Summary
- Young Sheldon
tactfully handles George Sr.’s passing offscreen to spare viewers the emotional agony of witnessing his death onscreen. - The drastic shift in George Sr.’s character between
Young Sheldon
and
The Big Bang Theory
may be explained by Sheldon’s social cues misunderstanding. - Another theory suggests that Sheldon may be burying his grief beneath anger, leading to a distorted memory of his father and family dynamics.
We all knew it was coming, yet no one was emotionally prepared. On the May 9 penultimate episode of Young Sheldon, the Cooper family finally received the news. George Sr. suffered a heart attack at work and passed away. Fans of The Big Bang Theory have known this was coming for over 15 years. However, there was uncertainty over how the news would factor into Young Sheldon. Would they wreck us even more by showing it onscreen? Would it simply be alluded to by Jim Parsons’ voiceover narrations? Or might the show have skipped over it entirely, given how fast and loose they’ve played with Big Bang continuity?
Ultimately, they chose to spare fans the agony of watching George Sr. go by having his boss and coworker relay the news that he had died offscreen. As painful as it was, this was the right decision storywise. George Sr’s death was the event that shaped Sheldon’s teenage years. It’s even worse when you realize how different the loving family man in Young Sheldon was from the barely functional alcoholic in Big Bang. Some new theories have emerged that may explain the character shift beyond continuity errors or Sheldon forgetting.
Young Sheldon’s George vs. The Big Bang Theory’s George
Series co-creators Chuck Lorre and Steven Molaro, as well as the rest of the crew, did not hide their disdain for the George Sr. passing away plot point. It was much easier to pull off on Big Bang, as that show was set over a decade after his demise. He was also far from the involved father we saw in Young Sheldon. Hearing adult Sheldon and Mary’s recollections gives us the idea that Big Bang‘s George Sr. was some neglectful alcoholic hillbilly who regularly mistreated his wife and kids. Killing off the unseen, abusive George Sr. was much simpler than taking the life of a beloved and involved dad.
Obviously, the change was necessary, as no one would want to watch seven seasons of that Big Bang George in Young Sheldon. But it was a drastic shift, right? Various explanations have been proposed. Sheldon might be lying or misremembering, but those don’t seem right, given his photographic memory and blunt honesty. One of the more out-there ideas states that Sheldon managed to open up a portal to a parallel universe, showing us an “alternate-world” version of his family. That’s probably not it. However, some theories seem to make sense for Sheldon’s character and the Big Bang/Young Sheldon Cinematic Universe. Let’s take a look.
Sheldon’s Misunderstanding of Social Cues
We all know Sheldon is a genius, as he has reminded us on numerous occasions. But he’s never had a solid grasp of social cues and interaction. He cannot perceive sarcasm and often takes things literally. That social struggle may have given him a warped view of what his childhood was actually like.
For example, George Sr. drinks beer roughly every day, either at dinner or at the bar with his buddies. However, he is by no means an alcoholic. But what if Sheldon is unable to tell the difference between regular, controlled drinking and alcoholism? He may see his father as having a problem that is, in reality, just a social activity due to his lack of understanding of the nuance behind issues. This may also relate to his understanding of his father having an “affair.” Though the woman he saw with George was a bit of a retcon, as it was Mary with a wig, Sheldon spun this “mystery woman” into George leading an entire cheating-riddled double life.
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Another example of this is in George and Mary’s fights. While they fought frequently in Young Sheldon, it was not to the attempted murderous extent we heard of in Big Bang. Sheldon might have taken every threat his parents threw around as literal rather than heat-of-the-moment impulses. This caused him to see their marriage as much worse than it actually was. They had their ups and downs but fundamentally loved and cared for one another. Sheldon saw most people of lesser intelligence as beneath him, so it does make sense that this viewpoint would cause him to perceive his father as a backwoods violent redneck instead of the attentive yet flawed family patriarch.
Sheldon Cooper May Be Burying Grief Beneath Anger
Another theory explains the character discrepancy, and it’s one of the more heartbreaking. What if Sheldon knows his recollections of his father and family are inaccurate, but he forces himself to think of them in a poor light as a coping mechanism? If he falsely recalls his dad as an absentee abuser, then his death is less painful. We know that George’s loss comes at a crucial time for Sheldon. He is preparing to move solo to Caltech, where he will have no real friends or family by his side until he meets Leonard in his early to mid-20s.
Losing one’s father on top of a move away from home would be difficult for anyone. But what if you’re a 14-year-old college prodigy? Sheldon truly needs his family and support network, even if he has difficulty communicating that without inadvertently insulting them. The teenage years are when humans experience the most significant development, and this major setback could explain Sheldon’s regression and why he behaves virtually the same way in his 30s as he did in childhood.
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Sheldon is angry at George for leaving at such a pivotal time and makes himself hold onto that anger so that it displaces the grief. Sheldon is not able to deal with these emotions like neurotypical people, as seen when he is only able to sit down and stare when he first gets the news of George’s death. He cannot process something so complex. Perhaps forcing the grief down beneath lies and anger while devoting all his time and energy to school is the only way that he can cope.
Many viewers have explained away the change in George Sr. as resulting from his increased onscreen presence. While that is the reason storywise, it’s not so simple when it comes to the in-universe justification. What many may see as unreliable narration could be a deeper insight into Sheldon’s psyche. Whether he accidentally or intentionally misremembers details, Sheldon uses his unique gifts to understand his life and family in a way that no one else can. Young Sheldon‘s series finale airs Thursday, May 16, at 8 p.m. ET on CBS.
