He doesn’t have to tell every heartbreaking story… He can choose to omit some things, or put a positive spin on some things. This is a story that Sheldon, who now has kids of his own, is telling, and maybe he doesn’t understand, and he’s looking back at his parents in a different light. We’ve also talked internally a lot about how these are stories that an adult Sheldon is telling. I think it’s playful banter, but there’s definitely another layer there. I think you can read into it any way you want. How much should we read into that “something”? Is it just playful banter, or is there something the audience doesn’t know? TVLINE | After Brenda denies giving George a heart attack in the Season 5 premiere, George implies that she gave him “ something” that night.

But we also know we have at least another season coming, so it’s our chance to blow things up and allow some rebuilding to happen.

They temporarily swept them under the rug, but those issues were still festering in the background, and they blow up here. I personally think they were in a somewhat better place because they didn’t deal with any of their issues. It was fun to write them in a better place. TVLINE | There was a period of time, early in Season 6, where it seemed like maybe, just maybe, George and Mary had turned a corner - that their respective feelings for Brenda and Rob would actually bring them closer together…. And you’re right, this is a turning point. We want to protect these characters and we want to make sure we’re not doing anything that betrays them or makes people turn on them, but this was a storyline that has been simmering in the background for a long time, and we wanted to honor the reality of that. Not hesitancy, but there’s always a concern. There’s no way for Mary to unlearn that George is Brenda’s “mystery man.” Was there any hesitancy about moving forward? TVLINE | This feels like a real turning point for the show. That episode has been done a thousand times, and this show is such an ensemble, so we were talking about “What would make this the most exciting episode that’s not just about the birth of the baby?” It just seemed like a great way to have these stories all crash together. We didn’t want to do the traditional “you’re in the delivery room and she’s panting” episode. We knew we had these fuses burning for a long time, and we were talking about the episode where the baby is born. Why was now the time to blow up their marriage?

TVLINE | You’ve been slow-burning George and Mary’s issues, and their respective relationships with Brenda and Rob, for the better part of two seasons. Below, Young Sheldon executive producer Steve Holland unpacks the dramatic episode and the state of the Coopers’ union.

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