Say What You Will, but This Young Sheldon Character Is Surprisingly Nice

Summary

• Young Sheldon has a lot of despicable characters.
• One previously hated character came out nice in the last episode.
• His personality has developed considerably in recent seasons.

Although Young Sheldon is more nuanced than The Big Bang Theory, and the spin-off's characters have more complex personalities and substance, the prequel has both likable characters and characters everyone hates. Remarkably, Shelly Cooper, the title character, is on the cusp of being universally disliked by fans of YS. But there are explicitly annoying people on the show.

Pastor Jeff, for example, is hated by everyone for his sleazy behavior and arrogant attitude. Meemaw's current boyfriend Dale, a.k.a. Missy's former baseball coach and Georgie's former boss, is also generally disliked by Young Sheldon viewers, who find his brusqueness and short temper extremely off-putting.

But in the last episode of Season 7, Dale showed a more attractive side that revealed more depth to his personality.

An Old Wise Man

Since his appearance on Young Sheldon in Season 3, Dale Ballard has been portrayed as not the brightest of the bunch. His despicable treatment of Georgie after the store robbery and his inadequate response to Meemaw's unwillingness to marry enraged fans and made Dale one of the sitcom's most unpleasant characters. Of course, no one could have expected him to turn out as wise and supportive as he did in Episode 8 of Season 7.

Since Connie was placed under house arrest after shutting down her illegal gambling room and getting in trouble with the police, she became extremely depressed, thinking she had no purpose in life.

'My life is in shambles, and I'm too old to start over,' Meemaw told Dale.

And in this seemingly dire situation, the previously dim-witted Dale found the perfect words to cheer her up – sort of…

'Oh, come on! You are not too old. Now, listen! You're a smart, vibrant, perky woman,' he said to Connie. 'And I'll tell you another thing. Your life is not over. You are writing a new chapter in the book of You, a book where the perky heroine rises up and… I don't know. Do you want to get drunk?'

Character Development

Sure, it would be fair to say that over the course of Young Sheldon, Dale has become a more prominent character. And with that comes more development. Also, as one of the main characters, Dale simply has to have a more complex and sympathetic personality, and that's exactly what the writers have given him.

Anyway, at this point we cannot deny that Dale has a much more interesting personality than we once thought. And hopefully he'll let it shine even more in the next episodes of Season 7. Episode 9 will premiere on April 25.