Episode 4x01 "You Can Go Home Again"

I told myself I was going to post this one on time, but I had to catch up on Mad Men.

So yeah this is the season with the car intro, where clips from previous seasons are playing in the various mirrors, and it doesn't really make a lot of sense. I guess it's intended to be a play on the word "reflections", but a title sequence is supposed to show you about the current season, not old ones, so I think it's dumb. ON THE OTHER HAND, the music is pretty damn sweet, I'm not gonna lie. I like the song a lot. Also, you can see Eric in the driver's seat there for a split second, he's blatantly not watching the road or even steering the car.

Anyway, recall that Cory and Eric left on a cross country road trip for the summer at the end of season 3. We're coming up on the end of that road trip now and, to Eric's great annoyance, Cory has been talking about Topanga no matter where they go.

It kinda defeats the whole "let's get to know each other" resolution they made at the end of season 3 though.

They're currently three hours from home, but Eric's stalling with an impromptu stop at Pottstown, home of the world's largest yogurt cup. Pottstown is a real place, but it does not have such a cup. At the Matthews house, Mister and Misses are going out to the "Grocie Awards", and Shawn and Topanga show up to wait for Cory. They banter, nothing important.

As you can see, this is the season where Rider Strong has obtained perfect mastery of his pouty-lips.

Some saxophone music takes us back to Pottstown with the Matthews Brothers. Eric's busy chatting up a local girl named Irene, who works at one of those restaurant-but-also-a-convenience-stores, so Cory goes off to the "Parade Of Sprinkles". I've never understood sprinkles on yogurt. Yogurt is not ice cream, nor is it cupcakes. It should not have sprinkles. People also should not be topped with sprinkles, but Pottstown is doin their own thing, clearly unhindered by my oppressive sprinkle fascism.

Amy and Alan come home from the Grocies, and Alan won a Grocie, in an unspecified category. Amy's pretty proud of him, the supportive wife that she is, but Alan is suddenly unsatisfied with his life, terrified by the thought of feeling pride in being a grocer. "Sudden-Onset Acute Midlife Crisis," Doctor House exclaimed, with an air of arrogant satisfaction. Wonderful. It's been a loooooong time since we've seen character development from Alan, and if you've been with me since seasons 1 and 2, you know how much I love Alan's character. It seems the writers realized that Eli was a mistake, and now we're back on track.

We return to yogurtopia. The boys have a motel room so Eric can get cleaned up for his date with Irene, and we hit the essence of Eric's current crisis.

"All my friends did". Jason got into college, confirmed, it's canon.

It cuts to the motel room again, I guess it's later that night after Eric's date, and Eric is putting on a different shirt. So, I mean, draw your own conclusions. Cory really wants to go home so he swipes Eric's keys and bolts. For some reason the motel leads into the... convience store slash... restaurant.. place... where our pal Eric hoodwinks his little brother.

Cory makes the world's worst Braveheart reference and goes off to, I dunno, hitchhike I guess. Irene comes up behind Eric, surprised that he hasn't ditched town yet. Eric is being the sweetest guy in the universe right now, it's honestly heartwarming. Irene is really insecure around Eric, since she's lived in Yogurtville her whole life while he just got finished traveling the country, and in her frame of reference Eric comes off pretty smart. I mean let's face it, there probably aren't any Mr. Feenys in Pottstown. She gives him a kiss because he's being so sweet and making her feel special. Awww.

Think about what's going on here. Eric is suddenly the big man on campus. For the first time, he has the most life experience and education out of everyone in the room. He's spent his entire life being really challenged by his environment, forcing him to grow and explore his potential (thanks in large part to Mr. Feeny). But Pottstown is the opposite. Irene is the anti-Feeny. He's completely content here, no one has expectations for him, he's already impressed the most attractive girl in town. There's suddenly no room for improvement. This is a fantastic test of Eric's character. One of my toughest professors in college told me once, "If you want to be the biggest fish, stay in small waters." Obviously Eric isn't going to stay in these small waters, but I'm excited to see him arrive at that decision.

Side note, Irene is actually a pretty good actress. She's played by Marisa Ryan, who was on 96 episodes of a show called Major Dad from '89 to '93, but not much else since then, which is a shame.

Back in Philly, we get some more time with Alan and Amy in their back yard. Alan's still down in the dumps about, in his opinion, not doing anything with his life. Right on cue, Mr. Feeny comes out to join them. Fuuuuuck yes. This is a treat we have not seen at all in season 3, I don't think.

Is that the first instance of profanity on this show? I think it is... Neato. So yeah, Mr. Feeny explains that doing something you enjoy is really all that matters. The talk wasn't all that I was dreaming it would be, but it was still refreshing to see this dynamic in action again.

Cory time again. He's walking along the road, looking for a ride, when something peculiar happens. An Amish guy rolls up in a horse-drawn carriage and offers to take him as far as "that farmhouse, there". If you've seen this episode you surely remember this scene, it's really just bizarre. I mean, it's funny, but it's just a total non sequitur. It would be a waste to try to explain it further, you have to watch it to understand. Ultimately, Cory declines the ride, so it's a uniquely strange scene.

Back at the restaurant store, Eric enjoys pea soup and pie prepared by Irene. Those are not sexual euphemisms. I don't think. Maybe. When she hands him the plate of pie she says "it's the pie that keeps you here forever", and we see an old guy who's been here for a long ass time.

Eric learns that the storestaurant is most likely going out of business, now that a new highway is diverting traffic past their town. Eric suggests they put up billboards for miles leading up to the town advertising their pie and pea soup to bring in more people. This impresses the shit out of the local products of incest, who tell Eric that he could do really well in Pottstown. So we're seeing some more buildup of that contrast between Eric's life in Philly and the one he could lead here. Good stuff.

Prince Cory decides to call whatever the word is for the father of a king Alan, who shows up a few hours later. Papa Alan pulls Eric aside and they hash things out. Alan doesn't say it explicitly, but it's clear that Pottstown for Eric is analogous to his own job at the grocery store. It was the easy and comfortable choice, and Alan spent his life trying in vain to convince himself that it was what he really wanted.

Fuck to the fuck yes. A+++++. That's what I'm talking about! That's Boy Meets World right there baby. Telling teenagers that real shit they need to understand. Welcome the fuck back, Alan Matthews. I missed you.

Eric explains further that he's scared of going back home, and then his father tells him that you can always go home, which is almost verbatim what Alan tried to tell Shawn back in season 2 when Shawn blew up that mailbox and tried to run away from home. It should be clear by now that the "Boy" in the title isn't just Cory. It's Cory and Shawn and Eric. And Alan. Even Feeny and Turner, and Joey and Frankie. All different walks of life meeting the world in different ways. I love this show.

Eric waves a wordless goodbye to Irene, who returns the gesture with a look of hopeful understanding. During the credits, Cory reunites with Shawn and Topanga in the kitchen, but Cory's been a side-character this whole episode so who cares.

Plot: 1.0 - The Pottsyogurtville Adventure was a great contrast to the Ericlogues we've seen in the last three seasons. Alan's story was great, and the two plotlines merged together smoothly at the end. My one complaint is that they didn't address whether Eric and Cory had successfully gotten to know each other and become closer as brothers. That was the intention of the road trip, and it was sort of left by the wayside.

Character Development: 1.0 - Eric has made the decision to grow and face his fears rather than settle into complacency. Alan made some personal progress as well.

Humor: 0.5 - It wasn't exactly a standout episode for humor, but it was still fine. It's not that the jokes were bad, there just weren't very many of them.

Life Lesson: 1.0 - If you want to be the biggest fish, stay in small waters.

3.5 out of 4.0. A fantastic start to the season. We're left hopeful for the further development of Eric and Alan as the season progresses. Cory is pretty much exactly where we left him, but that will probably change in the next episode.

Thanks for reading, see you Wednesday!

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