Contains spoilers for Season 1, Episode 12 of “Georgie and Mandy’s First Marriage” — “Typhoid Georgie“

Lance Barber made his return to the role of George Cooper Sr. in “Georgie and Mandy’s First Marriage” with a brief, two-scene appearance that combines warmth, tenderness, a yearning for comfort, self-castigation — and a zombie-based jump scare that firmly reminds us we’re in Georgie’s (Montana Jordan) mind, looking at a conceptualization of George Sr. as created by his son’s subconscious. This is an interesting development, since Georgie has been thoroughly surrounded by his dad’s presence throughout the season, even driving around in George Sr.’s pickup truck.

But whether it’s as a ghost, angel, or dream vision, will audiences see more of Barber on the “Young Sheldon” spin-off series? According to executive producer and series co-creator Steve Holland, the future’s up in the air. “I don’t know,” he told TVLine. “I mean, we love Lance. We love having him on the show. For us, it’s always going to be about the story.” Bound by the need to create a solid tale versus serving their desire to have the actor in question on-set more frequently, future appearances by Barber will depend on whether the creative team can find the right tale for him.

It seems further use of George Sr. will also depend on being able to differentiate his dream world appearances from the type of visitations Professor Proton (Bob Newhart) used to make to Sheldon on “The Big Bang Theory.” “We talked about [distinguishing] this from the Bob Newhart dreams in ‘Big Bang Theory,’ where it was much more self-aware, and he would say to Sheldon, ‘I’m in your head, you’re the one saying this.’ We didn’t want to play that same dynamic with George,” Steve Holland explained.

The difference between playing George Sr. and playing the George that only exists in his son’s mind definitely factored into Barber’s performance, according to Holland. “The George Sr. in his mind is a little more critical than I think George Sr. would have been in real life, so it was really fun to watch Lance navigate that and figure out how to play this George Sr.,” he said. “He’s got a slightly different edge, and he was just so good at it.” Barber himself admitted to being moved by the crew’s reaction to his performance, a testament to his skill as an actor. Time will tell if the show finds a storyline worthy of another reprisal, allowing him to play George again.