The following contains spoilers for Young Sheldon Season 6, Episode 18, "Little Green Men and a Fella's Marriage Proposal," which debuted April 28 on CBS.
Young Sheldon is barreling toward its Season 6 finale, and there's a major, weather disaster looming. In the meantime, the back half of Season 6 has shown that the Cooper family is building to a major disaster of its own. Episode 14, "A Launch Party and a Whole Human Being" showed the birth of Mandy and Georgie's baby. It also showed George and Mary confirming the others' near-affair and the failure of Sheldon's database business endeavor.
After that episode, it looked like things were going to blow up, but Young Sheldon started to subvert fan expectations. Besides Missy stealing her father's truck and trying to run away, everyone has kind of started to make up and move on. At this point, the series is even skipping over George's affair. It turns out that's all part of Young Sheldon's continued efforts to humanize its most controversial character: Brenda Sparks.
Brenda Sparks' Character Development Has Been Drastic
Brenda Sparks is an original character on Young Sheldon, but she has experienced some drastic character development since the first season. When she was introduced, she was the next-door curmudgeon, who didn't like anyone. She was bossy to her husband, Herschel, and she was always rude to Mary. There was even an episode where she refused to invite Sheldon to her son, Billy's, birthday party because Sheldon was too weird.
Since then, Young Sheldon has slowly started to humanize Brenda, which started when her husband left her. Mary did her best to be neighborly, and George started to help with repairs around the house. In fact, Brenda and Mary slowly became friends. However, there was a problem with George: he and Brenda started to become more than friends. They began flirting with each other, and given The Big Bang Theory canon, everyone expected them to have an awkward affair. That made Brenda's character controversial.
How Young Sheldon Is Humanizing Brenda Sparks
The Young Sheldon version of George is considerably more likable than Sheldon's description of him on TBBT. Because of that, no one wanted him to have an affair, and Brenda's presence made things worse. She started off unlikable and was slowly humanized to the point where she was going to corrupt George and pull him into an affair. The whole thing was kind of controversial, but luckily, it looks like all the trepidation was for naught. Young Sheldon just skipped over George's affair. Of course, it could theoretically be addressed in Season 7, but it looks like Brenda's character is in the clear.
In the time since she and George's feelings were exposed, she took the time to give Mary a heartfelt apology. In "Little Green Men and a Fella's Marriage Proposal," Brenda continued to show her humanity. A cool girl at school asked Billy on a date, so Brenda started to investigate -- and it was as she expected. By talking to Missy, Brenda found out that Billy was being set up. Luckily, Missy stepped in and told Billy the truth. It was a minor thing, but the episode showed Brenda's motherly side. More importantly, it also continued to show that Young Sheldon's efforts to humanize her haven't been with George's affair as an endgame.
Young Sheldon airs Thursdays at 8:00 p.m. on CBS and streams on Paramount+.