And to the folks who pointed out the Cat's in the Cradle lyric references, thanks! Both instances of that went completely over my head.
So last review I sarcastically claimed that they would surely reintroduce the fact that Angela and Rachel are living together, as well as Rachel's job as an RA. The universe does not allow me to have fun, so indeed that's what happens immediately in this episode. Shawn and Angela are making out on Angela's bed, apparently they're the new Jack+Rachel, while Cory and Topanga read magazines and make an inconsiderate mess on Rachel's bed.
Rachel comes home complaining about how awful her RA job is. Apparently the only reason she took this job was to get a reserved parking spot, but someone parked in her spot today! And clearly that is grounds for losing your fucking shit. But hey, she's had a bad day, there's more going on here than just the parking spot, and it's all made worse when we learn that Shawn Hunter is the parking spot stealing troublemaker. Instead of just apologizing, Shawn and Cory decide to be unreasonably mean to Rachel about it.
It has the same feeling as You Light Up My Union, when these two went through Rachel's underwear. The actors are doing the exact same voices as that episode too, and we're feeling that same, like, "who are these guys?" as we did back then. So I'm really not a fan of that aspect, but we need to start a war here which means SOMEBODY'S gotta be a jerk.
Rachel bans the boys from The Dorm and they swear their revenge. The War begins the next morning when Rachel and Angela are awoken by the sound of Rachel's car alarm going off inside their room. Because that's where the car is. While The Dorm Car Strike may not have been fully warranted, it was certainly an impressive move by the Cory Shawn Federation to kick off The War.
The War's first parley takes place here in The Union, and the Rachel Republic has brought UN Inspector Feeny to investigate allegations of war crimes. But after hearing the story, Feeny... doesn't dish out any punishment at all.
It speaks to the cosmic power of Team Cory Shawn that not even Feeny can bring them down. Except that he's brought them down a thousand times before. Maybe Feeny got laid that morning, or maybe he has a soft spot for the boys' pranks after Bee True. Whatever the reason, it looks like they've gotten away with this one. Speaking of, Dean Bolander got totally swept under the rug after her wedding at the end of season 6. State of the Unions was her last episode in the series. I don't think they even mention her this season.
The girls break The First Parley as Rachel squirts water out of a water bottle onto Cory, and Angela does the same into Shawn's pants. This event is known to most historians as The Union Water Ambush, and is widely regarded as a turning point in The War. These sorts of guerilla tactics were largely ineffective, yes, but they set the tone for future events.
Topanga arrives as the boys are recuperating from The Union Water Ambush, and it's unclear at first who she'll be reinforcing, but indeed she views The Dorm Car Strike favorably, and thus lends her strength to the Cory Shawn Federation.
See that guy in the background? That is amazing.
The Second Parley occurs in the independent border nation of The Apartment. Both the Rachel Republic and the Cory Shawn Federation (or CSF) have held ground here in the past, and now they're both looking to bolster their ranks. The Kingdom of Jack has long been allied to the CSF under the terms of the Treaty of Hunter Brotherhood, but Prime Minister Rachel makes some ethically-grey promises (that will likely go unfulfilled) to King Jack, convincing him to renounce the CSF and fall under Rachel's banner.
The United States of Eric are also in attendance at The Second Parley, constantly trying to insert themselves into The War, even though no one wants them there. I know it sets up the plot, but this is a perfect example of the changes they made to Eric this season. What happened to "THE MATTHEWS BRUTHAAAS"? And Jack is his best friend for crying out loud.
Feeny's giving a lecture to all of the warring nations, which is odd since some are seniors while the others are sophomores. The lecture is on the Civil War, and hey! That's awesome, we haven't had a school lesson tie in with the plot for far too long.
After a brief ceasefire between Shawn and Angela, the flames of war reignite here in the classroom. The United States of Eric plead for the others to make peace, despite just yesterday being desperate to join The War.
Okay I'm done with the war-history gag now, because there's no good way to describe what's about to happen. We quickly discover that Team Rachel put superglue on the chairs of Cory, Shawn, and Topanga, then poured honey on them and left the room as a ferocious bear roams into the classroom.
As we all know, the final straw comes next in The Union, where Cory and Shawn have blown up a sexy picture of Rachel and put it on display. The prank war is over at this point, and everyone thinks Shawn and Cory crossed the line with this since, as we all know, implied nudity is worse than literally putting peoples' lives in danger. This poster thing is a pretty scummy thing to do, and definitely goes beyond the conventional standards of a prank war, but RACHEL ATTACKED THEM WITH A BEAR. I really wish they hadn't done the bear thing. It's so absurd and over the top that it takes away from the emotion of this scene. How can I take all these emotions seriously when they just got attacked by a huge bear in a classroom? How can Rachel play the victim when she almost killed Cory, Shawn, and Topanga with a bear? I also want to point out once again that they can't get through a single story involving Rachel without bringing up her appearance. The fact that she's good looking has to come up EVERY SINGLE TIME.
The much more compelling aspect here is when Topanga shows up. Apparently she wasn't informed about the posters, and takes the exclusion personally. In fact, the whole reason she sided with Team Cory Shawn was to "be part of the legendary team," and recalling the toast Shawn gave at their wedding about stepping aside for Topanga, we can understand why she's so hurt about being left out. This is by far the most interesting thing the writers have done with Topanga in a very long time. This draws on the entire history of these three to delivery a genuinely powerful punch.
Things only get worse when Cory makes an offhand comment about how they haven't been friends with Rachel for very long. She takes it understandably hard. Everyone insists that she's their close friend, in particular that she was one of Topanga's bridesmaids, which in my opinion is sufficient evidence that she's actually part of their group, but Rachel is inconsolable at this point.
We have to stop and consider how we view Rachel as well. Is our lack of interest coming from the short time she's been around? That's how she thinks the others see her, and it makes you stop for a second and wonder if that's our hangup as well, but I don't think it is. Lauren is a good example, she managed to be interesting right away. And Harley, and Nunzio, and Griff, and Eric's old best friend Jason. This show is perfectly capable of making us care about characters without long exposure. They just weren't able to do it with Rachel. It barely seems like they even tried. She was just a trophy to be obtained by Eric and Jack for a whole season. Sorry Rachel, but my lack of interest in you is simply because you're not interesting.
The rest of the episode is showing all the other relationships fall apart. Jack and Angela are upset that they aren't part of the inner circle, Topanga is sad that she was left out, and for no reason that I can think of at all, Shawn is also mad at Cory. For now, at least. It's gone by the start of the next episode, so I don't really get it.
All that's really left is Eric. He makes some pretty adorable attempts at using Ghandi's philosophies to mend things between the Hunter boys at The Apartment. It falls apart though when Jack points out that no one wanted Eric on their team earlier, causing Eric's heart to quite visibly break in two.
Plot: 1.0 - I don't find myself very invested in what happened to Rachel, but the Eric and Topanga parts definitely hit hard. Topanga especially. Her feelings of exclusion are totally justified and we have the entire series to draw on for the emotional punch of that exclusion. I think it's awesome that they decided to address Shawn's toast from the wedding this way. Up until now, it looked like we had a smooth transition to Topanga being the best friend.
Character Development: 1.0 - Interesting developments for Topanga and Eric, as well as Rachel even though it's not as emotional for the viewer. We have to deal with the fact that Eric's development is founded on the fact that he's a braindead zombie this season, but still.
Humor: 0.75 - Everybody was pretty funny up until the poster ordeal when things got all gloomy.
Life Lesson: 0.5 - Being excluded fucking hurts.
3.25 out of 4.0. It's a good episode even though the bear prank is completely insane. We also have to remember that this is a buildup episode for Part 2, and it does a fantastic job of building up the things that it needs to. I still don't understand the tension between Cory and Shawn, and there's no reason for Team Rachel to have any lingering animosity, which will be an important thing to think about in the next episode. Either way, the Topanga and Eric angles are enough for me to be completely satisfied with this episode.
Thanks for reading, see you Wednesday.
All images used under Fair Use.
In regards to the Bear Prank, I take it with a grain of salt. Mr. Feeny apparently walked right by it and voiced no concern, so I think we can assume it was someone in a costume.
ReplyDeleteIn any case, "Security Guy" did a Bear joke too, and did it better.
I like this one too. Cory was a dick the entire episode, but basically dismissing Rachel's feelings was a real low.
ReplyDeleteRachel's been around 2 years, but she's limited interaction with all the characters. Even when she was chased as a prize by Eric and Jack, she hardly spoke with them too. Eric's security guard partner left more of an impression.
Okay, yeah, it's hard to feel bad for Rachel. But I think you pointed out two very good reasons:
ReplyDelete1) How we view her is the way the show writes her and has been writing her since day 1. We know nothing about her and the only thing we do know is my second point 2.
2) The one thing the show has written her as: Pretty. Thats her quality. Eric and Jack wanted her, because she was hot, I guess? I don't know. I just have a hard time feeling empathy for the character.
I do like the Topanga/Cory/Shawn thing. That may be why I like these episodes so much. Its an issue that was brought up, dismissed and now brought up again and I've always loved it.
Eric breaks my heart in the last gif. And Jack this week is a jerk. That guy switches character every episode this season. Except since this is a two parter, he will be a jerk who cares about no one.
You mentioned when you began this that you wished these two episodes were the finale, now I can't back it up right now, but I distinctly remember reading an interview or something that said these episodes were written to be the finale of the show but they wanted to do a few more episodes. Crazy
ReplyDeleteThat's really rather interesting; personally, I find the finale to be extremely cathartic, as far as the Cory, Shawn, Topanga and Eric are concerned. That last shot in the classroom is one of the most beautiful in television history (Even if we don't ever actually see Feeny act as more of a father to Topanga than Jed did).
DeleteThat said, I can see why this has a certain appeal, the comraderie (sic) between the group here is probably at its strongest in the show's history. That's something I think a lot of shows that are supposed to be about a group of friends struggle with--finding a balance of interaction and affection between all members. "Boy Meets World" wasn't perfect in that regard--has Jack even spoken to Cory or Topanga or Angela one-on-one at all this season--but it was better than a lot of shows, including many meant for adults.
Yeah, my major issue with this episode is how upset Rachel gets over such a tame picture when she sicced a bear on them. Glad to see other people feel this way.
ReplyDeleteI gotta say, though, I think you're being too dismissive of the finale up at the top. For one, I actually think that final scene in the finale is the most iconic thing in Season 7, not anything in this overrated episode. And I think the finale's good, and don't think it oughta be merely reduced to an appearance by Michael Jacobs' kid. I would be disappointed in this as a finale - no appearance by Alan and Amy, and it makes it all about this gang of seven and how important they are as a group of seven, and that's not what I want Boy Meets World ending on. The finale does a much good job of just being about Cory, Topanga, Shawn and Eric, their journey into adulthood, and their relationship with Feeny.Jack and Rachel's roles are minor and Angela's not even in it. I like that much better. Plus... that final scene is just gold.
You make a valid point. Is there anything else of value though, in the whole 45 minute finale? I don't remember anything except the last two scenes in the backyard and in Feeny's classroom.That bothers me. But you're right, the very last scene in the classroom is probably more iconic than playswith squirrels.
DeleteI gotta agree with Christian here--if this was a finale, it'd be a disproportionate amount of emphasis put on the seven characters as a group of friends, when several of those relationships (like Jack and Topanga, Jack and Cory, Eric and Shawn, Angela and Jack, Rachel and anyone not Jack or Eric) are very underdeveloped.
DeleteThe finale gets a little bogged down in clips sometimes, but I do love how it feels like hanging out with old friends, and it has a good balance of old and new BMW in it. I think this is important because I'm definitely a bigger fan of the pre-college years. The War 2-parter is very much restricted to the school and doesn't really utilize any of the adult characters much, save for arguably Feeny. It's not bad--it's kinda cool how the group splits up regarding "old" and "new" characters, but Rachel's (lack of) history with the group makes it ring somewhat hollow. And Eric's dumbness once again hurts the storytelling, since everyone has to be uncharactaristically mean to him here.
I'm totally on-board with the bear criticism too. In another episode, the prank would've been fine because BMW does dip into surrealism now and then. But when the point of the plot progression was in an escalating series of pranks, it's very incongruous to act like Rachel's prank was harmless and the boys were so out-of-line. Granted, the boys WERE out-of-line, but even Rachel's reaction to that seems strange when you consider how she was hardly even insulted when Eric was friggin' Truman Show-ing her coming out the shower or whatever last season.
Yeah, I loved these episodes but I LOVE the finale and think if this was a finale I would have been sad. The finale includes flashbacks as well- although reruns cut the finale down to specks and leave out flashbacks. Also, in the finale the only problem I have with Joshua is that he ages from a baby to a three year old.. Thats my only issue with that.
DeleteWell, sure, KBM, there's not a lot to the finale, because it's like 75% flashbacks. But there's a lot of good stuff there besides the final scene which, yeah, is the money shot. But there's other stuff - Cory and Josh's talk (which, yes, includes Michael Jacobs' son when it could've/should've just been Cory talking to a baby), Cory and Feeny's final talk at the fence which is also really well done, and just the moment of sheer delight and triumph when Cory and Shawn learn that he gets to come too.
DeleteAs far as Rachel's reaction to the poster goes, I kind of feel like it may have been a situation where in the script it called for it to be a naked picture of Rachel (obviously obscured in some way so you never actually saw Maitland Ward naked) but then ABC vetoes that, and so the story never made sense.
DeleteYup Christian, I agree and I hated it. She's honestly been seen wearing less willingly, it makes no sense.It's like in other tv shows when only curse words would be appropriate...
DeleteI like to think of it this way: if BMW weren't such an important part of the lives its fans, many of whom had grown up with it, and if the series finale was only a season finale and not the last episode of the entire show, it wouldn't have worked. Cos ConfidenceKBM is right. There's no added value. By all measures it's lame, it's cliché, it shamelessly panders to sentimentality. But i think it's consciously sentimental. I think the producers and writers were aware of their audience, and i suspect they were aware that, in the last couple of seasons, BMW had wandered a bit, jumped the shark a bit. I like to imagine that with this final episode they just went, screw it, let's stop denying we've gone off track, let's not even bother with anything clever to redeem ourselves. This was never just any TV show anyway. Let's just do this for the fans, and for all the actors and everyone in the production team who've grown and and grown old together. Screw it.
DeleteAlthough i should say it's been years since i actually saw the episode, so this could just be a massive piece of post-hoc rationalisation sans any basis in reality.
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ReplyDeleteI don't think Shawn was mad with Cory at the end of this episode I just think he didn't want to really talk to anyone after what happened
ReplyDeleteeveryone insists that she's their close friend, in particular that she was one of Topanga's bridesmaids
ReplyDeleteTo be fair, that could speak as much to how little Topanga's inner life beyond Cory is explored, as to a deep friendship between her and Rachel (do they ever even have a conversation alone?) I mean, it's not a show that passes the Bechdel test very often (I think Angela and Rachel might, once or twice. Angela and Topanga probably never.)
Plus with a wedding, it can be as much about numbers (like the extras playing the flower girl/ring bearers, or the male cast apparently all being Cory's groomsmen/ushers, despite say, Jack's tenous link to Cory.)
We have to stop and consider how we view Rachel as well
On a meta-level, it's funny that Jack/Rachel/Angela are by far the weakest actors. I mean, obviously setting them up against well-loved characters who've been on the show seven years means they're not going to be rooted for (although they do have a legitimate point), but it doesn't help that it's literally harder to make an audience feel sorry for them - the scene in S6 where Jack cries over his dad, for example, or Rachel's 'how could you?' when they show her photo in this episode are pretty lame, and Angela I think is almost on par with Rachel for being thinly sketched as a character. Like Jack alters from episode to episode (dumb pretty-boy, devoted brother, goofy pall, snotty rich boy) but at least he gets some kind of background, and Rachel at least gets to be individualised from the others, even if it's because she doesn't belong. Angela has about three memorable bits in the whole show's run.
The pictures vs. bear thing really depends on whether you can suspend disbelief on the bear. Personally, I think Feeny's reaction ('We could have died!' 'Yeah...') kind of signifies that it's a cartoon-y prank rather than one that's supposed to be taken seriously; whereas having your privacy invaded is something most people can relate to, and seems particularly vindictive since it's a revenge specifically aimed at one member of the group and carried out through Shawn basically then dicking over Jack and Angela's trust to boot. But I can see how opinions alter there.
But I do really like this episode, everyone's plotlines fit so well together. Like some episodes, the characters are pretty much archetypes - Sitcom Mom and Dad (which unfortunately seems to be where GMW is stuck), Idiot Eric, Supportive Girlfriends - but here the humour is funny, but also depends on the character's backstories and relationships and the audience's knowledge of that.
"I'M NOT TALKING TO YOU"
ReplyDelete"WELL I'M NOT TALKING TO YOU EITHER!"
WELL YOU TWO ARE TECHNICALLY TALKING TO EACHOTHER
Hey sorry I didn't get to all of your comments, but I'm so glad you're enjoying the blog, and thanks for leaving a few words!
DeleteYou didn't mention that when Angela pours water down Shawn's pants he says something like, "Your loss," which I took to be a joke about shrinkage. I'm surprised they kept that in there. I'm sure Disney had it edited out for its version.
ReplyDeleteRight! Another thing he totally missed is the fact that Shawn exclaimed "Whoa!" in Joey Lawrence's famous cadence from his "Blossom" character. He knows Matthew Lawrence is his younger brother, right? I don't even think that got a big enough laugh from the audience.
DeleteThe fact that Maitland Ward became a pornstar and loves showing her body on Instagram shows that the writers had hindsight 2020
ReplyDeleteIt's pretty obvious that some of the commenters here are dudes, especially the one that says "She's been seen in less willingly." Yeah, WILLINGLY is a pretty key word there. There is a big big big difference between intentionally wearing short-shorts in your own apartment in front of close friends, and having something that you thought was private blown up for the world to see without your consent at all. It has almost nothing to do with the amount of skin shown and everything to do with having agency vs being violated.
ReplyDeleteI was going to say, maybe if this were reviewed nowadays, after the "me too" movement, a lot of guys would have a better understanding why it was such a big deal. But then I saw that just last week someone wrote a comment about Maitland Ward's adult photos, and apparently some guys have learned nothing at all. So let me be very clear. Even if somebody willingly posts a million pictures of their own naked body, it does not make it in any way okay for somebody else to post a private picture of them without their consent. Period.
Posting the photo was awful of the boys to do, especially considering that it's pretty clearly a stand-in for a nude pic, but it's hard to take it seriously following the bear attack. Like, yeah, the bear is cartoony. That's the problem! They do the cartoony thing and then immediately switch gears to serious. It doesn't work at all. Also you spelled Gandhi wrong.
ReplyDeleteWhy in the world is a normal guy in the background "amazing"?
Okay think about it in context though they really could have died during that bear prank. The car was funny, the water was funny, the bear was too far. And honestly rachel should have gotten rid of that photograph immediately after the break up. I’m
ReplyDeleteBlooper: the hole in the skirt and Topanga’s red underwear are both clearly evident in that pic when they’re still glued to their seats, even though they haven frantically forced themselves out of the chairs (and ripping their clothes in the process) to escape.
ReplyDelete