John Quincy Adams Middle School gets in touch with its inner Lord of the Flies in this week’s episode of Girl Meets World. When Cory runs late to school, his classroom turns to bedlam, resulting in a full-class detention. However, detention is never just detention when the teacher is Cory; he’s actually looking to teach them that civilizations require rules to function by granting them an hour with no rules. “I think we’ll be perfectly behaved ladies and gentlemen,” Riley hypothesizes. Cory disagrees: “I think you’re going to eat each other.”
The class splits into two factions: Rileytown, “land of goodness and rainbows where everyone holds their hands like so,” and Mayaville, where they have “no rules, no laws, no hand folding, and no one says ‘no.’” Maya’s followers take advantage of the unlocked back door, causing the good kids who stayed behind with Riley to develop a bad case of FOMO. Harley reinforces this, citing the great time they’re having wearing face paint and kicking the vending machine. Lucas brings up an interesting thought: if they’re not being seen by the good kids, what’s the point? Harley explains that it’s important for the bad kids to be among the good, otherwise they may never see their own good hearts.
Inspired by these wise thoughts, Maya’s crew kidnaps Riley with what appears to be a giant red butterfly net. Riley is unfazed, dishing out wet wipes for their facepaint and wiping Lucas’ off herself. “Will you call me Mad Dog?” Lucas asks, still wanting an edge. “Will you call me Princess Dancing Sunshine?” Riley asks with a pointed look. When he declines she responds, “There you go.”
Cory returns to drive the lesson home—people change people, but without those people, people change back. He holds Maya back to restate that there are consequences to actions and that the rules are there to help us. Maya sticks around after Cory’s speech in a self-imposed extra hour of detention, during which Riley dutifully waits outside the door for her best friend.
Meanwhile, a kiddie breakdown over at the Apartment Matthews. “Go easy on me Topi, I’m vulnerable today,” Ava says, pouring out a can of whipped cream on top of a chocolate cake. The addition of nice girl Emma into Auggie’s life has Ava asking for Topanga’s help to be more likable. When Auggie meets Stepford Ava, he’s offended—he doesn’t want two Emmas. Being polite all day is exhausting. A+ to Auggie for wanting his lady to be just the way she is.
This one wasn’t a favorite for me; the lesson was far too black and white for my taste, not to mention blunt in execution. The fact that they named half of the class “bad kids” is kind of awful—they were throwing things around the room in the absence of their teacher, not bullying each other into submission.
Boy Meets World Throwback Factor: Medium—we get another appearance from Harley, who references his and Cory’s past relationship.
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Episode Rating: 4/10
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