Young Sheldon's Nobel Prize Viewing Party Episode Had Fans In Their Feelings
"Young Sheldon" may be one of the most popular sitcoms on television, but it has an undeniable undercurrent of sadness lacking in other 20-minute comedies. Perhaps most obviously, there's the specter of George Cooper Sr.'s (Lance Barber) impending death. Beyond that life-changing event, plenty of other "Young Sheldon" moments pull at one's heartstrings, but perhaps none incites so much ugly crying as the Season 2 finale, "A Swedish Science Thing and the Equation for Toast."
In the episode, Sheldon gleefully awaits the announcement of the 1990 Nobel Prize recipients. He's completely flabbergasted as to why the event isn't as popular as, say, the Super Bowl and invites his classmates over to listen to the announcement on the radio at 5:00 AM. No one — not even Tam — shows, and a tearful Sheldon listens to the results alone in the garage.
For fans, the episode is especially emotional. "This whole ep makes me ugly cry," wrote u/tookie-clothesp1n on Reddit, with other users chiming in to concur. "No lie that one hurt," added u/BigGEIMonster. "Damn, I felt his pain."
The episode is a bittersweet Big Bang Theory reunion
Watching poor little Sheldon Cooper cry in his garage is no one's idea of a good time, even if the source of his tears — quarks beating out Sheldon's beloved neutrinos for the physics prize — is beyond a layperson's understanding. Adult Sheldon's (Jim Parsons) voiceover doesn't help matters. "A primary feature of quarks is that they're always bonded together, but in that moment, I felt like a neutrino: destined to be alone, forever." Oof. @BabyBoomerBoyya tweeted, "I cried at the ending."
Here's where the feels really come in. As Sheldon wallows in his loneliness, we see a brief montage of the future "Big Bang Theory" stars alone in their rooms as children. Leonard Hofstadter, asthma inhaler in tow, is also listening to the Nobel announcement, Amy Farrah Fowler is reading "Little House on the Prairie," and so on and so forth. The Supremes' "Someday We'll Be Together" plays in the background. Adult Sheldon chimes in to narrate, "Thankfully, I was wrong."
The 2019 episode synced up with "The Big Bang Theory" series finale, in which Sheldon finally wins the Nobel Prize, making the full arc of the character all the more poignant. "It was such a good companion episode to finale of TBBT when Sheldon and Amy win their Nobel," wrote u/Nice-Penalty-8881 on Reddit. On Twitter, @mots7ersona added, "The creators of Big Bang Theory and Young Sheldon made me cry today. On one end we cried for young Sheldon for being the neutrino, on the other, happy tears for Sheldon and Amy on winning the Nobel Prize."