Schedule slip-up, oops. Also, two episode titles in a row relating to people saying things. And actually the episode title before last had to do with lying. It’s like there was almost a theme and then there wasn’t. Ah, well.
Feeny has gift baskets that Eli mistakenly thinks are for him. They’re actually from “misguided seniors” who want Feeny to write college recommendations for them. Eric comes over and laughs about how silly kiss-up seniors are, as he laughs at various things Feeny says. I’m certain this won’t come up later or anything.
Feeny enters Turner’s classroom to announce that Shawn missed his history test. Cory comes up with an excuse, saying Shawn has… something. Feeny suggests he has sloth – as in, laziness – and Cory agrees, clarifying it’s Hong Kong Sloth. Turner then immediately leaves to go back to his apartment to check on Shawn, rather than waiting until the school day is actually over.
Shawn is ordering Forrest Gump on pay-per-view. Ah, poor misguided soul, actually paying for entertainment. Of course, ti was the 90s, so it’s not like he could just watch it online where someone illegally uploaded it like I do to watch Boy Meets Wo- er… I mean, I watch this show completely legally online. Support your content producers!
…Um, anyway, Turner says if Shawn misses more school he’s going to end up like Forrest Gump. Shawn reacts the way I would, by pointing out that Gump did very well for himself, but Turner says what he means is Forrest Gump doesn’t exist. This is why it’s rough to live with teachers. Can’t get away with nuttin’. I mean, that’s what I’m assuming, based on this one show where someone lives with their teacher. I don’t think Emma had much of this kind of problem when her mom married one of her teachers on Degrassi.
Well Turner says he’s forcing Shawn to see the guidance counselor, so we cut to the next day of school where Shawn is all “I don’t want to bare my soul to some old, bald-headed guy”. Cue the attractive, bubbly, female guidance counselor who’s excited to see her name on the door.
This is like 5th use for that particular door. Also I’d like to say that all but one of my guidance counselors in my K-12 education were women (and I went to 7 schools), none of them were old, or bald, not even the man. And heck, my counselors and advisers in college were mostly women in their 30s-40s. I think Freaks and Geeks is the only time I’ve ever seen a male guidance counselor on tv, and that show came on like 5 years after this…
Oi with the tangents today, sorry.
Eric meets with Griff and Frankie. They slip Eric some official Feeny letter-head, which “fell off a truck”, so Eric can forge a recommendation letter, since Feeny is being so stingy, and apparently there are no other teachers in this school who are allowed to write recommendations. Griff and Eric leave, and Joey runs in to tell Frankie that their previous leader, Harley Keiner, has been released and/or escaped from reform school. Dundununnnn.
Back with Shawn and Guidance Counselor, she asks what his last counselor said. He says this is his first time guidance counsel…ing, and she accidentally slips that it is also her first time. I’m no expert in teaching staff stuff, but wouldn’t she have been more likely to start out as an elementary school counselor? Especially with her personality, counseling teenagers seems kind of… odd.
Well, she says… something, and Shawn shares some of his dad’s colorful philosophy on life. Counselor (okay her name is Devon) basically tells Shawn, based on what his dad said and based on her own experiences, to live free, do whatever you want to find out who you are, and just go with it. This will certainly not lead Shawn to decide to drop out of school.
In the hallway, Eli asks Feeny to help with one of his class projects. They’re making PSAs, and the kids thought Feeny would make a good narrator. Feeny is flattered and immediately begins making changes to the script. I don’t know if this plot is going anywhere.
Frankie and Joey are worried about their old boss (Harley) meeting their new one (Griff) and try to devise a way to get them together without killing each other, when Harley comes to visit next week.
Except he leaked the wrong date online to purposely confuse his enemies, and he’s at the school already. Gosh, what did internet forums look like in 1995? There’s an episode of The X-Files from like ’93 or ’94 that has an internet article on it. All blocky green text on a black background… how did anyone read on old computers?
Anyway, we arrive at the next scene, where it’s 5 am, and Chubbie’s is open for some reason. Shawn asked Cory to meet him there… I don’t know how, because if he called the Matthews home, surely someone else would’ve heard the phone, and if Shawn had just gone there… they wouldn’t have had to meet at Chubbie’s.
Well, Shawn is skipping town, to find himself, despite having no money, nowhere to go, and being a very pretty 14 year old boy. This can only end well.
Eric’s writing a great recommendation later on Feeny’s letter – or rather, a “really really really” great one, as Eric-as-Feeny would say. Alan comes down and asks why he isn’t just using the computer, and Eric fumbles and says he’s writing a paper on the Amish so it would feel weird to use a computer. Amy then comes downstairs and observes the typewriter, asking if Eric has put a waffle in the computer again. Now, I don’t know about old, 1995 printers, but you CAN print stuff out on non-blank sheets of paper these days… You just have to adjust the margins so you don’t print on the letter-head… which I’m sure is what Feeny does… why is Eric using a typewriter??
Cory comes home, distressed. His parents wonder what’s wrong, and do not wonder where he came from at this hour, or why he said he was up since 5 am. Cory decides to call Turner to tell him about Shawn, but only gets the answering machine, so he heads out to just tell Turner in person.
Amy picks up Eric’s fake recommendation letter. Alan reads it, realizes it’s fake, and rips it in half.
At the school, Feeny tells Eli how happy it made him to record his voice and he can’t wait to see how the students put it with the video. Eli tells him the kids decided to go with his own voice rather than Feeny’s. Feeny is not pleased.
Cory runs into Turner’s classroom to tell him Shawn ran away. Okay, so it was 5 am when Cory was at Chubbie’s. The sun was out and everyone was awake when Cory got home, meaning it was probably at least 7 am. Then Cory goes to school were it’s probably like 8:15. What has Cory been doing all this time? Did he maybe just fall asleep in Chubbie’s? For two hours? Why was Chubbie’s open that early anyway? It’s a burger restaurant.
So anyway, Turner gets upset and hunts down the guidance counselor to ask what the heck she thought she was doing. She admits maybe Shawn could easily have misinterpreted what she said, but she also points out that she only spoke with Shawn for 30 minutes. Turner’s been living with him for four months, so if anyone knows why Shawn ran away, it would be him.
Frankie and Joey wait anxiously for the showdown between Harley and Griff. H and G exchange some words, but then Frankie has an epiphany. He doesn’t want them fighting about who gets to have Frankie and Joey as lackeys, so he decides to just not be a lackey anymore. After some hesitation, Joey decides to quit as well.
Griff is just like “Okay” but Harley is like “I’m going to beat you up til you change your mind.” The bell rings and Cory leads a mob of students out of class, telling about how he outsmarted Harley in a scene I didn’t mention before. Harley asked for Cory’s wallet, and it turns out Cory gave him a fake wallet, and Cory wonders what Harley’s face will look like when he finds out. He then bumps into Harley, who says “Probably like this, only perturbed.” That is the end of that scene.
Turner finds Shawn at the bus station. As he puts it, he figured Shawn would try to take the bus to Europe. Indeed, Shawn has a bus ticket to Paris. Paris, Texas (Shawn thought the TX in Paris, TX meant “tax”). Shawn goes on a thing about wanting to see the world, Turner’s all “why didn’t you tell me you feel like a failure” and Shawn says it’s because Turner has a lot of stuff on his plate already. Turner tells Shawn if he studies and gets good grades, then he can go to Europe. A friendly homeless man, who has one of the fruit baskets Feeny had earlier (he mentioned that he gives them to homeless shelters), tells Shawn he should “listen to his dad”. Shawn gives Turner a look and is all like “Yeah, I will” and then gives his bus ticket to the man. He and Turner leave, and the homeless man celebrates – he’s going to France!
During the credits, Cory is telling his problems to Devon, not giving her a chance to say anything. She finally gets a word in, to tell him she’s not really that kind of counselor, but to come back if he needs help with college. Again, I’m not an expert, but it seems like, if a student is having worries about whether to do something or not when they’re about to lose a friend, a guidance counselor should be offering some, well, guidance. I know they aren’t psychiatrists, but I thought they were there to help with “I’m having this moral dilemma and I need help” in addition to “how do I get in to this school?”
Well, Turner shows up with Shawn, who says he’s older and wiser now. Cory takes Shawn out into the hallway to talk privately. Cory says he’s angry at Shawn for doing this and he doesn’t want to hang out with Shawn if he keeps doing this stuff, but Shawn is just like “I missed the biology test, didn’t I?”, and Cory tells him not to worry, he took the test for him.
So the Harley-vs-Cory plotline never resolved itself, and Eric’s college recommendation also never came to anything. And the “Feeny as narrator” thing never really started or ended anywhere. Hooray?
Plaid – 14 It’s getting harder to count all the plaid, oy.
Fun facts: The actress who played Devon was the voice of Cerebro in the 2000 X-Men movie!
An actor imdb credits as “classmate” was in one episode of Kids of Degrassi Street and one episode of Degrassi High! My Degrassi references have come full circle, even though I didn’t recognize who this person was and he played background bit parts in both Degrassi and this show.
….Hooray?
Speaking of Degrassi… When I first started this blog (a year ago ohmygosh), I was intending to use it to cover ALL sorts of tv and movies, not just Boy Meets World. I was actually planning to use it more as a Glee review blog. So… I’ve been tossing around this idea for a while, which is basically a Glee review that compares Glee to other shows – most often Degrassi. There are tons of plotlines that Degrassi has done way better than Glee, after all.
Unless lot of people are really opposed to this, I’m going to try to put this into gear soon. I won’t be abandoning Boy Meets World. That will still be on a weekly basis, possibly twice weekly if I can get enough of a queue built back up. The Glee reviews would either be weekly or every other week, on a different day than Boy Meets World.
I’d also like to do a general tv review with the upcoming tv season. I was planning on doing that last year, but never did. Mostly because my hatred for some shows had grown to a point of indifference, so I didn’t have much to say on anything. But I’ll try this year!
