Episode 2x15 "Breaking Up is Really Really Hard to Do"

Yeah. It's pretty hard.

The show opens at Chubbie's, the only restaurant in Philly, and Cory's reading aloud the contents of a Hallmark card, using his "can you believe this shit?" voice. You know the one. It's an invitation to a dinner party, but it's couples only. Cory, a proud bachelor, feels slighted by these strict requirements and looks to a nearby Shawn for solidarity, but Shawn's tongue is busy holding hands with the tongue of some girl we'll never see again. The girl goes off to write in her diary that she kissed a boy, or whatever, leaving our heroes alone at their table. In his infinite cool-headed wisdom, Shawn points out that Cory merely needs to ask a girl to the party. He suggests Wendy, who is also currently at Chubbie's because there's nowhere else in the universe for her to be.

Wendy is adorable. You may remember (read as: I remember) her from episode 2x02. That episode ended with Cory and Wendy agreeing that they should get to know each other better before being boyfriend and girlfriend. Apparently they did, and now Cory is comfortable with the idea of being a couple with her. She must have been sick during the turnaround dance. Anyway Wendy is really excited and readily accepts.

Awwwwwwwwww. This actress does a great job as Wendy. Her tone and demeanor remind me of Lila from Hey Arnold. 

At the Matthews house, Eric's report card is filled with something that rhymes with "gad brades". As punishment, his parents forbid him to go on any more dates until it rhymes with "good grades". Crap, switching the letters didn't work that time. But hey, awesome, we've got an Eric side story in this one. I'm going to invent the term "Ericlogue" for this. It's like "epilogue" or "prologue", but for Eric. 

Once again Amy is wearing four layers of the same color and Eric has buttoned only the bottom button of his shirt. I'm sure you're all as frustrated by this as I am.

At school the next day, Wendy is waiting for Cory outside Turner's class after the bell rings. She wants to make plans with Cory for the summer, even though the summer is not even remotely close. Wendy also comments on Cory's next class and straightens his collar as she sends him off with a kiss. 

This scene shows us everything we need to know about Wendy. She's coming on way too strong, but she's also a sweetheart and genuinely cares about Cory.

The Ericlogue resumes. A pretty girl named Lori wants Eric to come over and help her "get the heat up" in her hot tub. In a refreshingly surprising move, Eric obeys his parents and turns Lori down. Our boy is obviously not happy about this, but just then his charming, well spoken, and all around amazing best friend Jason comes along and suggests a "parentally acceptable, highly satisfying, dating substitute."  

Listen... men... boys... lads and blokes... if you've never had a $25+ salon haircut from a beautiful woman, then that is something that you need to do. During my senior year of college, my stylist was Aphrodite herself and I always loved going to see her. Female friends of mine have described similar experiences with handsome male stylists. The point is, Jason is spot on here. This really is one of life's secret pleasures. What's interesting though is that they built this surprisingly well set up salon for one episode, but they won't build a second hallway to use for three more seasons at the school. I'm pretty sure that plant on the right was in the Matthews' living room in season one.

That skip was intentional, from "I know what the homework is" to where Shawn says "End it this minute". Figured that was better than posting two separate clips. For the future, if a clip skips, it's intentional. And remember the socks gift, that's important later.

In that clip we saw Shawn and Cory hand in poems they've written, and when class starts Turner decides to read some of them out loud so they can all discuss them. His first selection is Shawn's poem Welfare, which actually might be social commentary as the first stanza reads "My uncle Ralph he does not care, 'cause twice a month he gets welfare". Cory passes the break-up note to Wendy just as Turner starts to read her poem titled Leave Me And I'll Die. It is as creepy as/creepier than it sounds. Wendy reads the break-up note, starts crying, leaves class, and Cory goes after her. Cory manages to convince her that he doesn't want to break up, even though the note said "I think we should break up." It's not exactly believable, but maybe when you're as smitten as Wendy you'll take what you can get. 

Later that day...

So Wendy has come to make and eat dinner, uninvited. Alan catches on to the state of things pretty quickly.

  

That's one of my favorite bits. I've seen this episode a thousand times and it always gets me. It takes a little more convincing, but eventually Amy gets weirded out as well. Remember that this scene lasted four minutes, I want to come back to this later.

At school, Cory tells Shawn the story of another failed attempt to break up with Wendy. Resigned, Cory starts to imagine the final years of his life. We see an elderly Cory and Wendy having dinner at some place we're supposed to pretend isn't Chubbie's. Cory is stealing everything, from the dinner rolls to the salt shakers. I think that's hysterical, old people really just don't give a shit. Wendy goes to get her husband of 90 years some prunes, and old-Shawn shows up. Their old-man voices are actually really funny, and we get one of those classic Boy Meets World lines.

They even gave Cory a wedding ring to wear for that scene. FINALLY they pay attention to some details.

We're out of Cory's imagination now, and he and Wendy are eating at Chubbie's. Thinking it's not a big deal, Cory reveals that he wasn't looking for anything too long-term when he asked Wendy to be his girlfriend. 

Wendy says she doesn't want to be in a relationship based on a lie, and breaks up with Cory. Then we see one of the most genuine, heart wrenching moments so far in the series.

The socks.

During the credits, the Ericlogue concludes with Eric trying to "break up" with the stylist. But she ropes him back in. Breaking up is hard to do, folks.

The Spectre wasn't in this one, so I don't think we'll see her again. That's probably a good thing, that joke was getting tired.

What happened to the dinner party? Isn't that why Cory paired up with Wendy in the first place? Speaking of dinners, let's talk about that four minute dinner scene with the Matthews family. It was entertaining, but Amy and Alan's opinions of Wendy had no impact on the story, and ultimately Cory wanted to stay with Wendy, so that was all kinda pointless. 

Why does Cory always get the crazy girls? For that matter, DIDN'T WE ALREADY DO THIS? Episode 2x10??? A lady by the name of Theresa Keiner??? She was basically this exact same trope. I guess she was more "let's fuck" moving-too-fast, while Wendy was "let's get married forever" moving-too-fast.

Plot: 0.75 - This is a great episode, but we did sort of already do this story, like I said.

Character Development: 1.0 - Cory learns that the standard serial monogamy of high school doesn't really apply to him, which of course sets the stage for his long-term relationship with Topanga.

Humor: 1.0 - Lots of good stuff from the whole cast, but what really sold me was the Ericlogue. He wasn't the saboteur/older brother we've been seeing lately, he was just a silly, doofy guy. And that's the Eric that we all love.

Life Lesson: 0.5 - Fuck the police, date whoever you want. But at the same time, it's high school dating. Don't take it too seriously.

3.25 out of 4. Watch it.

Thanks for reading, see you Wednesday.