Young Sheldon Season 7, Episode 12 Wasn't All Bad News Thanks To One Big Return

This article includes spoilers for Young Sheldon Season 7, Episode 12

"Young Sheldon" hit viewers with a major tragedy in Season 7, Episode 12's "A New Home and a Tradition Texas Torture" as George Sr. (Lance Barber) dies off-screen. The episode builds up to an exciting new life for the Coopers as George, Mary (Zoe Perry), and Missy (Raegan Revord) prepare to move to Houston. However, while viewers all knew this move would never come to pass (since George's death was an event established on "The Big Bang Theory"), Sheldon (Iain Armitage) is pretty distraught at the thought of his parents moving away. Needing a friendly ear to help him process this major change, he turns to a familiar face. 

Tam Nguyen, played by Ryan Phuong, is Sheldon's first real friend. The pair quickly bond when Sheldon starts Medford High School but Tam suddenly disappears in Season 4, shortly after Sheldon starts college, and "Young Sheldon" fans have been wondering what happened to Tam ever since.  

Tam and Sheldon finally reunite in Episode 12, putting an end to the great mystery of their rift. They meet for lunch in that high school library like old times — much to Mary's shock since Sheldon's not mentioned Tam for years. Tam's pretty confused about the meeting too since he's already graduated. Nevertheless, he tries to fill Sheldon in on his life, explaining that he plans to ask his girlfriend to marry him. But when Sheldon completely dominates the conversation as usual, he asks, "Are you at all interested in my life?" to which Sheldon admits he's not, seemingly putting their friendship on pause again. Along with providing a much-needed update on what happened to Tam, the scene also offers a bit of comedic relief during such an emotional episode.

Tam's appearance in Season 7, Episode 12 closes out his character journey on "Young Sheldon" quite nicely. However, the character also pops up in "The Tam Turbulence," which is the fourth episode of Season 12 of "The Big Bang Theory." And, as viewers may know from that brief appearance, Tam does end up marrying his girlfriend, Beth, and they have two children together.

However, this appears to be a bone of contention for adult Sheldon (Jim Parsons), who disowned Tam (Robert Wu) because of his relationship with Beth. According to Sheldon, Tam chose to stay in Texas with her rather than fulfilling his supposed promise to move to California and room with him at Caltech. Sheldon deems this act to be a complete betrayal and puts Tam on his "enemies list," which explains why the former friends went so many years without speaking.

"Young Sheldon" was well into its 2nd season when these scenes aired in 2018, and they seem to have been incorporated into "The Big Bang Theory" as a way to provide some continuity for Tam between both shows — and it's definitely nice to know where he ends up. Now, if only the franchise could have done the same for Sheldon's other friend Paige Swanson, as her ambiguous Season 6 return left "Young Sheldon" fans feeling uneasy.