Young Sheldon Finally Reveals Why George and Mary Never Divorced
Young Sheldon is building to George’s affair, but he and Mary will never divorce. While that seems odd, they had a good reason for staying together.
Young Sheldon is barreling toward its seventh season, and there’s drama in the air on multiple fronts. Georgie and Mandy just had their baby, and he’s been a difficult baby to take care of. On top of that, Sheldon’s database project completely flopped, and now he’s away in Germany; George and Mary’s marriage is quickly falling apart, Missy’s difficult teenage phase is kicking off with grand proportions and a tornado just struck town. There’s a lot going on, and it all happened at the same time, which left everyone floundering.
Missy has had an especially hard time. Being Sheldon’s twin is no easy task, and her parents have catered to him for most of their lives. When she was left at school and returned to find her parents not on speaking terms, it was just too much. So, at the end of “Teen Angst and a Smart-Boy Walk of Shame,” she stole George’s truck and ran away. “A Stolen Truck and Going on the Lam” showed George and Mary finding her, and in the process, the series explained why they never got a divorce.
Updated on November 3, 2023 by Katie Doll: George’s affair is inevitable according to The Big Bang Theory canon, but Young Sheldon has yet to hit this tumultuous point in his marriage with Mary. For now, they’re dealing with other issues that are forcing them apart. But after the Season 6 finale, George and Mary may find other reasons to stay together, despite George’s heartbreaking betrayal.
George and Mary Have a Doomed Relationship
Anyone familiar with The Big Bang Theory knows that George was never around because he died when Sheldon was 14 years old. They also know that George had an affair just before he died. While neither of those tragic George stories will happen in Season 6, they are definitely on the horizon. At this point, both George and Mary know that they each have feelings for other people. The problem is that they haven’t done anything about their future. They’re just kind of stuck.
Timeline of George and Mary’s Rocky Relationship
After what went down at the hospital, Mary needed time to process. So, she went to stay at Meemaw’s house under the guise of taking care of the new baby. One might think that they would have had a conversation about divorce, marriage counseling, moving back in or something — but nothing of the sort occurred. It took Missy running away to get them talking to each other.
Why George and Mary Won’t Get a Divorce
As the name indicates, the main plot in “A Stolen Truck and Going on the Lam” showed Missy stealing George’s truck and running away with Paige. After the police found them, George and Mary went to pick them up with Paige’s mother, who was recently divorced. The hours-long drive was pretty awkward because the conversation was filled with everyone calling out each other’s parenting flaws. At one point, Paige’s mother actually suggested that they try marriage counseling to see if divorce would be a good option for them. George and Mary both balked at the idea.
Even though George and Mary weren’t on good terms, they hadn’t lost control of their faculties. They knew that Paige’s parents’ divorce was why Paige has been in a bad place. She’s been a far cry from the well-behaved, child protégé that was friends with Sheldon. She’s become a rebellious party girl.
Seeing the damage that Paige’s parents’ divorce had on her, George and Mary knew that divorce wasn’t an option for them. It would just be too much for Sheldon to handle. Additionally, they are going to need to spend more time keeping an eye on Missy going forward. As cliché as it sounds, they’re going to stay together for the kids.
How Season 7 Might Deal With George and Mary’s Decision
On top of Missy’s problematic phase, an even worse natural disaster has attacked the Cooper family: a tornado hits the family as Mary and Sheldon are away in Germany in the dramatic Season 6 finale. The storyline is adapted from one of Sheldon’s stories in the first season of The Big Bang Theory, in which he claims Mary left Sheldon in Germany to go help the family rebuild their home and lives. The Season 6 finale hasn’t confirmed if the series will follow this continuity, considering Sheldon is only 13 years old. Whatever her choice is, it’ll have a grave effect on George and Mary’s marriage.
A disaster threatening the lives of the family might be the wake-up call George and Mary need to sort out their marriage, or at least set decent terms for the children’s sake. Missy at least takes the incident as a chance to apologize for her past behavior. In The Big Bang Theory, Sheldon says that George passes away when Sheldon’s only 14, and he’s coming up at that age. If Season 7 is the last of Young Sheldon, or at least for George, then the show will probably spend time reflecting on the last year of George and Mary’s marriage. And a near-death situation like a tornado is the perfect scenario for them to realize that family comes first. But for Mary, it would mean choosing between Sheldon or George, a decision that would change Sheldon’s perception of his mother forever.