Potato Salad, a Broomstick, and Dad's Whiskey

"Potato Salad, a Broomstick, and Dad's Whiskey" is the fourteenth episode of the first season of the American sitcom Young Sheldon. The episode aired on March 1, 2018.
==Summary==
When Mary takes a job as church secretary, she finds herself becoming Pastor Jeff's marriage counselor. Also, Sheldon and Missy spend their first afternoon home alone.https://www.spoilertv.com/2018/01/young-sheldon-episode-114-potato-salad.html
==Extended Plot==
 
At the recreation room of the First Baptist Church of Medford, a church potluck is being held. Naturally, the Cooper family attends. This includes a Christian bluegrass band playing such standards as "This Little Light of Mine," which Missy seems to be getting a big kick out of as she sways to the music. Pastor Jeff spot her and tries to shame her out of doing so, but she resumes dancing as soon as he walks away. Mary is delighted that her potato salad is a huge hit, as opposed to the one made by Pam Staples. Just then the pastor approaches the family and introduces his Latino wife Selena who only speaks Spanish. Most of the family is surprised at how young and attractive she is. When Mary asks Serena about her time in Medford, she admits she's never been so bored in her life, but he thinks she's saying she enjoyed it. When she says she's going to walk away to the women's room to smoke a cigarette, the pastor only believes she has to relieve herself there. Sheldon realizes none of the pastor's translations are true. Pastor Jeff takes Mary aside and tells her that one of his secretaries (Elizabeth Sohinki) was found to have a drug addiction and was sent off to rehab, and therefore offers her a full-time job as her replacement.
Mary tells George about the job offer. George wonders who is going to take care of Sheldon and Missy, and knowing that Georgie won't do it, she claims she'll fix their breakfast for them before school and have them stay at her mother's house. But when she makes the same request to her mother, she refuses, preferring to enjoy life. She suggests hiring a babysitter, but Mary claims it will cost her money, thus defeating the purpose of earning it. She also suggests letting Georgie take care of them, but Mary doesn't trust them when she supervising all three kids. With the other two suggestions out of the question, she tells her daughter she should let the two of them stay home all by themselves, convinced that Sheldon is responsible enough for the both of them. Disappointed, she returns home preparing to turn down the job offer. She spots George reviewing a videotape of a football game, and tells him she has to turn down the job, and goes to the kitchen to make dinner. Seeing how depressed she is, George suggests that she take the job regardless of her children, surprisingly with the same philosophy as his mother-in-law. 
At dinner time, Mary is about to announce her new job. Before she can do so, Missy guesses that she might be pregnant, or that the family is getting a puppy. She resumes her announcement about the job at the church which she'll start on Monday. The twins are concerned about being left alone, but she reassures them she'll make breakfast and prepare lunch for them, and that once they arrive home, they should be fine. Upon hearing her plan, Georgie scoffs at the idea.
On Monday morning, Mary gives the twins instructions for their first time home alone. She tells them where the house keys are, as well as afterschool snacks in the refrigerator, the emergency contact phone numbers, first aid kit, and if necessary a fire extinguisher, which Missy is quite eager to use. However she warns her daughter not to use it unless there's a fire, and not to start one just so she can use it. Mary and George kiss each other goodbye before going to work, and Georgie walks out of his bedroom still groggy, accusing his mother of not waking him up, despite the fact that she did so 40 minutes earlier. When she arrives at the church, Mary finds that the church receptionist Peg is smoking like a chimney as usual, and the nicotine gum she's chewing is ineffective. When she meets with Pastor Jeff, she boasts of how she already worked on the church budget, and claims they'll be able to buy a new computer soon. Unfortunately, much of the day involves the pastor discussing his marital problems with his wife. 
After school, the twins are doing their homework, and both inquire with each other over the type of homework they have. Just then, they hear a noise and see shadows outside, not knowing it's Meemaw, who decided to check up on them before she goes bowling. Fearing that they might be facing an intruder, Sheldon and Missy grab the only weapon they have, the fire extinguisher that Mary told them to use only in the event of a fire. Immediately after she opens the door, Missy sprays her with the extinguisher, while both children scream in fear. Eventually, they realize their mistake, and Meemaw asks for a towel to wipe the foam off of her. While she dries off, the kids ask why she was sneaking around the house. She admits that she wasn't entirely confident they could be on their own, although she was the one who told their mother that they could. Before Meemaw leaves she offers to keep this incident a secret, but Missy wants to tell everyone because she finds it so funny. From there she tells her kids she's going bowling, and bluntly takes off. As soon as Meemaw leaves, Sheldon decided to grab a snack. Noticing that a broom is out, he decides to put it away, but as soon as he touches the wooden handle, he gets a splinter in his finger! Sheldon runs to Missy, who at first underestimates the severity of his injury, until she sees just how deep it is.
Pastor Jeff continues to tell Mary about her problems with Selena. Besides the language barrier, the pastor admits that Pastor Jeff has mentioned that he gave her a credit card so she can buy items for the house, and she instead used it to get an expensive massage chair from the Sharper Image catalog. 
The twins try to find a pair of tweezers in the first aid kit, but it's not there. Throughout the ordeal, Missy taunts him with an alternate plan to use a needle instead, but he refuses every time. She goes to the bathroom to search for it in Mary's make-up bag, remembering that she uses them to pluck her eyebrows with them, and occasionally a mustache. Unfortunately, her search there is just as unsuccessful. From there, she recommends going into her and George's bedroom. When she gets to Mary's dresser draw, she only finds a bible and a flashlight. Just then the phone rings, sending them into another panic. The call turns out to be from George, who wants to check on them from Medford High to see if they're okay. Missy gives him a cover story claiming that she's watching TV and Sheldon is reading quietly. After she gets off the phone, they're both relieved that it's over. Just then they receive another phone call, which Missy insists that Sheldon answers. It turns out to be Mary, who also checks on them, and he's barely able to fabricate a reasonable lie, but still manages to make her believe they're not having any trouble. After the phone call, Pastor Jeff returns to tell Mary about Selena. He claims that she is the sort of woman who "can get a man do bad things," and she's a gold digger since she also spends Pastor Jeff's money freely due to the fact that he implied that he was wealthy. Because of this, he swiped the credit card out of her purse. They both agree that he committed a sin by doing so, and agree to pray separately.
Still trying to help remove Sheldon's splinter, Missy offers the needle, and he still refuses. She tells him that Mary uses fire to sterilize needles and tweezers, but he reminds them that they're not allowed to use fire. When Sheldon tells Missy that alcohol is often used to sterilize wounds, she grabs one of her fathers bottles of whiskey, and pours half of the bottle into a glass. After dipping his finger into it, Missy tries to pry it out with the needle. Still fearful of another injury, he pulls his finger away, but Missy tries to reassure him nothing will go wrong, pointing out her frequent wins playing the game of Operation. That's when she decided to use the tweezers from that very game to remove his splinter. During the scene where she searched for this game, older Sheldon narrates the corporate status and features of the game in 1989 (it was actually sold to the public in 1965). She dips the tweezers from the game into the whiskey, uses them on his finger and successfully removes the splinter.
As soon as Mary returns home, she is puzzled to find the stench of whiskey in the kitchen, and shocked to find Sheldon's finger wrapped in a bandage while the twins sit on the couch watching an episode of "ALF." Missy is just about to tell her about the incident with Connie, when the episode fades to black and the credits flash on the screen.
==Credits==
*Guest starring:
** Ryan Phuong as Tam Nguyen
** Matt Hobby as Pastor Jeff
** Zuleyka Silver as Selena
** Nancy Linehan Charles as Peg
*Story: Chuck Lorre, Steven Molaro & Tara Hernandez
==Notes==
*Title Reference: To be entered.
*This episode was watched by xx.x million people with a rating of xx.xx (adults 18–49).
*Total viewers including DVR users xx.x million.
*Young Sheldon was ranked #x for the week ending xx March 2017.
*This episode aired in Canada in March 2017.
==Critics==
To be entered.
==Trivia==
* Missy used a copy of the game Operation, by Milton-Bradley, to remove the splinter from Sheldon's finger. The game was originally created by a University of Illinois industrial design student named John Spinello in 1962, who sold the rights to game designer Marvin Glass who passed it along to Milton Bradley Company in 1965. Operation; Game History (Hasbro.com)
==Quotes==
To be entered.
==References==
Category:Season 1 (Young Sheldon)
Category:Young Sheldon Episodes