Spoiler Alert! This article contains details of Young Sheldon season 7's final episodes.
Highlights
- George Cooper's death happens off-screen during Young Sheldon's final season, but there were hints on how it would happen throughout the series.
- Young Sheldon creators chose to wait until the end of the final season to showcase George Cooper's death to bring hope and closure to the show's family dynamic.
- Sheldon's reaction to hearing about his father's heart attack is a big moment for the character.
Young Sheldon nearly ended George Cooper's life during the show's first season, when Sheldon was nine years old, but chose to extend his father's life. Sheldon and his father, George Cooper, had a unique relationship on the show. George didn't always understand Sheldon's brilliant mind, but he loved and protected Sheldon throughout his childhood, making George Cooper's death even more heartbreaking.
Fans of The Big Bang Theory series already knew Sheldon's father passed away when he was 14, but not much detail was revealed in The Big Bang Theory on exactly happened to George Cooper. So, when Young Sheldon was greenlit, the show's creators got the chance to answer one of TBBT's biggest questions... "How did Sheldon's father die?"
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In the following, we take a look at how the lead up to George Cooper's tragedy began during the very first episodes of Young Sheldon. We also discuss why Young Sheldon creators chose to wait till the very end of the series to play out George's death and how Iain Armitage's Young Sheldon character reacts to his father's death and why that's important to Sheldon Cooper's overall character.
George Cooper's Death Wasn't Sheldon's Father's First Heart Attack In Young Sheldon
George Cooper had a brush with death long before his demise in the final season of Young Sheldon. In season 1 of Young Sheldon, there were signs that George’s health would become a major issue for the Cooper family. In season 1, episode 3, “Poker, Faith and Eggs,” George experienced chest pains that saw Mary take him to the emergency room. While in the hospital, Meemaw took the time to babysit the kids, but eventually, they all found their way to the hospital.
Sheldon ended up witnessing as the doctors worked on George in his hospital room, and it was the first time the young genius realized he might lose his father. Luckily, everything was OK by the end of that episode, with George being diagnosed as having had a mini-heart attack. But this was not George's only heart-related ailment during the series. Young Sheldon also teased George’s demise through heart failure during season 5 during his brief emotional affair with their neighbor, Brenda Sparks.
In the season 5 premiere, Brenda makes an indecent proposal to George, which leads to his second mini-heart attack. Despite George living a relatively healthy life since then, he had a heart attack off-screen during season 7, which led to his untimely death.
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Why Young Sheldon Waited Until The Very End For George Cooper's Exit
Young Sheldon teased George Cooper's death a few times throughout the series, but they waited until the end of the final season to do it. During its run, Young Sheldon became a popular family-friendly show, and the team behind this had that in mind when they were figuring out when to bring in the tragic event of George Cooper's death. However, the creators also didn't want George's death to be the last image on viewers' minds when the show ended after seven years.
The show's executive producer, Steve Holland, told Deadline that the timing of George's death had been discussed in the earlier seasons, and they knew they wanted to do it sometime in the final episodes of their last season.
"Chuck Lore said the show has been a positive, loving family show. Let's not leave the audience wallowing in grief."
Holland added that Lore wanted to showcase George's death in a way that would show the family moving on and putting itself back together.
"End on a little more of a moment of hope." The Young Sheldon producer also said he wanted to give George a win where he got his dream job before his tragic demise. "I think it makes the last moment even more surprising and meaningful."
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How Sheldon Reacted To His Father's Tragic Death In Young Sheldon
In season 7, episode 12, "A New Home and a Traditional Texas Torture" of Young Sheldon, George Cooper dies and leaves his family in the most shocking way possible. In the morning, when he leaves the house to go to his coaching job, George Cooper tells his family as he normally does, 'See you all later,' and basically nobody pays any attention to him. The seemingly random moment is the last time Sheldon and the rest of his family see George Cooper.
Later in the evening, Sheldon, Meemaw, Georgie, Missy, and Mary get ready for their family photo shoot. In their white outfits, they get a knock on the door. George's friends break the shocking news that George had a heart attack at school and didn't make it. While everyone else begins breaking down in tears, Sheldon has a look of disbelief spread across his face and just sits there.
"It was purposely a banal, nothing moment in Sheldon's life that he will struggle with."
Chuck Lore explained that Sheldon's reaction after hearing the news was one of regret at how he should have done things better with his father.
"Because he learns it's the last time he'll ever see his father, he will live to regret that moment in his life where he'll say, 'I could have done that better.'"
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