Young Sheldon has u-turned hard on George’s character, but before its finale, adult Sheldon has the biggest mistakes to answer for.
Unless you have the emotional range of a scarecrow, you’re probably still crying into a box of Kleenex over George’s death. Cruelly taken from the Coopers in Season 7 Episode 12, I’m left reeling by his loss with two episodes of the prequel still left to go. Watching The Big Bang Theory 17 years ago, it’s almost unbelievable to think that we’ve come to care so much for an alleged abusive alcoholic.
But why do we care? The reason is that the creators so superbly retconned George’s character that his entire fatherly legacy was transformed. In fact, they’ve done such a good job that alongside leaving an entire fandom in tears, they’ve publicly regretted the creative choices they made some 18 years earlier.
However, just because we’ve had some justice for George’s death doesn’t mean Young Sheldon is off the hook. The parting note of the hour-long finale — Episode 14 — sees Jim Parsons returning as adult Sheldon, hinting that the prequel exists because he is writing his memoir. Since Sheldon first pitched ‘You’re Welcome, Mankind’ in TBBT, a lot has gone down, and now he owes George a huge apology.
Sheldon needs to admit he’s right for the first time ever
CBSSheldon accepting change in himself hasn’t happened yet, but it needs to. In order to fully embrace the changes the prequel has made, Parsons’ version of him needs to publicly admit that he got things wrong. Over the course of 12 years, adult Sheldon almost took glee in the fact that he had something — or someone — to pin his issues on, wheeling out tales of George shooting the TV or raising his voice to deflect from things that he hasn’t internally worked on.
For those who watched TBBT as it aired, figuring out that George was the Sheldonverse’s scapegoat makes his growth as a dad all the more painful, not to mention his sudden death. Even though the series creators admitted that painting George as abusive was the easy way to justify grown-up Sheldon’s unique attitude, they’ve given themselves a pretty simple way to make a major course correction.
By sowing the seeds that Sheldon wants to write a memoir in both series, Young Sheldon’s conclusion is logical — reveal that the voiceover is in fact Sheldon recounting his childhood to document it. From there, the prequel becomes Sheldon’s own version of therapy, reliving the highs and lows from his youth, appreciating what was, and learning from it moving forward.
Considering that killing George off was a unanimously bad move, the only fitting way of honoring him is to have Sheldon say the three words he struggles with the most… I was wrong. With nothing left but the seven seasons we’ll inevitably binge on Netflix, I’m willing this father-son relationship to end on a positive note.
Only now is Sheldon realizing the many times George indulged his interests, went the extra mile, and vocalized his love and pride. As the show wraps up and Sheldon has grown up, he can finally give that love back by honoring and accepting who George really was.
While you wait for the next episode, you can catch up with our other Sheldon content, like Young Sheldon’s filming locations, how to watch Season 7 outside the US, and how to watch Young Sheldon on streaming.
