Warning: Contains SPOILERS for Young Sheldon season 6.
While the two plots seem disconnected, George’s death (and the financial hardship it causes) in Young Sheldon makes The Big Bang Theory spinoff’s grant database storyline sadder than it initially seems. Like any nostalgic coming-of-age dramedy, Young Sheldon has always struggled with the show’s tone. Sometimes, the spinoff is as light-hearted, low-stakes, and silly as The Big Bang Theory while, at other times, storylines like Georgie getting Mandy pregnant or George considering cheating on Mary are darker and more dramatic.
The storyline that the spinoff has the hardest time justifying is Young Sheldon’s George death, which is canonically supposed to occur somewhere around season 6. Young Sheldon has already made George a much kinder person and a better father than he was characterized as in The Big Bang Theory, and the more the spinoff underlines his fundamental goodness, the harder it will be for the show to eventually go through with killing him off. Unfortunately, Young Sheldon season 6 has made things even harder with the story of Sheldon’s grant database, which secretly makes the plot line even sadder.
George Sr’s Death Starts The Cooper Family’s Money Struggles
According to Georgie’s The Big Bang Theory backstory, he needed to work to support Mary and Missy (as well as Sheldon) after George's death, and this led him to resent Sheldon for decades. This may have also contributed to Georgie and Mandy’s breakup, which makes the already-sad prospect of George’s death even sadder. However, Georgie’s sacrifices to support his family wouldn’t have been necessary if Sheldon had secured the financial windfall that everyone expected from his grant database idea. Instead, Sheldon was perturbed by how competitive and possessive his colleagues, the university president, and his parents were over the idea, and this struggle resulted in him not monetizing the proposition.
It was undeniably sweet to see Mary side with Sheldon when he opted not to monetize his invention. However, the fact that she allowed Georgie to overwork himself to provide for her, Missy, and Sheldon after George’s death does mean that Georgie wasn’t wrong when he claimed that Sheldon was always his mother’s favorite. This, in turn, explains why Sheldon remained so fond of his mother even though they never saw eye-to-eye on a lot of issues when Mary inexplicably returned to the church after George’s death. Thus, while this story makes sense of Mary and Sheldon's shared closeness, it also makes the Coopers' future family hardships more painful.
Sheldon’s Database Could Have Saved The Coopers
The financial security that Sheldon’s database idea could have potentially provided is substantial. After all, Dr. Linkletter was willing to part with his cherished Richard Feynman “autograph” (technically a restraining order) for just a portion of the invention’s credit, and President Hagermeyer instantly got lawyers involved in the hopes of maximizing her cut. As such, viewers can reasonably assume that, for a family between the working class and middle-class social strata, this money could have changed their lives after the death of George Sr left the family in dire financial straits.
Sheldon (Accidentally) Caused Georgie’s Big Bang Theory Story
While Sheldon could not have known that his father would die soon after the events of Young Sheldon season 6, episode 8, “Legalese and A Whole Hoo Ha,” it is still sad to see the character unknowingly contribute to the future struggles of the family and especially his older brother. Had Sheldon been aware of the impact that turning down the opportunity to monetize his grant database would have had on the Cooper clan, there is a good chance he might have reconsidered the decision. After all, earlier in the episode, all it took was Mary adding a few extra hot dog slices to his dinner for Sheldon to consider talking to a lawyer about the issue.
What makes this plot particularly unfortunate is the fact that Mandy and Georgie’s breakup already meant Georgie was in for a rough time even before George’s death. Viewers familiar with The Big Bang Theory’s version of Georgie know that he ends up bitterly angry toward his brother for years after their father’s death, and that he is divorced by the time he appears in the series. Some of this complex situation could have been avoided if Sheldon had taken the money for his idea - but there’s no way that the character could have known that at the time. As such, Young Sheldon season 6’s most unassuming story is secretly its saddest thanks to The Big Bang Theory canon.
Young Sheldon season 6 airs Thursdays on CBS.