Episode 2x20 "Pop Quiz"

Cory and Shawn are passing a foam football around in the only hallway in the school because this is a fantasy world where a high school's halls aren't constantly swarmed by students in transit. Cory does a little shoutcasting of his sweet hallway-football moves and tries to pass to Shawn, but his terrible aim results in hitting Frankie the Enforcer with the football. Joey the Rat is there too, reading some sort of note with Frankie, and the two well spoken thugs don't seem to notice Cory's projectile. This greatly confuses our heroes, so naturally they do something stupid.

WHEN WOULD THAT EVER BE AN OKAY THING TO DO? I bet this is how they usually get beat up. Frankie and Joey just mind their own business and then these asshole kids come up like "why the fuck aren't you mauling me", so they have to maul them. "Anti-heroes" if I've ever seen 'em. 

Turns out the note is a letter from Harley Keiner at his new reform schoo-, excuse me, "juvenile boot camp", sorry Frankie. These career-lackeys are having an existential crisis without their leader. Overcome with sorrow, Frankie carries Joey off screen. 

The boys are back to their game of foam-ball-color-commentary but Mr. Feeny rounds a corner into the only hallway in the school and intercepts the ball. In a bizarre move, he doesn't give the boys detention, and instead hands back their exams. Cory got a 16 and Shawn got a 12. Shawn, like me, doesn't understand how that's possible, so Mr. Feeny offers an explanation.

The moral is, Feeny's having trouble getting through to the slacker minds of Cory and Shawn. Mr. Turner comes by and talks to them like they're little puppies to get their attention.

Now I ain't gonna lie.

This is one of my favorite scenes in the entire series. There's more to it, but two gifs is enough. It's absolutely hysterical every time I watch it. It's not only well written and acted, but it fits with everything we know about the characters. It's beautiful. And it also means that we're about to see ROUND FOUR of Feeny vs Turner.

Feeny goes off to do Feeny things, but Turner's got a bone to pick with the nice boys. Their book reports were due earlier today, and they didn't turn them in. They haggle a bit and Turner decides to let them bring the reports to his apartment by Sunday afternoon, when he's going to grade them. 

At the Matthews house, Morgan does one of her three funny jokes in the series. She makes a sandwich out of wonder bread, cheese whiz, and lucky charms, and Alan discovers that it's actually delicious. 

Alan proceeds to give Eric two tickets to a water park which he got in a promotion at his store, on the condition that the other ticket go to Cory. Upstairs, Shawn and Cory are trying to work on their book reports but realize that they can go rent the movie versions instead. No points for originality there.

At school the next day, a lethargic Frankie and Joey get trolled a little more by Shawn and Cory, and they ultimately decide that they need to find a new leader. Since this is the only hallway in the school, Eric walks into the scene and, in plain view of Frankie and Joey, asks a girl we saw in 2x17 (they actually kept her name the same) to go to that water park with him. The lackeys look impressed. Further, Eric uses his knowledge of Cory's video-rental-book-report scheme to blackmail the other water park ticket out of him. Frankie and Joey are looking very impressed. 

Aren't they just the cutest.

It's the weekend now and Cory and Shawn arrive at Mr. Turner's house to turn in their book reports. He invites them in to catch their breath while he gets dressed for a date, leaving them alone in his living room. This is a sitcom and it's the 90s, so they make a mess. Not quite Kenan and Kel level of a mess, but it still kinda makes you go "ugh..." Eventually they stumble upon Mr. Turner's lesson plan and discover that there's a pop quiz in his class the next week.

Cory and Shawn pretty much think they've gotten away with murder. To quote, "We finally beat the system! *jumping double high five*".

At school on Monday, Frankie and Joey have decided to make Eric their new leader. They've dressed like folks you'd find at a country club drinking martinis at about this same time of day. And yet, they still don't look as ridiculous as Eric. Either way, Eric, or "Rico" is they've decided to call him, doesn't want anything to do with them.

Look at em. Look at their sad little faces... Frankie just needs a big ol' hug doesn't he. Poor guy.

Turner's class begins and he announces the pop quiz, which is followed by some blatantly pre-recorded groaning. What's the sound version of "stock footage"? "Stock sound" doesn't quite roll of the tongue. 

Topanga doesn't exist again. But the girl who sits next to Cory? Betchur ass she's there. She's always there. ...I think I might love her... Sorry what are we talking about? Well our system-beaters are acting pretty smug about the whole pop quiz ordeal and even came prepared with pencils. Hot dog. 

The next scene opens in Mr. Feeny's office, and we finally get to meet Griffin Hawkins! He's just transferred to John Adams High. Griff is played by the amazing ADAM SCOTT, and I know I said I don't want to use clips anymore, but fuck you, it's fucking Adam Scott.

If that doesn't blow you away then I don't know what's wrong with you. I figure the original Harley Keiner had some personal reason to leave the show, and that fake ass Harley from 2x19 was obviously not going to work, so here's our new thug leader. And I gotta say, my reaction is about the same as that secretary's. He fucking nails every single line. His posture, his face, it's all spot on. The first time I saw this as a kid, I couldn't believe it. This was the coolest guy I'd ever seen in my life. I went to check who the actor was, and then stalked the hell out of his career. At least once a week I would check his IMDB to see if there was anything new. I googled pictures of him just to admire his hair. When Party Down was first announced, maaaaaaaaaaaaaan I was so excited. And now there's all these "fans" of Adam Scott because of Parks and Rec, and don't get me wrong I love Parks and Rec, but they don't know shit about Griffin Hawkins. But we know.

We know.

Griff swaggers his way into the only hallway in the school and draws the attention of all the nearby women as he asks for directions to his next class. Frankie and Joey are very, very impressed.

Well, Joey is. Frankie just looks kinda hungry. Whatever.

Eric brings Frankie and Joey to Chubbie's where, of course, Griff is currently entertaining some ladies. Eric introduces the lackeys, but Griff doesn't seem interested in their services.

Then we jump back to school where Shawn and Cory have just gotten their pop quizzes back. They both aced it, but Cory is starting to feel guilty about what he perceives to be cheating.

We jump back to where we left off at Chubbie's, so I guess this is all happening at the same time, which doesn't seem right, but okay. Some jocks in letter jackets show up looking for Griff. The most obnoxious of the jocks accuses Griff of gaming his girlfriend, and Griff pretty much admits as much with some award winning smugness. Things look like they're about to get violent, but Frankie and Joey come to the defense of Mr. Hawkins.

I've always thought it was interesting that Joey is supposed to be intimidating. He's pretty scrawny, but then again, he definitely looks like the kinda guy who carries a butterfly knife around and whips it around every once in a while. You know what I'm talkin about. Anyway, this convinces Griff of their usefulness and he accepts them as his lackeys. Heart warming, truly.

That resolves the Ericlackeylogue, so we've just gotta wrap up the pop quiz story. The boys confess to having seen Turner's lesson plan at his apartment, and he reveals that he wanted them to see it, that he wants them to get good grades. He goes on to explain that they can get A's whenever they want because he always tells the students about the assignments in advance. They just have to actually listen. Cory and Shawn have an epiphany about the purpose of education while Mr. Feeny looks on from the background. I really like this scene. It's pretty believable and I love that Mr. Turner never talks down to Cory and Shawn, he's always at their level, genuinely trying to get them to listen and learn. 

So why did this work? Great question. Mr. Feeny stops Cory and Shawn so he can find out the answer. Cory says "we heard him loud and clear," followed by Shawn's "yeah, he was talking right to us." That's an excellent thing to say, all in all, and even speaks to a higher real world issue about how impersonal classrooms can be.

As it turns out, Feeny and Turner made a bet on whether this would get Shawn and Cory to actually go open a book. Point Turner.

Plot: 1.0 - What's not to like! The main story is fun, believable, fast paced, and adequately original. The Ericlogue has those qualities as well. Spot on.

Humor: 1.0 - The "nice boys" bit from the beginning would have been enough on its own, but the whole episode is great. There are a few jokes that don't quite land, but not enough to detract from the overall quality.

Character Development: 1.0 - Cory and Shawn are going to open some books, and Griff takes over as the school's kingpin. Awesome.

Life Lesson: 0.5 - There wasn't a real life lesson, but there is an implied life lesson that I'm giving half a point for. And that lesson is to fucking hire Adam Scott to be in your shows, god dammit.

3.5 out of 4.0. This is one of my all time favorites. A lot of the best episodes have those serious moments with important lessons, but this is a shining example of maintaining top quality while also being more relaxed and a little silly.

Thanks for reading, happy Valentine's day, and I'll see you on Monday.

Clips and images used under Fair Use.