Episode Recap
When George and Sheldon return home, Missy is blaring music in her room. Sheldon warns his father it's a sign of teen angst. George approaches Missy's bedroom door and calls for her to let him in. "You forgot me," Missy tells her father. George explains that Mandy went into labor and he had to go to the hospital. Missy is stunned that Mandy had the baby and no one informed her. Missy waited for an hour at school and had to walk home. George argues that there was a lot happening, emphasizing that she's fine, the baby's fine, and everything worked out. After Sheldon mentions his database failure, George sends him to his room. Missy then asks where her mother is. George tells her Mary is staying at Meemaw's tonight, claiming that it's to help with the baby. When Missy asks if the baby is home, George admits not until tomorrow. When Missy asks again why her mother isn’t home, George says he's had a long day. Missy replies that she has too. "That makes three of us," Sheldon chimes in from his room. Missy closes her door and puts her music back on.
As Georgie drives Mandy and the baby home from the hospital, a nervous Georgie asks Mandy if the baby is breathing. She is, Mandy confirms. After Mandy asks Georgie to slow down, he points out he’s only going 15 mph. “And I said slow down.”, she reiterates. Georgie wonders if Mandy checked the baby’s I.D. bracelet, so they know they got the right baby. Mandy insists she knows her baby on sight, but she checks the bracelet anyway just to be sure.
At the Cooper house that morning, George is surprised to see Missy up early. She says she gave herself extra time incase she needed to walk to school. George says he’s driving her to school today, but he points out plenty of kids walk. “Like Billy?”, Missy wonders, explaining Brenda Sparks didn’t show up either. “It was sad, but I can laugh about it now.”, Missy insists. “Enough.”, George tells her. When Missy asks with a sigh whether her mother is coming home tonight, George admits he doesn’t know. As Missy tries to mention something Billy said about George and Brenda, her dad tells her to drop it. “Fine.”, Missy says before revealing she packed her dad a lunch since Mary’s not there. George reads the note in the packed lunch, "Try not forgetting your daughter today. XO, Missy". “That's my name, in case you forgot.”, Missy adds.
At the university, Adult Sheldon says it felt like all eyes were on him, judging him for his failure. It was the closest he ever came to a walk of shame. When a jolly Dr. Sturgis says good morning to Sheldon, Sheldon wonders what’s good about it, claiming he’s a laughingstock. John doesn’t think anybody cares. Sheldon reminds him the database failed, but John argues failure only means something if you quit. “Well, get ready for some meaning. I quit.”, Sheldon tells him. John asks Sheldon if he’s familiar with the Fred Astaire song "Pick Yourself Up"? No. “From the beloved musical Swing Time?” No. “Then prepare to be uplifted.”, John says before launching into the song.
Over at Meemaw’s, Georgie sits near Mandy as she attempts to comfort a crying CeeCee. Georgie wonders if it’s gas, saying Mandy should burp her. Mandy points out she already did. As Georgie lectures her on the proper burping technique, Mandy suggests the “expert” have a go. She hands CeeCee over to Georgie, who tries to settle her without any success. In the kitchen, Mary remarks that she remembers those days. Meemaw, too, saying Mary was a crier. After Mary and Meemaw head into the living room to try help, Meemaw has no luck, so Mary takes CeeCee and says “Nana’s here.” Georgie wonders who picked “Nana”. Mary explains she did. “Why aren’t you another Meemaw?”, Georgie asks. “‘cause I’m the only Meemaw”, Connie insists. After Mary manages to settle CeeCee with some “Nana magic”, Mandy says she’s going to go get some sleep and may never come back.
In John’s office, Sheldon is sitting at his desk and inspecting code on the computer. Sheldon can’t understand their failure. The code is perfect, it should have worked. John says the problem isn’t that it didn’t work, it’s that nobody wanted to use it. “So, you're saying we didn't fail, the public failed us.”, Sheldon reasons. “No, we failed.”, John admits. Sheldon tells John he’s also failed at cheering him up. John mentions a new idea he had for plasma containment, suggests working on that instead to take their mind off the database. Sheldon fears they might fail at that, too. “Then we'll have two failures back to back.”, Sheldon worries,” I'll have to leave the country or grow a mustache, or leave the country until I can grow a mustache.” John says they won’t know unless they try. Sheldon’s counterpoint: if we don’t try, we’ll never fail. “Oh, my little pal, do I have to sing again?”, John asks. Sheldon points out he towers over John. John starts up singing “Pick Yourself Up” again.
Up in guest room at Meemaw’s house, Missy meets the still-crying CeeCee for the first time, saying she’s so cute. Missy asks how long she’s been crying. “Her whole life”, Mandy jokes. Mandy asks if Missy wants to hold her, but Missy admits she’s too scared to do that. Missy apologizes for not being present when Mandy's baby was born. Mandy hadn’t even noticed, so Missy explains how she was forgotten at school and had to walk home. Mandy is preoccupied with the baby, whose diaper now needs changing. As Missy tries to talk about the tension between her mom and her dad, Mandy focuses on her baby. When Missy presses and asks for help, Mandy snaps and says she can’t help Missy right now as she hasn’t slept in days. Mandy says she feels like someone just drove a truck through her body. Upset by Mandy’s outburst, Missy says sorry and quickly leaves Mandy alone.
In the Coopers’ kitchen, George curses as he pulls a tray of burnt food from the oven. Sheldon recognises them as pigs in blankets, but says they’re burnt. Sheldon points out his mother doesn’t cook them for that long, prompting a sarcastic “thanks” from George. George is surprised when Sheldon asks him to teach him how to throw a football. Sheldon explains he’s trying to get more comfortable with failure. George wonders why he thinks he’s gonna fail. “The word ‘ball’”, Sheldon says. George warns Sheldon learning to throw isn't something you get right on the first try. It takes practice. Sheldon asks if that practice involves setbacks and frustration. After George confirms it does, Sheldon says that’s perfect.
On the front lawn, George tries to teach Sheldon how to throw a football. When George describes the ball as more of a “missile” than a typical bouncy ball, Sheldon tells his father the term he’s looking for is "prolate spheroid". George then asks Sheldon what he thinks is the most efficient way to get the ball to fly. Sheldon answers “gyroscopic torque”, but simplifies it to “spiral” when he sees his father’s confusion. Despite his initial reluctance to handle a ball traditionally made from a pig’s bladder, Sheldon astonishes George by throwing a powerful and accurate pass. Feeling unexpectedly athletic, Sheldon decides to end the lesson and announces he’s off to "hit the showers".
Back at Meemaw’s house, Mary has managed to settle the baby down and is now sharing a bed with her mother. After Meemaw asks what’s wrong with Mary’s bed, Mary replies “My husband’s in it.” Meemaw thinks Mary is avoiding going home and facing George, but Mary insists she's just staying to help with the baby. Mary argues she just needs her space right now. After Meemaw says she knows the feeling, Mary jokingly offers to rock her to sleep.
During a test in Ms. Wilkins’ class, Missy whispers to Billy, asking if he found out where his mom was the other day. Billy explains Brenda was at the hospital for “Missy’s brother’s baby”. When Missy expresses surprise, Billy wonders if she didn’t know her brother had a baby. “It’s a girl.”, he helpfully adds. Darlene warns them not to talk during the test. Missy tells Billy she must have been the only person not at the hospital. When Darlene sternly tells Missy to keep her eyes on her own paper, Missy insists she’s not cheating. After Darlene says that’s not what it looks like, Missy snaps back “I guess you would know what cheating looks like. Ask your husband.”
When George and Mary pick up a suspended Missy from school in the pick-up truck, Mary asks her daughter what’s gotten into her. George tells Missy to answer her mother. Missy claims the only time her parents talk to each other is to yell at her. When Mary denies that, Missy asks where she’s been sleeping the past few nights. George tells Missy she should not talk to them like this, and Mary adds that she shouldn’t talk to her teacher like that either. Missy argues Sheldon says obnoxious things all the time, but he gets away with it because he’s “special”. Mary insists this is not about Sheldon. “For once.”, Missy scoffs. George tells Missy to get over it - they forgot about her once. Missy feels like they’ve been forgetting about her her whole life, with all the attention on Sheldon, and now on Georgie for having a baby. Missy says she might as well be invisible. “Not today you’re not”, Mary tells her. When George turns the radio on, "We Are Family" starts playing - the last song they would want to hear right now.
Over at Meemaw's, Mandy opens the door to Sheldon, who greets her, "Hello, niblingo. Little nibbling." When Mandy asks what he wants, Sheldon explains he'd like to try calming her baby down. He's attempting to build a tolerance for setbacks and frustration. "So you want to use my child for some kind of experiment?" Mandy asks. After Sheldon says yes, Mandy eagerly agrees and hands CeeCee over. Inside, as Sheldon sits down and cradles CeeCee in his arms, he sings "Soft Kitty." Mandy is stunned when CeeCee stops crying. Sheldon admits he's not happy about it either. As he hands CeeCee back to Mandy and walks away, CeeCee starts crying again..
When Sheldon goes to Dr. Linkletter’s office to get his help, Linkletter sarcastically says he’ll drop everything so he can be of assistance. Sheldon, missing the sarcasm, explains that he is trying to embrace failure and he realized that social subtleties like sarcasm can sometimes evade him. After Dr. Linkletter points out that his previous comment was sarcasm, Sheldon asks if he’s sure. Yes. Linkletter then asks Sheldon if this is about his database, mentioning that he was working on a database that he thought would be more successful than Sheldon’s. Sheldon wonders whether that’s sarcasm too. No, Linkletter makes clear. Sheldon figures he will never be comfortable with failure. Linkletter’s point is he was experiencing a similar emotion, and there's no shortcut through grief. Sheldon thanks him for his wise words, adding it’s a good thing he came to Linkletter as he’s clearly an expert on humiliation and defeat. Sarcasm, Linkletter wonders? After Sheldon says no, Linkletter tells him to get out.
When George, Mary and Missy arrive home, George sends his daughter to her bedroom. As they head into the kitchen, Mary asks George if he can believe this. After George says maybe this wouldn’t have happened if Mary was around, she can’t believe he’s trying to blame it on her. George points out he’s not the one sleeping across the street - he’s there with their kids. Mary says if he wants to get into it, let’s get into it. Mary asks what’s going on with him and Brenda. Nothing, George declares. Mary says it doesn’t seem that way. George turns it around, asking Mary if she doesn’t light up every time Pastor Rob’s around. “Maybe I do”, Mary admits, but she insists nothing ever happened. She wouldn’t do that. “What, you saying I would?”, George says with a scoff. “You tell me”, Mary says. “I wouldn’t.”, George insists. “But you like being around her.”, Mary says. The pair of them sigh as they sit down at the kitchen table. “What happens now?”, Mary wonders. “I don’t know.”, George tells her.
When Georgie goes to his bedroom in the garage, he is surprised to find Mandy asleep on his bed. After Mandy wakes up, she explains Meemaw is looking after CeeCee, so she came to lie down for a few minutes… a couple of hours ago. After Georgie says he’ll go check on CeeCee unless she wants to, Mandy admits she doesn’t know what she wants. “My daughter hates me. What difference does it make if I'm there or not?”, Mandy wonders. Georgie insists that’s not true, but Mandy says all CeeCee does is cry around her. Even Sheldon’s better at comforting the baby than her. Georgie tells Mandy she’s just a little overwhelmed, it’s normal. When Mandy wonders why Georgie isn’t overwhelmed, he says they can’t both be overwhelmed at the same time. He admits he was so scared when he got to the hospital that he got back in his car and drove away. “When I was in labor?!”, a shocked Mandy asks. Georgie says they’re sharing freak-outs, and he did come back after all. Mandy wonders what type of parents they are. “The new kind, the well-meaning, dumb kind.”, Georgie says. “We’re gonna get better, right?”, Mandy asks. “We ain't got no choice.”, Georgie replies. Georgie leaves Mandy to sleep, saying he’ll go check on CeeCee.
When Sheldon finds Mary packing a suitcase in her bedroom, he asks what’s going on. Mary explains she’ll be staying at Meemaw’s for a few more days. Sheldon, visibly upset, responds with a quiet "Okay." Concerned, Mary asks if he's alright. Sheldon admits he's not. After Mary asks what’s wrong, Sheldon explains his database is the first time he’s failed like this before, and it frightens him. Mary comforts him, saying, “Oh... sweetie, I'm sorry. Sometimes, no matter how much we want things to work out, they just don't.” As Mary hugs Sheldon, Missy passes by and sees another instance of her mother giving more loving attention to her brother. Missy goes to her bedroom and starts packing clothes into her backpack.
Adult Sheldon reflects, "Dealing with failure is a tricky business. You can face it head-on and try to overcome it." Georgie and Mandy put CeeCee to bed. "You can avoid it." Mary, in bed, thanks Meemaw for her hospitality. "You can try to drown it out." George drinks a beer while watching TV. "Or you can try to talk to someone about it." Sheldon knocks on the wall, awaiting Missy's response over the walkie-talkies. "And some people choose to run." Missy drives off in her father's pickup truck.
