Episode 3x16 "Stormy Weather"

Well I'm a minute in and already my hopes are down in the gutter. They already threw about 10 punchlines at me in that span of time and it's just an insult to my intelligence. The gist of it though is that Eric is working way too hard at his news-station internship and thus neglecting his other responsibilities, including going to class. Mr. Feeny's class ends as he mentions that Lincoln freed the slaves for political as well as moral reasons, which is just the realest shit you'll ever hear. I hope everybody at home was listening to that.

As he tries to make his way out of the room, Eric is stopped by Feeny, who informs him that if he doesn't do the paper due Friday, he's not going to pass the class and therefore won't graduate.

At Turner's apartment, Shawn and Dana Pruitt are hangin out, doin some homework. I don't think Shawn's had a girlfriend for more than one episode before, so good for him. Turner comes home just in time for Dana's mom to show up, and the sparks flyyyyyyy.

The whole exchange here is pretty great, and really shows off the chemistry these two have built up over the last two seasons.

At the news station, we see John O'Hurley, who I only know as J. Peterman on Seinfeld, is doing the weather, and Eric watches with stars in his eyes. We see how really invested in this internship Eric has become and then a guitar riff plays over some stock footage of cars driving in the snow. Wasting a lot of time here. At the station again, the weather guy is AWOL and who else would be chosen to fill in but our boy Eric. God knows they couldn't just not have the weather.

Eli is there because his contract said he had to be in a certain number of episodes and the writers didn't know what the fuck else to do with him.

Eric does a great job as a weather man, and everyone congratulates him at home, including Mr. Feeny. I don't know why they were all watching the weather at the same time, but sure. Oh okay, Feeny is actually here to remind Eric that his 2,000 word essay is due by Friday. Eric says he doesn't have time for it with this weatherman stuff, but that's bull shit. 2,000 words is for children, what the fuck is he gonna do for the rest of the night? Just write it now, jesus. Anyway, here's the big conflict of the day, Eric has to choose between the weatherman stuff and actually graduating from high school. No surprise, he chooses the weatherman stuff. He is also turning 18 at midnight that night, so he's feeling like he can make his own life choices and all that other shit that always happens on a sitcom when someone turns 18.

The next morning they do the whole "OH YOU WANT ME TO PAY RENT?" thing, and Eric storms out. Heh... Storms... Weather... Whooooooooooooo that's about as funny as anything this episode. Where's Dana? It's not all bad though, we're getting to see that tough love that Alan Matthews is famous for. We've missed out on that this season, so it's good to have it again.

Oh here's Dana. And Shawn. They're waiting for Turner and Miss Dana's Mom to come back from their date.

So Turner and Madame Mother Of Dana have decided not to see each other again since it would be too awkward for Shawn and Dana. What a riveting conclusion to this story arc that we saw 30 seconds of. Anybody else would have forgotten about it by now.

At the station, Eric finishes his weather cast and is approached by the station manager. He's got a real weatherman coming down to take the job since Eric is just an inexperienced kid. Eric wants his old internship position back, but that's only open to students, and since Eric sort of dropped out over night, he's screwed now. Woops.

Alan shows up next. He tells us the story of how he went into the Navy after high school, to his father's great disapproval, and that he doesn't want to make the same mistakes his father made. So they reconcile and I don't know how I feel about it. Eric was already fucked, this doesn't influence his decision to go back to school at all. He was gonna have to go back regardless. It's just like "hey I'll support your decision to do the thing you can't do anymore." I dunno.

Anyway bak at school, Eric hands in his paper to Mr. Feeny. The old man is hesitant to just welcome Eric back with open arms, but Eric explains that he's learned how tough the real world can be, and that he'll never be able to find a job without a diploma. Well fuck the 90s. 20 years later you're gonna need a DEGREE in a STEM FIELD to have a CHANCE to find a job. Those high school diploma days, man. My poor generation. Feeny is moved by Eric's new value of education and welcomes him back school.

During the credits, Shawn and Dana are making out at Chubbie's and then they see Turner on a date with Dana's aunt. Because where the hell else would two full grown adults go on a date. God damn, Turner, this is why you're not married. You keep fuckin takin these girls to god damn Chubbie's. That's never going to work in the long term, man.

Plot: 0.5 - It wasn't bad, it was just frustratingly predictable.

Character Development: 1.0 - Eric's finally gonna start learning some shit at school.

Humor: 0.5 - Shawn was consistently funny, but he only had about a minute of screen time.

Life Lesson: 1.0 - Let's see what we learned here. Even a sure thing can go horribly wrong. Fathers shouldn't abandon their sons. The real world is hard, especially for dropouts. The entire Pruitt family is good looking. I'd say that's worth the point.

3.0 out of 4.0. - I think this was a somewhat shorter review. There really wasn't a whole lot going on in this episode. It's another example of my flawed scoring system, I would never really seek this one out to watch, but that's a pretty good score. Oh well. What the hell happened to Eli? We never saw him again past the 10 minute mark. And Eric needed that internship to pass the journalism class. Whatever.

Thanks for reading, see you Wednesday.

All images used under Fair Use.