S07.E13/S07.E14: Funeral/Memoir

[Dimity]

Oh my god that was amazing.  The first episode I sobbed my way through the whole thing.  The second episode I teared up and I laughed and I just appreciated every single minute.  I will miss the Coopers.

[chitowngirl]

1 hour ago, ams1001 said:

Is it? I don't remember...off to see if I can find a video...

Here you go!

2 minutes ago, shura said:

That’s the thing.  Correct me if I’m wrong, but since Sheldon does not believe, and Mary knows that, she must know his soul is not going to be saved by a baptism, right? 

She is so full of grief I’m sure she has tunnel vision about everything…This is something she can focus on so she doesn’t have to think about reality.

[Cotypubby]

37 minutes ago, kay1864 said:

Hate to be the one that points this out, but damn has Jim Parsons aged a lot in five years. 

I thought they made him look older since aren't those scenes supposed to be set in the future? If his son is already on a hockey team he’s probably like 11-12ish?

I just saw Jim Parsons on stage last week and he didn’t look as old as he did in the show.

Oh man the tears were flowing like crazy in the first episode! I’m not normally a crier but damn I had the tissues out.

[Dimity]

43 minutes ago, kay1864 said:

Hate to be the one that points this out, but damn has Jim Parsons aged a lot in five years. 

I thought he actually looked a lot like George and wondered if they played up a resemblance intentionally.

3 minutes ago, Cotypubby said:

I just saw Jim Parsons on stage last week and he didn’t look as old as he did in the show.

I didn't catch on right away that Sheldon was probably supposed to be at least 10 -12 years older in this episode than when we last saw him on BBT.

Edited May 17 by Dimity

[ProudMary]

I liked that some humor was interwoven with the grief in the Funeral episode. I had tears on my cheeks, followed immediately by laughter.

Georgie bargaining over the cost of the casket was funny and spot on for the character, while showing us that this 18 year old stepped right up, knowing how difficult the task would have been for his Mom. ❤️

The parade of casseroles was also right on target. Of course, Peg's was store-bought! I'm glad we got one more scene with her character. 

I loved the scene with Wayne and Mary. When Wayne broke down and said he wasn't really helping, I remembered a similar occurrence when my Dad died. It actually was helpful to hear how much my loved one meant to other people. Mary was there for Wayne. It was very sweet.

The short scene in church, where Jim teared up, really got to me. The Grandpas-in-law had known each other only a short time, but you could already see that theirs would have been a lifelong friendship. Will Sasso aced that scene.

Overall, I thought Funeral was far superior to Memoir as an episode. I would have preferred older Sheldon remaining a voice over. As others mentioned above, I wanted a bit more about Mary, Georgie, Missy and Connie; the Young Sheldon cast in the near-aftermath of George's death. IMO, this was more of an Easter egg for fans of The Big Bang Theory. 

[MollyMelrose]

Thought the Funeral episode was fantastic. A heartfelt, genuine, often gut wrenching, tribute to George Senior.  

In the midst of all the grief and sadness, a few moments of levity:

The casserole brigade at the beginning of the episode. The well-meaning, "I made you a casserole," followed by Peg's, "I bought you a casserole."

Brenda and Science Teacher Guy

And poor Coach Wayne, only able to communicate through the language of blubber. The principal translating for him kinda reminded me of June Cleaver's Airplane, "I speak jive."  

 

Sheldon reliving the last moments he spent with his dad ... Georgie trying so hard to honor his dad by stepping up for the family ... Missy's Red Lobster memories ... Connie's eulogy ... beautifully done.

 

Sheldon and the scuba suit baptism pretty much made the Memoirs episode, along with the call back to the first episode, "I believe in you." And "The Walk of LIfe."

Loved spending time with Sheldon and Amy. (Though it made me miss the rest of the gang more.) So happy to learn that Leonard Cooper is something of a jock. Grandpa Cooper would be so pleased.

Shamy's daughter probably was given Penny's maiden name ... so we'll never know what it is. 🙂

 

Sad this show has ended, but so grateful to its creators, writers, and actors who made it so special. And thanks to TBS, will be having breakfast with the Coopers again tomorrow morning. Don't want to miss it!!

[Chaos Theory]

Georgie has come a long way since the pilot.   I am not going to watch his spinoff but I do like how his character has grown over the seasons.   Watching him take charge the way he did as everyone else fell apart is a good way to show how much he has grown into a man.

Edited May 17 by Chaos Theory

[ams1001]

14 minutes ago, chitowngirl said:

Here you go!

Thank you!!! ❤️❤️

7 minutes ago, ProudMary said:

The parade of casseroles was also right on target. Of course, Peg's was store-bought! 

Given the perpetual lit cigarette dangling from her mouth, I think it's a good thing that it was store-bought. Don't think I'd eat it if she made it herself.

 

[Chit Chat]

7 minutes ago, MollyMelrose said:

Sheldon reliving the last moments he spent with his dad ..

That was sad, and I really felt bad for him in that Missy didn't understand him at all, and how he was going through his own personal hell of regret.  I'm sorry, but again, I really hate how they wrote Missy in the final episode.  I get it.  She's upset (and rightfully so), but she lashed out at everybody when they were trying to help her.  It was unpleasant to watch. 

[displayname]

They got an athlete and an actress! I am now sad Kaley Cuoco didn't make a cameo.

Lovely episode and I loved this series.

[MollyMelrose]

[shapeshifter]

1 hour ago, Frost said:

I completely understand Sheldon just shutting down. 

Maybe some viewers who have always been judgemental of Sheldon-esque people who appear unfeeling will now realize they have an inner life not visible. 
I like to think that was the goal of the episode, given that it was the penultimate episode of "Young Sheldon."

 

 

1 hour ago, Katy M said:

I thought it was a little (no a lot) weird that Connie told Mary she was still young and could find someone else even before the funeral. Too soon, Connie. Way too soon.

Yes. And yet commonly told to young widows or deserted wives. 
Another lesson to anyone watching who might be open to learning such a lesson and to *not* tell a grieving wife that she'll find someone else.
Sorry. Not sorry. Just projecting a little maybe?

 

 

1 hour ago, Chit Chat said:

She was rude to Mandy & Pastor Jeff when they told her how sorry they were.  I get that she's upset, but damn, she was just straight up rude.  Saying you're sorry to someone who just experienced a loss is a normal thing to say. 

It can really sting and be irritating and annoying and even hurtful when people say "I'm sorry" to you after a tragic loss. 
When a hormonal teen hears those well-intentioned but painful "I'm sorry"s, she is going to react exactly like Missy did — unless maybe she keeps it all inside and develops a substance abuse problem or becomes promiscuous in a self-destructive way.
Both Mary and Missy will likely recover from their loss because they were surrounded by people who allowed them to express their anger.

 

1 hour ago, Spartan Girl said:

Am I the only one that was glad Missy told off Pastor Jeff twice in a single hour? Sanctimonious jerk had it coming to him for a long time.

I saw Pastor Jeff's reactions as affirming his being a really sincere guy more concerned with being "Christ-like" than worrying about his status like many pastors would be. 
But I'm open to other interpretations of the character.

 

https://www.chucklorre.com/?e=1508

“but the final words of this episode bear repeating. “I loved my father. I will miss him forever.’” 
And Mom too.
😭
It was healing to sob.

Edited May 17 by shapeshifter

[SeanC]

Writing-wise they had a bit of a challenge here because the endpoint of this show really only makes sense as an ending for Sheldon (and George Sr., obviously). The writers more or less decided to embrace this -- for Missy, in particular -- which is naturalistic, but also to some extent unsatisfying for some people, I'm going to guess.

I'll be interested to see how the planned spinoff with Georgie and Mandy handles the rest of the family.

[WescottF1]

41 minutes ago, MollyMelrose said:

My wife didn't have her glasses on so she asked me to read it to her.  I could barely choke it out.

I lost my father in 2006 from a sudden heart attack. He was 56. I'll be 53 in July. Our last conversation over the phone was pretty much verbatim of the part where Sheldon retconned his last conversation with George where they both told each other they loved them.

The vanity card hit me so hard. I'm just glad I got to tell my dad I loved him one more time before he left us. Damn.

[EtheltoTillie]

What a tearjerker. This was a great ending for the show. I have nothing to add to all the other great comments 

[voiceover]

Welp.

I foolishly thought I might be immune to “The Funeral”, since I’d read comments (here & in interviews) about how much crying would & did happen. 

Nope.  Those scenes hit all my old bruises, and even though circumstances were very different, the emotions from the cast felt oh so familiar.

Tough to pick a winner, but I gotta give it to Annie Potts, who hit every possible grief note with grace.  That moment with her grandchildren, and the desperation of her plea (“My daughter’s falling apart!”): just right, and just devastating.

I was raised a Methodist, and my church didn’t put quite the premium on baptism that Mary’s did, but I understood her stubborn desire to see her two youngest undergo the ritual.  In a situation where she’d lost all control, she was scrabbling for a piece of it back.  The moment at her faith garden echoed the “Octopus Aliens” ep, where she had — as many a person of faith has done before —wept and questioned her God.  It’s the “Take this cup away from me!”, point of no return.  Zoe broke my heart.

I actually liked all the scenes with Jim & Mayim.  Of course the Cooper/Fowlers live in an Arts & Crafts bungalow! Nice throwaway  visual 🤣  IIRC, the name of their firstborn had been revealed in the first or second year.  And yes: terribly appropriate that two of their children were embracing hobbies so foreign to the parents (I’d thought it was such  a missed opportunity when the new Frasier didn’t make Niles & Daphne’s son a sportstalk radio host).

The Dire Straights song played through the cold open of the Pilot, as Sheldon fiddled with his trains.  Perfect to have it echoed on his walk through campus.  And hearing an acoustic “Mighty Little Man” over Sheldon’s packing up his childhood bedroom! pinged me so hard to when the acoustic version of the BBT-theme played during the last shot of the gang eating takeout.

Would just like to add here: many on this thread are feeling this last hour especially hard, because we’re thinking of the fathers we lost.  Sure wish I could fly through time & space and form a circle with all of you, so we could squeeze hands, weep together, and smile.

[BitterApple]

3 hours ago, Katy M said:

This is a hill I'm willing to die on: Loved ones should NOT be expected to speak at funerals.

Amen. I lost my father and grandmother within three weeks of each other, and this was on top of spending a year caring for my mother after she was in a serious car accident. My aunt got huffy with me when I declined to do a Bible reading at my grandmother's funeral. Let me tell you, there's nothing like being guilt tripped when you can barely function. I'll join you on that hill. 

3 hours ago, Chit Chat said:

Maybe I'm the only one, but I really didn't like how this ended.  Missy is filled with rage (understandably so), but I wanted some closure for her.  There was no mention of how MeeMaw faired, and now we know that Mary moved off, but that's it?  No other mention of where she went to.  I could've used another half hour to tie up some loose ends.  I feel like I was left hanging with the second episode.  YMMV. 

I agree. It definitely feels like we needed one more episode. I think the writers were trying to underscore how messy things were in the Cooper household when Sheldon left for CalTech, but it's a bummer Missy went out on an angry note, and I too would've liked more information on what Mary and MeeMaw did in the years immediately after George's death. 

During the scene where Jim Parsons was walking through the old house, I was really hoping the camera would turn and we'd see adult Missy and adult Georgie. I think that would've been a cool way to bring closure. 

Overall though, I think they did a good job. So many series have crashed and burned by the time the finale rolls around, but YS finished strong.

 

[3 is enough]

To be fair instead of the usual 22-23 episode season they only had 14. I guess they had to cut back on some detail to finish the story.

 

[MadyGirl1987]

2 hours ago, shapeshifter said:

It can really sting and be irritating and annoying and even hurtful when people say "I'm sorry" to you after a tragic loss

Honestly, after losing my mom that didn’t bug me. What bugs me is people still say it to me if I mention it to them a decade later… Just recently, I had someone say it to me after asking about Mother’s Day plans and I said she passed away a while ago. I get it’s mostly just a reflex to hearing something bad, like with Mandy, but it irritates nonetheless. The snarky part of me wants to ask “why, you didn’t have anything to do with it.” (Sidenote; that snarky part of me is why I am always afraid of saying the quiet part out loud and am grateful patrons at the library I work at can’t read my mind.)

I really liked both episodes and feel like this was a pitch perfect finale for the show. The funeral was hard to watch, but cathartic and I loved seeing Jim and Mayim bantering as Sheldon and Amy again and the way the framing of it being his memoir brought the show full circle. I liked they connected it to his relationship with his son, as I was already seeing that connection before Amy pointed it out.

Am I the only one who would like to see some of Sheldon interacting with his kids? I would love to see how he interacts with his hockey player son and aspiring actress daughter.

Edited May 17 by MadyGirl1987

[7-Zark-7]

Aw, Shamy named their son Leonard! 

[kay1864]

7 hours ago, Cotypubby said:

thought they made him look older since aren't those scenes supposed to be set in the future? If his son is already on a hockey team he’s probably like 11-12ish?

I just saw Jim Parsons on stage last week and he didn’t look as old as he did in the show.

Perhaps it was the camera angle, and/or enhancement? Here’s from an Us article, Mar 6 ‘24:

 

[NeenerNeener]

9 hours ago, StaceyNotStacie said:

Missy and Billy on the porch was nice. I wonder if he ends up being her second husband. I could see Missy going for a “popular” guy as her first husband and then seeing Billy as a George-like good guy after her first marriage ends. 

Nope. I can't see Missy married to a guy as dim as Billy unless what we see of him in this series is Sheldon exaggerating his mental deficiencies.

[Chaos Theory]

Ultimately this is Sheldon’s show so giving him the exit he needed was what the show aimed for.  It is very easy to handwave Sheldon’s reaction to George’s death.  Heck Even Mary diving completely into religion is easy to understand.   “A messed up teenager” as Gerogie described Missy on BBT is a lot harder to write but the way the last two episodes wrote her is very realistic.   I think the show didn’t want to say the words because if it did it would take a scene or two the show didn’t have to confront it but Missy hated God so there is no way she wanted to be baptized especially by a smiling yes man like the pastor.  But the show didn’t really have time to explore that.     So it left her lashing out.  It may be unpleasant but it is also extremely realistic.   Having Missy utter the words on a CBS family oriented show would have focused the episode on her and not Sheldon bridging the gap between Young Sheldon and Big Bang Theory.

Edited May 17 by Chaos Theory

[mammaM]

8 hours ago, Chit Chat said:

That was sad, and I really felt bad for him in that Missy didn't understand him at all, and how he was going through his own personal hell of regret.  I'm sorry, but again, I really hate how they wrote Missy in the final episode.  I get it.  She's upset (and rightfully so), but she lashed out at everybody when they were trying to help her.  It was unpleasant to watch. 

And I thought Missy was written realistically. Teenager, angsty already, of course she's gonna lash out. And I always thought of Missy as (for lack of a better phrase) "the normal twin". There was " the Sheldon way" and with Missy "the normal way". Sheldon shuts down completely over his father's death, Missy lashes out. Maybe two sides of the same coin would be a better analogy.

[appositival]

Youth pastor Rob, we hardly knew you. A victim of the short season, I guess.

I was expecting the opening title scene to be the family in the bluebells without George. 

Was George wearing rouge in the coffin?  I wouldn't want that to be my last memory of him.

[Chaos Theory]

17 minutes ago, mammaM said:

And I thought Missy was written realistically. Teenager, angsty already, of course she's gonna lash out. And I always thought of Missy as (for lack of a better phrase) "the normal twin". There was " the Sheldon way" and with Missy "the normal way". Sheldon shuts down completely over his father's death, Missy lashes out. Maybe two sides of the same coin would be a better analogy.

Everyone is worried about Sheldon.   Mary is a mess.   Georgie is busy being the man of the family.    Missy is left to grieve alone 

[Spartan Girl]

8 hours ago, shapeshifter said:

I saw Pastor Jeff's reactions as affirming his being a really sincere guy more concerned with being "Christ-like" than worrying about his status like many pastors would be. 
But I'm open to other interpretations of the character.

I’ll concede that Pastor Jeff probably meant well, but after being too spineless to stand up to the congregation for Mary because of Georgie and Mandy and being too spineless to stop his bitch wife from taking and spending Connie’s money, his attempts to condole the Coopers rang hollow. Not to mention how he could barely contain his glee for “getting” Sheldon at the baptism.

We at least got a nice goodbye between Sheldon and Missy at the end.

Edited May 17 by Spartan Girl

[KayVeeTeeVee]

11 hours ago, Chit Chat said:

Maybe I'm the only one, but I really didn't like how this ended.  Missy is filled with rage (understandably so), but I wanted some closure for her.  There was no mention of how MeeMaw faired, and now we know that Mary moved off, but that's it?  No other mention of where she went to.  I could've used another half hour to tie up some loose ends.  I feel like I was left hanging with the second episode.  YMMV. 

Anyone else remember the final episode of The Middle?  They showed each of the kids (and maybe the parents) all grown up and in their careers.  Like the end of American Graffiti. 

[Dimity]

While we didn't get closure for Missy in the finale we do know from voiceovers done by Sheldon over the years that she ends up with a large family, lots of friends and is a happy person.  In many ways for Sheldon and for Missy we do know the next few years are going to be hard for them.  Missy in the more typical rebellious teen phase and for Sheldon in the awkward social misfit phase (that he refuses to acknowledge as having been a problem but which we all know only turned around for him when Leonard comes into his life).

Anyway all that said I wanted to comment on how much I loved Amy in the Memoir episode.  She has come into her own with Sheldon and knows how to handle him and doesn't let him get away with anything.  

[Tom Holmberg]

12 hours ago, anna0852 said:

or when the dog died in Old Yeller.

Oh, you've got a cold, cold heart...

[Chaos Theory]

My head cannon is now Sheldon basically raising a smarter version of Georgie and Missy/Penny.    

[Chit Chat]

7 hours ago, MadyGirl1987 said:

Honestly, after losing my mom that didn’t bug me. What bugs me is people still say it to me if I mention it to them a decade later

To be fair, I see about 8 patients a day in a dental office, and on average, someone is going to mention to me about once a week or so that a loved one has died since the last time I saw them (from 6 months prior).  I can either stare at them and say nothing or I can say "I'm sorry to hear that."  I'm not going to offer them advice or tell them I know how they're feeling, because even though I've been through several deaths in my own family, I can't know exactly how that person feels, but what I can offer is some empathy in the form of "I'm sorry about that."  Not everybody wants to hear that, but I think that's better than no response at all.  YMMV.

1 hour ago, mammaM said:

And I thought Missy was written realistically. Teenager, angsty already, of course she's gonna lash out.

I agree, but I wish she would've taken the olive branch that Mandy extended and at least talk to her, instead she got hung up on her saying "I'm sorry."  I'm sad for Missy's character that there wasn't some kind of relief for her, but she was shutting people down left and right (Dale, Mandy, Pastor Jeff).  They could all use some professional counseling.  

Again, I think they spent too much time on adult Sheldon & Amy.  All she did was fuss at him about going to their son's game (which he needed to do), but that got old quickly.  I'd rather have seen more time spent on the YS characters.  It took too much time for grown Sheldon to see the correlation between his regrets about his dad and what he should do for his own son.  Seriously?  Grown Sheldon is still that dense?  I wish I would've liked the second episode, but I didn't.  It just didn't work for me. 

[shura]

1 hour ago, Spartan Girl said:

I’ll concede that Pastor Jeff probably meant well, but after being too spineless to stand up to the congregation for Mary because of Georgie and Mandy and being too spineless to stop his bitch wife from taking and spending Connie’s money, his attempts to condole the Coopers rang hollow. Not to mention how he could barely contain his glee for “getting” Sheldon at the baptism.

I am feeling peaceful and mellow after the finale, so I will say this - I am okay with Pastor Jeff.  He is just a man with flaws and weaknesses like all of us.  It is his job to comfort people and he is doing the best he can. It doesn't have to be seen as insencere or hollow.  He couldn't really have done anything more.

It is also his job to affirm people's Christian beliefs, but he knows his limitations.  He knows he is not going to convert Sheldon, and he knows his congregation knows that.  So his comment at his "big get" does not have to be seen as a gloating declaration of victory.  This is not war and he knows he is not winning anything.  He is making, if not a joke, a light-hearted comment, an invitation of sorts to look at how Sheldon is here with us today, not being combative but peaceful, sharing with us the experience we value, so let's take it for what it's worth and celebrate it.  Something like that.

[Dimity]

6 minutes ago, Chit Chat said:

Again, I think they spent too much time on adult Sheldon & Amy. 

While there were other ways they could have gone I felt that bringing this full circle to putting the focus on Sheldon made sense.  I also liked that they did not turn the entire run of Young Sheldon into Sheldon writing his memoir and looking back.  That's been done before and I was a little afraid that that was where they might have gone here.  Thankfully they didn't.

I think we saw Sheldon finally coming to terms with how he felt about his father and his childhood in this last episode and that worked for me.

Edited May 17 by Dimity

[freeser]

22 minutes ago, Dimity said:

Anyway all that said I wanted to comment on how much I loved Amy in the Memoir episode.  She has come into her own with Sheldon and knows how to handle him and doesn't let him get away with anything.  

I did like Amy in the episode but was honestly disappointed with the older Sheldon.

After all Sheldon's talk about loving his Dad, appreciating all he did and understanding he did the best he could, etc. - he still acts like a jerk concerning his own kids.  He did not learn anything from his Dad or learn anything by being a father himself.  Even Sheldon should realize that no matter what his personal opinion of sports is, his son enjoys it and plays on a team.  Sheldon should certainly go watch him play no matter what.  Be A Dad Sheldon!  At least pretend to show some interest in your children. 

I guess I thought after he got married he would have somewhat matured emotionally and respected the feelings of his wife and kids.  But from what he was writing in his book and his attitude  toward watching his son's game, he still seems as self centered as always.  

[monakane]

12 hours ago, ams1001 said:

I liked the acoustic guitar version of the theme song at the end of the funeral episode.

They did the same thing with TBBT final scene.  Great call back.

[luna1122again]

12 hours ago, StaceyNotStacie said:

 

Missy and Billy on the porch was nice. I wonder if he ends up being her second husband. I could see Missy going for a “popular” guy as her first husband and then seeing Billy as a George-like good guy after her first marriage ends. 

Oh, no. That would be SO depressing, that Missy wound up with Billy, who is sweet but dim-witted to an extreme. Billy is no George Cooper, and Missy deserved far better. 

I lost my dad exactly three months ago. It wasn't unexpected, he was nearly 90, but it did happen very quickly after a stroke, and it was still terrible. These words, spoken by Sheldon and Georgie--I loved my father and I'll miss him every day. I hope he knew how much I loved him--were exactly what I wrote that day. I imagine we all feel that way, when we lose someone we love. 

So yeah, this hit hard on a few levels and yeah, I cried. I think they did a really nice job with this finale. 

I also grew up in a religious home, and my parents wanted me to be baptized. My older brother was. But I was an atheist at a young age, much like Sheldon, and I couldn't have brought myself to do what he did, not even for a grieving MeeMaw and Mother. I think it was unfair of them to ask, but grief is unreasonable. 

I was also very Missy here, telling Pastor Jeff to go to hell made me cheer. I do hate that we left her so angry and scared and sad, but I was glad to see her have a playful, wistful moment or two with Sheldon. "It's weird when they cry." "I do not care for it."  Ha. That. 

I'll definitely miss this little show, and will give George and Mandy a try.

[Chaos Theory]

For a show I maybe watched the first couple seasons then stopped I really enjoyed the finale.   I tend to watch finales if I even watched a show a little.    I am aware of BBT and watch it a lot when nothing else is on since it  is on almost constantly.  
 

Anyway.  My major takeaways is that YS will likely go on my “good” list of finales.   Maybe not the top of the list but it will certainly be on the list.   It hit all the notes it needed to.   Yes I would have probably liked to see more if Missy’s journey but we ultimately know what road Missy goes down and it is kinda depressing.     This is ultimately Sheldon’s show so having him arrive at Cal Tech was a good place to end the show.     There is going to be at least one spinoff so who knows what that show will say about any of the Coopers.   
 

I liked the funeral scenes and Meemaw and Georgie both giving funny tributes.   
 

The show did what it needed to do and I have no real complaints.   

Edited May 17 by Chaos Theory

[proserpina65]

The first part of the two part finale was incredible.  I spent almost as much time crying as Wayne did.  It was emotional and complex, showing us flashes of the people these characters would become.

The second part was much weaker.  There was way too much of Jim Parsons and Mayim Bialik and not nearly enough of Young Sheldon's characters.  Although I was fine with not having more of religious fanatic Mary.

12 hours ago, anna0852 said:

We did not see older Coopers at the end.

I'd much rather have seen them than so much of Sheldon and Amy.

I going to risk my mental health and watch both episodes again this weekend.  Maybe the second one will improve upon re-watching.

12 hours ago, Spartan Girl said:

Am I the only one that was glad Missy told off Pastor Jeff twice in a single hour? Sanctimonious jerk had it coming to him for a long time.

I loved that.  Shut up, Jeff, indeed.

11 hours ago, Chit Chat said:

She's upset (and rightfully so), but she lashed out at everybody when they were trying to help her. 

I found it incredibly realistic.

[ahpny]

15 hours ago, chitowngirl said:

I think they stuck the landing….

Indeed, and with not even a little hop. Because the prequal had built in constraints (i.e., it had to end in a place already set by TBBT), I’d imagine concluding this series well was complicated. There was less freedom to go in different directions. Yet the show still ended up getting there in a way that was curiously both expected and surprising. It ended at Cal Tech, as expected, but in a surprisingly poignant way, and while still being true to all the characters, and with bonus points for being relatable and realistic. That’s a lot of boxes to tick, but tick them all they did. 

The scene with adult Sheldon and Amy brought me back to the TBBT scene where Amy performs a psychological experiment on Sheldon (supermario brothers theme music, spaghetti with little hot dogs, strawberry quick…) to advance his feelings for her. She tells him exactly what she is going to do before she does anything. But despite his professed doubts, Amy’s experiment works perfectly. Returning to the present, Amy connects Sheldon’s hocky aversion to Sheldon’s regrets about not being closer to his father while Sheldon had the chance. This is in a way a run of a similar experiment, or at least well-intended psychological manipulation. Again, Sheldon recognizes what Amy is doing, but it works anyway. As it should. And of course, Sheldon is as different from his son as Sheldon was from his father, but they supported and loved each other nevertheless.

Edited May 17 by ahpny

[Artsda]

I didn't expect to cry through the first 30 mins.  Wow they made that heartbreaking. I lost my dad a few years ago and it just was hard to not remember. They did a good job of the siblings all having different reactions.  

I liked seeing older Sheldon back in the house and tells the story of Mary selling the house.  Would have been more linking to George though if Sheldon's son was playing football not hockey. 

Sheldon arriving at California alone where he was meant to be was fitting end. 

[Chit Chat]

8 minutes ago, proserpina65 said:

I found it incredibly realistic.

Agreed, but that's why I was hoping they would've found some way to help Missy rather than close the show leaving her in such turmoil.  She's going to be sad and angry for a very long time, but it would've been nice to see her connect with somebody (a counselor, perhaps) in order to come to terms with his death.

Poor Mary.  She's got the added burden of worrying about how she's going to pay the bills, etc.  I wish they hadn't focused on her demand for Sheldon & Missy to get baptized.  I get why she was worried about it, as grief takes you in all different directions emotionally, but it was a waste of time.  Again, so many other loose ends to tie up.  Opportunity wasted.  😒

[Dimity]

33 minutes ago, luna1122again said:

Oh, no. That would be SO depressing, that Missy wound up with Billy, who is sweet but dim-witted to an extreme. Billy is no George Cooper, and Missy deserved far better. 

So much agreement.  I love Billy and if we're going to talk about Missy and Sheldon having a hard time going forward I think it's fair to say this is going to be true for Billy as well.  It was touching the way he mentioned that his own father was never coming back - I think he said he had moved to New Jersey? - anyway Billy is not the kind of husband I would ever want for Missy and I am glad the show didn't seem to be setting this up as a possibility.

[proserpina65]

10 hours ago, WescottF1 said:

The vanity card hit me so hard. I'm just glad I got to tell my dad I loved him one more time before he left us. Damn.

Yeah, my family was fortunate, I guess, that my dad's death, while somewhat unexpected, wasn't sudden.  We were able to be at the hospital with him and could tell him how much we loved him.  That was hard enough.  I cannot imagine how much harder it would've been to not have had those moments.

Sheldon going through multiple alternate scenarios for that last morning was heartbreaking.  It's too bad he couldn't express it better to Missy because I think, even as angry as she was, she'd have understood him wanting to change that moment when they last saw their father alive.

2 hours ago, appositival said:

Youth pastor Rob, we hardly knew you. A victim of the short season, I guess.

I assumed he took the job offer and moved away.  I didn't expect to see him again anyway.

54 minutes ago, Chit Chat said:

Again, I think they spent too much time on adult Sheldon & Amy.  All she did was fuss at him about going to their son's game (which he needed to do), but that got old quickly.  I'd rather have seen more time spent on the YS characters.  It took too much time for grown Sheldon to see the correlation between his regrets about his dad and what he should do for his own son.  Seriously?  Grown Sheldon is still that dense?  I wish I would've liked the second episode, but I didn't.  It just didn't work for me.

I agree with this, especially about Sheldon still being so clueless 10 years or more after the end of TBBT.  It's like he learned nothing up to that point.

I didn't hate the second episode, but other than individual moments here and there, it simply didn't work for me.  I don't buy the notion of Young Sheldon basically being Sheldon's memoir because it covered a lot of things about which Sheldon wouldn't have had the slightest idea.

51 minutes ago, Dimity said:

I also liked that they did not turn the entire run of Young Sheldon into Sheldon writing his memoir and looking back.  That's been done before and I was a little afraid that that was where they might have gone here.  Thankfully they didn't.

I actually thought that's what they did.  Obviously something I'll have to pay more attention to in my rewatch.

 

[Dimity]

47 minutes ago, proserpina65 said:

I actually thought that's what they did.

I'll have to rewatch as well but my feeling was that two parallel stories were taking place, present day Sheldon reminiscing about the loss of his father while writing his memoir and then the 1990s Cooper family dealing with the immediate aftermath of George's death.

[BitterApple]

8 hours ago, proserpina65 said:

 

I didn't hate the second episode, but other than individual moments here and there, it simply didn't work for me.  

 

I was reading comments on Reddit and someone had a good suggestion that if the show hadn't been so crunched in terms of scheduling, it might've been best to have Funeral as a stand-alone episode and then Memoir as a one-hour finale the next week. It would've given the audience time to process and recuperate. In terms of the finale, there would've more opportunity to flesh out Missy's, Mary's and MeeMaw's endings, and allow their characters to come full circle, as opposed to just Sheldon's. I also think the moments of levity would've hit much better if we all weren't still sobbing from George's service. 

It didn't occur to me until this morning, but we didn't get a real good-bye between Sheldon and his family. There was the brief exchange with Missy in the kitchen, but nothing with Mary, MeeMaw and Georgie. I don't think Sheldon and Georgie even shared any dialogue in Memoir unless I'm not remembering correctly. I think it would've been nice to have that scene and then end with Sheldon arriving at CalTech. 

Edited May 17 by BitterApple

[OlderThanDirt]

So many good comments here. It feels like a community discussion among friends; or a wake.  Just a couple things I'd like to add:

All the actors did such a wonderful job in the final season and that means the writers wrapped it with love for the characters.  Missy is still my favorite and I believe she understands Sheldon better than anyone. You get to know a lot about a sibling when you share a room. The actress was so good even in the pilot, so from the beginning. 

I've long wished that English had different words for apology and sympathy. "I'm sorry" is too easily considered an apology when we mean to express sympathy or compassion. 

[rollice]

12 hours ago, voiceover said:

 

Would just like to add here: many on this thread are feeling this last hour especially hard, because we’re thinking of the fathers we lost.  Sure wish I could fly through time & space and form a circle with all of you, so we could squeeze hands, weep together, and smile.

Such a lovely thought.  My dad passed away just after the lockdown in 2020 (not from Covid) during the wee hours of morning.  He was the best dad.

[rollice]

12 hours ago, BitterApple said:

Amen. I lost my father and grandmother within three weeks of each other, and this was on top of spending a year caring for my mother after she was in a serious car accident. My aunt got huffy with me when I declined to do a Bible reading at my grandmother's funeral. Let me tell you, there's nothing like being guilt tripped when you can barely function. I'll join you on that hill. 

 

 

My deep condolences to you.  And losing your father and grandmother within 3 weeks of each other, that's rough.

I was also a family caregiver for my mom. 

you went through a lot.   I hope one day your aunt will realize she was wrong.   It may never happen, but I support you on that hill!  

[displayname]

The acting was just wonderful all around.