Young Sheldon – A Rival Prodigy and Sir Isaac Neutron

By:  Ujjyani Banerjee

The episode opens with Sheldon (Iain Armitage) being dropped off at his college quantum chromodynamics lecture by MeeMaw (Annie Potts). When he asked if she’d accompany him through the lecture, MeeMaw refused as things would just go over her head.  Sheldon points out that it was unfair as he accompanied her while they watched Dirty Dancing. MeeMaw retires from the room pointing out that she’d be back immediately if Patrick Swazey took his  shirt off!

While approaching his regular front row center seat in class, Sheldon is surprised to see a very young girl sitting there. He wishes her hello and asks who she was. The girl says her name is Paige (McKenna Grace) and compliments his bow-tie. Thanking her, Sheldon wondered if she was accompanying an adult student as she was too young for that class, but to his surprise she was invited by professor Sturgis (Wallace Shawn) himself to audit his course after having heard about her research on quantum chromodynamics at high temperatures. As Paige mentions how nice the professor had been to her, a visibly jealous Sheldon immediately shoots back with his own history with Dr. Sturgis, detailing how the professor was his mentor, Meemaw’s boyfriend and that he had spaghetti and hotdogs at the Cooper’s. Sheldon further clarifies and stresses on the fact that this class was very advanced where they’d be discussing deriving nuclear physics from the Quark model. Shooting back at him with even more jargon, Paige asks if he was aware whether they’d be covering topics like full color octic calculation with major manipulations and if he was aware of all these concepts. Sheldon was thoroughly embarrassed as he had to admit not being familiar with these topics and, in turn, causing Paige to mock him as she asked him if he even knew anything. To this, Sheldon just said that he did know that she was at his regular spot.

As the rest class settles, Paige asks about his age and birthday. He says he is ten years old and was born on February 26^th while Paige mentions that she is ten too and born on March 17^th, making her the youngest in class. This title was previously held by Sheldon and this new development irks him further.

Professor Sturgis enters the class and is delighted to see the two kids having already met. Paige again mentions to him that she is younger which was followed by Sheldon asking professor Sturgis as to why did he not mention early on that she’d be joining their class. The professor says that he wanted it to be a surprise. Sheldon says he didn’t like surprises. As the professor heads towards the beginning of his lecture, adult Sheldon (Jim Parsons) says that not since sharing a uterus with his twin sister had he been this unhappy sitting next to someone.

As MeeMaw drives Sheldon home from class she notices that he is sad, mad and quiet. When asked what went wrong, Sheldon explains that he is going through an emotion he is unfamiliar with. MeeMaw points out that it might have something to do with his new classmate. Sheldon affirms this possibility, stating that she was the only variable in this social equation. MeeMaw asks him what he was exactly feeling, to which Sheldon mentions that his face felt hot, he had a knot in his stomach and he was resisting his urge to kick her seat.

Sensing jealously, MeeMaw goes one by one on the emotions he was facing. When she guessed unhappiness, Sheldon said he was angrier, followed by a vice versa, too.  MeeMaw asks what about a crush and that provokes Sheldon even more! Finally, she goes back to jealousy and Sheldon wanted why she felt he’d be jealous of Paige? According to MeeMaw, Dr. Sturgis paying his attention to his new young classmate who was an equally smart competitor could have been a jealousy trigger for Sheldon.

At the Cooper house Mary (Zoe Perry) receives a phone call from Dr. Sturgis who tells her about Paige and that her mother wants to contact Mary so as to have something in common and shared their number. Mary shares her excitement with George (Lance Barber) for the fact these were parents with whom they could finally relate to or in Mary’s own words, “Someone to compare notes with.” She makes the call as Georgie (Montana Jordan) and Missy (Raegen Revord) watch on. Looking at their bored faces, Mary calls them special, too. Georgie asks Missy if she felt special. She points out that at least she is their only daughter while George Jr. has nothing!

As Sheldon and MeeMaw come home he keeps ranting about Paige’s know-it-all attitude, her nonstop hand-raising throughout the lecture and her unicorn stickers on the notepad which she brought to class. If he wasn’t bummed enough, his mom makes it worse by letting him know that Paige was visiting them home the next day.

That night Mary keeps trying to get Sheldon happier about his new friend while he says he is content with Tam (Ryan Phuong) at school. She says plurality would be better and Tam might have other friends, too. In return, Sheldon says that he is all Tam has and even he avoids Tam half the time. He also points out that she doesn’t have friends either, which Mary denies. Mary insists that Paige’s first bad impression on Sheldon could see a change just like Next Generation, the new Star Trek show had on him. Sheldon didn’t see a positive outcome as A) she wasn’t a TV show and B) everyone knew how he felt about people while gesturing a thumbs down. Finally, Mary admits to not having many friends and that’s why she wanted to get to know Paige’s mom, but if it made Sheldon uncomfortable she’d call and cancel. Sheldon decides to give it a thought as adult Sheldon remembers experiencing guilt and jealousy all in the same day.

At the dinner table, Sturgis and Connie are discussing John’s interesting findings on beavers while Connie deviates the topic to Sheldon feeling jealous over the new attention Paige was getting. Sheldon, on the other hand, can’t make up his mind on spending an afternoon with Paige, however excruciating it might get. It seems though his mother’s happiness means more to him.

The next day, suppressing his emotions, Sheldon comes out to meet Paige’s family. He successfully withstands her claustrophobic hug with a cringe while his parents welcome the guests warmly into their home. Paige’s father (Josh Cooke) reveals that he practiced dentistry while Paige maintains bookkeeping. Mary says that Sheldon did their taxes as well. Apparently, Paige was paid in stickers by her parents, but as of late she’s been preferring dollars. George says that they still pay Sheldon in binder clips and he loves it. Mary shares how organized Sheldon is and how they literally had to take care of all labels facing the same way while going out for groceries. It seems though Paige isn’t as quirky as their son since her parents don’t have such similar stories to share at all.

In Sheldon’s room Paige is thrilled to see a pony toy by Missy’s bed and says she too shares a room with her sister. Sheldon finds it to be a little childish of her, but proudly shows his signed picture of Professor Proton. Sadly, Paige isn’t exactly fond and fond of it. Suppressing his anger successfully, Sheldon continues with the rest of his tour.

George keeps telling Mary that Paige was perfect and her parents weren’t exactly being therapeutic for them. Mary saw it as a chance to know others who have been in similar situations. Georgie and Missy hang out with Paige’s sister (Ella Anderson) in the backyard. They start bonding by jointly ranting about how their other smarter sibling got greater attention and Missy points out how Sheldon had nerdy obsessions over Isaac Neutron, coincidentally that was Paige’s nerdy indulgence as well. Georgie said it sucked for him having a smarter younger brother who’s in the same class as him. Paige’s sister mentions that her smart sister was sent to a private school and Missy comments that they were too poor for that.

While Sheldon and Paige gradually bond over intellectually enriching conversations about multiple universes and Stephen Hawking’s theories over a game of chess, Barry [Paige’s father] discloses that he and Ericka [Paige’s sister] often felt left out due to the extra attention his wife (Andrea Anders) gave to their younger daughter.

Coming back to chess, Paige and Sheldon both agree that they felt they were better of being smarter than the rest of the crowd than being just like everyone else. Adult Sheldon realized that maybe he just needs to know Paige a little better and that his mother was indeed right, they did have somethings in common. All this positive thinking comes to an abrupt halt as Paige checkmates Sheldon, declaring herself as the smartest. Having had enough emotion suppressing for one day, Sheldon ends up flipping up the chess board.

Mary and George are having their own fun as they find out that Paige’s parents have issues just as much as they do, and they aren’t the perfect family either. All of a sudden, something blasts outside, and Mary sends George to go check their yard!

The next day Paige and Sheldon are back in Dr. Sturgis’s class listening intently to his lecture. Paige raises her hand and suggests a correct explanation, which Dr. Strugis delightfully praises. However, he stops right in the middle of the track as he recollects what Connie had told him early on; thinking of a good word for Sheldon as well, he praises his bow-tie.