Georgie & Mandy’s First Marriage offers perfect continuity with Young Sheldon, which makes sense since the former sitcom is timed immediately after the events in the latter’s finale. With The Big Bang Theory, which takes place decades after Young Sheldon, certain things and characters have been explained, while others leave gaping plot holes. For example, older Sheldon Cooper (Jim Parsons) never mentions Dr. John Sturgis (Wallace John), even though he was clearly a huge part of his life growing up. Another character who is weirdly omitted is Pastor Jeff Difford (Matt Hobby), especially when it comes to the older Mary Cooper (Laurie Metcalf). But a recent episode of Georgie & Mandy might explain why.
Mary Might Have Cut Ties With Pastor Jeff
In the aftermath of George Sr.’s (Lance Barber) death, Mary (Zoe Perry) seemed to have changed. She had become hardened, more cynical. Her baby son Sheldon (Iain Armitage) had flown the coop to university. Georgie (Montana Jordan) moved out and started his own family. Missy (Raegan Revord) had become a rebellious teen that Mary simply couldn’t handle. Never truly dealing with her grief, Mary retreated into herself.
While she still worked at the church, Mary’s entire demeanor changed. She was angry and bitter most of the time and constantly fighting with Georgie’s mother-in-law Audrey (Rachel Bay Jones), both exchanging passive-aggressive remarks. Mary was likely feeling very alone, yet she failed to rely on the one person she always could. Season 1, Episode 16, “Baby Fight,” shows just how tense the relationship between Mary and Pastor Jeff had become.
In the episode, Georgie and Mandy (Emily Osment) fight about having more kids. Georgie wants more, but Mandy wants to focus on her career and isn’t sure when or even if she wants more kids. Angry about the situation, Georgie heads to the church to donate some old baby clothes.
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Before he arrives, Mary is there presenting Pastor Jeff with a series of checks he needs to sign, marking another time both characters appear on the spin-off. Jeff complains about the sheer amount of checks he has to sign over and over again, and Mary flippantly notes that if he would just let her sign them for him, he wouldn’t have to bother with doing it himself. In saying no, Jeff implies he doesn’t trust her, which clearly makes Mary angry.
Once Georgie arrives, Mary presses him about what’s wrong. Pastor Jeff thinks he might be having bedroom problems and offers his marriage counseling services. Mary scoffs at the idea of Georgie talking to Pastor Jeff of all people about issues in the bedroom. The implication is that this is a subject Pastor Jeff knows nothing about. Even if the old Mary had thought this, she never would have dared comment about the man she respected and leaned on so much.
Mary tells Georgie that she and George (Lance Barber) had similar struggles on the subject of having more kids. Pastor Jeff interjects once again to remind Mary that he counseled them through those challenges. “Sure you did,” she replies, once again rolling her eyes.
While Mary might not have lost her faith in God, she might be taking out her anger on Pastor Jeff, the closest connection she has to her faith. She can’t be angry with God, but she can be angry with him.
Why Pastor Jeff Isn’t In ‘The Big Bang Theory’
Thus, while the obvious reason that Pastor Jeff was never mentioned in The Big Bang Theory is that the character hadn’t yet been invented, there’s a logical way to work this into the story as well. Mary started to view Pastor Jeff as less of an inspiration for her faith as time went on. While he was dedicated to the church, he had a wife and young child as well. He may have lost patience in trying to get through to Mary, who was more stubborn than ever.
It appeared Mary might have even started to resent Pastor Jeff, using him as the scapegoat for her grief. She needed someone to blame for the horrible thing that happened to George and her family. She couldn’t very well blame God and turn her back on him. So, she did that with Pastor Jeff instead. He did, after all, turn his back on her when he discovered that Georgie was expecting a baby out of wedlock, effectively shunning her and her family from the church. Mary might have forgiven him for this, but she has clearly never forgotten the betrayal.
It appears that, based on their interactions in Georgie & Mandy’s First Marriage, Pastor Jeff has become nothing more than an annoying boss to Mary. In previous episodes, the two are seen bickering even more, likely reflective of their new day-to-day dynamic. When Pastor Jeff tries to mediate a fight between Mary and Audrey in his office in episode 10, “A House Divided,” he has to calm Mary down multiple times. He’s visibly distressed by the way she is speaking and the mean words she is using. It’s clearly unlike her and, based on the older Mary who appears in The Big Bang Theory, she only became more sharp-tongued.
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Through the passage of time, then, it’s likely that Mary and Jeff’s relationship becomes less and less friendly and more professional. It’s possible Pastor Jeff might even eventually move to another location with his wife and child, and lose touch with Mary entirely, given how their relationship soured. It’s also possible that Mary eventually starts going to another church, perhaps having too many painful memories of her old one.
Whatever the case, the dynamic between Mary and Pastor Jeff shown in Georgie & Mandy’s First Marriage, particularly in episode 16, might explain why Mary doesn’t mention Pastor Jeff at all in The Big Bang Theory. This could also explain why he isn’t present to marry Sheldon and Amy (Mayim Bialak) in that show’s finale. (Though having Mark Hamill easily explains that one, too.)
The most important thing when it comes to Mary and her relationship with the church is that Mary never lost her faith, even if it became rooted in deep cynicism about life in general. Sadly, Pastor Jeff may have become the person Mary had to let go of so she could finally move on, the person she had to blame so as not to turn her back on God.
This story originally appeared on Movieweb
