Episode 5x13 "The Eskimo"

This first scene... oozes Boy Meets World. It is wholly and thoroughly representative of the characters' school lives. Who else but our own Jeff Menell, a writer since season 1, could have pulled this off? Shawn hasn't turned in Feeny's latest assignment, and Cory claims that they wrote one paper together. Cory's paper got a B, so Feeny divides it in half to give both boys a D, but they complain about it and receive F's instead. Naturally, Topanga jumps to their defense, claiming "an F follows you around for life." Cory explains that he doesn't mind getting an F since his and Shawn's college applications are already sent in. That's not quite true though, since Shawn didn't bother to send his in, even though Cory filled them out for him. According to Shawn, "people like me don't go to college."

This is refreshing, that they're addressing the harsh reality of Shawn's situation. At the same time though, I suppose he would pay for it the same way Eric is paying for it. Although Eric did have a job for a while, so who knows. Also, the popular thought right now is that Cory is a terrible teacher on Girl Meets World since the class is constantly talking about whatever the hell they want while he's teaching. If you watch this scene though, you'll see that it's really not exclusive to GMW. Feeny's dealing with the same kind of crap here.

Shawn and Cory comment that there's nothing left for Feeny to teach them. Mister Feeny is the most pissed off we've ever seen him at this apathy (commonly known as senioritis), and tells the other students to leave the room. Once again Topanga tries to play defense, and this only makes their teacher angrier. We're talking full Hulk mode right now. He orders Topanga to stay too, calling her a "little control freak." Further, he wants Shawn's assignment delivered to him by 5:00 that afternoon. Shawn claims that an equally impossible task would be finding tickets to the Super Bowl, so Feeny gives him that assignment instead, due by the end of the week. The new assignment for Topanga is to butt out of other people's lives for one week or she gets an F, to which she responds that she's "never failed before".

Last but not least, Cory's assignment is to make sure that both Topanga and Shawn succeed in theirs, or he will fail alongside them. That was a lot of summary for this first scene, but there's a lot going on and the details are important.

I can't stress enough how great this scene is. We've done some wishy-washin with these characters this season, but this scene shows us the best dynamic we have between them. These characterizations are what stick out in my mind when I think of Boy Meets World. Shawn dealing with his demons, Cory coming along for the ride, Topanga sticking her nose in, and Feeny dishing out the tough love. I could watch this scene for the rest of my life.

At The Apartment, we learn that Eric and Jack have both had a rough time with dating lately. Jack is actually enjoyable to watch here, which is always nice. The writers did try to make Jack sound like a ladies' man when we first met him, but that is clearly not the case anymore.

They resolve to find their soul mates, instead of just dating random women like they've been doing. So this is our silly sidestory for the day.

At home, our two heroes are brainstorming how to find tickets to the super bowl, while Topanga tries her best to stay out of it. We hear on the radio that the station is holding a contest to win, you guessed it, tickets to the Super Bowl. The boys are too oblivious to hear it though, so Topanga has to sort of mime her way into getting them to notice, without actually butting in.

*Edit* As per request, another gif of Topanga playing charades. 

Ultimately, they figure it out and Shawn manages to call in and enter the contest. It's a really fun little scene, and while you might want to be annoyed at this convenient solution, we'll see why it doesn't actually matter later.

The contest is to stand up on a billboard for as long as possible in the 16 degrees winter weather, and the last one remaining wins the tickets. Jumping over to that scene, Cory climbs the ladder up the billboard to bring his best buddy some hot chocolate, which really ought to be against some kind of rule. Shawn eliminates one of the other contestants who was only here because likes billboards, leaving only the Hunter boy and one other contestant: an Inuit guy on summer vacation here in January, currently eating an ice cream cone. ...Shawn is fucked, and it's depressing, since he really thought he had a chance to pull this off.

So yeah, the deus ex radio isn't a big deal since he didn't win the tickets anyway.

The protagonist trio arrive in Feeny's classroom to have a word. And this is the kind of scene that blows the mind of the casual viewer. See, they all know that Feeny ususally goes for the "lesson behind the lesson", and think they've got this one figured out. In response to their earlier senioritis, they've reasoned out that Feeny just wanted them to continue trying their hardest, which they actually did on this Super Bowl ticket assignment. And that's what I thought too, the first time. It's what any show would do. But George Feeny is not moved. He wants to see the Super Bowl tickets.

The gravitas of Mister Feeny here, and of this scene in general, is outstanding. "You have no idea what I want." I absolutely love it. One of the best in the series. The viewer is left with this feeling like "What the fuck just happened dude... I thought... but..."

For a drastic change in tone, we head over to The Apartment, where Jack and Eric are about to embark on their second dates with two girls we haven't met yet. They're both pretty cool, but Eric's date Jill is starting to seem like a better fit for Jack, while Jack's date Carol is acting a lot like Eric.

Ahhhhh the ol' double date switcharoo. It was bound to happen eventually. But I don't really mind the cliche, Eric is keeping things fresh, like always. He's like tupperware. Eric is the tupperware of the show. The Zip Lock bag.

Shawn Hunter is looking introspective as hell on the billboard where the contest previously took place. The previous board has been replaced with a picture of that Eskimo saying "I'm going to the Super Bowl".Cory and Topanga join him to try to make him feel better. This is it folks. This is the true climax of the Shawn Hunter story arc. I want to put every single line into a gif, they're all wonderful. The gist of it all is that with all these metaphorical Eskimos standing in his way, he's already convinced himself that he'll never succeed. Because of his past and the roadblocks he's currently faced with, he realizes that he defeats himself before he ever even starts.

Then, in his most significant moment of development, he says fuck it, I'm going to the Super Bowl. Cory tries to convince him that he doesn't have to go anywhere, but Shawn sees it differently.

It's so good you guys. I love this episode so much. This was another one of the best scenes in the series, but only because of all the work we've done building up Shawn's character. The moment where he finally flips the middle finger to his Eskimos and decides that he's going to go get what he wants. Without Cory's help. Epic.

We spend the next three minutes at The Apartment where Eric and Jack are trying to execute The Swap.

They are unsuccessful. The whole thing is hilarious though, and it's due in large part to Jack's behavior. He actually wanted do The Swap at the same time Eric did, they're partners here, building off of each other, rather than having Jack's reluctant heckling like we did earlier in the season. The girls get mad and bail out of there, and later we see that they're actually waiting in the hallway, saying "I can't believe they're not coming after us," which I think is just absolute BS. That's some middle school crap.

Time to close this thing out, ladies and gentlemen, in Feeny's classroom.

Like before, I want to turn every line into a gif. Cory goes on to explain that Shawn didn't need him on this one, and that he had to step out of the way for his friend to go on his own. Feeny informs Cory that he and Shawn have both passed the assignment with flying colors. Indeed, he wanted Cory to see that Shawn can't succeed just because Cory wants him to, that Shawn has to want to succeed and believe that he can on his own.

"Then why did you want me to help him?"
"You need to know you won't always be able to."

The same lesson applies to Topanga, who needed to learn that a time will come when she won't be able to help Shawn and Cory. Further, a time will come when Feeny won't be able to help them, and that's why he's still pushing them so hard in the second half of their senior year, while he still can. That's why he was so hurt by the notion that there's "nothing left to teach", because he wants to keep helping them as much as he can, while he can. (The impact of this otherwise beautiful sentiment is slightly lessened since we know he follows them to college, but whatever.)

Another fantastic, A+ scene.

During the credits, everybody's watching The Super Bowl at Chubbie's. Everyone except Shawn...

Plot: 1.0 - What a story. Twists and turns, a powerful plot, compelling narrative. It's everything you could want.

Character Development: 1.0 - "I'm my own worst Eskimo." "I do have to go somewhere, because if I don't, I'll never go anywhere." The best part is that the writers were smart enough not to include Angela in any of Shawn's business today. That could have really ruined everything.

Humor: 1.0 - Jack and Eric were spot on, they could have earned the point themselves, but Cory was also really funny from start to finish.

Life Lesson: 1.0 - The triumph of the individual spirit and determination. Say "fuck you" to your Eskimos. Your metaphorical ones, I mean. Don't be rude to people.

4.0 out of 4.0. My #1 favorite episode. I will talk about this episode to anyone who will listen, so thank you all very much for listening. Leave comments.

 I've been looking forward to this review since the beginning. It's all downhill from here, there's only a handful of good ones left, but DAMN do I love this episode. It is absolutely my most watched episode, and that's probably true for a lot of people, especially at the end at Chubbie's. This show fully encapsulates what Boy Meets World means to me. The only trouble is that you'll need to have seen the previous seasons to really get the full effect of Shawn's growth here, the same way Eric getting into college wouldn't have meant as much without all the buildup before it.

Thanks for reading,