Young Sheldon – A Slump, a Cross and Roadside Gravel

By starrymag | February 6, 2020

By: Ujjyani Banerjee

 

 

Missy (Raegan Revord) is in a baseball match. George (Lance Barber), Mary (Zoe Perry), Connie (Annie Potts) and Sheldon (Iain Armitage) are all in the audience. The grownups are piqued while Sheldon is bored. After beating nervousness and getting encouragement from Coach Dale (Craig T. Nelson), Missy throws her signature swing and earns victory for her team. Elated, Dale announces a pizza party. He ends up sitting with the Coopers. Sheldon manages to bore Dale with pizza history. Mary asks him not to. Sheldon wonders how important is it for Meemaw to have Dale gel well with her family at dine outs. Connie sends him over to the kids’ table. Over there Billy (Wyatt McClure) teaches Sheldon how to eat hot pizza slices with ice on them.

 

Dale wants to take Connie camping, but she’s not ready. He instead invites an enthusiastic George and Georgie (Montana Jordan) too. Later, George gets a call from Dr. Sturgis (Wallace Shawn) who wants to hangout with him on the weekend. He turns it down as he’s got camping plans. John excitedly shares that he once backpacked across Asia but upon learning that Dale would be in attendance he decides to hang out with other friends, once he makes a few. George rings up Dale and calls for a raincheck as he’d forgotten about an earlier plan. Dale suggests bringing in the other fella too. He learns that it’s John and that he apparently backpacked in the past.  Both decide to take John in.

 

Missy is jealous that she’s not allowed to go camping and wants to go to Chuck E. Cheese. Sheldon prefers the American History Museum. Georgie blurts out that camping with John seems more fun. Connie is alarmed. She calls up John to warn him about Dale’s mean nature, but he’s sure that he’ll be able to handle. In fact, he’s busy packing his camping gear and preparing his own “gorp” (good old raisins and peanuts). Connie calls Dale asking him to behave properly with John.

 

George and Georgie are all ready for camp. Mary hands them a flask of coffee asking one to drink within limits and the other to not drink at all. Soon, Dale comes to pick them up in his RV. They soon reach John’s place. Dale finds his ensemble resembling a garden gnome. He mocks his attire comparing it to Boy Scout and then picks on his indecent way of sitting. John takes it in stride and calls him to be a probable bedwetter. Georgie is loving the banter but George gets nervous.

 

At home Sheldon tries to persuade Missy into agreeing to the museum or the planetarium but she’d rather go for a movie. Missy wants to decide using rock-paper-scissors but Sheldon feels that the outcomes get too redundant. She even offers to increase the variables by adding “Candy” and “Pony,” but Sheldon comes up with a more reliable game of listing kitchen spices alphabetically. Missy says no right away. Connie visits her husband’s grave to discuss her dating life. She explains to Charlie how hard it is to remain healthy and single at her age. She also says that she misses him.

 

Seeing John catch plenty of fish George is curious about his bait. It turns out to be cheese, garlic and little bit of pig brains. Dale wonders where he sources the brains from. John reveals that he butchers himself as asking from someone garners odd looks. Dale pulls at him for probably always receiving those looks. John offers the bait for tasting to everyone. Dale turns it down as he needs to concentrate on fishing. John calls his technique wrong. Having had enough, Dale goes to get himself a beer while Georgie relishes bait food.

 

Meanwhile, the twins have invented a new game where they’re making a list of tasks which each of them have to attempt. Upon successful completion of each task, they’d build a wooden tower block by block and whoever’s tower reaches the set height first he/ she would get to choose the place they’d visit. Sheldon makes a contract and gets Missy to sign it.

 

In the woods John shares facts about fire-building techniques practiced in Finland and doesn’t allow Georgie to have beer. Dale is pissed at his know-it-all attitude and wonders why is he here or why Connie dated him. John reminds him that he’s been invited, but Dale calls it being pitied on. John isn’t ashamed of dating Connie either. Dale picks on how he broke up with her after his time at the…He stops before going too hard on him. George comes just in time after a bio break.

 

Connie tells Charlie about how Dale reminds her of him while John is one unique chap. She wonders how afterlife is treating him.  She’s interrupted by Kenneth (Jim Beaver), who’s come to visit his departed wife Vanessa and according to her it’s great up there! Connie and Kenneth have a brief chat and he lets her wrap up with Charlie by giving her privacy. Connie shows Charlie how much she’s in demand, even at this age!

 

Sheldon and Missy start with their listed tasks and likewise build the wooden tower with full concentration.

 

As night falls in George and Georgie look back at the excellent day. John reveals that he didn’t enjoy himself and wants to leave. Dale is glad but George cannot let him go alone. He asks Dale to request John to stay, but before they can look he escapes.

 

Sheldon and Missy are nearing the end ,but Missy changes her last block’s orientation and gets her tower to reach the set height first. As per contract, she’s ethically and officially won. She tells mom that they’d go to Chuck E. Cheese, but it turns out that they can’t as it’s already dark. Missy is still happy because she won. However, Sheldon feels that he was the real winner as they spent the day doing everything he loves which were making rules, signing contracts and remaining indoors. Later, Missy coaxes Sheldon to play Rock-Paper-Scissors-Candy-Pony with her. They do and Sheldon wins each time. Missy is puzzled. He explains that she picks Pony every single time.

 

John takes the bus to reach home. He’s enjoying the ride munching on his gorp and even offers it to a lady sitting opposite him. She looks over at the weird looking gorp and then at him.