I Need ‘Georgie & Mandy’s First Marriage’ To Give This Character Closure in Season 2
Paige (McKenna Grace) and Sheldon (Iain Armitage) caught in a closed part of the museum in the Young Sheldon episode Image via CBS
Georgie & Mandy’s First Marriage has seen many Young Sheldon characters appear from time to time, giving us a glimpse, however briefly, of where they are and what they’re doing since we last saw them. Pastor Jeff (Matt Hobby), for example, has appeared twice now, the same as he always was, although his second appearance, in “Baby Fight,” showed that the relationship between him and Mary (Zoe Perry) has definitely become less friendly since George Sr.’s (Lance Barber) death. And a character like Tam (Ryan Phuong), who hasn’t appeared in Georgie & Mandy’s First Marriage, yet, did get a chance to reveal what he’d been up to in the years since Young Sheldon with an appearance on The Big Bang Theory’s “The Tam Turbulence.”
In that episode, we learn that Sheldon (Jim Parsons) has not contacted Tam (Robert Wu) in over 20 years, and that he’s on Sheldon’s enemies list because he broke a promise to move to California with him to attend university, with Tam instead going to a college in Texas where he married a woman named Beth, has a son and another on the way. But there’s one recurring character whose life we know nothing about after the Young Sheldon timeline. No partial reveal that suggests what their present is, or what their future might hold, like Pastor Jeff, nor a much more detailed reveal, as with Tam on The Big Bang Theory. That character is McKenna Grace’s Paige, and I need Georgie & Mandy’s First Marriage to step up and give her story closure.
Paige’s ‘Young Sheldon’ Arc is Tragic
Paige (McKenna Grace) seen seated in Season 2 of Young Sheldon.Image via CBS
We first meet Paige Swanson in Season 2’s “A Rival Prodigy and Sir Isaac Neutron,” a fellow 10-year-old genius who is in one of Sheldon’s (Iain Armitage) classes with Dr. Sturgis (Wallace Shawn) at East Texas Tech. She’s an immediate rival, a bright and cheerful girl who gets under Sheldon’s skin by earning praise from Sturgis and — EGAD! — revealing that she’s smarter than he is. Sheldon is jealous and less than impressed when his parents invite her and her parents, Linda (Andrea Anders) and Barry (Josh Cooke), over to their home. The parents bond over what it’s like to raise a child prodigy, and discover that there are some striking similarities: Paige does the bookkeeping for Barry’s dental practice, while Sheldon does the family’s taxes, for one. However, the difficulties George and Mary struggle with when it comes to Sheldon don’t appear to be an issue for Paige’s parents, until a few beers loosen the lips to reveal that there are similarities on that front as well.
It wouldn’t take long until Paige appeared again in Sheldon’s life, this time at a museum where they are both attending a lecture on carbon dating (Season 2, Episode 7 “Carbon Dating and a Stuffed Raccoon”). It’s also the first time that we see the fundamental difference between the two. Paige is less cautious, talking Sheldon into wandering into a closed museum area when the lecture gets boring (or, more boring). And unlike Sheldon, Paige exhibits emotion, and finds in Sheldon a confidante that she can talk to about how her parents are likely to get a divorce, which she attributes to herself causing arguments between them. It’s a heartbreaking admission for a character that we assumed would act in much the same way as Sheldon. Only a few episodes later, Sheldon, Mary, and Missy (Raegan Revord) run into Paige and her mother at the mall, which is the beginning of the friendship between Paige and Missy that would factor into storylines in later episodes.
Montana Jordan’s Georgie and Emily Osment’s Mandy in bed in Georgie & Mandy’s First Marriage
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‘Georgie & Mandy’s First Marriage’ Has Already Improved on Something ‘Young Sheldon’ Failed at in Its 7 Seasons
Sheldon got lost in the series that bore his name.
Paige’s next appearance wouldn’t happen until “Body Glitter and a Mall Safety Kit,” the twelfth episode of Season 3. Paige had changed drastically since she was last seen on the show, ditching dresses for denim outfits, cutting her hair and dying a pink streak in it, and had developed a snarky, rebellious nature that expressed itself in shoplifting and an indifference to schoolwork. She spends the weekend with the Coopers, where she breaks down and talks to Sheldon about her devastation over her parents’ divorce, prompting Sheldon to learn to listen (and the first time we see Sheldon offer a hot beverage to someone in distress, a trait seen often in the parent show). Progressive appearances had Paige disclose that she wanted go to an out-of-state college, wanted to drop out of college, and, in her second-last appearance on the show (Season 6’s “)
