I was looking at a lovely photo of Wil Wheaton and his wife on his Tumblr blog. My mom looked over my shoulder and asked, “Are they friends of yours?”

I crinkled my brow and answered, “No, Mom.” I held up my iPad so she could see better, “This is Wil Wheaton and his wife. Isn’t she beautiful?”

“Wil Wheaton?” Her voice was confused, so I pointed at him. “Remember? He played Wesley Crusher on Star Trek. We used to watch that show every week together.” Her confused face looked at my iPad, so I added, “He’s an actor.”

Something clicked and her face changed, “Is he the guy who is so mean to Sheldon?” She had made a connection and I smiled. “Yes, Mom! He also plays Evil Wil Wheaton on The Big Bang Theory. And, I think he’s on a show called Eureka on the SyFy channel, but I don’t have cable, so I haven’t seen it.”

My mom looked at the photo again. “He shouldn’t be so mean to Sheldon.” We both nodded and I tried my best to defend Wil Wheaton. “That’s not Wil Wheaton, Mom. That’s EVIL Wil Wheaton. You can tell he’s evil because he has a beard.”

She nodded as if I had said something profound and looked at the picture again. “She IS very pretty.”