Episode Review: "Girl Meets Semi-Formal" (#2.13)

Hi. 

There's over 120 comments on the previous review, which is quadruple the average, so if we didn't get to your comment, that's our bad. There were a lot of them and life is short. But we absolutely love all the discussion and feedback, so don't be shy!

There's a lot to love in this episode, so let's quickly run through what I didn't like.

1. Maya's narration. Here's a re-enactment of me watching this shtick:
"Oh, hah, she's narrating like that 50's footage they just watched in class."
"Hmm she's doing it a second time, well okay I guess they didn't have a lot of ideas for this script."
"A third time? They're milking this gag a bit too much."
...
"A HUNDRED TIMES?"

Her accent wasn't even very good. None of it worked. And Christian is going to tell you the opposite because he'd rather die than say something bad about Maya. But there you go. Maya was, for once, the weakest of the four young'ns.

2. "Undapants." Help me out here. What's the thought process when someone laughs at a callback like this? Is it simply "Haha I know what that's referring to!"? I know what it's referring to, so does everyone else, but that alone doesn't make it funny. What am I missing? Eric wasn't even there when Undapants happened. It was just Cory, Topes, and Shawn. May as well have called Cory "Celery" or "Baboon" for all the sense it made. This was a poorly executed joke, and an affront to the legacy of Undapants. It deserved better, made worse by the fact that Will Friedle wrote this script. You don't have to force it, Will. We don't need to reference a BMW joke in every episode with a guest star.


Honestly, as I'm watching the episode a second time, the whole first five minutes is average at best. The 10 months and 5 months back bits were, admittedly, necessary groundwork for future dialogue, but they weren't... fun... Like, the 5 months back was exactly the same as the 10 months. I kinda wanted to move on. And then the movie on "Etiquette" served no purpose in the story, it never even came up again. It merely served as a springboard for Maya's narration nonsense. I did enjoy Farkle's play, though. I love new Farkle with his infusion of Donnie Barnes.

But once we're past all that, things start looking up with the arrival of Charlie. 

Charlie is a much needed break from the tired and guaranteed obviousness of the Riley+Lucas pairing. He seems like a cool guy, respecting the likelihood of Lucas asking her, or "dibs" as it's known out here on the streets. And he taught Yogi how to skate. 

Credit to Will for being handed a pen and being told "write a scene to instantly make the audience like a romantic competitor for Lucas." It's frustrating that I like Charlie after one scene while we all hate Zay after he's had how many scenes? Why can they make EVERYONE work on this show besides Zay? I don't know. It probably doesn't matter since the actor behind Charlie doesn't have any future episode credits yet. 

Jack's tie-in is excellent. Especially after the fucking mess they came up with for Angela. He's exactly where he should be. He left the Peace Corps, lost contact with Rachel and Eric, now he's working for Evil Corp, come to lobby a senator. This is precisely the "Jack needs Eric's good influence" story that we've all talked about at length. They didn't sugar coat it. Jack is the bad guy. That's awesome. And Matthew Lawrence is the best he's ever been. Then again, that's not too hard when you've got the heaven-sent honor of playing off of Will Friedle. Jack really only works as a counterpoint to Eric. I doubt he'd be any fun to watch in a scene with Shawn or Rachel. 

Jack pulling from his love triangle experience to advise Riley was awkwardly predictable, and Riley looked uncomfortable getting advice from this guy who her father didn't even bother to introduce properly. I adored Jack's reaction to meeting Riley though. It was uniquely genuine, probably the second most genuine and human moment we've ever seen from Jack Hunter, behind Chet's death. The advice itself was well written and well executed. Frankly, this scene could have been a disaster. Jack giving romantic advice to Riley while Cory and Eric stand on the sidelines? That does not sound like something I want to watch, but they nailed it. It felt very smooth, very natural, and most importantly they didn't drag it out into some Cory's Life Lesson Speech. It was just a quick bit of advice.

On the subject of Cory though, that "I remember us every day" made me vomit. I appreciate the sentiment but it's just so smug, look at that smirk, ugh, God. "Aren't I so wise, Jack? Do you see how wise I've become?" Cory is not cut out for those kinds of lines. 

The musical performance was unnecessary, but at least it was a real band instead of some Disney-funded teen band. Christian has some great points about that that I'm not going to steal, so I'll just say in advance that I agree.

The conclusion was fantastic. All of the dialogue at the end of the dance was perfect. Maya's "You're still dancing with me and Riley's dancing with that guy," in particular. These characters are all flexible and adaptable, they're keeping their heads on in a situation where almost any other tween/teen show would have the characters making a disgustingly big deal out of it all. This is what I like to call a Michael Jacobs Moment. 

I know, I can't get good screenshots from this camcorder ass bootleg. I'll try to update these pictures once the episode airs. 

What about the Jack/Eric conclusion? Ummmmmmmmmmmmmmm A+. Because there wasn't a conclusion. I was terrified of some "You're right Eric, this oil company is bad for the environment" nonsense, but we got out of there without a forced resolution. Jack is still Jack and we've got a lot of room for future development. Development that I'm honestly excited to see. WE'VE WAITED SO LONG FOR THIS STORY. If you ever read Boy Meets World Reviewed, you know how badly I wanted this. This should have been the original dynamic between Jack and Eric, and it feels so good to finally have it. 

I thoroughly enjoyed Matthew Lawrence's perform-awrence. Perfawrence? Something. Christian is going to tell you that he "didn't nail that one delivery" but I don't get it. What do you want man? You want him to dance a little caper and stare into the camera on the punchline? It was fine. I'm close to giving him my MVP, I really thought he rocked that scene at the dance. 

Somehow I haven't touched on the humor yet. This was one of the funniest episodes of the show, for sure, maybe the funniest. Will managed to hit that perfect note writing Eric's jokes where he's a big goofball, but not a total idiot. "This? No, this is candy" comes to mind. God that's funny. And the girls slamming their lockers to get chalk dust on Cory was excellent. It was a longer joke, rather than the standard two-line "setup -> punchline" that we usually see. Definitely one of the best for humor. Will is a genius. Except for Undapants. But that joke is so different from all the others that I'd almost believe Jacobs forced that on him.

I'll hold off on grading and MVP until we've heard from Jack's number 1 fan with the indigo font.

I guess there's no reason to say ANYTHING, is there, Sean? You've already SPOILED some of my thoughts! Okay, so, I'm going to go through and just directly address your things for me before I speak to my thoughts on the episode as a whole. 

YES, I LIKED MAYA'S NARRATION! WHAT OF IT?! I'm not some die-hard Maya apologist, first off, I like Maya, sure, but I've criticized her plenty in episodes like Mr. Squirrels where she sucked. I'm not even sure I'd definitively say she's my favorite of the kids. I think more often than not I like Riley better, even if I agree Sabrina's performances are stronger. But seriously, I enjoyed it, and I thought her Katharine Hepburn-esque mid-Atlantic accent was enjoyable. You know who was actually really good at the 1950s voice? The girl who played Sally, the 1950s film girl. Her lines weren't super funny, and there weren't many, but I'm going to give her a little shout for actually really getting 1950s actress cadence down. Sabrina's voice was actually a little more 1930s/'40s screwball comedy. Sally sounded like she was in a '50s TV show.

You didn't mention it, but you caught that was Will doing the '50s film strip right? I noticed it right away, but then I'm great.

I agree, I didn't like Undapants, and I agree my thought was "You weren't even THERE, Eric!" It reminded me a lot of the similarly unnecessary "They want you take the rolls!" in Pluto. In fact, it's REALLY the same. BMW vet comes into the apartment, sets Cory up for a classic nonsequiter line, Our hero delivers. AND THE CROWD GOES WILD! Not great. Yeah, guys. We like Cory. Cory's funny. Cory had a lot of great lines and moments on Boy Meets World. That's why you remembered him and his friends and gave him another show. Do your callbacks when they're subtle and fun. but don't shove them down our throat. I'd agree it feels like a forced line, expressly because it feels so exactly how it's already been handled.

Okay, what else did you call me out on? Oh, yeah, here's my thing with Sheppard. Yeah, I do not like celebrity guest stars (who are playing themselves) on shows and REALLY don't like musical guests. I don't get the point of them. Like, what are they expecting, some Sheppard fan is going to check out this episode because they like them? If they want to watch Sheppard sing a song, they can YouTube it. Why would they sit through a 30 minute episode for it? It's dumb. And it's always awkward. BUT! They didn't do some of the worst aspects of it - they didn't have the characters act and play a role in the story, they didn't have it randomly turn out that one of the characters was friends with them ("Shit, Cory's down in the dumps. I better call my good pal, MLB great Jim Abbott to give him a talking to."), and best of all everyone wasn't awkwardly and unbelievably HUGE fans of them. That's what I really hate, everyone's always like their number one fan ("Two random actors from the Love Boat?! I LOVE YOU GUYS!") even if they're characters who logically wouldn't be into them, and it sucks. So, they avoided all of that. While Sheppard isn't about to play a middle school dance, I can believe a U.S. Senator has enough pull to make something like that happen. And it was just a concert, nothing more. It didn't feel jammed into the story ("Hey, let's decide who gets what apartment so that- AHHH!!! WHY ARE THESE PROFESSIONAL WRESTLERS IN HERE?!")

So, this episode in general. I loved this episode. What we have here is an episode that effortlessly includes two vets (introducing one to the audience for the first time). handles them well, and still manages to really focus on the main story and characters and carry that forward, and make all the characters come off well and interesting. Plus, it's funny, plus it delivers a good lesson, plus it has a fucking celebrity guest band that doesn't feel gratuitous, plus it introduces a brand new character it wants us to like and we do, plus it handles Eric exactly how I believe he's supposed to be handled. It's tasked with a bunch of things, things that other episodes have only had to handle one of (and have failed at that) and it delivers. Is it perfect? Nah. I agree, that opening bit wasn't too much fun and felt like it was exposition, and Eric still had jokes that made him like dumb in a not funny way (Seriously, what is funny about Eric not understanding the differences between the words "secret" and "room" preceding "service", that's not funny dumb, that's I-don't-want-to-watch-this dumb) but those instances were minor... when looked at on the whole, everything considered, I absolutely believe this to be the best episode of this series. It juggled A LOT of balls, guys, and it delivered. This is, objectively, OBJECTIVELY, the best episode of this series. It will be receiving the coveted A+ that only Pluto has received thus far.

So, let's focus on some stuff, and why not start with Jack. And why not pause here because I'm BOOOOORED of writing. So, you can respond to any of this if you want, Sean, but I have a lot more to say.

Alright, while you're taking a breather, no I didn't notice Will did the film strip. I'm going to blame the bootleg quality. Adding to the list of "Stupid Things They Avoided With Sheppard," the main characters didn't end up on stage with the band, and there was no "This song is from Charlie to Riley." God it makes me sick thinking of all the awful things that sitcoms do with bands. I think that's it. I expected to mostly agree on what you've said, so I'll head backstage again.

So, Jack. Yeah, this was a great episode for him. His best ever episode is "Getting Hitched" from Season 6, where Jack struggles with his own grief for Chet's death mixed with his desire to not intrude on Shawn's grief which he feels is more deserving than his own. It's really a great episode for him, a rare instance when the audience likely ends up sympathizing with him over everyone's favorite delicate little dandelion, Tiger Beat Icon Shawn Hunter. It's also Jack's only good episode on that entire damn show. This is his OTHER good episode. Sean and I just had a laugh earlier today over the fact that, when all is said and done, Jack is probably the character on BMW that I most resemble in real life (not, like, physically, but personality-wise) but while that's true, my main issue for him has always been that he felt tacked-on to a show that was already working, and he wasn't given enough to do when he was, and that holds true. But it was fun to see him 15 years later, to see exactly how we expected he would be, exactly how "Seven The Hard Way" predicted, and that his rash impulse of joining the Peace Corps, while indicative of a soul buried deep down there, didn't take because, as evidenced by even most of the finale episode where it happened, Jack's, like, not going to do that. 

While I always felt confident the show was telling us Shawn and Angela weren't ending up together, it was Jack and Rachel I couldn't quite decide about. They broke up between Seasons 6 and 7 and, unlike C+T and S+A never got back together. But despite that the show still decided to send them off sepearately, by themselves, on the Peace Corps. While it seemed to be half a "We already wrote out Angela, and we know Jack and Rachel don't belong in this final scene" thing and half about that rumor that they were trying to spin Cory, Eric, Shawn, and Topanga (and them alone) off onto an ABC Family or Disney Channel Friends-clone sitcom, it also seemed like a headfake towards "Okay, sure, Jack and Rachel end up happily ever after maybe." But it never felt real, and this seems to be exactly what would have happened - Jack did it for a little while, quit, moved back home, his stepfather got him a job, and the rest is history. And good. I like that that's what happened, I like that instead Jack's redemption is a journey and not an eleventh hour Hail Mary. It was a very poignant moment when we discover that the inevitable side effect of that whole triangle was that now, in 2015, Jack hasn't spoken to Rachel in years while she and Eric are still close. That's, honestly, all I need from Rachel. I don't need to see her. It probably would have been wrong to never so much as mention her name, but you have now, and that's enough. Maybe a little bit more closure from Eric ("She's back in Texas, running a nonprofit, married with kids") may have wrapped the bow up neater, but it's fine, whatever. Very well handled.

Meanwhile, Jack, a character who never felt like a natural return due to his own tangential connection to Corpanga, returned very organically. It didn't feel forced like, in my humble opinion, Harley being the janitor or Minkus being Farkle's father is, it felt organic and natural. He came back... because he knows Eric, and Eric has become a character on this show. That's it. He reunited with Cory too, but they seemed to treat each other as guys who were friendly and ran in the same circle but were not close themselves (Jack didn't even know Cory had kids, which again, in this age of Facebook, seems unlikely but whatever) so that didn't feel forced. While I agree with your issue of Cory being full of shit when he acts all "Aren't I wise? Bet you're pretty impressed with me!" I think it was only that one line I didn't like. It is probably odd that there was not even a hint to the fact that Jack was Shawn's brother (since Shawn is a big enough GMW character now that to have his brother on the show and not let new audience members know that "HEY! THIS IS SHAWN'S BROTHER, GUYS!" is probably not right) 

But yeah, I liked Jack's awkwardness around Riley mixed with his legitimate excitement to discover Cory had a kid, hints that it's a life he'd appreciate but never got around to. And I liked that it wasn't wrapped up, though, there should have been at least a LITTLE closure. Like, Eric here was tasked with a decision and he didn't even make it. While it was sort of obvious Eric had already made up his mind and wasn't even considering another option, they should still say so. And since Jack isn't presently on the docket for other episodes, it might have also been good (unless we ARE going to see him again) to firmly hear that Jack is going to change some shit. Still, MVP to Matt Lawrence? No way. I briefly considered doing a Top 5 again, and Matt wound up only 5th when I thought it out. I do think he kind of didn't wring the comedy out of good lines like "Well, I'm at a middle school dance and your brother's my date". He's not horrid, but he's just not as talented, in my opinion, as folks like Will, Rider, and Ben. 

Lastly, let's talk about Charlie except no, I'm fatiiiiiiguuuuuued again.

Sure, we can pretend there are rules to your MVP system when it's convenient. But for me, it's whichever character I enjoyed watching the most, and today that was Jack Hunter. It's pretty insane though that they didn't give a quick "this is Shawn's brother," you're right. That's pretty crucial information. Man, they just knew exactly what to do with Jack. I didn't mention it earlier, but you did, how his meeting with Cory was "oh hey we used to hang out sometimes," instead of pretending they were real friends.

THEY'RE NOT TRYNNA SELL US ANY KINDA BULLSHIT. There's no bullshit being sold in this episode. It's nice.

And yeah, it was just that one line that I didn't like with Cory. But it was outrageously bad.

I like what you're saying about Rachel. Yesterday I would have told you that I never wanted to hear her name on this show, but you're absolutely right, this was the perfect thing to do with her. It was quick, Riley (realistically) doesn't seem that interested in the details, and clearly neither Jack nor Eric still has romantic feelings for her, THANK. GOD. Again, not trying to sell us any bullshit.

I wonder which character I'm most similar to. I think I talked about my Cory-like origins, but I'm so very independent while Cory lives and breathes on other people's attention. At the moment I feel like Seven The Hard Way's Shawn, lone-wolfing through creative and artistic endeavors, and when Feeny asks "Are you happy?" all he can say is "........Not yet." That line always hit me. But I digress.

Once more I shall retreat to the shadows while you wax poetic about our boy Charlie. You know who else would want to take breaks between writing segments? Jack. I want everyone, and god dammit I mean EVERYONE to refer to Christian as Jackstian in the comments of this post. No exceptions.

I definitely got a little Shawn in me too, especially with regards to how he approaches relationships and in his angsty-but-covering-with-a-smirk-and-a-quip which is maybe why I tend to be so hard on him too, and make fun of him for his more emo tendencies, which I've had my fair share of as well. And I've always felt kinship with middle seasons Eric too - I can be spoiled and cocky (also Jack traits), and I've also coasted on charisma and charm without really applying myself and living up to that famous potential people were always talking about, which ended me up on the wrong side of a lot of  situations. So, yeah, throw Jack, Eric, and Shawn in a blender for me. It's definitely not just Jack - after all, the Jack I'm talking about is Season 7 Jack anyway... they never even bothered to give the guy a personality until then. I do think I'd like Jack more if they introduced Jack as acting like that and told the story of that guy as Shawn's brother. Jack was like super humble and hard-working and generic nice-guy when we met him. I guess I'm all the guys but Cory. I'm really not like Cory at all. Except CAM is my initials too. 

But yeah, I definitely took you for a (latter seasons) Shawn, so glad my instincts on that were true. And Jack would maybe want to take a break between writing segments only because Jack doesn't have a creative bone in his body and wouldn't want to write a blog about a TV show in the first place. Fuck Jack, man!

I'm only up because I woke up in the middle of the night. I'll finish this tomorrow. Promise my next update will be the full one, I was pretty beat tonight.

If you get to this before I get to it, though, assuming we never see Jack again and this is it for him (and, honestly, I probably don't assume that, I think we'll get another Jack episode, even if it's not this season) where do you see his relationship with Shawn standing? We know he lost touch with Eric and Rachel (people with whom he was, frankly, closer) do you think their relationship is Seven the Hard Way now? Are they totally out of touch? It kind of seems like they would be, but then I think if the relationship was truly estranged and Jack completely shut him out, that Cory would be treating Jack more icily. Or, who are we kidding, Cory would have already camped out in Jack's office and demand he come with him and talk to Shawn.

I'M DOING ANOTHER REWATCH (to fall back asleep, to no avail) and here's a quick one-two of continuity issues to muse on: 

1) The flashback to 5 months ago when Lucas still had not asked Riley to the dance is shown to clearly be winter, indicative of an episode that is probably intended to take place in May or so. But they showed this one early on (helpfully right after Yearbook, the events of which are mentioned, but where I don't believe it was intended) where it could only take place on the early end of the school year (we still have a Halloween episode coming up) and thus 5 months ago being winter makes no sense.

2) We begin in the middle of a school day. We eventually cut to Cory at home, hanging out with Eric. We then cut BACK to the exact same school day with Maya and Riley in the same clothes. Did Cory just.... leave work, hang out with Eric for a while, then go complete his day? Did he ditch? I bet Cory often gets into trouble where after the one period of the day where he has Riley and Maya he assumes he's done for the whole day and goes home only to remember he's got other classes.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Okay, let's continue on with this marathon post.

Charlie really worked for me. They completely fumbled the ball when introducing Zay and really made up for it here, making him an understated but likable presence, and having some fun with the fact that he's supposed to have been in the class the whole time ("Gardner? I like him. Little quiet so far.") He didn't feel as if he showed up in order to take attention away from anyone else and he didn't feel crammed into a show where he didn't belong, he was an organic addition to the show based on this storyline and it worked. The young men on this show have long been a weak point but, at the moment, Charlie seems most like my kind of guy. He's nice, charming, but he's got a bit of an edge to him when it's called for - he's not a jerk who tries to steal people's girlfriends, but he's also not a pussy who won't put forth a solid effort to get what he wants either, it's a delicate balance and he walks it well (his "I'm sorry, but do you need more than 10 months?" line was badass, too, I was like "Daaaaamn, son.") He's a good-looking guy, well qualified to be a love interest, but he also looks age appropriate for Riley (His portrayer, Tanner Buchanan, is actually only days younger than Peyton Meyer, but sometimes it doesn't matter how old you actually are) 

Not much more to say here. I like Charlie a lot, and I do hope we see more of him. I'm not sure what to make of the fact that he's not currently on the docket for more episodes except that a) not being listed for more episodes on IMDb doesn't necessarily mean none are forthcoming and b) I think this was an episode that's being aired out of order early (note my calendar issue earlier) so it's possible that we're going to need to get through a slog of what are mostly meant to have been pre-Charlie episodes before Charlie can come back. Or, maybe Charlie will go the way of one-hit wonders like Billy Ross, but I hope not. If Zay can come back after an extended absence (he's apparently back next week), hopefully Charlie can as well. And if they are indeed sticking a pin in Riley/Lucas, she's going to need somebody to be her love interest. 

Going off that, I also really liked how this almost functioned as Part 2 to last week. It would have been annoying to have had that moment at the end of "Yearbook" and just let it drop. We do have a lot of episodes coming up that were earlier in the production order, so I don't think we're going to get much story advancement after this, but presumably they were on the ball enough to make sure we weren't skipping episodes where they go back to Riley and Lucas being kind of a thing and Maya being a cheerleader for them since that has to be over now. I mean, right? I'm right that the point of that ending was that Lucas and Riley is done, right? I'm not getting ahead of myself?

Farkle didn't have a lot to do in this episode, but glad to see he's still in full Donnie Barnes regalia. I do like that they haven't really changed his personality, just how he dresses. That said, with him dressing like a cool kid now, and with the actor having sprouted and matured physically this season as well, it's a little weird that he's still treated like a loser. No date to the dance for him, in fact the mere prospect of him having one or asking a girl is treated like a joke. Poor kid. Just drop the Riley/Maya crushes, show. Seriously. Just drop it. It's a mistake. It was always a mistake. It's consistently the one big problem aspect of Farkle and it's a big part of the reason that I still don't really like him all that much (although you seem to have become a big fan, Sean)

In other news, authorities have still been unable to locate the body of Auggie Matthews. More as the story develops.

So, yeah, lastly, because I don't think I got to it, this is also Eric's best episode, despite being the least Eric-focused. That dumb room/secret mix-up aside, his is how he's supposed to be written, and I'm glad to see Will Friedle agree. Yes, he can still be ridiculous (and he was, and he should be) but he's not a blithering idiot, he's actually smart in his offbeat way, he's just a big weirdo goofball manchild. Eric at his best was still the source for this show's broadest, most off-the-wall humor, but he was also an actual person and character with depth, not solely a cartoon character. We got a little of that in "Mr. Squirrels Goes to Washington" and a lot of it here. Eric was shown to be mature, clever, informed, and good at his job. They could have (and might have if not for Will) gone a horrible route where Eric doesn't know what the fuck he's doing, all "I have to work on a bill? WHO'S BILL? I DON'T KNOW BILL! Natural gas? WHAT IS THAT ABOUT - FARTING?! The ice caps are melting? WE SHOULD PUT THEM IN THE FREEZER! HELP ME TIE MY SHOES BECAUSE I'M AN IDIOT! I MARRIED A MOOSE!"

But nope, none of that. He was completely well informed on the issue, he figured Jack out in about two seconds, the idea of him being tricked into making the wrong decision was a non-starter as he'd made up his mind and wasn't having any of it, he helped Jack and Riley have some important realizations, and did it all while sounding like an actual damn human being and STILL being funny. Great episode for Eric, great episode for Will. Don't give Matt Lawrence a pity MVP award! Will would deserve this just for playing Eric alone, but he was also very funny as the film reel voice, and he wrote the damn thing. Will wins MVP for me. Yeah, he's won it in every episode he's been in, but, hey, if the other guys don't like it they should be better at their jobs. BAZING!

Riley was good in this episode. I don't know, man, I think Rowan consistently tends to do a pretty good job. You're too rough on her (I know you didn't really say anything against her yet) I'd give either her or Sabrina the runner-up, I liked Sabrina here too.

One thing I'm not into is that this is the last Eric episode on the books. While I've really enjoyed how much of Eric we've seen so far this season, they maybe wanted to spread this out more so we don't then have to deal with not seeing him for, like, ever. We're not even halfway through the season. Are we seriously not going to have any more Eric? That's a problem, we've become accustomed to him. Shawn and Eric feel like they've become Girl Meets World characters in their own rights, not just little veteran cameos, so it's kind of bad now if it goes too long and we don't see them. I can be a little patient (like, we haven't seen Shawn in a while but it doesn't feel like "too long") but if we have to go through the entire season? Boo. Booooooo.

Okay, I think I'm done now. Oh, how 'bout Special Agent Jackie Chiles? Nice to see Phil Morris, I guess this is how that interview he did with Will a while back came about.

I doubt Shawn and Jack have spoken to each other at all. If they're keeping with the style of not selling us any bullshit, then that's the only way to go. 

I'm a bit concerned what the rest of the season has in store for us. It seems like they frontloaded everything to look forward to. Angela, Eric, Jack, Turner, Shawn and Katy dating... Oh, we still have Maya's dad coming back, that's something. 

Don't call out Farkle for not having a date when Maya doesn't have one either. On that note, how the hell did nobody ask Maya? 

I think we oughtta wrap this one up, I don't really have anything else I want to respond to. You made a very convincing argument that this is the best episode of the series. The episodes we've praised so far usually do one or two things very well, but this episode did like eight things well. There's so much going on, and it all flows together seamlessly, aside from the slow (and forgivable) beginning. The story was fun and engaging, Every character except Cory showed some sort of development or growth. Good laughs from start to finish, and comfortable little lesson for Riley and her friends. 

Grade: A+. If you wanted to convince a Boy Meets World fan to watch this show, this is your episode right here.
MVP: Jack Hunter. Suck it.

Still to come we have Maya's dad like you said (and Shawn's in that episode too), plus Minkus and Jennifer Bassett, and I think more Turner. Oh and isn't Morgan maybe supposed to be in an episode this season? Here are the things Girl will be Meeting for the rest of the season, by the way: Creativity, World of Terror 2 (*sigh*), Commonism, Forgiveness [Maya's Dad], Rileytown, Rah Rah, Normal [Minkus and Jennifer, I believe], Genius, Belief, Cory and Topanga, Sludge, Texas (Part 1), Texas (Part 2), Graduation (Part 1), Graduation (Part 2), Graduation (Part 3)

Interested in what the plot of Girl Meets Cory and Topanga will be, and I like that we got some multi-parters coming up. Them all going to Texas will be fun (maybe they can leave Zay there), and a THREE part finale sounds pretty epic. But I agree, if Eric's all done, Feeny's all done, Shawn's mostly done, and it was just one episode for Jack and Angela, then they front-loaded it too much. That's why I'm hoping the increase to 30 episodes when it was originally supposed to be like 24 or something means they threw another Shawn and Eric episode in there. 

Episode Grade: A+
Episode MVP That Isn't Sean Trolling: Will Friedle

Next week the triumphant returns of Zay Babineaux (Booooo) and Jonathan Turner (Yaaaaaay)