Well, I’ll say this for Girl Meets World: They’re making an effort to build their chosen couple.
Whether it’s an effort in the right way or a successful one I think will depend a lot on how you saw the show going into this “Girl Meets Texas” arc. I’ve been cautious over this weekend, suspicious of the exact ending we saw tonight. And yet it’s still dissatisfying, even being prepared. No one can pretend that the Lucas and Maya presented in this episode have chemistry, but no one can pretend that the Lucas and Maya presented in this episode are the LucasandMaya we have seen in episodes prior either. Even in the clips chosen, there’s a bit of skirting around the actual tension—a cut here, a focus on the dialogue before their shared look of silence there. Their inability to speak to each other feels particularly manufactured, a result of circumstance and rushed timing—and let’s be real, contrived writing—that rings false with their characters and at this juncture. Why are they trying to date now? How can they even speak to each other? They barely know what just happened—we barely know what just happened. While the show can tell us that’s the point, it doesn’t make what we’re seeing feel any more organic or realistic. Nothing is solved at the end of this episode, but not because feelings are complicated. It’s because Riley and Maya are not communicating about things that are blatantly obvious to both girls, and they're operating against all logic given that Lucas gets a say in this too.
In fact, “manufactured” describes a lot of what’s wrong in “Meets Texas: Part 3.” While the clip show was, I think, meant to show and not tell, the placement of it combined with Farkle’s exchange with Riley as he forces her to admit she has feelings for Lucas, ultimately does the reverse. As does most of the episode really, because here’s the thing. Show says: Riley and Lucas are obviously romantic. But are they? What the show describes as nerves goes much farther than their failed date. Show says: Riley and Lucas have a lot in common. But do they? They like sports, and they like animals, and they are good kids. Riley and Farkle are bad at sports, are dramatic and spontaneous, and like animals and are also good kids—I don’t see them dating. Show says: Riley supports Lucas, Maya tears him down. But isn’t her tearing him down a defense mechanism? She literally said that just last episode. Plus, it’s a built-in part of her character, and we know full well how supportive Maya can be—making this a false comparison for now, even if it’s a thesis the show could have eventually proven. It’s the inherent problem in telling versus showing: We as audience members tend to react poorly to being given information that contradicts what we think we know. And given that GMW has directly shown several things that contradict what we’re being told now, someone somewhere probably made an error, but it doesn’t change what we as audience members think we know.
Because here’s what this audience member knows: Yes, I have my bias. I don’t call myself a shipper and I don’t think that’s an accurate description, but I liked what I saw in the writing in the early stages of this plot-line, and I know it matched what I’ve seen in the acting all throughout the show. That is, in fact, where my bias comes from. If the show wants me to see something differently, I may well still have words to say on that, but you can sell me on anything if I see it happen, honestly. I was very complimentary of Riley’s basketball rant early on this season, which is the closest her and Lucas have come to seeming fun—and perhaps notably, the closest they have come to having a dynamic similar to what I imagine Lucas and Maya would have.
I also know that even in this episode, Peyton Meyer and Rowan Blanchard actually do seem more comfortable around each other as friends than they do when they’re trying to have romantic tension. They’re infinitely more fun to watch when Blanchard’s punching him and Meyer’s learning the ropes of being a brother figure the way Farkle is. And I know that while Tanner Buchanan’s Charlie may not be The One, I buy his spark with Blanchard infinitely more than I have ever done with Meyer. He’s adorable and sweet and a little goofy but confident—all things that play against Blanchard’s performance well. I know that when Meyer and Sabrina Carpenter were actually allowed to say words to each other, their natural chemistry still shone through. I know that the smallest gestures between them felt more charged, and that I would have liked to see them have an honest conversation along the lines of “Girl Meets Creativity.”
I also know that when Maya was pretending to be Riley, she came to a shocking realization about how Riley feels, explaining at last a nagging feeling about Riley and Lucas’ relationship. I know that when Riley heard the word “brother” for the first time, she smiled like the world had settled back into place. I know that retcons are hard. That sometimes they fit, or add an interesting dimension to the show. (Lucas’ secret past as a delinquent, for example, worked wonders and still does.) And that sometimes, they don’t—and I’ve yet to be sold on the idea that this one, retconning the purpose of those two above scenes, does anything but jerk its audience around.
And if there’s anything I know that I wish the show could know too (other than that I would love to be wrong about where everything’s heading) it’s this: An audience wants to feel challenged, to be on the edge of their seat, to be caught up in the turmoil—but they don’t want to feel jerked around.
