The cast of Young Sheldon season 7 may have filmed George’s funeral per new set images. As CBS’ premier comedy enters the back half of its final year, its storytelling will be more focused on tying narrative loose ends and preserving The Big Bang Theory canon. With George’s cheating scandal story already retconned, the only remaining narrative for the Cooper patriarch is his infamous death. The nerd-centric sitcom didn’t reveal the details about the tragedy, leaving Young Sheldon the creative freedom to tackle it the way they see fit.

Several images from Young Sheldon season 7 cast members reveal many of them wearing all-black, suggesting that they may be filming George’s funeral scene. Check out the photos below:

An image shared by Audrey actor, Rachel Bay Jones, shows a snap of her, Will Sasso, Wallace Shawn, and Emily Osment all wearing formal clothes.

Melissa Peterman, who plays Brenda Sparks, also posted a group image with Raegan Revord and Annie Potts. Like the McCallisters and Dr. Sturgis, all of them are wearing black clothes as well.

Finally, Osment updates her social media with her own images from the same day of filming.

Why Young Sheldon Needs To Show George’s Death Before It Ends

George’s Days Are Numbered

Since the end of Young Sheldon is mandated by The Big Bang Theory canon, the prequel is also forced to tackle George’s death. The Cooper patriarch never visited Pasadena in the nerd-centric sitcom because he was dead long before the events of the show. Had it not been for George and Mandy’s spinoff, which is essentially a sequel to Young Sheldon, CBS could have gotten away with not tackling the tragedy. Right now, however, they have no choice but to show the incident on-screen. Per the aforementioned images, Young Sheldon may even be tackling the aftermath of it.

Admittedly, there are ways to limit the impact of George’s death on the remainder of Young Sheldon. It could have been confirmed via adult Sheldon’s narration, just before Jim Parsons’ confirmed appearance in the finale. This way, the prequel doesn’t have to dwell on the grief of the family over the massive loss of their patriarch. However, considering the storytelling route of the family comedy-drama, going down this path risks criticisms of Young Sheldon doing a cop-out when tackling a defining moment in Sheldon’s life. For instance, the prequel was already criticized for retconning George’s affair.

Amid an already busy season 7, Young Sheldon’s original villain unexpectedly comes back and makes the Coopers’ lives much more complicated.

Young Sheldon season 7, episode 7 will see Mandy and Georgie get married. George is still present during the event, and it doesn’t seem like he will die anytime during the outing. Beyond that, however, he can meet his end anytime, considering that his demise is supposedly unexpected. It’s uncertain how Young Sheldon moves on from a massive tragedy like that, but hopefully, it still manages to come up with a lighthearted finale.

When George’s Death May Happen In Young Sheldon Season 7

Young Sheldon Needs To Decide When George Dies

George and Mandy’s wedding will mark the midpoint of Young Sheldon‘s final season. After episode 7, there will only be seven episodes left before the Coopers’ story in Medford fully wraps up. This means that the Cooper patriarch will meet his end in those outings. If Young Sheldon waits way too long to execute the tragedy, it puts the prequel at a disadvantage when setting up the ultimate send-off for Sheldon and his family. Meanwhile, if the show does it way too early, then it loses precious time to feature the clan as a complete unit.

It’s important that Young Sheldon is careful in deciding when George meets his end. It needs to leave enough buffer time for the show to tackle the family’s grief over his death and recover from it. Granted that it has been established that the tragedy will impact Mary beyond the events of Young Sheldon, the series doesn’t have the luxury of dwelling on George’s demise. It still needs to tackle a couple of more plots, including transitioning Sheldon from his life in Texas to California. That way, CBS can fully wrap the character’s overall story.

How George’s Death Will Define The Coopers’ Future

George’s Loss Changes The Trajectory Of The Coopers’ Lives

Because George’s death is supposedly unexpected, the rest of the Cooper family will likely be caught off guard when it happens. Specific details about his demise are still unclear, but the nature of it makes his demise so much worse, especially since he seems to have finally found peace at home after years of struggling with his marriage. Sheldon never really talked about the tragedy in The Big Bang Theory, and it doesn’t help that he barely had anything good to say about his father despite Young Sheldon‘s depiction of George.

In an unexpected turn of events, Young Sheldon exposes itself and admits to its biggest Sheldon crime in The Big Bang Theory prequel’s final season.

Interestingly, the biggest revelations about that time in their lives came from adult Georgie when he appeared in The Big Bang Theory. The eldest Cooper child took over the family on the heels of catastrophic loss, while also building his business and taking care of Mandy and Cece. It’s curious how much of this will be tackled in their Young Sheldon spinoff, but according to him, Mary was too grief-stricken to function after George died, whileMissy behaved as a “dumb teenager.” Since he was already in Pasasdean then, Sheldon was mostly oblivious to these things.