Warning! This article contains SPOILERS for Young Sheldon season 7, episode 6.
Although Young Sheldon’s Georgie and Mandy spinoff has a lot of potential, season 7 of the series is making things harder for The Big Bang Theory’s next follow-up. Young Sheldon has always taken a loose approach to The Big Bang Theory’s canon. Meemaw is a stern presence in The Big Bang Theory, but her younger self is a carefree rebel in Young Sheldon. George Sr is a lovable everyman in Young Sheldon, but The Big Bang Theory’s Sheldon and Mary call him a loutish, philandering drunk. Almost all of Young Sheldon’s cast of characters diverge from their original characterizations.
Since Young Sheldon’s season 6 finale, the stakes of the show’s retcons have gotten higher. As the spinoff draws to a close, Young Sheldon‘s creators have announced another spinoff that focuses on Sheldon’s older brother Georgie and his relationship with Mandy. The Big Bang Theory finally reunited Sheldon with Georgie in season 11, episode 23, “The Sibling Realignment,” and that guest appearance revealed that Georgie was divorced. This makes Mandy and George’s spinoff complicated. Even Young Sheldon’s biggest Big Bang Theory canon changes stopped short of rewriting history, so the spinoff’s central couple is inevitably doomed to separation.
This is a problem because, ironically, Georgie and Mandy’s relationship keeps getting stronger in Young Sheldon season 7. When the couple first got together after a one-night stand, it was because of an unplanned pregnancy. Mandy tries to avoid Georgie’s romantic advances and even encourages him to date other people, before eventually revealing her feelings for him late in season 6. By the time Mandy proposed to Georgie after turning down countless proposals from him, the couple was becoming a surprisingly sweet pairing. Season 7 has only made this worse with outings like episode 6, “Baptists, Catholics, and an Attempted Drowning.”
In this episode, Georgie goes from appeasing both of Cici’s grandmothers to understanding why his baby’s religion is important to his fiancée. This is another instance of Young Sheldon contradicting The Big Bang Theory since the revelation of Georgie and Mandy’s eventual divorce could reasonably lead viewers to assume that the pair were never suited to co-parenting. Instead, Georgie and Mandy have gradually improved their communication and grown closer the longer their relationship has lasted. While this is sweet, their shared character arc also makes their eventual breakup increasingly inexplicable as Young Sheldon proves they were a good couple.
The easiest way for Georgie and Mandy’s spinoff to deal with the divorce would be retconning the event. Unlike the death of Sheldon’s father, George Sr, Georgie and Mandy’s divorce could be altered by their new show. The Big Bang Theory’s first spinoff has retconned awkward, darker elements of the original show’s canon before, with Young Sheldon season 7 revealing that George Sr never cheated on Mary. Georgie and Mandy’s spinoff could do the same by showing that their divorce was temporary, or just a misunderstanding, or a hare-brained scheme that was designed to somehow make life easier for them.
This would seem like a logical way to avoid a major storytelling issue. As Georgie and Mandy’s relationship goes from strength to strength, viewers naturally grow more invested in their happiness and the looming specter of their impending breakup becomes harder to justify. As such, conveniently revealing that Georgie and Mandy’s divorce wasn’t a real divorce would save the spinoff from centering on a bleak story. However, that doesn’t mean that this is necessarily a good idea. Young Sheldon retconning George Sr’s cheating was met with mixed reactions from The Big Bang Theory‘s viewers and changing Georgie’s past could repeat this problem.
Retconning Georgie and Mandy’s divorce is a bad idea because this twist would stop Sheldon’s brother from growing and changing in The Big Bang Theory. Certain elements of Young Sheldon’s storyline must conform to The Big Bang Theory’s version of events for the earlier show to make sense. It is sad to see Mary’s villainous Young Sheldon season 7 arc hurt her relationship with George Sr, but this storyline explains why she retreated into the church after his sudden death. This, in turn, justifies her zealotry throughout The Big Bang Theory, much like Georgie’s divorce explains why he resents Sheldon.
When Georgie is introduced in The Big Bang Theory, he is a successful business owner with a string of stores. His life has panned out pretty well, so his divorce is an essential piece of context that proves things aren’t as good as they initially appear for Sheldon’s older brother. This makes him sympathetic when he tells Sheldon that he always resented the preferential treatment Sheldon got from Mary. In contrast, if Georgie and Mandy’s spinoff retcons The Big Bang Theory’s divorced Georgie, Young Sheldon’s hero would have less justification for struggling with his little brother.