Young Sheldon was back to greatness this week with an episode that delivered both drama and strong comedic performances that the show is known for. The source of this greatness? Having the focus of the half hour be on all of the Cooper clan, not just Sheldon. The main strength of the show is its talented ensemble cast, and the writers are wise to lean on this.
The episode finally revisited Mary’s struggle to find purpose apart from the church. Mary lost a huge part of her life when the church turned their back on her, yet this hasn’t been a focus on the show, apart from a couple of episodes. In this half hour, Mary attempted to stick to her comfort zone by trying to find new hobbies within her own household, including introducing “pancake Sundays.” She soon found out that taking the bold step to expand her world a little further is inevitable, especially since her children are at the age where hanging out with their mom isn’t cool. She attempted to visit Missy at school, which left Missy horrified and when Mary attempted to bond with Sheldon over Star Trek, she realized quite quickly that it was not for her. George quips that if Sheldon can make friends at college, Mary should have no trouble making friends outside the home, unwittingly leading her to reach out to Brenda. She joins Brenda and the local ladies for a girls night at that bar, where drinking and gossiping leads to the girls revealing that Brenda has a secret man, which intrigues Mary. The ladies also revealed that Brenda’s man is married, which Mary finds scandalous. She of course has no idea that Brenda’s secret man is in fact her husband, George.
When Mary gets home in a drunken stupor, she fills George in on Brenda’s secret beau, and tells him that she and the girls are determined to find out who it is. George panics and meets Brenda in the chicken coop. He asks her how she could let this happen. Brenda retorts that he is assuming that her secret man is him, how does he know she hasn’t met somebody else? Jealous, George asks her if that is the case and she insists that she has met someone else. It is interesting that George got so worked up over a platonic, albeit flirtatious, relationship with Brenda. There were obvious feelings between them, but neither one of them took those feelings any further than a few drinks at the bar. Regardless, it looks like the Brenda, George and Mary triangle is about to heat up, and now that Mary is on the cusp of finding out about her husband's feelings for her neighbour, it will be interesting to see how it all unravels. Mary has already lost a huge part of her life, finding out about George and Brenda could be the final straw that sets her over the edge.
Meanwhile, Mandy and Georgie were forced to confront their are they/aren’t they relationship status, when another girl enters the mix. At the video store, Mandy watches as a girl named Amber (Lucy Loken) flirted with Georgie. Georgie, of course, is oblivious to her advances and thinks that Amber was just being nice. When Mandy tells Georgie that they are not a couple and he is free to do whatever he wants, he is obviously hurt. Georgie has been trying so hard to prove to Mandy that he is a good man, and that she can trust him and he is disheartened that she would be so willing to give her blessing for him to date someone else despite this. Georgie turns to George Sr. and Dale for advice, but they prove to be very unhelpful. He decides to ask Amber out on a date out of spite. During the date, he tells Amber that Mandy is pregnant with his baby, and Amber confesses that she is coming out of a divorce after being married for a year. Both of them are carrying a lot of baggage, making another date seem unlikely. Meanwhile back at Connie’s, Mandy confesses that she doesn’t actually want Georgie to date Amber.
The next day, Georgie tells Mandy that he owes her an apology. She is relieved, until Georgie tells her that his apology is for giving her a hard time about dating someone else. He tells her that he had a great time with Amber and he wants to see her again. It looks like Mandy may have taken pushing Georgie away too far this time. She obviously felt like she could take her time playing hard to get, because Georgie wasn’t going anywhere. Until now, he has remained committed to both Mandy and the baby, despite Mandy’s rejection, because he still believed there was hope that she would change her mind. Mandy convincing him to date someone else, made Georgie feel like all of his hard work has been for nothing. There is only so much his pride can take. It has viewers wondering that if and when Mandy does confess her feelings to Georgie, it may just be too late.
Over to you, Young Sheldon fans. What are your thoughts on the episode? How do you think Mary will find out about Brenda and George? Will Mandy finally give in and admit her feelings to Georgie? Comment below and follow me on Twitter @miss_c_almeida.
