Young Sheldon – A Broom Closet and Satan’s Monopoly Board

By: Ujjyani Banerjee

Ms. MacElroy (Valerie Mahaffey) is taking attendance. While Georgie (Montana Jordan) is in class, Sheldon (Iain Armitage) seems to be missing and Georgie has no idea where he’s gone. Meanwhile, Sheldon is tiptoeing through the school corridors and soon enters a hidden broom closet where he settles down with his books, a lamp and stationary. Adult Sheldon (Jim Parsons) recollects how the arrangement made up for the absence of Dr. Sturgis’s class.

Mary (Zoe Perry) is at work. She goes to meet pastor Jeff (Matt Hobby) at his office and finds Officer Robin (Mary Grill) in there along with him. After she’s gone Mary says that she likes the way things are going with Robin, but Jeff is worried that things might’ve been going too well. Mary doesn’t understand. He explains how he’s not supposed to be romantically inclined towards someone out of wedlock, but his heart’s treading in the other direction. Mary soon shares this gossip with George (Lance Barber) and reveals her new responsibility to ensure that he’s under control. George doesn’t understand why it’s such a big deal, given that he was married before. Mary explains how The Bible sees sexual immorality as a sin and that George would’ve known if he visited the church a bit more.

As Sheldon continues to miss classes, Coach Wilkins (Doc Farrow) speaks to George about him. George soon has a word with Mr. Givens (Brian Stepanek), Ms. Evelyn (Danielle Pinnock) and Ms. Macelroy learning that Sheldon’s been skipping classes for a whole week in spite of being driven to school everyday. Only after approaching Tam (Ryan Phuong), who blurts out Sheldon’s location, does George pay him a visit. He straightaway refuses to come out testing George’s patience. George calls Mary and complains about it. She is at work simultaneously helping Pastor Jeff decide on which shirt to wear for his date with Robin and she’s got no time to handle it. Given George is at school too, she asks him to deal with it. It turns out he can’t either as he’s busy with practice. Mary feels that he’s belittling her job. She orders him to fix the situation and hangs up. Peg (Nancy Linehan Charles), who just witnessed the showdown, praises Mary for how she gave George an earful.

After driving Sheldon and Missy (Raegan Revord) home from school, George orders Sheldon to go to his room. Seeing Sheldon do so gladly, Missy points out how he’ll just read in there and instead advises dad to pull the plugs on “Professor Proton.” George asks her to stay out of it and follows the suggestion immediately. He and Mary soon argue over how he did nothing apparently. As per him, he took a decision in his limited downtime to let Sheldon be as he was safe and in the campus itself. Mary explains that their son needs to mingle with people to develop social skills. George taunts her by mentioning how she knows the way out and should better handle it. Georgie comments on how someone will be sleeping on the couch that night, just before receiving a pair of death stares. Connie (Annie Potts) feels that Sheldon’s acting out as he’s missing Dr. Shurgis’s classes and that she can help by approaching John’s colleague. She soon calls and requests Dr. Linkletter (Ed Begley Jr.) to allow Sheldon to attend his lectures given the circumstances. He hits on her and asks for a possible date but Connie dodges it.

While Sheldon is replaying the previous “Professor Proton” episode in his head Connie discloses the new substitute professor news to him while his parents are fighting in the kitchen. Pastor Jeff calls and complains about how nice Robin’s smelling and good she’s looking in her attire. Georgie, who’s eavesdropping on the line, wants to know more. Mary makes him hang up.

George and Wilkins go out for drinks. George discusses about his marital disturbance. Wilkins reveals how he and his wife fight about who loves the other one more, whose turn is it to foot rub, etc. Once they fought about how the toilet paper should hang but ended up making love on the bathroom floor. He advises George to take Mary on a date. George gets home and asks her out on one.

Connie drops Sheldon off at Linkletter’s class. Sheldon notices the same surroundings but the different air. He is soon introduced to the professor. Linkletter asks Connie to stay through the lecture but she knows better. After she’s gone Linkletter warns Sheldon that the lecture will be rather advanced. Sheldon asks him not to worry as he’ll be seated in the first row.

George and Mary go to a steakhouse for their date. They don’t seem to connect as they’re either peering down at the menus or Mary is worrying about are the kids and wondering if they’re up to anything stupid. At home Georgie indulges Missy into summoning spirits using a Ouija board. Missy is scared. Just as she is about to start the summoning, they receive a call from Pastor Jeff who wants to speak to Mary. Missy ends up lying to him regarding what they’re doing at home and is now scared that she’ll go to hell.

On the date George apologizes Mary for ruining her evening. Mary says its not ruined and wants to know how he got the idea about the date. He shares what Wilkins told him and reminisces the good freebird times that they had before having kids. Mary doesn’t agree initially, but does so eventually. She asks more about the Wilkins and their date starts to turn into a great one!

Pastor Jeff and Robin are on a date, too. Things get heated up and they’re about to kiss when Jeff receives a call from Missy. She’s freaking out over how she lied and will be going to hell. The pastor calms her down saying that she won’t, but Missy isn’t comforted as she believes that God can see everything. This hits the pastor. After he’s done speaking to Missy, he apologies to Robin saying that he can’t pursue someone out of wedlock. Robin respects his decision and asks when are they getting married. The pastor is bewildered.

Sheldon is interrupting Dr. Linkletter’s lecture nonstop. Even after the lecture ended he has continued to brainstorm. Connie comes to pick him up and asks both how it went. While Sheldon loved the spirited discussions he got to have Linkletter comments on how excessively spirited it was. Connie and Sheldon get going and now Linkletter realizes why Sturgis lost his mind.