It’s the beginning of maybe the end (until, perhaps, whenever the show decides to flip things around again) of the triangle in “Girl Meets Ski Lodge Part I”—and in case the title isn’t a giveaway, yes, I do mean that ski lodge. Riley provides a quick (and fairly funny) intro for the new fans, but it feels almost strange to hear her have to do it. While no “We were on a break!”, most Boy Meets World viewers will be intimately familiar with the story: Cory meets a girl while laid up at a ski lodge and is surprised to find that, however predestined he and Topanga feel, that he can spend a whole night talking with her. That he enjoys her company, and is more than a little interested in her as well.
It might sound simple, but it made for a good arc back in the day. The obligatory meta reboot of this moment doesn’t come up until the very end of “Meets Ski Lodge Part One” though. Instead, tonight’s episode is a story about stories, as the gang travels to that same fateful lodge and proceeds to rehash every conversation of the past year about the triangle. As they hem and haw, it becomes obvious that however much the issue of the century has been the triangle, the girls haven’t actually put all much thought into what it would mean to actually win. With fantasy sequences framed loosely around the choice of movie for a viewing party, Maya reveals (in a surprisingly funny and engaging spy movie spoof) that she views her and Lucas’ relationship as one built around combative partnership. She tries to get into trouble, he sensibly pulls her out, and they bicker all the while. Meanwhile Riley (in an unfortunately duller segment) has clearly spent more time in the Nicholas Sparks catalogue. She wants the dreamy love story, boy meets girl and falls into eternal bliss—at least, until the part where everybody dies.
However uneven the energy between the two fantasies, I admit I find myself appreciating both, as they shed some valuable light on the characters. Lack of headspace has been a problem repeatedly throughout the triangle, to an extent that I’m not sure if the impressions I’m getting are correct, but it feels relevant to know that both girls, however much we’ve seen valid reasons for their affections, are actually viewing Lucas through a filter. Maya is focused on Lucas as a play partner—no big shock, considering their relationship—while Riley’s still clinging to how she and Lucas first met—when he was just a good Southern boy who wanted to be a vet, and she just a girl who fell into his lap. Neither simple version of Lucas though is going to cut it. He might enjoy bantering with Maya, but as he implies here, he expects her to be the growing adult he knows she can be (and given past episodes, it’s obvious that this is what he actually most likes about her). Meanwhile, Lucas might appreciate the goodness Riley sees in him, but he’s more complicated than that, and does not want to just be seen as Lucas the Good (per “Meets True Maya” recently). While it would have been nice to get maybe a bit more of what Lucas is thinking (even, dare I dream for next episode, his own movie fantasy) I’ll take what I can get, especially when the boy is right. He’s come a long way from the character the show first devised, and he deserves the girls recognizing that.
There’s also no forgetting the elephant in the room for the girls in both sequences: Each other. Riley’s presence brings a bomb for Maya that, as the rest of the gang points out, is actually easily defused, but Maya and Lucas spend too much time fighting about everything but the issue at hand to solve it; and Maya diagnoses Riley as fatally ill, which soon enough, mushy idealistic love kills her dead. In both cases, it’s more complicated than it seems, in ways that both frustrate and delight me. Maya is pretending she still doesn’t clearly care for Josh (see: frustrating). Maya also seems to be ignoring the sense that she’s stepping in on Riley and Lucas’ relationship, given how even in her fantasy, Lucas tells Riley information he said he’s never told a soul (see: delightful). It’s a hard place Maya’s been in, and it’s nice to see a bit of the original reason why she stepped aside bubble back up.
Meanwhile, Maya might play the doctor in Riley’ movie, but Riley is the one that introduces tragic death to the fantasy in the first place. Which, given how’s she’s struggled in the past with whether or not there’s a point to pursing Lucas if it will one day end, seems wonderfully suggestive of how that issue continues to plague her. The ski lodge then becomes a nice reminder that Riley has grown up with an impossible standard. Cory and Topanga have lasted, and can last, through anything—even a love triangle. It seems only fair that such anxiety not get brushed under the rug, even with this new shift back to Riley/Lucas.
And I should be clear: It does feel like a shift. The show cleverly plays with our knowledge of the original Ski Lodge plot here, having Riley encounter a mysterious boy in much the same way Cory did years ago, but I would be surprised if Riley plays out the possibility of another guy for longer than an episode (if at all). “Meets Ski Lodge Part One” hammers hard the idea that Maya’s in denial about Josh, with her jumping at each and every possibility they might be able to get together instead, and after the arc she’s had, it seems likely she and Lucas will amicably part ways during Part II. The real trick for Riley, I think, will be understanding she just has to see where things go.
But then, what do I know. Maybe it’s all over. Maybe the triangle continues. Maybe Riley and Maya kiss. Maybe none of this matters at all in the grand scheme, and is only, impossibly, a stone to be overturned for what’s underneath in future. It seems a little unwise to me to build up a triangle to an answer and then go back on the solution—but then, it also seems odd to end a love triangle essentially the same way it began.
Here is my real hope: That there’s a decent amount of pure friendship time in between “Meets Ski Lodge Part II” and whatever comes next. Girl Meets World is at its best when it just lets the group be—as proven even in tonight’s episode, with the free-wheeling spit-fire jokiness of Maya’s fantasy—and we haven’t had enough of it.
For now, there’s only one real question: WHERE’S LAUREN?
