\n<\/p>\n
The \u201cYoung Sheldon\u201d team delayed the inevitable once, by holding the characters of Sheldon and his twin sister, Missy (Raegan Revord), at the same age for two seasons. But that trick could not be repeated indefinitely.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe premise of the show is that an exceptional young kid is thrust into a world where everyone is older than him,\u201d Holland said. \u201cBut as soon as Ian aged and Sheldon aged, he didn\u2019t look that out of place anymore, even in college.\u201d<\/p>\n
So when Holland and Molaro sat down with Lorre to plot out Season 7 after the writers\u2019 strike was settled, they decided their prequel had reached its natural conclusion. The tight post-strike production timeline meant they had to inform the cast about the decision on a group Zoom call, which surprised some of them. (In a Variety interview<\/a>, Annie Potts, who plays Sheldon\u2019s \u201cMeemaw,\u201d described her initial reaction as \u201cshocked\u201d and \u201cambushed.\u201d) But whatever mixed feelings the cast may have had about the series coming to an end, it doesn\u2019t show in their performances in the final two episodes, which strike the usual \u201cYoung Sheldon\u201d balance of gentle good humor and soft sentimental pangs.<\/p>\n In the penultimate episode, \u201cFuneral\u201d (which aired Thursday night right before the finale), the Cooper family struggles with saying goodbye to George, with Sheldon revisiting his last moments with his father and thinking of all of things he could have said to him but didn\u2019t.<\/p>\n The episode ends on a poignant note, as Sheldon\u2019s devoutly religious mother, Mary (Zoe Perry), rages at God at the memorial service before Meemaw steps in to lighten the mood. (She jokes that no one is sadder about George dying than the Lone Star beer company.) Sheldon, still lost in his own head, imagines the heartfelt eulogy he is too numb to give.<\/p>\n The finale, \u201cMemoir,\u201d tells a more typical \u201cYoung Sheldon\u201d story, about Mary trying to get Sheldon baptized before he leaves for college. In framing scenes, the older Sheldon and Amy argue about his parenting of their own children, underlining one of the show\u2019s main themes: that Sheldon\u2019s parents, while dealing with all the usual messes of everyday life, did the best they could to take care of him. The episode closes with a shot of the 14-year-old Sheldon at Caltech, connecting everything back to \u201cThe Big Bang Theory\u201d; the adult Sheldon is working as a Caltech physicist when that series begins.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n