Eric Matthews has always been a difficult character.
Tonight’s episode of Girl Meets World, strangely enough, gives new viewers a glimpse of all the reasons why. Ranging from vain to wonderfully insightful and caring, to a level of stupidity that suggests he isn’t long for this world, Eric has seen more permutations than anyone throughout Boy Meets World history, to uneven effect, and he goes through all of them tonight. Will Friedle is, of course, a hilarious actor. It’s easy to see why the writers dare him to go broader, louder, more physical with each and every line. Just as he did throughout BMW, he rises to the challenge each and every time. It’s the lines that fail him, going too far or stretching believability. Worst example: Refusing to say Topanga’s name right? Cute, possibly an in-joke that’s gone too far, plays well with tonight’s main story. Refusing to say Maya’s? Beating the daylights out of a joke already on life support.
Perhaps it’s fitting though, because “Girl Meets Mr. Squirrels” is a difficult episode. Maya and Riley argue when Lucas calls Maya short, and while one would think a war between them would carry weight, it’s rendered inert by episode’s end, as the writers fail to couple it to anything concrete. Yes, the show says it’s about insecurities, but this conclusion feels tacked on, a thesis ill argued and unfounded by the actual details of the script. If Maya is truly insecure about her height, why isn’t she angry at Lucas? If Lucas is truly insecure about how Maya criticizes him, why does he let her, as Eric so cathartically and justly points out? Why is Maya so willing to say that it’s true, and seems really only angry about the idea that Riley won’t defend her?
More importantly though: Why doesn’t Riley defend her? The conflict becomes alien from the moment we get the reveal of what it is Lucas said, or at least, it did for me. Imagine if the word “short” were replaced with anything else. “Rude.” “Poor.” “Egotistical.” All of those are true too—would Riley not defend Maya from those? How about “Fat.” “Ugly.” “Stupid.” None of those are true of Maya, but could be true of someone else—would Riley not defend them from those? At the end of the day, Maya doesn’t know how to articulate her point, but the spirit of it is there and completely valid. It doesn’t matter whether Maya is short. What matters is that it hurt Maya’s feelings, it was meant to hurt Maya's feelings, and Maya’s feelings deserve to be honored as such.
I’ll admit that to some extent, it’s possible my being a BMW fan has failed me here, because I was expecting a reveal about how Maya feels regarding Riley and Lucas’ slow descent into a relationship (always a classic Shawn Hunter problem). But at the same time, doesn’t that make more sense? A reveal in that vein is still insecurity, but it’s an insecurity about something real. Not something that as far as we know has never really bothered Maya, doesn’t really seem to bother her that much now, and doesn’t seem likely to ever bother her again. GMW often defeats itself by putting on kid gloves, but there’s nothing complicated or adult about a kid being worried about her best friend leaving her behind—particularly when that kid is Maya. It’s one simple change that would have turned the whole episode around, as well as suggest interesting ground to cover in the future.
That said, “Girl Meets Mr. Squirrels” remains an improvement over the last season. Not the best of our marathon week—that trophy belongs to “Girl Meets Pluto,” which only shines brighter now—but also certainly not the worst. Great energy, some great lines, and—since I haven’t shone a light on them this week yet—some very solid moments from the markedly improved Corey Fogelmanis and Peyton Meyer. I take issue with tonight’s episode, but mainly because I feel allowed to take issue. This is a point l I feel confident the show shouldn't have lost, and that in itself is, I think, something to be proud of as the show develops into something much more interesting to watch.
Random Thoughts
- It’s settled. I really hate Isaiah. Please transfer back to Texas. Or, since again, happy to see humans come in different shades, have a new personality transferred to him STAT.
- I know this means I’ve praised everyone but Rowan Blanchard this week but … well. She’ll always have that uncanny knack to be a mini-version of her dad.
- I know it’s dumb, but I actually really liked St. Upidville. Or I like Will Friedle. Who, got to say—still looks perfectly fetching sans Moses garb, even if he’s not quite the dreamboat he was in his early seasons.
- I hope we never learn about Belgium. Series finale, someone points out they lost a point on the SAT because of it. GIVE ME THIS SHOW.
We survived! And ... are we even on again next week, I have no idea, I swear to God, DISNEY. What was your favorite episode though? Sound off in the comments!
