TVLINE | You first toyed with Mary moving on and dating again early in Season 2. At what point did it occur to you guys that pairing Mary with Fred would be an interesting avenue to go down?
HOLLAND | Honestly, it was pretty late. It was when we were doing the scoreboard episode, and Fagenbacher is messing with them. There’s a scene at the end where Mary lays into him, and those actors [Zoe Perry and Matt Letscher] were so great together. It was a late addition at the end when she’s like, “You know, there might be a good man under all that scruff,” and he says, “I can shave!” We just thought, “What a great thing if he— it doesn’t even have to start romantic! But if he really wants to be a better person, and he goes to Mary and she’s helping him, how disruptive would that be for the whole family?” Obviously, Georgie will hate it, Mandy will hate it, it’s a big deal for Audrey… so it just seemed like a great wrench to throw in the mix, and no one would believe him. And as we were approaching the story, we always thought, “This is true. He’s not doing this to mess with Georgie. This is actually coming from a genuine place, but no one’s going to believe him because he’s been such a jerk for so many years.”
TVLINE | Montana, when we spoke earlier this season, you said it would be good for Mary to find someone who fills the hole in her heart left by George. Did you ever imagine that person might end up being Fagenbacher?
JORDAN | No, I didn’t. Now I’m taking back what I said! You know, it has really put George in a tough position. The love and respect that he has for his father will never leave his heart. He will probably never like another man that Mary brings around, but Georgie needs to realize that not only is this his first time losing someone this close, it’s Mary’s as well. And as we learned at the end of “Young Sheldon,” she has a lot of resentment toward George, so there are certain things that she’s battling with that Georgie might not understand.
TVLINE | Fred insists that he’s a changed man. From your perspective, should viewers trust him… or is Georgie right to be suspicious?
JORDAN | Oh, George is 100% right to believe that there’s something going on. You don’t go after somebody for so long like he’s been going after Georgie, and just all of a sudden go, “I’m going to start going to Bible study with his mother.” That’s just not how that works. But I’m excited to see how Season 3 goes — whether George is going to accept [this], or if he’s going to continue putting his foot down.
HOLLAND | I think Georgie is right to be suspicious. Because even if Fred is going into this because he does want to change, that doesn’t necessarily mean that it’s going to stick. Change is hard. Most people don’t end up changing. Most people default back to their base nature. I don’t know what’s going to happen — we haven’t started breaking next season yet — but I think Georgie is right to be suspicious, and I think Mary is right to believe that she has to be there for someone who wants to [change]. These are the best arguments we can come up with [in a scenario] where, actually, both sides have a really strong leg to stand on.
TVLINE | When Georgie storms out at the end and Fred sits back down, there’s this little smirk that washes over his face. I genuinely couldn’t tell whether that was meant to suggest Georgie is right — that Fred is happy to have successfully driven a wedge between mother and son — or whether he’s simply happy that Mary asked him out on a date…
HOLLAND | Exactly! It’s a great moment, and I think Matt Letscher played it terrifically. It walks that line where it can mean either of those things, and I think it’s good to to be left wondering which of those things is correct. It’s intentionally ambiguous.
TVLINE | How important do you think it is for Mary that Connie gives Fred her stamp of approval?
HOLLAND | Well, I mean, the fact that Connie approves it is one more reason why she’s not sure! But I think the truth is that anytime you can have Annie Potts in an episode, you should have Annie Potts in an episode! But also, for this one specifically, it was nice for Mary to have someone on her side… and surprisingly that the person is Meemaw. They’ve had such a strange, loving-but-antagonistic relationship, and Meemaw is the person saying, “I think this guy might actually be good for you.” Also, when we were breaking the story and talking about Fagenbacher, we were, like, “Meemaw would love this guy!” She wouldn’t like the fact that he treats Georgie bad — that she definitely wouldn’t like. But he’s a scoundrel, a little bit of a rogue, and he likes to get under people’s skin. These are all things that Meemaw likes!
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