“Better,” Sheldon said, his voice climbing an octave with excitement. “I have obtained Young Sheldon , Season 5, Episode 14. Encoded in h265.”

Sheldon spent the next forty-seven minutes scrubbing frame-by-frame through the episode. At timestamp 00:14:23:07, he saw it. A single pixel of light bleed on the edge of the frame—a reflection in the kitchen window that wasn’t in the script.

“A connection,” Sheldon whispered. “The universe is a closed system.”

“It is on Sunday,” Georgie said, and lay back down.