Episode 6x15 "Road Trip"

This episode is so boring. I've been putting this review off all day. There's just nothing interesting to talk about at all.

A few hours have passed since I wrote that. I just ate some Taco Bell and I still have no interest in writing this review. We will have to try again tomorrow.

-THE NEXT DAY-

And we're back, tryin this one more time. As an anonymous commenter so aply put it, " I remember this episode as being 'the one where Shawn takes Cory out to some diner and they meet a band or something' and this band was like an actual real life band of the 90s but even back when this aired I was always like, who are these people." That's the abridged version of this episode, and hey, if that's enough for you, great, see you Friday.

I'm not sure why I haven't said this before now, but during the stupid theme song one of the lines is "Wanderin' down this road that we call liiiiiiiiife". And for the decade or so that I've been watching this show, every time it sounds like "Wanderin' down this road of E. Coliiiiiiiii". Seriously. Listen to it. That's what it sounds like.

Shawn and Cory set off on their road trip (oh my god that's the name of the episode!) off camera, so now we're joining them out on the open road. Shawn's wearing a bandana for the only time in the entire series, and it's almost universally accepted that he looks like an absolute tool. 

I don't know, you guys know I love Shawn, and yeah I know his dad just died, but this angst is just too much. He's like how an angsty 14 year old imagines himself at 18. Except in real life they grow out of it by then. Shawn did not do that part. 

This is the worst. I'm gonna play WoW for like TEN MINUTES. Just TEN MINUTES, and then I'll come back to this, I promise. Just TEN MINUTES, like FIFTEEN MINUTES.

He refuses to tell Cory why they're even taking this trip, at least for now, and eventually we find ourselves at some backwater truckstop diner. There's four girls about 19 or 20 working here, and we meet them all over the course of a minute or so. The fourth one literally just stares at Shawn for a good 20 seconds, it's really weird. Finally the owner of the diner comes out, who is also the father of two of the girls, and makes sure our heroes don't get any hormonal ideas. 

This guy is drying his hands the entire time he says these lines, and they really don't look wet enough to warrant this much drying. 

He's played by Art LaFleur, who seems familiar but nothing's jumping out at me on IMDB. He's been doing one-off characters since the late 70's and is still going strong, including an episode of Baywatch, like everyone on this show, and an episode of House, which is fun for me.

The four girls are the members of the former girlband "Nobody's Angel". They never got anywhere, and disbanded before their second album came out. What they did do, though, was collaborate with a boyband that also never got anywhere called Youngstown, to make the song Pokemon World for Pokemon The Movie 2000, which you can listen to right here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U0FjlxQJU88. Don't be embarrassed, I listened to it too. It's safe to say that that was their best gig ever.

There's also a guy in the credits credited as "Milkshake Guy", so I'm excited to see what he contributes to the Boy Meets World mythos.

Back to the show, Dad Guy comments that Shawn looks familiar, and heads back to the kitchen still drying his hands. Shawn tells Cory he should "go home", which is weird since they just started this trip, I'm not sure why Shawn brought him in the first place, but we're stuck with it since Shawn refuses to explain any further. It fades over to the apartment where Rachel and Jack try to sort out the fact that they shared a passionate kiss in the previous episode. They agree not to tell Eric about the kiss.

At the diner, we jump into a performance by the four girls which lasts for two and a half minutes. On normal TV, this would be very frustrating. However, in this situation, it's fantastic! Because it's two and a half minutes that I can just skip and not have to write about, other than by saying that it's not very good and they're blatantly lip syncing. Like, the guys dancing to Hot Stuff in 5x10 was significantly more entertaining. 

Shawn and Cory lie and tell the girls that they're pretty good and would have a real shot at success, a shot that they would take if it weren't for Intimidating Dad Guy insisting that they stay. In what might be the weirdest bull shit on this show of all time, the girls ask Cory to talk to Scary Dad Guy for them, to convince him to let them go. WWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWHAT? 

Cory doesn't want to play ball, and tells Shawn it's time to go home, even though they just left. Unless there was an unspoken timeskip between the first scene in the truck and their arrival at the diner. I guess that's possible. Regardless, Shawn says he isn't going home, and that the purpose of this trip was so that he could say goodbye to Cory. 

Cory is rightfully outraged at his best friend's nonsense, but Shawn isn't even listening. Instead he spots a picture on the corkboard behind the register of Controlling Dad Guy with Shawn's own father, Chet. Even Cory has to admit that that makes things interesting. 

Lumberjack Dad Guy, the girls, and some of the regulars reminisce about Chet with Shawn, and he has to give them the bad news about his father's death. They take the news in good spirits though, and joke about Chet and remember the good times. It's actually sort of moving. Shawn gets on board with the good spirits, and asks Cory to give a toast to Chet, since Shawn claims to be bad at that sort of things, which... is kinda bull shit to ask someone else to do that, but whatever.

Ben Savage gets the Perfect Delivery of the Day award for that one, that line is amazing. 

Shawn convinces him to do the toast anyway, and yeah, it's pretty nice. In death, we tend to cut people a lot more slack than usual, so Cory's toast is very forgiving. Chet was always an interesting character though, so it's good that we got to say something nice about him. 

In Apartment Land, everyone agrees that they're all just friends and the kiss thing went too far. Eric is satisfied with this outcome and goes to get his laundry from the dryer. Soon as he's gone, things go too far once again.

KBM DATING TIP:

That shit works. I've done a lot of dating in my days, and "I think we should kiss" or "We should probably kiss" at the end of the first date has a near 100% success rate. Or even just asking "Do you want to kiss?" It is INFINITELY better than the awkward lean-in-and-hope-for-the-best that most people get stuck in. That's just terrifying and unnecessary. 

Shawn and Cory are in the trailer now, presumably still near the diner, and they start to fight. I think the last time they had a physical fight was 3x17, in The Hallway. Correct me if I'm wrong. The argument is about what you'd expect, Cory's saying all the reasonable things that the viewer is thinking about the whole situation, while Shawn just wants Cory's blessing for this stupid getting-away-from-everything-indefinitely road trip.

The girlband girls just sort of barge into the trailer, which is pretty uncool. Regardless of whether they should have made it in the singing business, I can see pretty clearly why none of these girls made it in the acting business. If uh, if you catch my drift. Because... you know. 'Cause they're bad at acting.

I cannot begin to understand why they value Cory's opinion so highly, but they really really want to know what he thinks they should do. Cory has an appropriately "What the fuck?" reaction to their request, but one of the girls gives him what I assume are supposed to be puppy dog eyes, but I don't think she really understands what they are.

She just kinda looks like a pissed off Colin Mochrie.

Cory's a pushover, so he tells them they should go for it. Overprotective Dad Guy probably assumes there's a wild orgy going on here, so he makes his way into the trailer as well, just in time to hear Cory's advice. Cory explains further that sometimes you have to let go of your loved ones and let them find their own way, which is WOO SO CLEVER because he's simultaneously giving himself advice about the Shawn situation. What an unpredictable turn of events. I can't believe it. That girl is still making that same weird face in the background, she needs to stop.

Hulk Dad Guy decides to fire the four girls so they can go end up as waitresses in LA. But hey, they do deserve credit for chasing their dream, I can't deny that. 

More important than what Cory's saying there is the fact that everyone else is just sitting on the couch in silence, staring at the wall. Look at em back there, there's even more to the dialogue between Shawn and Cory and they're just awkwardly sitting back there the whole time. It's really strange. 

Cory gives Shawn his "blessing" to go soulsearching, and then it fades over to Shawn getting into the driver's seat of the truck. Cory has mysteriously vanished, maybe he took a cab back to Philly, there's no explanation for where he went. Chet's ghost appears and tells Shawn he'll always be with him. He points at Shawn's head, which is considerably less puke-worthy than pointing at his heart, but it's still deserves a big eye-roll. 

Plot: who cares

Character Development: not me

Humor: Cory was funny like twice

Life Lesson: wear a bandana to be cool

shut up out of 4.0. Still not sure who Milkshake Guy was.

See you Friday.

All images used under Fair Use.