S06.E18: Little Green Men and a Fella's Marriage Proposal

[Lake Erie Lass]

Sheldon’s voice and stiff mannerisms are so annoying it’s hard to watch scenes with him talking. The clipped sentence, followed by the head bob, drive me nuts. Plus he went back to the bow tie this week. I thought he finally segued from his childhood “uniform” worn over the past seasons to the layered t-shirt look he wore as an adult.

CeCe smiling in her car seat was so gosh darn cute. Georgie suffering from diarrhea of the mouth in the doctor’s office, not so much. No wonder Mandy is hesitating. I love Georgie but he’s not quite the adult yet, even though he’s 18. He fluctuates from being really mature to being impulsive and an over-sharer.

[shapeshifter]

11 hours ago, Lake Erie Lass said:

I love Georgie but he’s not quite the adult yet, even though he’s 18. He fluctuates from being really mature to being impulsive and an over-sharer.

And more recent neuroscience has made us aware that the decision making areas of the brain don’t fully develop until around age 25. 
Maybe that’s partly why they made Mandy so much older?

Edited April 30, 2023 by shapeshifter

[appositival]

On 4/28/2023 at 2:21 PM, Kaycee said:

There has to be another reason other than Georgies age to why Mandy will not marry him.

I think Georgie was just a cute fling to Mandy. She never planed on staying with him in the first place, she just wanted an occasional bed partner. She knows he wouldn't be proposing if it weren't for the baby, and she knows the marriage wont last. 

I think she is right, but she will marry him anyway (and much drama will ensue).

[Bethany]

1 hour ago, appositival said:

I think she is right, but she will marry him anyway (and much drama will ensue).

Totally agree. I have hated that storyline from the onset.  The baby is adorable (which is some compensation) but there was no need at all to take this soap opera turn of event.  Not one.

[StaceyNotStacie]

On 4/28/2023 at 11:43 PM, HurricaneVal said:

The unrealistic storyline I'd like to see is Billy getting involved in football and finding out he's a total savant.  Not only that, but learning the plays and formations sparks (heh) an epiphany and suddenly he sees mathematics in football terms, and language arts in football terms and he pulls up to a C average in the strength of that different angle on things 

He becomes wildly popular due to his football prowess, but doesn't care.  He hangs with Missy, Sheldon, others who he hung out with before he got popular, and his chickens.  He spends most of his time at his mom's bowling alley, which turns that into the hot local hangout for the football team and all fans, which is good business for his mom.

Billy grows in confidence because of this and as he finds his center, he stays the same sweet person, but much less clueless.  Billy goes on to success at college, then pro ball, but never forgets his hometown.  He retires at 35 after a stellar pro career--including a lumbering "Refrigerator Perry" style touchdown at the Superbowl--and returns home where he buys the bowling alley, video store, drive-in burger joint, and comic book shop and lives his dream, filthy rich and adored by all with a huge fancy chicken coop as big as his mansion in his back yard.

 

A girl can dream!

Billy playing football would probably consist of a Forrest Gump scenario. I do love his friendship with Missy. If the show ends while they’re still in middle/high school, I’d love some sort of comment at the end how they ended up together (maybe he’s the second husband who treated her better than the first one). 

[Bethany]

Speaking of Billy, I like the juxtaposition of the way both Mary and Brenda are dealing with two of "god's special little people" (as Missy described Sheldon on BBT).  We know the end game for Sheldon and I'd really hope that in the finale or at some point along the way we get a voiceover describing a HEA for sweet little Billy.

Edited April 30, 2023 by Elizabeth Anne

[EtheltoTillie]

On 4/28/2023 at 10:50 AM, shapeshifter said:

Having used the hanger method in the 90s on my older cars: There was a soft, rubbery gasket at the top of the window, presumably to keep rain out. A coat hanger slips in there easily, even when the window is rolled all the way up.
Somewhere around that time new cars' window locks became smooth cylinder shapes with no lip for the coat hanger loop to snag. 

I never used it myself but I once had someone else do it for me. I was in a parking lot and the parking lot attendant had a custom slim jim, a length of sheet metal with a hole on the end that really slid in easily between the window and gasket. 

Edited May 1, 2023 by EtheltoTillie

[shapeshifter]

27 minutes ago, EtheltoTillie said:

I never used it myself but I once had someone else do it for me. I was in a parking lot and the parking lot attendant had a custom slim jim, a length of sheet metal with a hole on the end that really slid in easily between the window and gasket. 

Once around the year of the show one of my kid's friend's dad who was a cop used one of those flat metal tools to quickly get me into my car that didn't have the knobs on the window latches. He then advised me to always keep a spare key in my wallet, which I did until I got an electric door lock a couple of years ago. I was never locked out again. 

If Sheldon was more of an engineer, I bet he could rig a remote controlled door lock for Georgie's car.

 

14 hours ago, Elizabeth Anne said:

The baby is adorable (which is some compensation)

Yeah, she looks very little like the "parents," and definitely way cuter than a newborn. A total scene stealer. 

[Yeah No]

This episode took me back in a couple of ways.  My husband managed an auto repair shop at that time and was a pro at the hanger method of getting into a locked car.  I even did it a few times in my time!  Today my car won't even let me leave the remote in it.  It will refuse to lock and beep at me, LOL.  

Also somewhat realistic were the scientists scoffing at the idea of life on other planets.  Today that has gone mainstream, but back then many established scientists thought it was a crackpot idea.  I didn't mind the storyline but I agree with the others who've said it just seemed like they were trying to fit something in about Sheldon on a show that's mainly about several other characters now.  This is not the only half hour Chuck Lorre comedy I watch that's suffering from that problem.  "Bob Hearts Abishola" is more about umpteen other family members and coworkers than it is about Bob or Abishola.  But "Young Sheldon" is even worse.  Now it feels like Sheldon's scenes are forced into the show just to have some lame plotline for him that doesn't ever go anywhere.

I was scratching my head at Missy not being a popular kid.  Did she somehow become unpopular in the past few years or something?  Because I was always under the impression that she was popular at school to contrast Sheldon's lack of popularity.  Or has puberty done a number on her confidence?

[Bobbin]

On 4/29/2023 at 8:21 PM, shapeshifter said:

And more recent neuroscience has made us aware that the decision making areas of the brain don’t fully develop until around age 25. 
Maybe that’s partly why they made Mandy so much older?

Maybe. But her decision-making seems to lean heavily on indecision. It especially grates on me that she blames Georgie lying about his age for her getting pregnant. If he had really been 21+, would it make any difference in her attitude? And mood? How much of that is post-partum and how much is just Mandy? And how much of Mandy is her mom? 

[Yeah No]

5 hours ago, Bobbin said:

Maybe. But her decision-making seems to lean heavily on indecision. It especially grates on me that she blames Georgie lying about his age for her getting pregnant. If he had really been 21+, would it make any difference in her attitude? And mood? How much of that is post-partum and how much is just Mandy? And how much of Mandy is her mom? 

I agree with the poster above that Georgie was basically a "boy toy" for Mandy and not a serious relationship.  I think her hemming and hawing about him is not a result of her personality or post-partum mood but because Georgie was never the man she ideally wanted to settle down with and it probably feels like settling to her to end up with him.  I think this would have been true irrespective of finding out about his age, but that knowledge only made him even less the man she wanted to settle down with than he was before that.  Even if he were 21 she would have seen him as too young for her for a LTR, I am sure.   Although it's more acceptable today for older women to consider men younger than them for serious relationships, theirs is a big difference at their ages.  If they were each 10 years older it may not have mattered as much.  Other factors are that men generally mature later than women, and the fact that Georgie still has no clear established career to help support a family.  I think that despite Georgie's efforts to show Mandy how trustworthy he is it is being met with resistance and lack of trust on her part because she is aware of all of this.

[EtheltoTillie]

9 hours ago, shapeshifter said:

Once around the year of the show one of my kid's friend's dad who was a cop used one of those flat metal tools to quickly get me into my car that didn't have the knobs on the window latches. He then advised me to always keep a spare key in my wallet, which I did until I got an electric door lock a couple of years ago. I was never locked out again. 

 

OMG I completely forgot this.  The parking lot attendant told me the same thing, and I did it.  I carried the extra key separately. 

[EtheltoTillie]

I think if desperate they could have broken the window to get in, although they'd have had to do it from the other side to avoid hurting the baby.  I guess I'd do that if I had to. 

[Tom Holmberg]

10 hours ago, EtheltoTillie said:

I never used it myself but I once had someone else do it for me. I was in a parking lot and the parking lot attendant had a custom slim jim, a length of sheet metal with a hole on the end that really slid in easily between the window and gasket. 

Or they used to (still do?) have magnetic "key safes" you can hid somewhere on the car with an extra key.  I had one back in the 1970s.  BTW, it used to be a "feature" on Fords that it was impossible to lock your keys in your car as you could only lock the car doors with the key.  I remember my father (a Ford man) always mentioning this when someone else locked their keys in their Chevy (or other car).

[Yeah No]

On 4/29/2023 at 11:21 PM, shapeshifter said:

And more recent neuroscience has made us aware that the decision making areas of the brain don’t fully develop until around age 25. 
Maybe that’s partly why they made Mandy so much older?

Forgot to say this:  If the show wanted to give Mandy a reason to find Georgie less than adequate as a husband/father, making her that much older than him would be a good way to do it.  Also maybe they wanted to make the mother that much older to make less likely any external insistence on putting the child up for adoption.  I think the goal was probably to create the plotline of Mandy and Georgie as uniting in some way to raise their daughter together.

[OlderThanDirt]

1 hour ago, Tom Holmberg said:

BTW, it used to be a "feature" on Fords that it was impossible to lock your keys in your car as you could only lock the car doors with the key.  I remember my father (a Ford man) always mentioning this when someone else locked their keys in their Chevy (or other car)

It still is, even with electronic key fobs and pushbutton locks it won't lock if the key is inside the car.  However, if the car is locked and you open the back to load Costco purchases and toss your purse into the backseat, you might find yourself slithering into the backseat to retrieve it because the door doesn't unlock even if the key is inside the car. Only did that once ; I wish I'd had a child with me.

[possibilities]

2 hours ago, Tom Holmberg said:

it used to be a "feature" on Fords that it was impossible to lock your keys in your car as you could only lock the car doors with the key

That is very sensible! I wish it was like that with my apartment doors, too. 
I've had my wallet stolen in the past, so having my ID and a key in it at the same time feels extremely unwise.

[Tom Holmberg]

13 minutes ago, possibilities said:

That is very sensible! I wish it was like that with my apartment doors, too. 
I've had my wallet stolen in the past, so having my ID and a key in it at the same time feels extremely unwise.

My previous apt. had installed automatic closing doors on all apts. (supposedly mandated by the village), which caused a lot more of people to start locking themselves out.  My current apt. you have to use the key to lock your apt. door (which, however, means periodically people forget to remove their keys after entering their apts.). It's always something! :)

[proserpina65]

On 4/28/2023 at 2:21 PM, Kaycee said:

Mandy turning down Georgies proposal was no surprize. At 18, Georgie appears more mature at times then Mandy. It shows he deeply cares for her and the baby, but Mandy just does not see it that way. There has to be another reason other than Georgies age to why Mandy will not marry him.
 

Maybe she doesn't love him?  That would be plenty of reason not to marry someone.

[Sarah 103]

12 hours ago, Yeah No said:

I was scratching my head at Missy not being a popular kid.  Did she somehow become unpopular in the past few years or something?  Because I was always under the impression that she was popular at school to contrast Sheldon's lack of popularity.  Or has puberty done a number on her confidence?

There are different levels of popularity. There is the 1st tier, which is the type of person that was hosting the party. Missy is probably 2nd tier. She is way more popular than some other people, but not in the 1st tier. There is the 3rd tier (an odd place), which are people who are not really popular, but they are also not completely unpopular. They won't get invited to the 1st tier parties, but may get invited to a 2nd tier party if they are friendly with someone in that group. Finally, you have people who are totally unpopular, the freaks, the geeks, the weirdos. 

[Tom Holmberg]

1 hour ago, Sarah 103 said:

There are different levels of popularity. There is the 1st tier, which is the type of person that was hosting the party. Missy is probably 2nd tier. She is way more popular than some other people, but not in the 1st tier. There is the 3rd tier (an odd place), which are people who are not really popular, but they are also not completely unpopular. They won't get invited to the 1st tier parties, but may get invited to a 2nd tier party if they are friendly with someone in that group. Finally, you have people who are totally unpopular, the freaks, the geeks, the weirdos. 

And things can quickly change. People popular in middle school, might not be in high school, even as in Freshman year vs. Senior year, etc.  Missy was always talking about the really popular kids, but she didn't seem to be in that clique, as evidenced by her excitement at being seated between two of them in school).

[EtheltoTillie]

5 hours ago, Tom Holmberg said:

Or they used to (still do?) have magnetic "key safes" you can hid somewhere on the car with an extra key.  I had one back in the 1970s.  BTW, it used to be a "feature" on Fords that it was impossible to lock your keys in your car as you could only lock the car doors with the key.  I remember my father (a Ford man) always mentioning this when someone else locked their keys in their Chevy (or other car).

Ha!  I hate to say it, but my lock-out car was a Ford.  The door would lock if the button was down. 

[EtheltoTillie]

14 minutes ago, Tom Holmberg said:

And things can quickly change. People popular in middle school, might not be in high school, even as in Freshman year vs. Senior year, etc.  Missy was always talking about the really popular kids, but she didn't seem to be in that clique, as evidenced by her excitement at being seated between two of them in school).

Missy is well written as a character.  She's caught outside the most popular circle because of her family income level and family weirdness.  She has the social smarts to be in a more popular group.  She's also a nice person so she might not go whole hog into mean girl territory.  Maybe just half hog as she did in this episode. 

[Tom Holmberg]

Moved Car Talk to "Small Talk"

Edited May 1, 2023 by Tom Holmberg

[Mstk3000]

On 4/30/2023 at 6:44 AM, appositival said:

I think Georgie was just a cute fling to Mandy. She never planed on staying with him in the first place, she just wanted an occasional bed partner. She knows he wouldn't be proposing if it weren't for the baby, and she knows the marriage wont last. 

I think she is right, but she will marry him anyway (and much drama will ensue).

I’m not sure I agree.  She did know he was younger, but she thought 21, not 17.  And she seemed pretty into him when they were together, but the relationship didn’t last long enough to get really serious before he finally told her his real age (which he really, really should have done before they slept together - I love the Georgie character but that was messed up).

She was understandably angry about that and then found out she was pregnant.  Since then her life has been pretty overwhelming and nothing like anything she expected for herself.  He, on the other hand, never stopped having feelings for her and has stepped up to be the best partner and father he can be under the circumstances.  Which has definitely touched her and she has come to rely on him like she never expected to be able to.  When he cut off his date early (and broke up with his girlfriend to boot), she was happy and told him that she and Cece wanted him there with them.  

The proposal right then was too much for her though.  She said something later like “does it have to be everything or nothing?”  In time if things keep going as they are, I agree with you that she will eventually accept.  I hope you’re wrong about the marriage being doomed though (I really don’t care about “canon” since the show doesn’t seem to either based on other discrepancies).
 

 

 

[Yeah No]

4 hours ago, Sarah 103 said:

There are different levels of popularity. There is the 1st tier, which is the type of person that was hosting the party. Missy is probably 2nd tier. She is way more popular than some other people, but not in the 1st tier. There is the 3rd tier (an odd place), which are people who are not really popular, but they are also not completely unpopular. They won't get invited to the 1st tier parties, but may get invited to a 2nd tier party if they are friendly with someone in that group. Finally, you have people who are totally unpopular, the freaks, the geeks, the weirdos. 

I actually needed this explanation because this kind of social hierarchy was not in my experience either in Jr. High or High School.  We were all some form of Sheldon, Amy or lesser kind of geek.  I went to a special HS in NYC (I've talked about it before). It was a public HS you had to pass a rigorous test to get into and has produced 8 nobel prize winners.  Even though my Jr. HS did not require an entrance exam, it also didn't have the common "pecking order" of popular/unpopular kids.   We had no "prom queens" or "jocks" or any of that kind of stuff in the Bronx back in the 1970s!  I have no doubt that Sheldon would have thrived in both places!

[Yeah No]

3 hours ago, Mstk3000 said:

I’m not sure I agree.  She did know he was younger, but she thought 21, not 17.  And she seemed pretty into him when they were together, but the relationship didn’t last long enough to get really serious before he finally told her his real age (which he really, really should have done before they slept together - I love the Georgie character but that was messed up).

Just speaking for myself, if I were her age back in her place and time (I was actually in my early 30s then) and I were looking for a long term or lifetime relationship, I wouldn't pick a guy of 21 that still lived at home, didn't have a solid job and presented himself the way Georgie did.  While I don't think she was necessarily looking to him for a typical fling, I think she may not have been ready to settle down herself yet and was looking for a comfortable dating relationship that didn't pose much threat of getting too serious too soon.  And if the baby hadn't come along I don't think Georgie would have become serious about her either given his age and what we knew about him thus far going into the relationship. 

[shapeshifter]

On 4/30/2023 at 7:44 AM, appositival said:

I think Georgie was just a cute fling to Mandy. She never planed on staying with him in the first place, she just wanted an occasional bed partner.

13 hours ago, Mstk3000 said:

I’m not sure I agree.  She did know he was younger, but she thought 21, not 17.  And she seemed pretty into him when they were together, but the relationship didn’t last long enough to get really serious before he finally told her his real age...

I had a friend in the early 1980s who met her last child's father when she was 35 and he was 25.
Later when they were no longer together, I still recall her saying that when she met him:
"He seemed like a clean slate. I just had no idea he'd still be a clean slate 7 years later."

Maybe Mandy initially saw Georgie as a "clean slate." 
Or maybe just a cute fling. He did come on to her, IIRC, rather than the other way around.
Maybe Mandy went for it as a combination of "[cute] clean slate" and "fling."

And now Georgie seems to be maturing beyond the "clean slate." 
Mandy could do worse, as far as partners go, and probably knows it.
But, fortunately, she seems mature enough to see the red flags too.

Edited May 2, 2023 by shapeshifter

[possibilities]

When they met, she was new in town after tanking her career as a tv weather person. She was waiting tables, as I recall. Georgie was working at the laundromat., which is where they met. He flirted with her and they hooked up. I don't think either of them were taking it very seriously.

In addition to the age issue, I think it's legitimate for her to wonder how much of his interest in her is because of her, and how much because he's trying to do the right thing because of the baby. I also think they honestly don't know each other very well. They hooked up briefly, then there's been the pregnancy. They never really dated or spent anytime together other than that.