How Young Sheldon’s Shocking Finale Destroyed The Most Beloved TBBT Spinoff Relationship

Although Missy and Sheldon had one of Young Sheldon’s best relationships throughout the show, The Big Bang Theory’s spinoff let them down in the finale. By The Big Bang Theory’s finale, it was clear that Sheldon’s twin sister, Missy, was a side note in the sitcom’s story. She only appeared in a small handful of episodes.

Moreover, those appearances seldom had any major bearing on the show’s overarching plot. In one experimental episode of The Big Bang Theory, Sheldon helped her give birth, and his absence resulted in the gang discussing what life would be like if they had never met him. However, Sheldon remained the show’s de facto lead.

What this meant was the episode focused on the gang imagining life without Sheldon, not on Missy giving birth. In fact, she didn’t even appear onscreen in the episode, which is a pretty perfect encapsulation of the original show’s attitude toward her. Missy was an afterthought, despite being Sheldon’s twin sister.

Sheldon and Missy’s Goodbye Was Underwhelming In Young Sheldon’s Finale

The Twins Shared An Awkward Adieu Before Sheldon Headed for CalTech

Young Sheldon presented an opportunity for the sitcom franchise to make up for this oversight, and, at first, the spinoff did a solid job. In the early seasons of the series, Missy and Sheldon were equally important characters, and the pair influenced each other’s behaviors and personalities as they got older.

However, by the time Sheldon went to college, a rift began to form between him and his sister. Although they remained relatively close, Missy’s storylines no longer involved Sheldon as much, and her rebellious teenage arc began in earnest in season 6. By Young Sheldon’s finale, the two siblings had grown apart completely.

The finale had a chance to fix this issue, but Missy and Sheldon’s Young Sheldon goodbye was a let-down for numerous reasons. For one, neither character seems all that sad to be saying goodbye, especially after the intense emotional upheaval of their father’s funeral. However, this could be attributed to their teenage struggles with expressing big emotions.

What made the goodbye more fundamentally lacking was the issue of Missy’s missing character arc. Everyone else’s finale subplot set up the version of their character who would later appear in The Big Bang Theory, thus bridging the gap between the two shows. Mary’s story set up her intense religiosity, while Georgie’s subplot set up his spinoff.

Mary became obsessed with prayer, foreshadowing the fact that she would be a religious zealot in the original series. Georgie threw himself into work and even explicitly told George Sr. that he would provide for the family in his father’s absence, thus explaining how he came to resent Sheldon’s relative independence in the years that followed.

Why Missy’s Final Scene In Young Sheldon Was So Odd

Young Sheldon Could Have Set Up The Big Bang Theory’s Missy

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In comparison, Sheldon and Missy’s last scene together had little to say, much as the preceding season had little to say about Missy herself. Young Sheldon’s penultimate episode was the show’s lone masterpiece, as “Funeral” took viewers inside Sheldon’s mind during the preparations for his father’s funeral.

Viewers finally got to understand how Sheldon’s unique mind works and, in the process, gained more empathy for the character. This was a welcome change, but it only served to highlight just how little of this interiority the show afforded Missy. Missy’s character changed between Young Sheldon season 6 and The Big Bang Theory, but viewers never learned how or why.

Sheldon’s twin doesn’t resent her brother in the original show, in a pointed contrast to Georgie’s first appearance on The Big Bang Theory. She likes Sheldon even if he’s stiff and awkward with her, and remains on friendly terms with him even when she is patiently explaining why it is inappropriate for him to tell her who to date.

As such, Young Sheldon could have seen Missy wish him well before CalTech, and this could have highlighted her relative maturity compared to her twin brother. The idea that Young Sheldon’s Missy was arguably more mature than Sheldon, but her life still turned out shockingly chaotic in The Big Bang Theory, is an intriguing one with plenty of potential.

As such, it was a letdown when the show instead gave the two teens an awkward goodbye that was devoid of any real poignancy or purpose. Missy’s entire season 7 storyline felt underdeveloped in the episodes leading up to the finale, as everything after her and George Sr.’s confrontation in season 6’s finale added nothing to her story.

Can TBBT Franchise Still Fix Missy?

Young Sheldon’s Disappointing Missy Ending Reflects A Bigger Problem

While Young Sheldon brought back its original premise in its ending, the show failed to flesh out Missy and set the rest of the franchise up for failure as a result. The Big Bang Theory’s next spinoff, Stuart Fails to Save the Universe, is unlikely to feature Sheldon’s family and at all, and should move on from the character more broadly.

However, this means that Georgie & Mandy’s First Marriage season 2 is likely the last chance for the franchise to fix Missy’s story. This is a shame, since the show has storylines of its own to cover. From Connor’s burgeoning romance to Georgie and Mandy’s titular failing marriage, Young Sheldon’s spinoff doesn’t have much time to devote to Missy.

Despite this, the show owes her the closure that Young Sheldon’s ending failed to provide. In Georgie & Mandy’s First Marriage season 1, episode 17, “Two Idiots on a Dirt Bike,” the spinoff doubled down on Missy’s rebellion aside when she attempted to run away with Todd, the son of Mandy’s coworker.

However, for the sitcom to really do her story justice, Missy deserves to be viewed as more than just an angry, frustrated teenager. Season 2 of the spinoff should offer Missy a complete character arc, something The Big Bang Theory and Young Sheldon both failed to do.