Having safely established its current cast throughout its first season, Girl Meets World goes for broke in “Girl Meets Pluto,” melding past and present as Cory, Topanga, and Shawn go out in search of their former time capsule—and it needs to be said.
It works.
Yes, the opener of “Meets Pluto” is rough. Noticeably extraneous, the episode struggles to find a way to introduce the topic with only Cory and the kids to bounce off, as well as the episode’s ever-present device in once-planet Pluto. (Rowan Blanchard in particular drops the ball on this, playing dumb too broadly and playing upset too falsely—to the point that I kept waiting for the joke to actually happen.) But when the episode begins—really begins—with our gang and their time capsule, and our old gang and their reunion for theirs, there’s a palpable feeling of rightness that carries GMW swiftly through the rest of its half-hour. The cast is all over the place, in age and talent, but united this way everything evens out to a warm, fuzzy—and, even more extraordinary, funny—energy that’s a delight to watch.
It’s also, plot wise, just a much more controlled story. Everything’s easier when you have a clear goal, and even easier when that clear goal represents a deeper, truer one. Cory, Shawn, and Topanga are looking for a time capsule—clean and easy. But ultimately, Cory, Shawn, and Topanga are looking for completion. Cory and Topanga have always mostly had it, in each other, but there’s definitely something touching in Cory’s need to remind himself that he's known that for years; in Topanga’s desire to reach out to that girl who didn’t.
And of course, there’s Shawn, who’s arguably been searching for that all his life, and has rarely been right when he thought he found it.
It’s easy from there to bring in our young gang, all gangly and bright-eyed and only just beginning to define their wants, but the show wisely doesn’t try to make too much out of it. Everyone has their moment: Lucas, learning slowly to be honest; Farkle, doubling down on his decision to be as weird as he feels; Riley, taking pride in her dreams and heart. It’s Maya who shines though, being someone who more or less has always known what she wants—just also someone who is, only now, beginning to allow herself to hope that her wants are not strictly forbidden. While I would have liked a reminder of their bond (which would have also saved them some of the useless melodrama from the girls over the mere mention of Angela’s name), it’s lovely watching her and Shawn struggle over their walls to have an honest conversation. Certainly she and Shawn have danced close to tonight’s moment several times before, but rarely I think with the clarity the capsule escapade has now offered them. Shawn may not have wanted, fifteen years ago, things to be different—but the fact remains now that he is and they are. Maya may not have wanted, as a small girl, any father but her own—but the fact remains now that she’ll never have hers. There’s miles to go yet, for the both of them and for them and Katy, who’s only just begun to enter the fray in tonight’s lovely and flirty tag, but they’re miles I am still very excited to see.
Random Thoughts
- I wasn’t sure how to properly bring Feeny into the review proper—and to an extent, that’s probably a weakness of the episode. William Daniels but cameos tonight, and while on the one hand it’s so very not enough (my notes mostly have an all caps “WAIT WHAT THAT'S IT” in them from when we cut back to New York), man, what a cameo. From the second long-time Boy Meets World viewers see that lawn, they know what’s coming, but Daniels gets right to work dispersing his cold as ice compassion and doesn’t disappoint for a second. Such a genuine class act, and a wonderful anchor for the billion call backs tonight.
- Not but seriously, billion. Personal favorite: That Riley and Maya have clearly made some promises to Eric Matthews about what they would ever do in this scenario
- “We’re going to do everything! We’re going to go to your favorite restaurant, and we’re going to take all the rolls!”
Favorite call back? Angela fan forever? Sound off in the comments.
