The Best Young Sheldon Episode According To IMDb Will Make You Cry

It’s always a nice surprise when a spin-off ends up really becoming its own thing, and “The Big Bang Theory” prequel series “Young Sheldon” grew tonally and narratively to do just that. The series was told using a frame narrative where the adult Sheldon (Jim Parsons) was looking back upon his young life as he wrote a memoir, and the story is a bit more sentimental as a result. Instead of the rapid-fire jokes of “The Big Bang Theory,” “Young Sheldon” is more of a dramedy and even did away with the infamous laugh track and/or studio audience from “Big Bang.” As young Sheldon Cooper (Iain Armitage) navigates the awkwardness of adolescence (while also being some flavor of neurodivergent), we get to know his family as well. There’s his athletic and business-savvy older brother George Jr., A.K.A. Georgie (Montana Jordan), his empathetic younger twin sister Missy (Raegan Revord), his overprotective mother Mary (Zoe Perry), and his football coach father, George Sr. (Lance Barber). 

Some of the rough edges around the characters as referenced in “The Big Bang Theory” were rubbed off, and even the difficult relationship between Sheldon and his father was given real depth. Barber’s George Sr. didn’t really understand his younger son, but he tried his best to be a good dad, and that’s part of what makes his death at the end of the series all the more tragic. In the ambitious penultimate episode, “Funeral,” Sheldon looks back on saying goodbye to his father, and it’s fantastic television. So fantastic, in fact, that it’s the best episode in the series (at least according to user reviews on IMDb). The second half of the finale, “Memoir,” which had Parsons appear in a cameo, ranked at number 3, but there’s just something special about “Funeral,” even if it will make you cry.

While funerals absolutely can be funny (“Death at a Funeral,” anyone?), the “Funeral” episode of “Young Sheldon” definitely isn’t aiming to rake in the laughs. Instead, the episode shows the Cooper family dealing with the very sudden loss of their patriarch when George Sr. dies of a heart attack shortly after getting a dream job as a college football coach. The funeral takes up a fair chunk of the episode and features plenty of heartfelt moments between the characters we’ve grown to know and love, which is kind of surprising for a series that ostensibly started off as a sitcom. Then again, one of the greatest sitcoms of all time, “M*A*S*H,” had an incredibly dark series finale, so maybe they were just pulling from the best.

Though the episode features Barber hiding in the funeral background in drag as a fun bit of a goof, it’s otherwise much more focused on showing us the full impact of George’s death on the family. Not only will it have serious implications for the “Young Sheldon” spin-off series, “Georgie & Mandy’s First Marriage,” which takes place just months after the end of “Young Sheldon,” but it provided the writers with a chance to really comment on Sheldon’s relationship with his dad. 

In “Funeral,” we not only see the Cooper family saying goodbye to George Sr., but we see Sheldon trying to process the loss. Unlike his family, who grieve openly, Sheldon turns inward, replaying his final moment with his father in his head over and over, going through different versions of what it could have looked like. Sheldon has always been a bit alienated from everyone on both “The Big Bang Theory” and “Young Sheldon” because he simply processes the world differently, and his family has a tough time with how he deals with his grief. His repeated daydreams about his last conversation with George Sr. are absolutely devastating because they make it clear that the father and son had a tough time communicating and understanding one another, but there was clearly love between them. 

Losing someone very suddenly can come with a lot of different feelings, and Sheldon’s response feels really natural and relatable. Though the character can be absolutely impenetrable on “The Big Bang Theory,” the best parts of “Young Sheldon” help the audience understand him a little bit better. It’s not likely that we’ll ever see Barber’s George Sr. again, even on potential spin-offs, so it’s a fitting goodbye for him, too.