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I’m not just being a hater – nobody wants Sheldon to return to Georgie & Mandy’s First Marriage, including its creators. And if we’re honest with ourselves, it’s obvious why.
Let’s clear something up off the bat. We’ve currently got no idea if Sheldon is ever going to return to screens, let alone appear in his brother’s spinoff. Even the creators aren’t completely sure – they’ve now got a full 22-episode series to plan, and anything if possible.
But let’s take a step back and assess if we really need Sheldon to return to his own fictional universe. At the end of Young Sheldon Season 7, he’d moved across the country to California, ready to begin his scientific dream of studying at Caltech. He was happy as a clam, except for the fact his dad died.
When we meet him again as an adult in The Big Bang Theory, he’s still in the same location. What happened in the years between the two shows is anybody’s guess.
Currently, Georgie & Mandy’s First Marriage’s guess is that Sheldon didn’t come back to Medford. Episode 5 saw (most of) the Coopers reunited over Thanksgiving, with Georgie struggling to get Mary over her grief. We all knew George wouldn’t be there (RIP, big man) but surely Sheldon should have been there, no?
CBSNo. Let’s be honest – Sheldon arriving back home would have been like putting your foot in a wet sock. By Young Sheldon Season 7, he was the weakest part of his own story. There’s a reason why he was sent away from home twice in the most recent series, after all.
It’s not just logistics, though – Sheldon simply isn’t a strong enough character to hold his own. He’s also not sympathetic enough to make the Cooper family unit strong, which is exactly what it needs right now. Imagine your son trying to explain the intricacies of super asymmetry while you’re too upset to eat your roasted turkey.
This sounds like I’m unnecessarily hating on Sheldon, but it’s mainly just accepting the facts. There’s no question the family needs understanding and compassion for each other to really create a feeling of togetherness. Missy is already struggling with being heard as it is, and Sheldon is hardly the man to fix that.
His experience of grief is a very insular one, and that feeds into the larger problem we now have with him. Sure, his personality was incredibly cute (I’d even say borderline endearing) when he was a 9-year-old high school student in a bow tie, but he hasn’t yet learned to properly emote as an adult.
CBSThis comes later on in TBBT, but without his personal growth, Sheldon’s effectively rendered useless in a sitcom setting. These are his No Man’s Land years, and we should probably let him get on with some self-discovery in private.
It even feels like the show’s creators agree. According to them, it made “Sheldon-sense” for him not to come home from California.
“Initially, when we were talking about the episode, it was certainly part of the discussion — like, ‘Should Sheldon be a part of this?’ There are certain occasions where you could bring him back, but as we were breaking the [episode], it just felt like it was actually going to hurt this story,” co-creator Steve Holland told TV Line.
“Often, when a matriarch or a patriarch passes away, the family can splinter, and that’s what is happening here. And as fun as it would have been to see him, it felt like there is no world where that family doesn’t get together, and Mary doesn’t celebrate Thanksgiving, if Sheldon is coming back from California. So, it seemed to make ‘Sheldon sense’ that he didn’t come back, and it made sense for the story we were trying to tell.”
CBSLest we forget continuity, too – Georgie’s debut in TBBT feels like the first time Sheldon had been back to Medford in forever. There’s good reason why.
Adult Georgie mentions he hasn’t spoken to Sheldon in around 10 years. At the time of the Season 11 episode, Sheldon was 38, meaning he was 28 when he last spoke to Georgie. He’s 14 at the end of Young Sheldon, so we’ve got 14 more years of potential contact unaccounted for.
Is a cameo possible? Yes. Is it necessary? Absolutely not.
There very well may be a time when Sheldon’s return will make sense, but that definitely isn’t soon. We’ve got the lame duck of Connor in place in the meantime, who desperately needs writing out (sorry Chuck Lorre, but he’s a terrible character). That’s more than enough.
Georgie & Mandy’s First Marriage is airing weekly on CBS. Catch up with our Episode 1, Episode 2, Episode 3, and Episode 4 recaps before you watch the latest episodes.
You can also check out if Sheldon will be in the show, why the sequel has picked the wrong characters for a spinoff, and more TV shows streaming.
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