Episode 3x01 "My Best Friend's Girl"

As you can see, the only fundamental design change was on the plot badge, which is now a quill and ink pot. I wanted to make the life lesson badge an owl's head since owls are wise and stuff, that's why they usually roll cleric or ranger, but modeling an owl's head in 3D is... daunting, to say the least. Maybe next season.

ARITE. Cory shows up at Turner's apartment to rendezvous with his best buddy Shawn before school. They've replaced Rider Strong with some new actor, lemme check Wikipedia real quick here... Nope, no, that's still Rider Strong. The hell happened to his hair?

Turner's got a Mona Lisa fridge magnet there, as well as what appears to be a giant Magic The Gathering card on the left, while Shawn's in the foreground eating the most anorexic pizza I've ever seen and wearing that weird Atlas-with-an-apple shirt he wore a bunch of times in season 2. Visually captivating. Lots to see here. 

In the remainder of this scene we learn that Topanga's coming back from her summer trip today, Cory's going to ask her to be his girlfriend even though he's nervous about it, and Shawn and Turner are co-habitating with reasonable success. Cool, we've filled in all the holes between season 2 and this episode. Then Shawn goes to school in his pajama pants and bathrobe, pictured below. Fantastic, we've got a goal (Cory wants Topanga) and an obstacle to overcome (he's nervous).

His hair looks like earmuffs. Like grungey Princess Leia. Does that make Cory Luke or Han? What about Feeny, is Feeny Obi Wan or Vader?

We're at school the next day and there's been a slight change to the only hallway in the school. A door in the background previously led to the gymnasium, but it's now a stairwell. "Riveting, ConfidenceKBM. Absolutely riveting." 

Thanks.

Cory spends a little time trying to go talk to Topanga, but he can't quite find the courage. "Why," you ask? Well it's a little different from all those times before. This isn't just a date, this is that serious business "let's date for the foreseeable future" stuff. The camera pans over to Eric on the other side of the only hallway in the school, using a staple-gun to staple both a flier and his shirt-sleeve to a bulletin board. In particular, it's a flier for the film society's presentation of Paint Your Wagon, a cowboy musical of some sort. Mr. Feeny approaches Eric since this is... sigh... the only hallway in the school... FUCK IT LET'S ABBREVIATE IT "TOHITS" FROM NOW ON. Eric asks Feeny to remind him why exactly he agreed to be president of the film society, which as always is merely a device to inform the audience. Our esteemed principal explains that this position will look good on a college application.

Welcome ladies and gentlemen to perhaps the most compelling character arc in the series. Eric wants to get into college and Mr. Feeny wants to help him. You may have also noticed that Eric's hair is longer than the last two seasons, and I glossed over the fact that he stapled his shirt to the wall, so I've prepared this handy graph to help everybody at home follow along.

Cory flubs another attempt at asking Topanga to be his girlfriend, and then once more after class starts. (Topanga mentioned in passing in the hallway that they all the same classes again.) This episode soaks up a lot of time with these attempts, but they're actually entertaining. It's almost a guarantee that this type of situation is going to be cringey and awkward on a television show, but Ben Savage works some sort of voodoo magic here to make it really genuine and not awkward at all. It's just uniquely easy to watch, I'm amazed.

At lunch, some random students give Eric a hard time about showing a lame movie like Paint Your Wagon, but Frankie and Joey approach Eric and offer to sell out the show for him in exchange for part of the profits. Eric declines, but Joey isn't going to take no for an answer. Meanwhile, the mime club traps Frankie the Enforcer in a box, "again".

Now we see Cory looking sad at his lunch table when Topanga comes up to him to figure out why he's being fucking weird. He finally asks her out (REMEMBER THAT THIS HAPPENED), but she reveals that she's going out with someone else on Friday. This mystery man turns out to be none other than Shawn Judas Hunter. 

That critical development is put on pause as the next scene opens on Mr. Turner's apartment and we meet a new recurring character. Turner's buddy Eli has just come over after a job interview to hang out and bro around and stuff.

Cory shows up to confront Shawn Benedict Arnold Hunter about asking Topanga on a date. Eli and Turner tell the boys about the Bro Code and joke about some college exploits, and eventually Cory leaves without moving the plot at all. Nothing substantial comes out of this scene, it's just giving us a taste of Eli's personality and showing us how he'll be interacting with the other characters from now on. 90% of the punchlines in this scene are from Eli. They really want to convince us that he's a good addition to the cast. I remember reading an interview with Rider Strong where he said something related to this, and I managed to find it for you guys:

"They only brought [Turner] in because Friends became a hit. And ABC was like, 'We need twentysomethings on every show. Including on this kids’ show that’s only watched by teenagers.' And, remember, they had him and they had the character of Eli, who was the black young teacher. And they were going to have this whole twentysomething storyline. I don’t know what they were thinking, but it was a complete disaster. It didn’t work at all."

Source: http://ohnotheydidnt.livejournal.com/59026184.html#ixzz2v2iMa1CR

Harsh.

So Rider is not a fan of this development. We'll have to keep that in mind as we go forward. 

As an aside, I want to say how awesome it is that I just used my extensive knowledge of Rider Strong interviews for something productive.

At home, Eric teases Cory about Shawn going out with Topanga. I'm not sure how he found out. Eric manages to squeeze out a few seconds of sincerity though, and advises his little brother to go to Topanga's best friend for more information.

Meet Trini (pronounced tree-knee), Topanga's best friend for the next season or two. Cory has invited her out to Chubbie's to talk instead of doing something stupid like calling her on the phone. I was watching this and thought "you know, they've got this actress all clowned up for this role, but I bet she's reasonably attractive out of character." Sure enough, Trini is played by the late Brittany Murphy, who I suppose must be the most famous person to come out of this show, at least until Adam Scott got on Parks and Rec.

Topanga and Shawn Et Tu Brute Hunter arrive at Chubbie's, prompting Cory to ask Trini on a date to that film society movie, the same place Shawnpanga are going. I don't think I can justify this. Is Cory trying to make Topanga jealous? A stranger would be better for that... I don't know. Whatever the opposite of surprise is, that's how I felt when Eric, Joey, and Frankie also showed up at Chubbie's. The thugs take Eric to the side room with the pool table to discuss the finances of the Paint Your Wagon event. 

A Reservoir Dogs joke! I didn't know this existed! Fantastic. So Joey is Edward Bunker and *spoilers* dies pretty early in the movie, and Frankie is Quentin Tarantino. Fun. Why isn't Joey Mr. Blonde? Whatever, it's the thought that counts. So yeah, the Reservoir Dogs here managed to sell out the showing of Paint Your Wagon. Blake Sennett has given a seriously commanding performance in this episode. You can practically hear him in that gif, the delivery is just spot on. I remember saying this at the beginning of season 2, but Frankie and Joey fucking rule.  

The last scene of this episode is at the movie event. It's pretty pointless, and after the movie ends Cory and Topanga hash things out and they become a couple. Like we didn't see that coming. During the credits, Trini and Shawn reveal that this was all an elaborate scheme to motivate Cory to confess to Topanga.

I'm sorry, WHAT? Cory explicitly asked her out at the 8 and a half minute mark! Granted, Shawn had already made the date with Topanga by then, but CORY ASKED HER OUT. THAT WAS THE END GOAL. When life hands you lemons, you don't say "No thanks, I already planted some lemon seeds so I'll just wait for the lemons to grow instead." YOU TAKE THE LEMONS. BECAUSE YOU WANTED LEMONS AND YOU GOT THEM. YOU DON'T NEED TO WORK FOR THE LEMONS ANYMORE. WHY DID TOPANGA INSIST ON GOING THROUGH WITH THIS DECEPTION?

The worst part is that Cory asking her out at 8 and a half minutes wasn't even necessary. Topanga could have mentioned that she was going out with Shawn in a hundred other ways. Ways that wouldn't have completely destroyed the resolution of the plot.

The double worst part is that this could have been really interesting! If Shawn had genuinely asked Topanga on a date since she's "hot" now (his words, not mine), that would have opened up some compelling explorations of the friendship between Shawn and Cory. At no point in the duration of the series do the two boys ever sincerely chase the same girl. When has that ever happened in real life? What pair of heterosexual male friends in high school was never attracted to the same girl? That would have been a great episode. What's more, it could be founded on the life lesson of "if you don't ask her/him out, someone else will," which is really a great lesson for young adults. It's heartbreaking how much potential this episode had at the halfway mark, but we ended up with an entirely predictable conclusion, albeit an important one. 

Plot: 0.25 - Could have been good. Wasn't. See above.

Character Development: 1.0 - Cory and Topanga are together together. That's... about as important as it gets. Also Eric has transitioned toward his dopey heart of gold rather than the first two seasons' preppy ladies' man.

Humor: 1.0 - Cory's fumbled confessions to Topanga miraculously managed to be funny instead of awkward. Eric, Frankie, and Joey were fantastic. The writers definitely gave Eli too many jokes for his first appearance, but they were still pretty funny.

Life Lesson: 0 - "Lie to your friends until they start dating."

2.25 out of 4.0 with two badges, and I'm gonna go ahead and slap down a Reservoir Dogs Bonus Badge because that movie is amazing and I loved Joey's delivery.

Mmmm those shiny new badges. I'm learning a lot of new skills because of this blog. 

Thanks for reading, see you Friday. (This is part 1 of a Wednesday double feature.)

Images used under Fair Use.