Warning! Spoilers ahead for Young Sheldon season 6 episode 2.
An incident in Young Sheldon season 6 shows exactly why Sheldon (Jim Parsons) thinks George (Lance Barber) was a bad dad in The Big Bang Theory. For years on the nerd-centric sitcom, the Cooper patriarch was described as a no-good father — something that its prequel spin-off continues to contradict. There hasn’t been any in-explicit explanation why Sheldon remembers George as negligent on The Big Bang Theory, but Young Sheldon season 6, episode 2 may have revealed the reason behind his unflattering description of his dad.
While George and Mary (Zoe Perry) losing their jobs hasn’t fully impacted their finances, the Coopers have been trying to keep their spending to a minimum. Missy (Raegan Revord) and Sheldon, however, thought establishing new streams of income would be helpful for their parents. The socially-inept genius leaned on his love for all things nerdy when he came up with a sci-fi show premise that he was planning on pitching to networks in the hopes of earning cash for the family. Sheldon used his dad as the test audience for his story, knowing that the chances of his pitch getting accepted hinged on its appeal to the common man, but George wasn’t exactly interested in any of it.
George ignoring Sheldon as he detailed his Star Trek-esque story pitch in Young Sheldon season 6, episode 2 may seem like a throwaway scene mostly for comedy, but this could very well hurt the socially-inept genius’ feelings. Just because he is usually nonchalant about other people’s thoughts and opinions, it doesn’t mean that he is incapable of feeling bruised when he isn’t heard, especially when he talks about something that he is very passionate about. The Big Bang Theory already showed this when Sheldon confessed to Penny (Kaley Cuoco) that he didn’t like YouTube changing its ratings metrics. She didn’t take it seriously because she didn’t think it was important, upsetting Sheldon. George’s discouraging reaction to something that Sheldon is very passionate about could have wounded him deeply, and he carried it and events like it throughout his adulthood. What makes this worse is the fact that George’s only response was pointing out a flaw in the storyline.
Sheldon Eventually Changed His Perception Of George
Whenever Mary appeared on The Big Bang Theory, she never missed the chance to speak about her dead husband’a flaws. Things started to gradually change as the show went on, however. As the pair shared a touching moment just before Sheldon married Amy (Mayim Bialik), they briefly talked about George in a loving manner. Later on, when Sheldon was struggling to move forward with his work on the Super Asymmetry paper, an old video of his dad encouraged him to never give up, resulting in him ultimately winning the Nobel Prize in Physics. Even a far older version of Sheldon, who’s doing the narration on Young Sheldon, has admitted once or twice that despite his flaws, George was a good father. With George’s Young Sheldon cheating scandal still upcoming, however, the show can still change its depiction of the character, especially considering how his infidelity impacted Sheldon.
CBS needs to decide as soon as possible what kind of legacy George will leave to his family. Now that it’s confirmed that Young Sheldon is moving up The Big Bang Theory timeline, his cheating and eventual death are already looming on the horizon. His demise would forever change the trajectory of not just of Sheldon’s life, but also the rest of his family.
Young Sheldon season 6 airs Thursdays on CBS.