Young Sheldon season 4, episode 4 recap – “Bible Camp and a Chariot of Love”

By Jonathon Wilson
Published: December 4, 2020 (Last updated: last month)
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Young Sheldon season 4, episode 4 recap - "Bible Camp and a Chariot of Love"
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Summary

“Bible Camp and a Chariot of Love” gets into it with his intellectual rival this week, and Georgie makes a rather ill-advised purchase.

This recap of Young Sheldon season 4, episode 4, “Bible Camp and a Chariot of Love”, contains spoilers. You can check out our thoughts on the previous episode by clicking these words.


The problem with Young Sheldon — admittedly it’s not a major one — is that all the lessons it’s ostensibly teaching Sheldon Cooper don’t really take, as anyone who has watched The Big Bang Theory will know. I’d probably be quite interested to see a grown-up version of this character that was written after the events of this show, but we probably shouldn’t read too much into it. Anyway, in “Bible Camp and a Chariot of Love”, an episode very much evenly divided down the middle, Sheldon learns to pick his battles and Georgie learns to pick his vehicles.

Sheldon’s plot involves Paige, his intellectual rival, who is forced to attend Bible Camp as punishment for smoking — she’s still rebelling after her parents’ divorce — while Sheldon is present because Stamp Camp at the local library has been cancelled due to lack of interest. Sheldon spends the first half of the episode trying to diagnose Paige’s psychological issues while joining her in quietly judging everyone in attendance and the idea of organized religion in general, but once they begin competing about who can name the twelve apostles in order of appearance, Sheldon typically begins to obsess over the rivalry and stays up all night studying.

The problem in Young Sheldon season 4, episode 4, though, is that when Sheldon attempts to show off his knowledge she isn’t remotely interested in competing with him, which he can’t compute, meaning he has lost instantly. In his desperation he continues trying to wind Paige up, which doesn’t work since her parents’ splitting up is, by her own admission, worse than anything he can say to her. He eventually goes too far and she lays him out.

There’s some underlying stuff here about how the breakdown of a family unit can emotionally affect children, and a bit about the role of religion is pious families, but they’re confined to a fairly pat example of rebellion in Paige and a very brief bedroom conversation between Sheldon and Missy about the former’s lack of belief in God and his justifications for it, which are the obvious evidence-based scientific ones. Georgie’s subplot, in which he buys a camper van that George makes him live in since it reflects badly on Mary’s work with the church, is much funnier in my opinion, despite having little to say. Montana Jordan remains the best thing about this show.


What did you think of Young Sheldon season 4, episode 4, “Bible Camp and a Chariot of Love”? Comment below. 

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