A Party Invitation, Football Grapes and an Earth Chicken

"A Party Invitation, Football Grapes and an Earth Chicken" is the ninth episode of the third season of the American sitcom Young Sheldon. It aired on December 5, 2019.
==Summary==
Mary gets Pastor Jeff involved when Sheldon isn't invited to Billy's birthday party. Also, George has "male-bonding time" with Dr. Sturgis.
==Extended Plot==
The Coopers have gotten mail and Mary sifts through the whole bunch. There's a “Star Trek” issue for Sheldon, jury call duty for George, and an invitation to Billy Sparks’ birthday party for Missy. Mary can't find Sheldon's and wonders if it got lost in the mail. She makes a call to the Sparks house. Brenda lets her know that Sheldon has not been invited. Mary is pissed.
Meemaw drops Sheldon off at Dr. Sturgis’ lecture. This time she doesn't enter the lecture hall to accompany him at his desk in order to avoid an awkward interaction with John, but they meet at the hallway anyways. Seeing her not enter the class, he wonders if she's avoiding him. Meemaw says no and he's relieved. Later, after the lecture, Meemaw comes to pick Sheldon up. John wants to catch up with her over coffee, but she keeps stalling on dates. John realizes that she's not interested. 
Mary goes to meet Brenda to know why wasn't Sheldon invited. As it turns out, Brenda doesn't want her already bullied son to also be known for hanging out with the local weirdo kid that is Sheldon. Mary calls her unneighbourly and storms off. She gets home and reveals it all to  George. As they're discussing Georgie suddenly comes in and starts to watch the TV. Mary finds it disrespectful, but to Georgie he's only got one place to watch TV and his parents can easily talk elsewhere. Though he's sent back to his room, Georgie points out that getting a TV of his own would sort out the whole issue. 
Getting back to the Sparks, George doesn't exactly blame them as, first, Sheldon is not a social butterfly. Secondly, they get to decide who's to be invited to their house and no one can do a thing about it. Mary gets an idea. That Sunday, twenty minutes before the Sunday mass, she approaches Pastor Jeff and suggests a topic for his sermon – the importance of being neighborly. As the oddly relatable sermon progresses, Brenda correctly guesses who could be behind it. Mary's efforts don't go in vain as later Brenda, herself, walks up to the Coopers and hands Mary an invitation card for Sheldon.
George and Georgie are watching football. Georgie doesn't understand why he's not allowed to buy a personal TV. As it turns out George is not allowed to get one according to Mary so Georgie wouldn't be allowed either. As their banter continues, George gets a call from John who wants to discuss some things over some male bonding time. He suggests going for a walk. George stalls in a similar way as Meemaw and John realizes that he's not interested either. Georgie figures out that his dad just dumped somebody.
Mary hands Sheldon his invitation card. Neither he nor Missy are interested in going to the party. Mary puts her foot down and declares that both have to go. George finds it funny that she basically forced Sheldon into this. However, Mary's intention is to improve Sheldon's social skills to prevent him from growing up to be a loner. This hits George hard as he recalls what he did with John. He immediately calls the guy and invites him to watch football together on Saturday. John tries stalling like George did earlier, but soon drops the act and graciously accepts the invitation out of joy.
Meanwhile, at the party Sheldon goes to watch Billy's earth chickens and behaves like Mr. Spock who has no idea about what eggs are or what species those chickens belong to. Billy joins him and is fascinated by Sheldon's alienistic ensemble. Soon Brenda comes in searching for Billy and finds him having fun with his chickens and Mr. Spock. She doesn't like that he's missing out on his own party and decides to speak to Mary.
After watching the game for a while John starts to discuss about his emotional dilemma with George. He reveals about his recent strained encounter with Meemaw and how he's beginning to feel that not only did he lose a romantic partner but also lost a friend. He wonders if she's been struggling with loneliness just like him. George feels bad while breaking it to him that Meemaw has moved on and is seeing someone else. John is hurt.
At the party Mary stands amused as she watches Missy gulp down glasses of Kool-Aid. Soon Brenda comes to her and starts complaining about how Sheldon is distracting Billy away from his own party. Mary agrees to take her son home, but she can't help to worry about his stunted social growth and interactions and how she just wants him to be like everyone else. Brenda relates to this as Billy's not the most popular boy either. She agrees to let them play as they're having fun anyways. Suddenly, Sheldon runs across the place shouting that his Spock outfit has been compromised making Brenda rethink her decision.
Meemaw spots John's bicycle from her place. She goes over there to say hi. She sees the grapes and guesses that he brought those over. John asks George if her joining them for the football rerun would be awkward. He says yes but John asks her anyways. Meemaw joins them happily.
The next day Mary hands a card to the twins that Billy has written to them. Sheldon wonders if it's another party invitation. Mary is sure that it's a “Thank you” note. Sheldon hates that now he's got to write a “Welcome” note in return. Missy opens the envelope and starts to read. Billy thanks them for turning up at his party and mentions that he had fun playing with Mr. Spock and watching Missy throw up Kool-Aid behind the bushes. He continues that his mom threw up too, but it was from the wine that she had. Mary realizes that he's gone deeper into Brenda's drinking issues and snatches the card from Missy before she gets to read it to the end.
==Credits==
=== Main ===
* Iain Armitage as Sheldon Cooper
* Zoe Perry as Mary Cooper
* Lance Barber as George Cooper Sr.
* Montana Jordan as George Cooper Jr.
* Raegan Revord as Missy Cooper
* Jim Parsons as the voice of Sheldon Cooper
* Annie Potts as Meemaw
* Matt Hobby as Pastor Jeff Difford
=== Recurring ===
* Wallace Shawn as Dr. John Sturgis
* Melissa Peterman as Brenda Sparks
* Wyatt McClure as Billy Sparks
==Gallery==
File:A Party Invitation, Football Grapes and an Earth Chicken 01.jpg
File:A Party Invitation, Football Grapes and an Earth Chicken 02.jpg
File:A Party Invitation, Football Grapes and an Earth Chicken 03.jpg
File:A Party Invitation, Football Grapes and an Earth Chicken 04.jpg
File:A Party Invitation, Football Grapes and an Earth Chicken 05.jpg
File:A Party Invitation, Football Grapes and an Earth Chicken 06.jpg
File:A Party Invitation, Football Grapes and an Earth Chicken 07.jpg
File:A Party Invitation, Football Grapes and an Earth Chicken 08.jpg
File:A Party Invitation, Football Grapes and an Earth Chicken 09.jpg
File:A Party Invitation, Football Grapes and an Earth Chicken 10.jpg
File:A Party Invitation, Football Grapes and an Earth Chicken 11.jpg
File:A Party Invitation, Football Grapes and an Earth Chicken 12.jpg
File:A Party Invitation, Football Grapes and an Earth Chicken 13.jpg
File:A Party Invitation, Football Grapes and an Earth Chicken 14.jpg
File:A Party Invitation, Football Grapes and an Earth Chicken 15.jpg
File:A Party Invitation, Football Grapes and an Earth Chicken 16.jpg
File:A Party Invitation, Football Grapes and an Earth Chicken 17.jpg
File:A Party Invitation, Football Grapes and an Earth Chicken 18.jpg
File:A Party Invitation, Football Grapes and an Earth Chicken 19.jpg
File:A Party Invitation, Football Grapes and an Earth Chicken 20.jpg
File:A Party Invitation, Football Grapes and an Earth Chicken 21.jpg
File:A Party Invitation, Football Grapes and an Earth Chicken 22.jpg
File:A Party Invitation, Football Grapes and an Earth Chicken 23.jpg
File:A Party Invitation, Football Grapes and an Earth Chicken 24.jpg
File:A Party Invitation, Football Grapes and an Earth Chicken 25.jpg
==References==
Category:Episodes
Category:Young Sheldon Episodes
Category:Birthdays
Category:Sci-Fi