"Teen Angst and a Smart-Boy Walk of Shame" is an episode of Young Sheldon that first aired March 9, 2023.
Georgie drives Mandy (Emily Osment) and the baby home from the hospital. The baby was born in the previous episode and was named Constance, after Connie. Now in this episode the baby's nicknamed "CeeCee".
With everything that's going on with the family, Missy's feeling forgotten. She's in her room reading an issue of Sassy magazine with loud music on. Missy is angry at her father for not picking her up from school yesterday, and annoyed that Mandy is too busy to be a big-sister figure to Missy anymore.
Meanwhile, Sheldon is feeling ashamed by the failure of his database. Dr. Sturgis (Wallace Shawn) tries to cheer Sheldon up with a song but that doesn't work. Sheldon decides that he needs to fail at some other things to figure out how to cope with failure.
First, Sheldon asks his father to teach him how to throw a football, surely he'll fail at that given his general aversion to sports. But with his knowledge of aerodynamics, his first attempt to throw a football actually impresses George Sr.
Next, Sheldon thinks he will fail at soothing the new baby, since CeeCee won't stop crying in her own mother's arms, but he actually calms the baby down by singing "Soft Kitty". As soon as Sheldon gives CeeCee back to Mandy, the baby resumes crying, and Mandy struggles to remember the song lyrics.
Lastly, Sheldon tries to fail at understanding sarcasm, so he talks to Dr. Linkletter (Ed Begley Jr.). Sheldon is indeed a complete failure at sarcasm: in their conversation, Sheldon can never tell whether Linkletter is being sarcastic or not.
Both Georgie and Mandy are feeling overwhelmed by parenting. Mandy can't get CeeCee to fall asleep no matter what she does,note and so eventually, Georgie looks after CeeCee by himself for a few hours so that Mandy can sleep. Georgie and Mandy then talk about whether they are really fit to be parents, and Georgie confesses to Mandy about how much he freaked out when she was in labor.
Connie can't get CeeCee to stop crying either, so Mary swoops in and successfully soothes the baby. Mary now calls herself "Nana" with respect to the baby, since Connie's still "Meemaw". Mary is staying at Connie's house, partly to help with the baby, and partly to be away from George Sr. after the incident with Brenda and Pastor Rob in the hospital.
George and Mary later talk to and argue with each other, and they get each other to admit their feelings for their respective crushes. Mary then decides that she will be staying with Connie for a while, which George is okay with.
At school during an exam, Missy talks to Billy (Wyatt McClure) about the baby and about Brenda being at the hospital, and so the teacher accuses Missy of cheating. Missy then talks back (and mentions her teacher's affair), which prompts the school to call Mary and George to come pick up Missy early.
Mary and George are both furious at Missy, and Missy responds by pointing out their parental favoritism towards Sheldon. Later, when Missy sees Mary hugging Sheldon for being sad about the failure of his database, she decides to run away.
The Tag shows the Coopers responding to failure in different ways: Georgie and Mandy overcome it (by successfully getting CeeCee to sleep), Mary avoids it (by staying with Connie), George Sr. drowns it with alcohol, and Sheldon tries to talk to Missy about it, but Missy runs away... in George's truck.
Tropes
- It's All About Me: Sheldon still thinks everyone cares about the failure of his database. Sturgis has to explain to the boy genius that most people just don't care.
- Mocking Music: After chastising Missy in the car, George turns on the radio as the song "We Are Family" by Sister Sledge comes on. George very quickly turns the radio off.
- Never My Fault: Sheldon would rather say the people failed him by not wanting to subscribe to his database than blame himself for failing to promote the database prior to launch.
- Previously on…: We're reminded that Brenda and George Sr. were very chummy at the hospital and that George was annoyed that Pastor Rob showed up. Also, we're reminded that everyone forgot to pick Billy and Missy up from school.
- The Runaway: Missy runs away again, this time because she feels the family is passing her over Sheldon and CeeCee. She also takes George's truck.
- Sarcasm-Blind: Sheldon, knowing that he has trouble understanding sarcasm, asks Dr. Linkletter to use sarcasm on him. Right off the bat, the boy genius failed to notice that Linkletter was being sarcastic before even being asked to be sarcastic. In response to almost everything Linkletter says, Sheldon asks "Is that sarcasm?" However, Linkletter is blind to Sheldon's sincerity when Sheldon calls Linkletter "an expert in humiliation and defeat."
- Shout-Out to Fred Astaire: Sturgis tries to cheer Sheldon up by telling the young man about Astaire singing the song "Pick yourself up" in Swing Time.
- Springtime for Hitler: Sheldon tries throwing a football and rocking CeeCee to sleep, hoping that he will fail and learn how to cope with failure, but he doesn't fail at either of them.
- Truth in Television: George Sr. casually mentions that footballs (for American football) used to be made out of pig bladders, prompting Sheldon to drop the football in disgust. This is actually true, though the term "pigskin" remains somewhat of a mystery. Now footballs for professional games are required to be made of cowhide leather. Synthetic leather and waterproof rubber are also acceptable materials in other contexts.
