'Young Sheldon' Episode 4 recap: How he discovered comic books

"A Therapist, a Comic Book, and a Breakfast Sausage" - Pictured: Sheldon (Iain Armitage). After choking on a breakfast sausage, Sheldon wrestles with his fear of solid foods and discovers comic books for the first time, on YOUNG SHELDON, Thursday, Nov. 16 (8:31-9:01 PM, ET/PT) on the CBS Television Network. Photo: Sonja Flemming/CBS ©2017 CBS Broadcasting, Inc. All Rights Reserved. (©2017 CBS Broadcasting, Inc. All Rights Reserved)

It’s a night of firsts on “Young Sheldon” as he goes through his first near-death experience followed immediately by discovering his very first comic book. That’s right, it’s a classic comic book origin story in “A Therapist, a Comic Book and a Breakfast Sausage.”

The episode opens with Sheldon and the family eating breakfast. He’s in a hurry so forgoes his usual 22 bites and ends up choking on a Jimmy Dean breakfast sausage. Fortunately, after several failed attempts, his father lucks into discovering the Heimlich maneuver and saves his life.

“I was this close to getting my own room,” Missy says on the way to school.

Later that day at lunch, the aftermath of his close call takes its toll, as he finds he’s unable to put solid food in his mouth. He believes he’s destined for great things, so he sees not eating as the most responsible thing he can do. At dinner, his mom is sympathetic, but that doesn’t last long. Meemaw, however, finds a solution in blending his food into a shake.

Feeling guilty for rushing him through the breakfast incident, Mary is willing to blend his food for another five weeks before George Sr. suggests they do something about it. Together, they find a discount therapist who ends up living up to his title.

They go on a little trip to his office where Mary and George Sr. go in to talk with him first. They quickly find that he’s drastically ill-equipped to handle a patient with eccentricities like Sheldon’s. Sure he read at a 7th grade level in the 4th grade, but Sheldon is a 9-year-old lin high school. They go to bring in Sheldon, but he’s not there.

It turns out, he found something to do in the waiting room. Sheldon discovered an “X-Men” comic book. Despite assuming picture books were for children, he related a lot to these mutants with powers that were misunderstood or feared by the people around them. He didn’t think twice about leaving the therapist’s office in search of a comic book store. While there, he meets a classmate named Tam who offers him a licorice while they read more “X-Men” comics together.

Sheldon figured out quickly that a superhero needs some kind of power to overcome in order to be a true hero. For him, that meant chewing solid foods, which he does. Just like that, his little problem with eating is cured. Later that night, Tam walks him home and they notice two police cars outside his house. It turns out that a nine-year-old can’t disappear for an entire day, no matter how smart he or she is.

“I tried to explain that a mutant named Cyclops who shoots lasers out of his eyes helped me eat a licorice stick… It went right over their heads.”