Young Sheldon Season 7 Just Made George Sr’s Death Way More Tragic

While Young Sheldon season 7’s biggest story was always going to be tough, The Big Bang Theory’s spinoff has made killing off George Sr even harder with episode 3. Young Sheldon changed a lot of The Big Bang Theory’s canon, and the spinoff’s version of Sheldon’s dysfunctional family sometimes scarcely resembles their incarnations in the earlier hit. While Sheldon’s mother Mary was defined by her bitter obstinacy in The Big Bang Theory, she is a less judgmental, more naive character in Young Sheldon. Similarly, Meemaw is a wild rebel in Young Sheldon but a staid presence in The Big Bang Theory.

However, no character was impacted by this change more than Sheldon’s father, George Sr. Out of Young Sheldon’s entire cast of characters, George Sr underwent the biggest changes between The Big Bang Theory and its prequel series. When Sheldon’s late father was occasionally referenced in The Big Bang Theory, he was written off as a drunk, a philanderer, and a shiftless waste of space by Sheldon and his widow Mary alike. However, in Young Sheldon, George Sr is a sweet, caring father, a hard worker, and a solid support to his entire family. Season 7 has only made this disparity bigger.

Young Sheldon Season 7 Episode 3 Proved George Sr Was A Great Guy

In season 7, episode 3, “A Strudel and a Hot American Boy Toy,” George Sr accepts Missy’s new gay friend without question. The subplot’s underlying gag is that Missy’s friend Taylor isn’t really gay, and she is secretly hooking up with him. Although Young Sheldon’s season 6 ending saw Missy promise to stop lying to George Sr, this episode proved that the lesson didn’t have much staying power. However, the fact that George Sr was open-minded and accepted his daughter hanging out with a gay friend in a small Texas town in the ‘90s reflects incredibly well on his character.

LGBTQIA+ acceptance was a tough, long, and arduous battle in America, and Texas had major historical issues with entrenched homophobia throughout the ‘80s, ‘90s, and well into the 21st century. George Sr’s LGBTQIA+ allyship would have been an exceptionally open-minded stance at the time, and it makes an already-sweet character into even more of a stand-up guy. This makes the fact that George Sr canonically has to die by the end of season 7 even harder. The more Young Sheldon reveals George Sr’s hidden depths, the sadder it is to imagine Sheldon and his siblings growing up without his guidance.

Young Sheldon Season 7’s George Sr/Mary Storyline Makes His Death Harder

While the episode’s Missy subplot proved George Sr’s moral fortitude, another storyline made his impending death worse on an immediate, personal level. Mary sharing letters with George Sr while in Germany with Sheldon led her to tell him how much she appreciated and missed him. Mary even said that she wished she had told him how much she loved him more often. Young Sheldon season 7’s Mary plot line has put a lot of distance between George Sr and his wife, meaning The Big Bang Theory spinoff killing Sheldon’s father after she returns could be Young Sheldon’s most devastating moment ever.