Episode 4x13 "B & B's B 'N B"

Eric's going off to a camping-store convention... thing... where I guess a bunch of store owners get together and talk about tents and fishing poles and stuff. Alan's not going though, since someone has to stay and watch the store. I'm scared of what might happen if Eric's gone for an entire episode. Feeny barges in, running from Shawn, who follows moments after. Apparently Shawn wants to drop economics as he is struggling with the current assignment, which actually seems like a reasonable problem to bring to the principal until it starts to sound like Feeny is the one who gave the assignment. So I guess he's the economics teacher now too.

Is that easier to read? I raised the font size from thirty... to thirty five...!

The assignment is to create an imaginary business and then write a paper about running it. And this is causing Shawn to want to drop the class. This is a new level of laziness. Like a good teacher, Feeny tells Shawn to sit down and shut up so he can talk to Amy. He hands her his house keys since he's going away for the weekend, where he'll be staying at a "lovely bed and breakfast". Amy mentions offhandedly that B 'n B's can make pretty good money. Most of Feeny's instructions are about maintaining his plants, which Amy quickly delegates to Shawn and Cory as soon as the old man is out the door. You usually gotta call out the parents on these shows for opening the floodgates for the kids' antics, but this time I really can't fault her. What could they possibly do with plants? Start a pot farm?

We get our first inside look of Mr. Feeny's home, and it's pretty snazzy. Shawn runs upstairs to jump on Feeny's bed, then comes back down impressed by the multiple rooms and large bathroom. Inspired, he runs off to begin his economics project.

Oh good, we get to see Eric after all. He sits down at the bar at his hotel in whereverland and starts (successfully) flirting with the bartender. But Professor Cockblock is on the scene. Yes that's right, Mr. Feeny is at the same bar, which is weird considering that he said he was staying at a Bed and Breakfast. Ah okay, he's meeting a woman here to "have dinner in the hotel", yeah I'm real sure you're havin dinner Feeny Feen, and the menu ain't suitable for a family sitcom. Even so, the bed and breakfast thing still doesn't make sense, but we've gotta roll with it.

Mr. Feeny tells Eric a lovely story about how he meets up with this woman a few times a year for dinner, and they trade off asking the other to leave their jobs and move to their respective city to get married, and the other person always declines, as per the tradition. Eric is at his most mature during this conversation, which I like to think is the direct result of his mentor speaking to him like an adult. It's these subtle flashes of respect from Mr. Feeny that really define this show, even when they're not toward Eric.

Back in Philly, Cory finds Shawn in Feeny's house, where he's "working on [his] economics project". Apparently the rules of (American) grammar say that the period goes inside the quotation marks no matter what, but fuck that noise, that doesn't make any kind of sense. I'm siding with the rest of the world on this one. Anyway...

What's his project? Well Cory wants to know too.

You can see this show's signature raised-eyebrow-nod at the end of Cory's line there. I mentioned that a few reviews ago, but it's been going on since at least season 3. It's all over the place, seriously.

Okay, so the project is, you guessed it, a bed and breakfast inside Mr. Feeny's house. The assignment explicitly said to make up a business, but... okay... Shawn's put a lot of effort into this thing (not that that justifies it) by getting it all set up and advertising at the airport with fliers. Choosing the air port for advertising is either pure genius, or nonsense. It makes sense on the surface, but have you ever traveled without already having accommodations in place? Maybe it happens. Either way, it happens in the Boy Meets World universe, seeing as Shawn's already got some guests, who come downstairs just then. They're a Dutch couple, the Timmers, while the Mooreparks are upstairs in the "honeymoon suite", and the Hecks show up at the door soon after. Gloria Heck is played by Dena Dietrich who isn't too famous as far as I can tell, but Arnie Heck is played by Len Lesser. He was a pretty awesome old dude who I mostly know as Uncle Leo from Seinfeld.

Gloria Heck wants to go shopping, so Shawn calls down the concierge, a role played by our very own Topanga Lawrence. Her boyfriend asks how she could possibly get mixed up in one of Shawn's crazy schemes.

Homegirl gettin mad cash off those retirement-money tips, yo.

Shawn's apparently bribed a cab driver at the airport to tell old couples that all the hotels are full and to then bring them here, which is pretty clever. This is the same kid who blew up a mailbox? Maybe living with Turner actually did some good for him. He tells Cory that they're both going to get in trouble for this even if he gets caught alone, so Cory decides he might as well join the party. I keep wanting to say how ridiculous this is, but, for whatever reason, the writers decided to cover all of their bases this time. This is actually more plausible than City Slackers, and that's one of my favorites, so I shouldn't dwell on the realism too much.

Back at the hotel bar, Eric's flirting with the bartender again, and it is working. This is a huge departure from the Eric that fumbled around with Lonnie in the previous episode, and I like this Eric better. The bartender asks Eric to have "dinner" later after her shift ends, so dinner is just gonna be a euphemism for sex this whole episode, and our boy is game. She's cute, but she looks a lot older than him.

She actually kinda looks like an older Rachel, from seasons 6 and 7. Maybe Eric just has a type.

Buuuuuuuut Professor Cockblock wanders in with a pensive appearance and a glass of wine. Eric really wants to have a kiss and a cuddle with this girl, but they both accept that helping Mr. Feeny is more important. The bartendress heavily implies that she would have rocked Eric's world in the sack, causing him to whimper, and then he takes a seat with his mentor.

Feeny laments his romantic tradition, in particular the notion that they don't care for each other quite enough to take the plunge, and confirms that she did indeed say no. The two men have another emotional and mature conversation about love, and Eric comments that if Feeny really loved this woman he would be willing to risk everything. The old man observes that his risk taking days might be over, but Eric points out that it's never too late, and suggests they hit the town, or, as Feeny puts it, "cruise for chicks".

THERE IT IS. THEY'RE FRIENDS. THEY SAID IT. IT'S CANON. SHOW'S OVER EVERYBODY, WE GOT WHAT WE CAME FOR.

Seriously though, I love this scene! Eric has just given a life lesson to his mentor. That's huge. What a fantastic character arc. It is the epitome of Hollywood magic that they both ended up in this hotel bar, but if we accept that then this is amazing. Imagine how little we would care if this had just been sprung on us. But because of the way this relationship has been built over the last two seasons, it's a fantastic payoff. Mr. Feeny sees just how much Eric has grown under his guidance, and Eric finally gets the respect he's been working toward. There's 8 minutes left in the episode but I really don't care. This scene should have been the end.

Back at Feeny's house, the guests are going to sleep and the boys realize that they don't have any food to serve for breakfast the next morning. So they forgot half of "bed and breakfast", but fine. When the time comes, Cory fixes that particular problem by telling his parents they should pray before eating.

Even with a successful breakfast, they're not in the clear. Feeny comes home and there's a long bit where the departing guests almost get caught a bunch of times, but in the end it seems like the boys are actually going to get away with this one, much to Cory's disappointment. He thinks they should get caught, because they always get caught, and I guess that's a self-aware sort of funny.

Alas, Feeny's cab driver recognized his address (recall that Shawn bribed him to bring people to the B 'n B) and blew the whole operation.

The boys offer Feeny the money they made, which appears to be quite a bit, but they're not in too much trouble. Mr. Feeny comments that he happens to have a soft spot for risk takers at the moment, due to his earlier conversation with Eric. Further, he's going to give the money back to Shawn once he's in college, adding that Shawn is going to be fine out there with his evident business savvy. Shawn takes this assurance to heart and says, half-jokingly, that he doesn't have to be a criminal. I thought we learned that in the episode immediately before this one.

During the credits, Feeny tries to get that honeymoon-suite couple to leave his house by talking to them through his bedroom door. I guess they were still there, which sort of destroys the "almost got away with it" scene from earlier. Eventually they do come out, and they're like 90 years old, which is a throwback to Eric saying that it's never too late to find love. It's a lot nicer if you forget that these newlyweds just spent the last two days having Viagra fueled honeymoon sex on his bed.

Plot: 0.75 - The most interesting thing to happen with Cory and Shawn was the moment where we learned what they were doing. But then they just sort of... did it... killing time until Feeny came home. But as usual, Eric and Feeny came in for the save. Feeny's story about his tradition with this unnamed woman is wonderful. And even though the setup is next to impossible, the proceedings between him and Eric are spot on.

Character Development: 1.0 - ERIC AND FEENY ARE FRIENDS. WHERE IS THE EMMY. Also, it was nice to see Feeny express confidence in Shawn's potential at the very end.

Humor: 0.5 - Underwhelming, unfortunately. All of the guests at the B 'n B were really old, and the audience seemed to find them hysterical, but they didn't do anything for me.

Life Lesson: 0.5 - You're never too old to find someone special. Doesn't exactly resonate with the target audience.

2.75 out of 4.0. - Watch it just for the scenes with Eric and Feeny. No idea what the "B & B" in the title stands for. Boy and Boy? Bizmuth and Bilgewater? Am I just oblivious? I've never understood that one.

Thanks for reading, see you Friday. Shit, where did the week go...

All images used under Fair Use.

Episode 4x12 "Easy Street"

I am finally the top Google result for "Boy Meets World reviewed", and any other version of that. Feels damn good. Infinite thanks for supporting me, everyone.

We're in Mr. Turner's class where Topanga is finishing up a reading of The Road Not Taken by Robert Frost while Cory and Shawn perform synchronized snoring in the back of the room. Feeny stops by for some reason, but his intentions are left by the wayside as he wakes our heroes up and explains the meaning of Frost's poem: the impact that our choices can have. To follow that up, he asks Cory and Shawn what kinds of choices they've made lately, and both report that they've recently decided to get jobs over Christmas Break to be able to buy gifts. Cory is a gopher at some restaurant, Shawn is working down at the docks.

What the fuck was that? This is a seriously extreme example of protagonist privilege right here. They're blatantly sleeping in class, but it's fine because Mr. Feeny came by to recap the entire lesson for them. Let's just neglect everybody else in the class, that's fine. And the jokes in this scene kinda suck, every punch line is followed by this eyebrow-raising nodding thing that I'm sure you recognize if you ever watch this show.

Cory is especially notorious for that move. The scene fades out after a punchline, so there's no stated reason whatsoever for Feeny to stop by the room.

Now we're at Alan's outdoor-equipment store. Recall that they hired Lonnie, the daughter of a walking-stick wielding mountain man, a few episodes ago and by gum here she is again, putting up Christmas decorations. She's telling Eric how great her family Christmases were back in "the mountains" and starts feeling homesick and crying. But Eric has a shoulder to do it on. He then promises to take her back home for Christmas, even though it's 500 miles away. Alan just sort of looks on with disappointment, and who can blame him.

Time to see Cory's part time job.

Yeah that looks safe. These two suits are talking in Godfathery Italian accents too, so Cory is the only person on Earth who doesn't see what's going on here. But I guess that's a prerequisite for the job. Just gotta put "oblivious" on your resume, under "skills". The one on the right is Mr. Fountain, played by Buddy Hackett, who was a big deal way before my time, including being a panelist on What's My Line?. To his left is Mr. Martini, played by Soupy Sales, who is also a big deal to old people and a panelist on What's My Line?. I doubted the mob presence in Philly, but boy was I wrong. The "Philadelphia crime family" was alive and well, under the direction of Joseph Merlino in 1995, but it doesn't seem like this episode is making any direct references to that.

It's unusual to get 4 minutes into an episode without laughing, but here I am. Ah, okay, they got me at 5 and a half minutes. Shawn comes over to Cory's at 8 AM, having worked at the docks since 3. He does a whole bit about how cold and miserable it was, in stark contrast to how cushy and lucrative Cory's job is. Shawn just can't seem to catch a break.

That barely gets a rise out of the audience, but I think it's hysterical. I've seen a lot of comedy in hundreds of different forms, and after a point it's hard to be surprised by a punchline. You usually have to rely on delivery for the humor, but this is the sort of punchline that you can't possibly see coming. Awesome.

Cory brings Shawn in to work to show him just how easy his job is. Right away, one of the suits gives Cory a $20 dollar "tip" to take an envelope to some specific mailbox. Cory's asking too many questions, but Shawn sees what's going on and steps in like "yeah he'll definitely deliver it, no problem" and pulls his friend aside. Shawn informs how bow-tie clad friend that he is, in fact, working for the mob.

This is a trip down memory lane. Shawn's street smarts are filling in Cory's innocent/naive cracks. That's some season 2 shit, and I kinda miss it.

Cory quits immediately, without any problems from the suits, and heads for the hills. Shawn steps over to the What's My Line panelists and basically says "hey he's not a rat, don't whack my best friend," and they're cool about it. Noting Shawn's strong sense of loyalty, they offer him Cory's old job. He does indeed take the job, and excels at it with his sharpened knowledge of criminal activity.

Speakin' of sharp, god damn, that vest. I wish I had more opportunities to wear a vest, every guy looks good in one of those.

Cory stops by to try to talk Shawn out of working here, but our vested hero insists that nothing bad is going to happen, and that he just wants a little money to buy nice gifts for his friends and family. This is slightly reminiscent of "Santa's Little Helper" in season 1, when Shawn was stuck with a sparse set of Christmas gifts, but now he's taking matters into his own hands. Right on.

Changing gears a little bit, we're with Eric and Lonnie on the turnpike driving to "the mountains" or wherever. Eric's saying some kinda creepy stalkery stuff here, completely devoid of the charm we're used to, and Lonnie starts talking about a "powerful feeling" she's getting. She tells Eric to pull over, and everything she says sounds like she wants to bang, and Eric's reactions are pretty funny, but what she's actually feeling is an imminent blizzard. Sure enough, they get trapped in the car.

For once, the Eric story is underwhelming. This is like season 2 Eric, honestly, just completely losing his wits over a girl. There's nothing wrong with it, we just haven't seen it in a while. This episode was written by Jeff Menell, who did write a bunch of episodes in season 2, so maybe I'm on to something. Eric tries to bust out of the car by slamming into the door, but he hurts his head and starts acting all loopy.

Back at home, Shawn's brought a gift for Cory. It's an expensive watch, and Cory says he can't accept it because of where the money came from. Shawn convinces him to keep the watch, but he tries his best to get Shawn to quit the job. It's kinda preachy, but what did you expect. Anyway, Shawn doesn't quit, citing "easy money", but promises to be back the next night for Christmas Eve.

Over in the living room, Lonnie arrives at the door with a dazed Eric in tow.

Apparently they just waited in the car until the plow dug them out. I know dick and less about blizzards, so I'll reserve comment. When Amy and Alan leave the room, Lonnie informs Eric that they actually almost died out in the car, but Eric was unconscious for the whole thing.

No, what she did was strip the two of them down and embrace for warmth inside a sleeping bag. Eric is extremely distraught at having been unconscious during those proceedings, and makes that squeaky cry of anguish that I vividly remember from an earlier episode which, as it turns out, was in season 2. (Episode 15, if you care.)

Maybe I know too much about this show.

Aaaaaaanywayyy Eric starts crying, and Lonnie is trying extremely hard not to bust out laughing, and I can't blame her. It's hilarious. Aside from that, the entire story here is "they were gonna go but then they came back."

At the Italian restaurant, the suits have one last job for Vest Man. He's gotta go stand in some desolate location with a package, and wait for a car to come by for it, which is where the next scene starts. Shawn's standing there all alone in the cold when... Cory shows up... I'm sorry, what? How the hell did Cory get here! What is this, Chubbie's?

Shawn explains that he's never had money like this before, and that he doesn't want to walk away from good, easy money. Cory starts to be more aggressive in his protests, and it really feels like one of those YOU'LL DIE IF YOU SMOKE WEED programs, it's just not the tone we've come to expect from this show. Cory's taking the preachy route here, like "you're probably delivering drugs and that's bad", rather than something logical like "you'll most likely die or go to jail eventually", and it isn't working for me. Directly quoting Cory here: "I didn't see this coming at all. I mean, I thought the devil was supposed to be some guy with horns and a big tail." What the fuck are you talking about Cory? That's completely non sequitur, who wrote that.

They keep trying to reference Frost's The Road Not Taken, talking about choices in life. Shawn says "maybe no matter what I do, this is where I end up, like that poem says." Cory tries to correct him, suggesting that the poem means that "every choice you make matters." If you don't already know this, it might blow your mind, but Shawn is actually right. The Road Not Taken is probably the most commonly misunderstood American poem ever. Frost himself admitted that he was actually mocking the idea that single decisions would change your life. So, unfortunately, this time the inspiration from literature is backwards from what the literature was really saying.

They both say some more nonsense and decide to take the package back to the mobsters. That's dumb. Even if they're ethically opposed to delivering this package, a guilty conscience is a lot better than telling the mob "Nah man, I know I said I was gonna do it, but Robert Frost and stuff happened, you kinda had to be there. I'm not gonna do it though, so peace out."

Hah! We've all been there. Transitioning to Christmas as an adult is rough.

Lonnie informs Eric that her story about naked cuddling wasn't actually true. So... that subplot was even less interesting than before. Feeny and Turner are also there because who cares it's a sitcom, and then they take a picture, which turns into a greeting card, because who cares it's a sitcom.  

Fuck that shit, I care. I expected better from you, Boy Meets World.

Plot: 0.25 - Shawn and Cory randomly start working for the mob. And Eric's story was totally worthless. Like I said, kinda felt like a season 2 episode for all the stuff I pointed out, as well as the literature inspiration which was done pretty frequently back then. Except they screwed up the inspiration and wrote the worst version of Eric in the series.

Character Development: 1.0 - I guess this is the one where Shawn officially decides not to turn to a life of crime for money, and like I mentioned before, it's good to see him (and Cory) taking the initiative to work for some extra money.

Humor: 1.0 - I feel like I've given this badge a lot. Season 4 has been really funny.

Life Lesson: 0 - Misinterpret famous poems to fit your current needs.

2.25 out of 4.0. If you're looking for an episode to watch just for fun, I guess this might work, but it's really forgettable. Why does "forgettable" have two t's? Whatever.

Thanks for reading, see you Wednesday. And don't miss the second season of Orange Is The New Black.

All images used under Fair Use.

Episode 4x11 "An Affair to Forget"

Our pal Shawn just got dumped. Way dumped. By a girl with the "popular" look named Jennifer Bassett. I checked the spelling because I thought they'd try to make a joke with Basset hounds, but no dice. She's played by Kristanna Loken who, aside from having a totally bitchin last name, has done a whole lot of everything since this role. At least one bad movie per year, almost, as well as a bunch of short-lived TV shows. My personal pick is her appearance in the Key & Peele sketch "Power Falcons". It's on youtube on the official Comedy Central channel, so it's guilt free in addition to being funny. Brenda Song is in that sketch too. (I love Key & Peele).

Anyway Shawn's taking it pretty hard. We haven't seen him like this since Dana.

Cory convinces his best buddy that Jennifer is all fake, from her personality to her nose. This inspires Shawn to go tell her off, saying that he thinks she's conceited and that he's over her. Jennifer wants to know where these insults came from. Shawn initially resists, but after a big long kiss, he admits it was Cory. I don't fully understand what happens next, but either out of spite toward Cory or revitalized attraction to Shawn's new assertiveness, or both, she decides she wants to date Shawn again. He agrees, because he's fifteen and she's pretty.

At Chubbie's, Cory explains why this is a bad idea. He lists some choice adjectives for Jennifer, or "Zathrak the Undead" as he's taken to calling her, but because this is television she's standing right behind him. As a result, Jennifer pulls Shawn aside and does a him-or-me thing. Again, Shawn initially resists, but, again, fifteen.

Cory's expression is priceless.

I dunno guys, this just doesn't seem possible. She's not even that pretty, and it's not like there's a shortage of girls who want to make out with Shawn.

At home, Amy and Alan return from the theatre and regale Eric with the details. They saw a one woman show, where she "sat on a stool and told the remarkable story of her life" to a sold out theatre. Naturally, Eric decides to write his own.

This is great. We've jumpstarted Eric's quest for meaning and fulfillment. He's been on the back-burner since he started working in his father's new store, but now he's on the... back-in-action-burner.

That was a joke. Thanks for coming.


It's even right there in the title of the play. Eric wants to feel validated.

The phone rings, and we get an adorable split-screen conversation between Shawn and Cory. They say a bunch of hilariously romantic stuff, like "I was just listening to the sound of your voice" and "you can't let her come between what we have". The delivery in particular is spot on. Ultimately they agree to meet in the library the next morning.

In the library, Jennifer shows up unannounced, causing problems for the boys' plan. It seems that Shawn has brought a cinnabun as a gift for Cory, but has to give it to Jennifer to avoid suspicion. Topanga comes by and tells Shawn there's something he might be interested in over in the Classics section. It is there that our heroes converse in cautious tones through a tall bookshelf, in the same romantic style as the stuff they said on the phone. Fun fact, the banner at the top of this blog is from this scene. Although, it was either cut footage or a publicity picture, since that exact shot never occurs. It's a great picture on its own, but in context it's magnificent. As is the scene itself, it's one of my favorites.

I love how completely unafraid they were of writing this. Bromance to the max.

Jennifer comes up expecting to find Cory, but he manages to dodge out of the way. The scene ends with Jenny dragging Shawn off to class. It's halfway through the show now and I feel like I haven't done much reviewing. There really isn't much to say. Almost everything so far has been for the sake of humor on top of a basic premise. And while the humor has been fantastic, there just isn't much to talk about story-wise.

Later that night, Eric needs some help from the only person capable of giving it.

I plan on having every Feeny Call in a gif by the end of this.

Eric wants Feeny to read through his play and give him advice, but the old man claims to want no part in this. I'm just impressed that Eric managed to write that much in less than 24 hours. Feeny relents and reads a few sentences, and they suck, and then he reluctantly agrees to try to sell some tickets for Eric's show.

Inside, Cory's maintaining a lavishly prepared dinner for a late and unnamed dinner guest, whom his parents assume is Topanga. She arrives with a pie, and we learn that the dinner was in fact for Shawn. Sad to say, it doesn't seem like he's coming, but Topizzatopping insists that he will show up eventually.

I like everything about that. The writing, movements, body language, and tone are all amazing.

Just then, the phone rings and Shawn is on the other end in a hilarious country club tennis outfit with a sweater draped around his shoulders. It's the same sort of bit as before, as well as the revelation that Jennifer found Shawn's "box of cinnabun receipts", so she's been on extra high alert lately. Shawn apologizes and Cory insists that he's not hurt.

Again, I'm not sure what to talk about here. This is the third time they've done this bit, and while it's still completely hilarious, there's nothing to say that hasn't been said.

Topanga gets an idea and tells Cory to be at Chubbie's in an hour. Some sort of surfer rock guitar riff plays us into Eric's premiere of Look At Me, Look At Me. There's a shot of the sign outside, and because I paused it to write this I noticed that this is taking place at a bowling alley, but it's really easy to miss otherwise since there's no indication of it inside. The shot only lasts a few seconds, it's definitely one of the more subtle jokes I've seen on this show.

The moment Eric begins, a baby in the audience starts wailing, which is a fantastic touch.

It's not going well. The woman sitting behind Feeny is trying torturously to hide her laughter. And I can't blame her.

At Chubbie's, Topanga brings Shawn into the back room with the pool table for a secret meeting with Cory. WOW, TOPANGA. THAT WAS YOUR PLAN? Your plan for getting Cory and Shawn to meet is to bring them both to the same place, you are basically Tesla.

The boys decide to shoot some pool, but before they can start, Jennifer arrives to find them fraternizing. Apparently she received an anonymous tip to come here. Now Topanga re-enters, I guess she only left before so that she could make a dramatic re-entrance, so that's kinda vain.

Topanga explains that she set this up like it was some great feat, I don't even know where she got Jennifer's cell number, and then Jennifer gives Shawn another deep-kiss-ultimatum. So what was the point of the first ultimatum that started all this? I don't think she understands how these things work. Shawn chooses Cory this time, even though nothing has changed from last time, not even the location. And... that's it. It's really not clear why she wanted to get back together with Shawn in the first place. Or why she dumped him in the first place. I don't think it's out of spite because, in her defense, she does manage to show up only when Cory is talking shit about her. I don't think the dumping+undumping was really even necessary. That brought nothing new to the table.

During the credits, we see the ending to Eric's play and it is hysterical. Amy and Alan are asleep in their chairs and everyone else has left by the time he finishes. Eric sits down and finds that Mr. Feeny has joined him on stage to talk things out. Feeny explains that Eric still has many great years to make something out of himself, that his best moments lie ahead of him, and that a college education is a good place to start.

You're damn right they are.

Plot: 0.75 - There really wasn't anything special going on with Cory and Shawn, but Eric writing and performing a one man show? That's uniquely original and it was fun to watch. If we'd seen more if, I would have gone for the full point.

Character Development: 0.75 - As much as the writers may have intended it, Shawn did not earn most of that .75. In this episode, he thinks with his dick until he gets frustrated. There isn't any great moral ascension here. Similar to the plot, we have Eric to thank, as he has worked through an extremely common crisis for recent high school (and college) graduates. Again, full point if he had been the center of attention.

Humor: 1.0 - Eaaaaaaaasy full point. The bromance between Cory and Shawn is legendary, and it's in full force today. Eric and Feeny were also very funny.

Life Lesson: 0.75 - Bros before hoes, but only after you have enough content for an episode. More importantly, the time to regret your lack of achievement is not your early 20s. That is the time to start achieving.

3.25 out of 4.0. Eric's story deserves a lot of the credit, but even so, the entire thing was outrageously funny. Even without Eric it would still be worth watching, but he makes it considerably better. That pretty much describes the entire series.

Thanks for reading, see you Monday.

All images used under Fair Use.

Episode 4x10 "Turkey Day"

Mr. Feeny is actually teaching history today. In particular, the Rwandan Civil War, between the Tutsi aristocracy and the lesser Hutu majority, with a focus on the influence of class differences. The school-day is about to end and usher in the Thanksgiving break, but in the last moments Feeny announces that he wants the students to write a paper on class differences over the break. Further, he informs the students that Shawn and Cory have "won" the food drive by donating the most food, which is going to go right back to Shawn's poor family anyway.

Turkey is essentially a stuffing delivery device. Cory and Shawn think so too, and neither wants to give up the stuffing. This is definitely one of the more relatable issues this season. Blood has been spilled over stuffing. But the boys decide not to spill blood, and instead agree to have Thanksgiving together. It's never been addressed until now, but apparently the Matthews and Hunter parents aren't exactly friends, just incidental acquaintances. The only one on board with the group thanksgiving is Virna, Shawn's mother. She convinces Chet, and Cory manages to convince Amy and Alan on the basis that Shawn's parents are excited about it.

Later, Frankie shows up at the Matthews house to arrange a "dating situation" with Morgan.

Hilarious, but he's actually trying to arrange a date between Morgan and Herman. Like always, he delivers his lines like he's got a mouth full of cotton, and Morgan agrees to eat a piece of pie with him on Thanksgiving. That would have been enormously inconvenient if the Matthews weren't already going to be eating with the Hunters, but whatever.

I guess the writers are trying to make it clear by this point that Frankie has been reborn. He is definitely not The Enforcer anymore.

We fast forward to the trailer park on Thanksgiving day. Amy has left her purse in the car and wants to retrieve it for fear of it being stolen, but Eric steps in to be a gentleman.

It's difficult to translate Eric's tone to text, but it's perfect. You all know that sometimes Will Friedle says something perfectly, hilarious beyond explanation, and this is one of those times. His voice acting has been great over the last two decades, but I would love to see him on the screen more often. Anyway, Alan sends Cory to get the purse since he won't drive off.

After an awkward, accidental encounter with the Unters, the family find their way to the Hunter trailer. Some obvious class differences raise the tension right away. The Matthews family has brought food in nice dishes, as well as a bottle of fine wine, while the Hunters have plastic utensils and boxed wine. The parents and Eric are all painfully aware of how uncomfortable this is, even though Virna is trying her damnedest to not look like trailer trash in front of their middle class guests. She decides to go out and buy some fancier cheese to meet that end, telling Chet that she just wants the meal to go well.

Once again, much funnier with the voice. Regardless, Virna does not in fact leave to buy cheese.

Cory comes back with the purse, just in time to hear Chet tell his wife that the party is going to suck with or without fancy cheese. Cory asks Shawn how things could have gotten so bad so quickly, and Shawn concedes that these problems are bigger than either of them.

This is great stuff so far. A believable examination of the tension from class differences. Virna is obviously envious while Chet is bitter, and the Matthews parents are just trying not to be rude or condescending. Nothing exciting is happening, and we're at 10 minutes, but that's okay! It's building up for a payoff at the end, or at least it seems like it. There's a lot of framing going on, and it's interesting to think about how much better this could be if we'd seen some of these clashes between the parents in previous episodes.

The realism breaks a little bit when the Unter guy from before knocks at the door and takes Chet outside to a meeting of the Trailer Park Patriarch Mafia, or Tray-Pay-Pay-May, who tell Papa Hunter that they don't take kindly to middle class folks around these parts. It's a little silly, but it gets the story moving.

I'm going to go ahead and say that Amy was justified in worrying about her purse. These guys mean business. Chet tries to defend the Matthews folks, but the old guy orders him to get rid of them and then goes off to watch Jerry Springer. The sad acoustic guitar music plays through the fade out, but then the electric guitar fades back in, so that's weird.

Chet pulls Shawn and Virna outside to explain why their guests are going to have to leave. Inside, Cory calls out his parents on their bull shit class prejudice, and Alan brings the wisdom smackdown.

Hooooooooooly SHIT. That is amazing advice, especially for teenagers. I've wasted a monumental amount of time in arguments where everyone involved "knew" they were right, and by the end nothing changed. I think this is the harshest reality we've seen so far on Boy Meets World, and it couldn't have come from anyone but Alan. Damn that's real.

Outside, Chet explains the situation to his family. The Matthews kids come out to escort Morgan to her date with Herman. At Chet's behest, everyone walks really low to the ground to avoid being seen.

We get some more tense class-conflict between the four parents while the kids are sneaking over to Herman's. Hopefully Frankie's dad was not in the Patriarch Mafia. Wait, his dad is Vader, how the fuck is Vader poor enough to live in a trailer park?  Thaaaaaaaaaat doesn't make a lot of sense.

Anyway, the parents agree that this event isn't really working out, and that the Matthews family should just head home. Alan comments "That doesn't make it anybody's fault," and they all know that it's nothing personal. And that's the KEY, ladies and gentlemen, that is the most important part! How easy it is to be uncomfortable around "different" people, for "not personal" reasons; that's basically the definition of prejudice. Even without violence or animosity or hostility, it's still so easy to be prejudiced.

Over at Frankie's trailer, Vader is nowhere to be seen so I don't know what's going on there. The Stachino boys invite Eric, Shawn, and Cory to stay and eat with them, as they've all just finishing setting up the table outside. That's actually reasonable. Unlike the magical trailer pictured above, an average trailer wouldn't have room for a big table inside. I don't know if the allure of a thanksgiving meal could get me to sit down with Herman though. Look at his dumb face.

At least he's being nice to everybody. AM I THE PREJUDICED ONE? HOLY SHIT. It's not because he's fat, it's just the way he says his lines, I can't stand it. 

They decide to go around the table and have everyone say what they're thankful for. We did that in my family on Thanksgiving, and it was always the most awkward thing ever. I have two sisters, and so for any Thanksgiving at least one of us was at an angsty age, so we could never just get through the damn thing, but ultimately it's probably a worthwhile tradition.

Eric goes, then Frankie, and they're both meaningful without being cheesey, and then Herman says "I ah thehfuh tuh buh si'i neh ta this delkuht blawshm," while looking at Morgan. AND MAYBE IT'S JUST BY COMPARISON, but Morgan goes next and does her best delivery in the series.

The parents (listening from the background of that gif) realize that they're a bunch of jerks, and resolve to try their best to enjoy Thanksgiving, and sit down with everyone else at the table. It sounds cheesier than it is. 

During the credits, we're in Feeny's class as he hands back the papers everyone wrote over the break. He calls Shawn up to the front of the room to read his paper out loud. And honestly, real talk, my heart is already racing. This is one of those top 5 scenes right here. Shawn reads part of his paper where he draws parallels between the Hutu/Tutsi conflict from earlier and the class conflict he saw during Thanksgiving. It's really quite good, and if you recall my mention of a "payoff" at the end, this is the payoff.

I strongly recommend watching that scene, if not the entire episode.

Plot: 1.0 - A Thanksgiving episode with a legitimate conflict? It's almost unheardof.

Character Development: 0.5 - I want to give this episode a full score, but I really can't justify the CD badge. The parents are all less dick-like about class differences, at least for the time being, but they kinda got guilted into it, so I'm not feeling a badge here.

Humor: 1.0 - The humor was spread around the cast really well. Everybody had at least a couple funny lines.

Life Lesson: 1.0 - The prejudice stuff, obviously, but that's not even necessary for the full point. That gif of Alan about "being right", man, that's some seriously heavy wisdom.

3.5 out of 4.0. This is a great one. That scene at the end though... It's City Slackers-esque, you know? Every time Feeny shows pride in Shawn, my heart sings. It's really just beautiful.

Thanks for reading, see you Friday. Also, I've really enjoyed all the comments lately!

All images used under Fair Use.