| “ | Why? They're not my accomplishments. | „ |
| ~ The reason Beverly Hofstadter is never proud of her children. |
Dr. Beverly Hofstadter is the main antagonist of the The Big Bang Theory franchise.
She is a famous neuroscientist, author of psychiatric books, and the mother of Leonard Hofstadter.
She was portrayed by Christine Baranski, who also portrayed Cinderella's Stepmother in Into the Woods, Amelia von Butch in Scooby Doo and Chef Bergen in Trolls
Biography[]
Beverly was mentioned multiple times throughout Season 1, described by her son Leonard as the main source of his neurosis, from openly favoring his siblings to experimenting on him. However, her first official appearance was in the middle of Season 2. She left her son half broken, like many times throughout his life, but created a surprising bond with Sheldon Cooper.
Season 3[]
She reappeared in "The Maternal Congruence", where she visits Leonard for Christmas. She's surprised to find out about Leonard's relationship with Penny. Leonard never told her about her, because he was afraid she'd disapprove of Penny for her lack of education. Sheldon, whom Beverly speaks with frequently, revealed that the habit of hiding information is mutual, as Beverly spared Leonard details such as her divorce from Leonard's father and his dog's death. Penny decided to take Beverly drinking at The Cheesecake Factory to get her loosened up and less harsh, and eventually bonded. Ironically, her intoxication gave her the clarity to realize Leonard's reasons to distancing himself, and gave him an uncharacteristic genuine hug. While being driven to the airport by Leonard, she gave her blessing to his relationship.
Beverly is mentioned again in "The Pants Alternative", where it is revealed that she humiliated Leonard and negatively compared him to his siblings ever since he was eight, or even before. On one instance, she even forced Leonard to give up a prize just because his research about lima beans' growth thanks to classical music was slightly similar to research about lima beans' decay due to rock n' roll, which made him regress to bed-wetting.
Season 4[]
Beverly is absent in all episodes in Season 4, but is mentioned in "The Engagement Reaction" as a textbook example of a crazy and abusive mother.
Season 5[]
She appears via Skype in the premiere episode, "The Skank Reflex Analysis". Leonard tells her about his conflicting emotions regarding current girlfriend Priya Koothrappali and Penny. She coldly responds by calling him a coward, and advises him to get one of her books instead of asking for her motherly advice again.
In "The Speckerman Recurrence", Leonard mentions her as the real reason he regressed to bed-wetting.
In "The Shiny Trinket Maneuver", Leonard, Howard Wolowitz and Rajesh Koothrappali are discussing Howard's possibility of having a child in the future. Leonard says that he might not develop parental feeling toward the child, giving his own abusive mother as an example of such a situation.
In "The Recombination Hypothesis", she is mentioned when Sheldon theorizes that Leonard's wish to distant himself from his mother is his main motivation to be attracted to someone that is the polar opposite of him, namely Penny.
Season 6[]
Beverly is absent in all episodes in Season 6, only mentioned throughout the season regarding bad memories and encouraging Leonard to become a scientist.
Season 7[]
In "The Raiders Minimization", Penny purchases one of Beverly's psychology books about Leonard's problems growing up, called The Disappointing Child. Leonard leverages his embarrassment and anger to make Penny join his favorite activities. After Penny learns about his behavior, she tempts him for sexual engagement, only to drag him into a Skype conversation with his mother, and falsely accuses him of involving her in his intimate moments.
In "The Status Quo Combustion", Leonard contacts his mother to tell her of his engagement to Penny, unaware Sheldon has already told her. While initially having doubts about Penny, Sheldon's admiration convinces her to appreciate Penny more. Leonard shows deep frustration in the fact his mother is focused on herself and treating Sheldon better than her own son. Beverly responds by wondering why Leonard is always clinging on to her approval.
Season 8[]
Beverly was mentioned in "The Expedition Approximation", as Leonard and Penny are discussing their financials. Leonard explains that he's perfectly content with the fact he isn't the main breadwinner, as his father had a much worse time due to being completely emasculated by his mother.
In "The Maternal Combustion", she visits Pasadena to see Sheldon and Leonard get an award. She meets Mary Cooper and wants to know about Sheldon when he was growing up. Though warned to be nice to Mary, she starts a heated argument after Mary mentions her religious beliefs. Later talking to Sheldon, she admits that there are other methods of raising children. She tries unconditional love by trying an awkward hug with Leonard.
Season 9[]
Beverly returns in "The Line Substitution Solution", where Penny tries to connect with her, only to see her bonding with Amy and Bernadette instead. When Penny has had enough and it is the last straw for her, she gets very angry with Beverly and yells at her for being an insult all day and asks Beverly if she even knows what an insult is. Beverly then tells Penny says she feels insulted that she wasn't invited to her son's wedding, nor even being told that it was taking place. To make up for that, Penny decides on doing a re-wedding while Beverly is still in town, which is okay with the latter and they finally bond.
Season 10[]
In "The Conjugal Conjecture", Beverly does not want to be humiliated again and attend the ceremony. Penny convinces her to stay, if only to spite her ex-husband, Alfred. At the wedding ceremony, Stuart sits between them since they refuse to sit next to each other. When asked for comments, Alfred stands and says that even though they brought the worse out of each other, the best thing to come out of their relationship was Leonard. Beverly agrees.
She is mentioned again in "The Birthday Synchronicity", when Leonard says that he has come to peace with his relationship with his parents, likely suggesting that there may have been some improvement in the relationship between Beverly and Leonard.
Beverly reappears in "The Escape Hatch Identification", where Sheldon asks for her professional advice in order to deal with the fact that someone else is taking his room. Beverly says that Sheldon has insecurities about his relationship with Amy and needs his room as an escape hatch for their relationship. Amy retorts that their relationship is sound, but realizes his need for a back up plan. She slightly reverts to her old ways by bugging Leonard and Penny, interpreting their generosity toward Raj and Randall as attempts to find roommates in order to distract themselves from marital problems.
Season 11[]
In 'The Explosion Implosion", after Penny answers a phone call from Beverly for Leonard, the pair developed a close bond with Beverly dishing on her recent amorous activities. Amy was jealous of Penny's close relationship with Leonard's mother, while Leonard was more annoyed that his mother told Penny she was proud of her, which is something Beverly has never said about him. When Leonard confronted his mother, Beverly told him how great Penny was, that out of all of her children's spouses, Penny was the best one and admitted she was proud of Leonard, if only for marrying well. Beverly also noticed that Leonard was trying hard not to cry, so she let him hang up quickly since Leonard was already being driven to tears.
Season 12[]
In "The VCR Illumination", Leonard and Penny ask her professional help for comforting Sheldon, whom she was uncharacteristically quick to help due to him being one of the few people she truly cares about.
As the episode name and location in the season suggests, "The Maternal Conclusion" is the end for her time in the series and one of the last of the show as a whole. She visits Leonard and Penny, acting nice and seeming to be truly interested in Leonard's new physics project. However, she eventually admits that she is doing research for her new book. Leonard gets mad until he finally decides he forgives her. She doesn't understand why she is being forgiven, yet bursts in tears and embraces Leonard.
Personality[]
Beverly's overly analytical nature turned her into a cold and bitter woman, who diagnoses the behavior or neuroses of those to whom she's speaking while breaking them from the inside. She's completely lacking of empathy, as shown when her analysis of Penny's relationship with her father prompts Penny to burst into tears within minutes, but rather than attempt to console Penny, Beverly merely continued to psychoanalyze her.
Her cruelty and blindness to other people's feelings seems driven less by sadism and more by the fact that she tends to force clinical analysis on people around her, distantly insulting and abrasively mocking people around her before using psychological jargon to distance herself from the antagonism which she has created. She sees no problem, or even any moral faults, in humiliating and belittling people around her.
Despite her high intelligence, Beverly's extreme arrogance and narcissism make her very ignorant at times. Leonard's multiple attempts to have a mother-son relationship with her are interpreted by her as absurd and unnecessary, even an Oedipus complex. Beverly also insensitively rebukes Leonard's attempts to impress her, or even communicate with her at all. She also has the bad habit of projecting her own narcissistic personality disorder into Leonard, and overall blaming him for her own faults.
Perhaps the most prominent example of Beverly's extreme ignorance is represented by her own husband, Alfred. Despite being just as accomplished and brilliant as her, she showed just as little emotion to him as she did toward their son Leonard, which eventually led Alfred to have an affair with a more loving and caring woman. Beverly showed a self-righteous rage about their inevitable divorce, believing they went their separate ways because of Alfred's affair, refusing to acknowledge her own emasculating and misanthropic behavior that led to the end of their relationship.
For all of her faults and psychopathic nature, Beverly showed a true bond with Sheldon Cooper, Leonard's friend and roommate. She had no such bond with Leonard himself, but their reconciliation in the final season showed that deep down, Leonard's respect and acceptance were important to her.
Trivia[]
- As the one directly responsible for most of Leonard's misfortune, from unsolved self-esteem problems to hanging out with under-appreciating people, Beverly is ultimately the heavy of the whole The Big Bang Theory franchise.
- Despite her antisocial personality disorder, Beverly Hofstadter is the mother that Sheldon Cooper wishes he had.
- There are two people who are similar to Beverly Hofstadter in the Big Bang theory like Mrs. Fowler aka Amy Farrah Fowler’s mother who is similar to her and have a loveless marriage with her father. The second one is Mary Cooper from the Young Sheldon series. In the Big Bang Theory those two could not stand each other in the prequel she is too much like Beverly and ignore and treats her two children badly and devote to Sheldon.
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 Villains
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The Big Bang Theory | ||
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Young Sheldon | ||
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Georgie & Mandy's First Marriage | ||