Episode 6x10 "And In Case I Don't See Ya..."

So far this season, The Apartment crew have been in the background, falling in love with Rachel as a side story. "Maybe when Eric's the main character, he'll have a real story, one where Rachel isn't treated as a sack of meat," you say, with a glimmer and a twinkle in your hopeful eyes. This is the episode where we learn that that theory is bull shit.

Eric's trying to get some studying done in the coffee shop half of The Union, adjacent to Gambling Dan's old sidekick, Louie. Dan himself is probably off gambling with people much younger than him, as usual, while it looks like Louie's been kicked to the curb. They won't mention anything about it though, since, as we know, the writers just don't give a crap. 

Louie's taking out the (inferred) frustration of losing Gambling Dan by hating everyone else in the room. He and Eric are about to bond over their lack of human connection, when the PA system announces the "Harvest Mixer" on the 2nd floor, which is invitation-only. Even Louie has an invitation, while Eric does not. So he's unpopular and unhappy about it. Definitely sounds like a Season 2 Eric problem. Not a college student problem.

Remember in The Truman Show, how his wife is always doing those blatant product placement lines? Well Eric starts doing that at The Apartment, to the annoyance of Jack, and even quotes Truman's signature line, "And in case I don't see ya, good afternoon, good evening, and goodnight!" Except Will actually says the line wrong, switching evening and afternoon. 

Jack walks into The Union to discover a horde of students watching a live feed of The Apartment. Eric has turned his own life into a sort of Truman Show. He's desperately trying to be the star, but the horde only cares about Rachel, who you can see wrapped up in a towel behind Eric on the screen.

I just pulled up my review of 6x01 to see where we meet Rachel, and I said the whole dynamic would be based on "Rachel is pretty, and thus ___ occurs." And indeed, there we are. 

Elsewhere, Cory and Shawn, THE DREAM TIME, have taken Mister Feeny out for an extravagant brunch, in an attempt to get extensions on their midterm papers. Ahhhhh, you feel that? That's that Boy Meets World feeling, our two heroes having school related shenanigans. No relationship drama, no marriage talk, Shawn doesn't have any new hobbies... It's delightful. And it's funny. These are the situations where Shawn and Cory thrive off of each other. This is the best version of their personalities, and I'm already laughing and having a good time. 

The boys explain that they're really overloaded with their other courses, and Mister Feeny cordially agrees to give them a few days' extension. Very reasonable. 

On The Eric Show, Eric's teaching the audience how to eat soup when Jack storms in demanding an explanation. Eric explains his twisted desire for popularity and Rachel reappears, still wrapped up in her towel, to the cheers and applause of The Horde. She storms off in disgust, though, when Jack explains the situation

Eric's rocking some stubble in this episode. It makes him look 5 years older, I like it. 

Feeny hands back the midterm papers at the end of his class, and our heroes both managed a B thanks to that extension. They promise the Feenster that they'll keep up that level of work on their next paper, and he points out that the "next paper" was due yesterday. Clearly the boys expected another extension since the first one was so easy to get, but Feeny isn't playing along. He's silently insulted at the boys' attempt to take advantage of their history and friendship, and gives them both F's on that paper they didn't turn in. So here's our second conflict for the episode. Topanga, thoroughly displeased with her own B, chases Mister Feeny out of the classroom. I'm usually not a fan of her perfectionist gags, but this one was pretty funny.

Later, Feeny is having coffee with Amy and Alan in their kitchen, because he has no life, when Cory and Shawn show up, because they also have no lives. They're pretty disrespectful to their teacher, who quickly leaves since he's tired of their shit. Alan brings down the hammer though. He's not going to tolerate them talking to Feeny that way and demands an explanation. As we already know, their explanation is immature, so Alan tells them both to grow up. Awesome work from Alan in this scene, there's so much Boy-Meets-World-ness going on with this story, I love it.

Eric is dressed as Christof from the Truman Show now, and he's got a control board to mastermind The Rachel Show at The Union, surrounded by The Horde. 

This is by far the most evil thing Eric ever does on this show. I can't even believe they wrote this. They're completely sacrificing his character for the sake of this stupid Truman Show gag. Rachel has already made a clear display of her disgust at this hidden camera show bull shit, but now Eric's doing it even worse than before. It's insane. Rachel's taking the whole thing in unbelievably good humor, but that doesn't last long.

Eric's even placed a brick wall outside the door so they can't get out. Their only means of escape is through the window over the sink, down the fire escape, but Rachel can't go that way because she's scared of the garbage disposal, which Eric turns on from his control board. She freaks out, and we get a flashback of Rachel grinding her stuffed "Bunny Baby" in her sink's garbage disposal as a child. So yeah Eric is deliberately torturing her right now. Is it supposed to be funny? I really don't get it. Even The Horde turns against him.

There's that thing about stones and glass houses, Louie, but in this case I'm going to have to agree with you. 

Jack has gained all the humanity that Eric has lost, seen as he makes a genuine effort to comfort her and talk her through her fears. Eric realizes what a sociopath he's being today, saying "I just hurt the only two people who tolerate me..." and encourages Rachel to conquer her fear, not that that makes up for anything. She makes it over the sink, and sends a bow toward the camera, the same way Truman does at the end of the movie, before heading off to The Union to murder Eric. Which she does. 

Shawn and Cory take Feeny out for one more brunch. They've apparently already apologized off-camera, a somewhat unsatisfying resolution, and this brunch is just gravy. The boys went ahead and wrote those papers that they didn't turn in, but Feeny gives them F's anyway, causing them to take back their food in a huff. The whole bit is humorous and fun to watch, but it's really not the resolution I was hoping for for this plotline.

During the credits, Jack explains to Eric that he now has a huge advantage in their contest to win Rachel's heart. It's true, but it only reinforces the point that Rachel serves no other purpose as a character. The twist is that she shows up with Louie, asking for some privacy.

Plot: 0.5 - Being generous for the Shawn/Cory story. Eric exploiting Rachel's body on television to get popular is pretty awful. And now at the end everything is just back to normal? What the fuck.

Character Development: 0.5 - Once again going to Shawn and Cory, realizing that they're still pretty immature, and Alan reprising his role as an authority figure.

Humor: 1.0 - Cory, Shawn, and Feeny were hilarious. Topanga's bit was good, and Louie was pretty funny too. Even Jack had some good moments, but Eric was a total let-down.

Life Lesson: 0.5 - Don't take advantage of your friends. Whether expecting special treatment, or exploiting them on television. 

2.5 out of 4.0. Eric is a fucking sociopath, but other than that it's fine. The Cory/Shawn story had a ton of potential. They were still great, by the far the best thing about this episode, but I wish they had a better resolution. Maybe one day Rachel won't just be a sack of meat.

Thanks for reading, see you Friday.

All images used under Fair Use.