Spoiler Warning: Young Sheldon TV Series
Young Sheldon concluded its fifth season on May 19, 2022, with the news that the show has already been renewed for another two seasons by CBS. As fans of this show, you can watch the season 5 finale knowing there’s a lot more. If you’ve already watched the season 5 finale episode, which dominated that Thursday's daily broadcast rating, you know that the show is no longer the lighthearted, fun comedy series. The episode "A Clogged Pore, a Little Spanish and the Future" clearly indicates a turning point for the show.
Not just the season 5 finale, but the entire season felt like the comedic undertone that the previous seasons had have been toned down substantially. We see the development of all the supporting characters, which wasn’t something addressed as much in the previous seasons. All these characters are now directly starting to affect Sheldon.
Given the turn the storyline appears to be taking, we are pretty sure that the days of watching many fan-favorite episodes are long gone. Let’s go into detail about why we assume that the show is about to take a dramatic turn with the Cooper family falling apart.
The Big Bang Theory’s Description of George Comes to Life in Young Sheldon
In the same season 5 finale episode, we see the Coopers continuing to have a hard time. Mary Cooper, played by Zoe Perry, was fired from her bookkeeping job at the church. George was also sacked from his coaching position but was given the end of the sports season to continue his job. However, he decided to quit on his terms instead of waiting like a sitting duck. With the husband and wife both out of a job, they are apprehensive about their future and finances, especially since they are still paying their mortgage for their home.
Mary decides to be positive in such dark times and begins looking at the classifieds, searching for a new job for herself and George while he continues to wallow in his misery. She proposes that they both can work together at the local grocery. However, he shoots down her suggestion by saying that it will be a massive step-down for him from being a head coach and even an embarrassment.
With Mary going out of her way to find any job she can to make an honest living, George decides to stay at home, watch TV, lounge around, and drink all day. This was exactly how his wife and son described him in The Big Bang Theory.
We also see in the same episode that Mary manages to get a job at the local bowling center. The same bowling center where Brenda works, who appears to be George’s possible mistress. All of these storylines from this one single episode seem to be supporting the idea that the show may be beginning to set up George’s fall, from the perfect husband, father, coach, and family man to a cheating husband and a lousy father, and ultimately his untimely death. If this is what the showrunners have in mind about the upcoming season’s storyline, it’s pretty clear that turbulent days for the Coopers are already here, and each episode will be more dramatic than the last.
Over the last five seasons, we have seen Young Sheldon attempting to dance around all the storylines mentioned on The Big Bang Theory to maintain the show’s comedic and lighthearted nature. However, as per the timeline mentioned on the original show, Young Sheldon does not have much time left. Hence, it makes sense why they have set the ball rolling on tackling George’s dark side.
Georgie & Meemaw’s Arrest May Not Necessarily be for Comedic Relief
We see Meemaw (Annie Potts) calling George towards the end of the episode for help. However, instead of resolving that plotline right there, the showrunners decided to leave it hanging and address it in the upcoming season 6. Though at that moment, their arrest was used for comedic relief, we think that this will have some serious implications for the Coopers.
Since both Mary and George are unemployed now with a mortgage over their head, the family is clearly in a financial crisis. To bail out George and Meemaw would mean an added burden on their finances which could mean taking a second mortgage on their home or selling something valuable. Even though Meemaw’s business is thriving, and she uses her own money to post bail, it could completely wipe out her savings since she recently started her business.
This makes things even worse for the Coopers as she may have been saving that money for the baby. Regardless, all of this is clearly going to spell doom for the Coopers.