Young Sheldon – Hobbitses, Physicses and a Ball with Zip

By: Ujjyani Banerjee

While young Sheldon (Iain Armitage) scribbles equations during family dinner night at Texas BBQ, adult Sheldon (Jim Parsons) connects it to how famous people of the past used to get inspiration in the strangest of places, like bathtubs and under apple trees. Missy (Raegan Revord) is drawing a ladybug while waiting for the food. It finally arrives, but Sheldon keeps everybody waiting. They ultimately move over to a different table leaving him alone. Later, Mary (Zoe Perry) gets him some food but he’s too busy racking his brains out on physics. He continues to do so late at night. His murmurings disturb Missy who’s trying to sleep. She swears to sneeze into his mittens if he woke her up again.

The next morning Mary finds Sheldon still fixated. He was up all night and has started chewing his nails, too. She’s worried and shares this with Connie (Annie Potts). She suggests letting him be. Mary asks her how things are going with her and John. Connie reveals that they are exchanging letters but it is not romantic.

Missy goes to dad who’s repairing the kitchen sink. She wants him to teach her how to play baseball immediately. Seeing her eagerness, George (Lance Barber) wonders what brought it up. She remains mum but starts thinking about a boy named Marcus (London Cheshire) at school who she’s crushing on. He plays baseball. George starts training her. She picks the game up well.

Mary bandages Sheldon’s fingertips, which have started bleeding from his paranoid chewing habit. She asks him to take a break from science. Whilst learning baseball, Missy asks for baseball punchlines. George tells her about the legendary Nolan Ryan. He understands that she’s trying to impress someone but doesn’t make it obvious. Missy even tries and excels at throwing the ball at a curved trajectory. George loves that her ball-throwing has some zip on it.

Sheldon is discussing his fixation issue with Meemaw. She asks him to start reading comic books. Mary thinks devoting time to God would help, but Connie believes that a fun hobby is in order. While hers are smoking, drinking and gambling, she’ll help him find something just as fun. They start with dancing. Connie shakes her leg like a pro but Sheldon fails miserably. They move to bowling. Connie assures that her germaphobe grandson got a new ball. Sheldon aims for the front pin. The ball travels smoothly but falls short of reaching the pins.

At night Mary brings up the topic of Missy and George bonding all day over baseball. She is curious as to what brought about this sudden closeness. George keeps mum.  The next day at school Sheldon goes to Ms. Hutchins (Sarah Baker) to issue some books on stopping bad habits. He shares how he’s fixated on science. Ms. Hutchins suggests reading books that are opposite in genre, such as fiction or fantasy. He takes home Lord of The Rings. Mary is glad that at least the title bears “God” in it. She calls the father-daughter duo in for dinner who are still practicing outside. Georgie (Montana Jordan) wonders what’s taking them so long and a jealous Mary informs that they need five more minutes. She asks Sheldon how his reading is going. Sheldon mentions about a naked Gollum who bites heads off fishes. Connie calls them sushi and hopes to eat them one day before she dies and looks at Mary. Georgie asks her if he could get her car when she died. Connie looks at Mary. At night Sheldon continues reading Lord of the Rings and is disturbed with unmatched timelines in the book. Suddenly, a teddy hits him. Missy vows to hit him with a shoe the next time he wakes her up and that she will put her zip on it.

The next day ain Ms. Macelroy’s (Valerie Mahaffey) class Sheldon asks her if she’s read Lord of the Rings and she says that she has. He shares his timeline doubt and Georgie asks her if she can imagine living with him. Ms. Macelroy cannot. Sheldon takes his doubt to Ms. Hutchins. She feels the character probably lied about his age like many do in real life. Sheldon wonders why as per her knowledge some do it as they feel their necks make them look older. She’s talking about her own self. Sheldon doesn’t get it and goes to Glenn (Chris Wylde), the comic book store keeper, to get clarity. Glenn thinks the timeline glitch is acceptable as the book mentions about mistranslations in the appendix. Sheldon is worried if it was mistranslation or the author himself.

George goes to call Missy for baseball practice. He finds her curled up on her bed and she is weeping. She doesn’t want to practice and reveals that he likes someone else. George goes and sits near her. Missy shares how the other girl doesn’t even know who Nolan Ryan is. He calls the kid an idiot and asks if she wants him beat up. Missy does not. George manages to cheer her up by taking her out to play baseball.

Sheldon coops up in the garage working on solving the timeline issue with the help of a map. Mary checks up on him to see if he’s okay. Sheldon says he’ll be okay once he solves the doubt and resumes biting his nails. He even dreams about it at night where he’s both Gollum and Sméagol. They are in a cave fighting over how smart they used to be. While one blames “Physicses” wasting their brains, the other thinks the “Hobbitses” wasted it off. Sheldon wakes up abruptly and rushes to his parents’ room to inform them about his dream and how he’s inferred that even though physics is frustrating it won’t turn him into a tormented creature that bites the heads off fish. Mary sighs in exasperation. George asks her to take care of this as he’s been doing a great job with Missy.

The next day at school Missy sees Marcus chatting with the other girl. She takes out an apple from her pocket and springs it on him with her signature zip and aims for his head. The fruit hits its target.