Episode 4x16 "A Long Walk To Pittsburgh Pt. 1"

We're at the one and only Chub Chub Chubbie's and Eric has just arrived to spot a very distraught Topanga being comforted by Shawn in the back room of the restaurant, out of earshot. Shawn's brand of comforting includes a big hug and a kiss on the cheek, so Eric assumes an affair is afoot while the sad guitar music plays. The scene fades out and back in at our boys' kitchen. Eric brought home an extravagant meal for Cory, which Cory perceives as one of those death-row-inmate-dead-man-walking kind of last meals, and so he braces himself for the bad news.

Oh Eric. He's never been able to directly help his brother, he always has to make a big show of it, and it's really funny this time. I hope we don't spend too long on the "I wonder if she's cheating, even though we in the audience are 99% sure she's not" thing. 

In the living room, Eric mimes suppuku to give Cory an idea of how serious this news is, and then Eric finally describes what he saw at Chubbie's. Cory receives this news very poorly and tries to call Shawn on the phone, but no one answers. At lunch the next day, Shawn and Topanga are eating together. Cory walks up and they look about as guilty as humanly possible.

They look really shocked to see him here at lunch. Were they planning to just never see Cory again? I dunno. And I guess Shawn has some sort of cartilage piercing now? 

Cory asks to speak with his girlfriend, but she gets up to leave saying that she has to get to "Feeny's history class". What the shit kind of excuse is that? We've seen her and Shawn and Cory together in Feeny's class on many occasions. Why didn't she go to the bathroom, or really anything else in the world that we can't instantly disprove? That was not a smart move from Toboggan.

Once she's out the door, Cory tries to get the truth out of Shawn. Shawn explains that Topanga had a fight with her parents and ran off to Chubbie's, like any reasonable person would, and that he just happened to be there at the time. Maybe Topanga's a stress eater, I don't know why else she would go there. Anyway Cory accepts Shawn's explanation, and later at home he accuses Eric of jumping to conclusions. Eric excuses himself to go tussle with Shawn.

Good thing Shawn lives at Chubbie's now or the first half of this episode wouldn't have happened.

I am definitely a fan of Cory's aggressiveness in this episode. Back in 2x07, regarding Topanga, I talked about how anger was a better emotion than sadness, because it motivates you to act, and that's exactly what we're seeing here. Cory is taking CHARGE of this shit, instead of moping around like he does sometimes. When it comes to Topanga, he ain't messin around. Shawn refuses to give any real details and insists that Cory go talk to Topanga. 

The sad guitar music whisks us away to Topanga's bedroom where Cory is knocking on her window from outside. I guess he took a page out of the Shawn-playbook with that one. He gives her a deep kiss and explains that the two of them have always been able to talk to each other, which apparently breaks down her defensive wall.

Yeah? Even the time you broke up? I'm glad she acknowledges that it's childish and stupid, but I guess we all felt that way in high school right? 

Danielle Fishel does a great job getting her tears up here. I don't talk about her very often, but I should. She consistently nails her lines, and this scene in particular is very well acted. It's hard to gauge Ben Savage in this one though, since he has such a silly voice. He's doing his best to sound sad, but it's not really working.

Anyway Topanga finally reveals that she's moving to Pittsburgh "the day after tomorrow". But they both agree that their relationship is strong enough to survive the long distance. 

I usually like to use the gifs/pictures for jokes, but there really haven't been any jokes so far. 

The writers have impressed me even further by not spending too much time on the fact that Topanga didn't want to tell Cory about her move. She was just scared, so they're not going to linger on it, and that's smart. This episode could have written itself if they decided to that route, so I respect the decision not to.

At home, Cory's mapping out the route from Philly to Pittsburgh, trying to come up with an effective plan for him and Topanga to still see each other. His parents look on with worry, and Amy tries to talk about how "sometimes things happen for a reason", which makes me want to throw up. Cory doesn't listen though, and continues forging his plan. He's essentially in denial, so maybe we'll do a Five Stages of Grief thing. 

Don't worry, the audience laughs at that. So it's a well placed joke about how a lot of teenagers completely misunderstand that story.

Later, Cory's reading Romeo and Juliet in the backyard. Mr. Feeny joins him and tells him to flip ahead to the end of the play.

Mr. Feeny explains that he believes Cory and Topanga have something special, and that they won't go wrong if they follow what's in their hearts. It's a nice sentiment, and the emotional clarinet music is playing, but that's kinda what got Romeo and Juliet on the wrong side of dead. 

Inspired by Feeny's words, Cory runs over to Topanga's and does this whole silly marriage proposal thing. It's pretty funny, and ultimately the couple agree to write letters to each other and visit on weekends. They also talk about how they're both afraid of the other meeting new people they want to date, so this is all fairly realistic, which is cool.

Now Cory is at Chubbie's with Shawn, because that's where Shawn lives now. Shawn explains that the main thing he's learned from watching television is that, in situations like this, the girl or guy never actually moves away, so he's confident that Topanga won't actually move. WHICH IS BULL SHIT CUZ HE DEFINITELY DIDN'T THINK THAT WAY WHEN HE KISSED HER. But fine, he's had a change of heart. Cory is skeptical though.

So that's pleasantly self-aware, a quick jab at the folks at home who think Topanga isn't actually going to move.

Even when she shows up at his house on the eve of her departure, Cory insists that she's not leaving. But with a kiss and an "I love you", she's gone.

The best kind.

During the credits, Eric tries unsuccessfully to console his younger brother. This was awesome, a very real and thorough examination of a strong teen relationship being torn apart by factors outside of their control. Nothing can ruin it now. 

Oh, nevermind. That almost certainly means that Topanga's coming back in Part 2, which kind of destroys all the hard work we did in this episode. 

I was about to start giving points, when I realized that it wouldn't really be fair. A lot of this plot was just laying the groundwork for Part 2, and setting up for the character development we'll see next time (read as: it would have been a bad score). It's a good episode though, and does what it's supposed to, so I'll give a score at the end of part 2 that applies to both parts as a whole.

Thanks for reading, see you tomorrow (Monday) for part 2!

All images used under Fair Use.