"A Frankenstein's Monster and a Crazy Church Guy" is an episode of Young Sheldon that first aired March 14, 2024.
Sheldon's roommate Evan and his friend Joaquin are working on a computer program to trade stocks, hoping to use the money to attract girls. Sheldon joins in, wanting to use the money to buy expensive physics equipment, and quickly takes charge of the project. It ends up being a huge success, and the three of them get rich.
Later, Sheldon notices that the program is making foreign trades, even though none of them authorized it to do so. This is initially good news, but they soon fear that the program has become "Frankenstein's monster". Sheldon later adds a subroutine to reconcile general relativity and quantum mechanics, causing the stock-trading part to slow down. The three of them have no choice but to throw the computer out the window.
Meanwhile, Mary watches a televangelist talk about how donating to the church will reward people greatly, and decides to join his church. George talks to Pastor Jeff to try to convince her otherwise, and Jeff goes to the Cooper house to talk with Mary. She claims that the tax refund that arrived a day after she gave $50 to the televangelist was a sign from God. Jeff says that it was a coincidence, but Mary is not convinced.
Meanwhile, Missy goes to Billy's house to watch TV (since Mary was watching the televangelist), and finds out that Brenda is out of town visiting Billy's aunt. Missy then gets the idea to throw a party, and she wants to buy beer to drink there. She initially asks Georgie and Mandy to buy it, but they both say no. Missy and Billy then go to the convenience store, and try bribing an adult to buy beer, but no one will do it. A pair of teenage boys then try to bribe Billy, and Missy gets an idea.
While Missy and Billy are setting up for the party, Brenda calls, and Billy answers. He tells her about the party (but not the drinking), and Brenda tells him to put Missy on. Brenda then tells Missy that she is actually excited about this, fearing that Billy would remain a social outcast for life.
While praying at home, a bird poops in Mary's eye. Later that day, her car runs out of gas, she breaks her toe kicking the car in frustration, and a firework rocket from the party goes through the Coopers' window and hits Mary. She then decides to stop following the televangelist and go back to Pastor Jeff. The next morning, the Coopers are at church, but Missy is hungover. She throws up, and Connie detects the smell of alcohol.
Tropes:
- Appliance Defenestration: When they panic over how to stop the trading program, Sheldon, Evan and Joaquin agree there is only one option. Cut to the computer being thrown out the dorm window. Sheldon then notes that they could have just unplugged it, with Evan adding that they should've opened the window first.
- Bird-Poop Gag: A bird poops in Mary's eye during her streak of bad luck after leaving the church.
- The Chew Toy: Mary becomes this in the last part of the episode which is what convinces her to come back to Pastor Jeff's Church.
- Greedy Televangelist: Reverend Travis Lemon, who preaches to the TV audience that those who send him money will be rewarded tenfold. No one takes him seriously, but Mary is just desperate enough to fall for it.
- Rooting for the Empire: In-Universe. When Evan and Joaquin compare the trading program to Frankenstein's Monster, Sheldon sees it as a positive. As far as he's concerned, the real villain of the story were the angry villagers who wanted to stop the progress of science.
- Rump Roast: To cap off Mary's Humiliation Conga, a firework from Missy's party flies into the Coopers' window and hits her in the butt.
- Snail Mail: When Mary gets an IRS refund in the mail the day after she donated to Reverend Lemon and sees it as a sign, Pastor Jeff argues that the check was likely sent weeks ago, and concedes that, as much as he loves his country, the US postal system sucks. ("Pardon my French.")
- Vomit Discretion Shot: Happens to Missy at church as the result of having a hangover at the party. And what's more, she did it right in the collection plate.
- Wild Teen Party: Missy throws one at the Sparks' house.
