act out in hilariously outlandish ways, and his actions in this installment are no different.

When Leonard announces he's having surgery to fix a deviated septum, Sheldon tries to talk him out of it by outlining every possible adverse side effect (broken down with mathematical precision on his handy whiteboard). Leonard sneaks off to the hospital with Penny, but Amy fails to keep their trip a secret. A desperate Sheldon races to the hospital, only to break his own nose when he runs into the glass door of the operating room. While Sheldon and Leonard are recovering at home with matching bandaged noses, Leonard jokingly tells Sheldon that he tried to stop the surgery because he secretly loves him. Sheldon proves Leonard's point by unwrapping a package he had specially delivered for him: Matching engraved funeral urns. Sure, it's morbid, but it's also poignant (and expensive, since Sheldon can't get a refund once the engravings have been done).

Sheldon took a major step in his relationship with Amy in the 10th season episode "The Cohabitation Experimentation." As the title would suggest, the two experiment with living together when Amy's apartment becomes flooded due to plumbing problems. This is music to Leonard and Penny's ears, who will live alone in the boys' apartment while Sheldon and Amy stay across the hall in Penny's. But Sheldon being Sheldon, things can't help but go wrong. Not used to sharing a bed with someone else, he keeps Amy awake their first night with his excessive tossing and turning. The next morning, they have a fight over — what else? — scientific integrity. The two work themselves up into such a lather that the only thing that can calm them down is making out on Penny's couch.

Throughout the run of the show, Sheldon was dragged kicking and screaming into relationships with other people. His romance with Amy experienced many ups and downs, most of which were caused by Sheldon's inability to express his feelings in any meaningful way. Yet step by step, he learns to share his life with another person, even when it disrupts his carefully structured routine. Parsons did an expert job of charting that development throughout the series, imbuing Sheldon's journey with equal measures of humor and pathos, even in episodes as absurd as "The Cohabitation Experimentation."

The 12-season run of "The Big Bang Theory" came to an end with a two-part finale that showed just how far Sheldon had come in his personal development. In "The Change Constant," Sheldon and Amy learn they've earned the Nobel Prize for their work in super-asymmetry (which they started at their wedding). When Amy gets a makeover ahead of their trip to Sweden, Sheldon demands she change back to the way she was before. At the Cheesecake Factory, Penny explains that change is the only constant in life, and that he should accept all of the changes in his own life as positive.

In "The Stockholm Syndrome," the gang travels to Sweden to watch Sheldon and Amy accept their Nobel Prizes. On the plane trip over, Sheldon gets worried that Penny might be sick because she keeps going to the bathroom. Turns out Penny is pregnant, a secret she's keeping from Leonard. When she tells Sheldon, he's relieved that she won't be sick during the ceremony, and uncaringly breaks the news to Leonard. He also reacts selfishly when Howard and Bernadette want to return home to check on their kids, leading Amy to reprimand Sheldon for constantly hurting his friends, which they only put up with because they know he can't help it. During his acceptance speech, he forgoes talking about himself to instead thank each of his friends individually, apologizing for not always reciprocating their love. It's a moment of genuine humility for Sheldon that was well earned over the show's long run.