Georgie & Mandy just traumatized Young Sheldon fans with George’s horrifying return 

Now it’s passed, we can be honest – George’s return to Georgie & Mandy had a lot riding on it. While some bits landed, one huge surprise was absolutely traumatizing.

Annoyingly for Young Sheldon fans, George’s fate was set up long before the prequel started airing. Adult Sheldon often told stories of his dad dying when he was a teenager, meaning creators had to honor what they’d already set up in The Big Bang Theory.

This didn’t affect things until Young Sheldon Season 7, with George dying of a heart attack offscreen in Episode 12. After an emotional funeral in Episode 13, George has been a spiritual guide in Georgie & Mandy’s First Marriage from the confines of his grave.

We’ve never actually seen him physically… until now. Ironically, Episode 12 of the Georgie & Mandy spinoff saw George return from the grave – and for a split-second, it was the most traumatizing experience possible.

George returns as a dug-up zombie in Georgie & Mandy

Titled ‘Typhoid Georgie,’ the episode follows the eldest Cooper son getting sick with a fever. Jim sends him home from work, but Georgie remembers how stoically his dad never took a sick day off. In his dreams, George appears, initially making fun of him for being off for something so trivial.

Then, the worst happens. Just as Georgie is hugging his dad to make up for lost time, he pulls away to find his dad has turned into a zombie. “Get back to work,” George tells him in an evilly warped voice.

CBS

It’s a jump scare that divided its creators just as much as it has fans. Steve Holland told TV Line, “There was a lot of talk about that, and people were upset. I think even reading it, in a good way, they were like, ‘No, I don’t want to see him like that.’

“But we thought it would be a nice sort of surprise and a shock for the audience, and it was. I think Lance also loved actually getting the chance to be in full makeup.”

Whether it was indeed a “nice surprise” is questionable, with the brief scene becoming a frankly traumatizing watch. It’s also arguably skewed how we remember the Cooper patriarch, particularly given how rocky Georgie’s relationship with his dad could be.

This thankfully wasn’t the note it ended on, though. A second scene shows a more emotional “moment” between the two, with Georgie hoping he’s around long enough to watch his daughter grow up. With Connor’s help, he realizes if George looked after himself more, he might have been around for longer.

CBS

George doesn’t specifically tell Georgie he’s proud of him, but that would have been different if it was solely up to actor Lance Barber. He previously told Dexerto, “I think he would have told Georgie that he was proud of him. He knew that he was leaving him with a heavy burden, and he knew that he was the kind of man who could handle that kind of burden.

“He would be proud of him for that, after all of the harumphing that he did about his dumb teenage son, Georgie. I like to think that would have been his response.”

Check out our Georgie & Mandy’s First Marriage review and our interview with George Cooper’s Lance Barber. Also, find out how it copied Young Sheldon’s most upsetting moment, and how the spinoff addresses its most controversial change.