Storms are messy. Spitting winds, ear-splitting thunder. Dark skies and blinding lightning. It’s hard to navigate, harder to hold on—and yet, the only thing you can do is push through, to see the day that will still come when it’s done.
“Girl Meets Hurricane” tries to use this metaphor to say something about emotional turmoil, but it more aptly describes the episode itself. There are, just like storms, fractured moments of beauty: Maya and Shawn’s mock-fighting, which feels spontaneous and wild even if it isn’t; Shawn’s declaration that “we’re here to make other people happy” fresh off the clothes shopping venture; Maya’s newfound security in hope. Like all of season two so far, “Meets Hurricane” demonstrates if not greatness then improvement, and it’s always great to see the adults take center stage.
It is also, like all of season two’s weaker outings so far, structurally where it fails. The story this week is undeniably Shawn’s, as he crosses paths with Angela again and decides to move forward in his relationship with Kate, but we spend an interminable time getting to this point. First Maya and Shawn have to be cute, and establish over and over that they’ve developed a bond. Then that has to be reestablished, at the store as he buys Maya new clothes. Then again, as she shows them off. The episode doesn’t truly begin until Maya’s monologue as she puts on clothes, but by then, the momentum is lost. Angela is stuck cramming a lot of exposition into a tight timeframe, and the storm imagery feels forced, in a school scene that only seems to exist to set it up.
Which is a shame, because cutting all that away is the stuff I’d really like to focus on. Shawn and Katie’s relationship, slowly developed, for one. It’s been a little ambiguous what position they’ve been in, and I actually started this episode fairly certain they were already dating. While I’m not entirely sure it would have made a difference, if this were the episode they started or this were the episode he started to take it seriously, their energy is just right this episode. They’re flirtatious, they’re awkward—and they’re all the more awkward for Shawn’s intriguing confusion of his feelings. Does Shawn like Katie, or does he like the idea of the family unit he doesn’t have to work at? He fathers Maya, he gives Katie her props, and then when things become frightening he whisks away to parts unknown. The last part seems inevitable, as part of his arc, but I’m enjoying the steps forward he’s making first, saying yes to Katie’s offer at Chet’s urging, and with Angela’s aid.
Speaking of Angela, because we must, I did enjoy their scene, even if personally I never had strong feelings about her character or their relationship. Their reunion is both cold and touching, the sense that they’ve ended up in the same exact place emotionally in very different worlds very clear. Shawn hasn’t moved on, while Angela has married, but Angela’s now panicking about children while Shawn has spiritually adopted. Angela’s well dressed, and is clearly wealthy, while Shawn can’t complain but lives simply. While it’s easy to see how close they were—the fact that Angela approaches him for something so honest as needing to hear she can be a mother is wonderful—it’s also easy to see why they’re apart. As Shawn himself comments, they were broken in the same way—something that served them well as teens, but couldn’t create anything more than that and certainly not healing. It remains to be seen whether Shawn or Katie can do It differently, but they’re at least starting at a better, more mature place.
By the time Angela leaves though, it’s more than welcome. There are some great window gags, and Blanchard is surprisingly fun, with her monotone celebration of Angela’s off the market status and her single-target dislike. The purpose though, the scene being streamlined down really just to that, has already been established. Now we just have to see where it goes from there.
What are your own thoughts though? Sound off in the comments!
