TV Review: Girl Meets World (3×03) “Girl Meets Jexica”

The opening of this week’s Girl Meets World was too good not to transcribe.

Riley: “Our profile on the Abigail Adams High School social network is who we are in high school, and it will follow us through college, and into our careers, and into my marriage and into your five.”

Maya: “Is one of those Lucas?”

Riley: “No, sorry, but you were married to Farkle for six weeks…may he rest in peace.”

Maya: “I’ll tell you right now, the boy died happy.”

Riley is freaking out because she’s worried that people aren’t going to like her, if she puts the wrong thing in her social profile. “What if people don’t share my passion for farm animals who save the day?” she asks Maya in regards to her favorite movie. Maya suggests that she create an alter ego that she can test, and thus Jexica is born. Jexica quickly becomes legendary among the students, with her own Regina George montage to match. Maya suggests that Riley delete the profile before it gets out of hand, but when Riley sees that Jexica piques Lucas’ interest, that goes out the window.

Cory’s class: Cory explains that this generation’s history will be told through social media. This alarms many students, who are concerned about how the internet portrays them. “The internet makes us look like a society of people who only care about dancing cats,” Zay points out. Cory says that using the internet as a distraction is okay, but it’s taking up too much of their brain space. Class is interrupted when Jexica is paged to the main office so that the administration can meet her.

Riley’s room: Maya’s at the bay window by herself while Riley answers Jexica’s advice emails. She reads a note from Lucas explaining their love triangle and asking Jexica to hang out with their friends. Riley is convinced that if Lucas falls for Jexica, all the problems between the three of them will go away. She’s also very aware that this will end badly. She transforms herself into Jexica and heads to school. Unfortunately, school is now full of Jexica impersonators.

Cory’s class: the public opinion tide has turned on Jexica, and she’s losing followers fast. Riley is sad for her, but Maya doesn’t care because Jexica isn’t real. Cory points out that validation procured through social media isn’t worth much–if something is that easily replaced, it’s not worth much at all. “Only you should determine what you think,” he insists, before dismissing them to figure everything out in Riley’s bay window.

Bay window: the boys all figured out that Jexica was actually Riley, as they all know Riley quite well. “Friends who know who you are is the most real thing there is,” Maya insists. In the end, Riley creates her own profile filled with her favorite things and pictures of her friends.

The B plot revolves around Auggie and the parents–again. Auggie receives an email from the Prince of Nairobi, who wants to send him $30 million. Auggie is upset that his parents think this is a scam. The parents disagree on how to handle it; Cory wants to protect Auggie’s innocence and belief in the world’s goodness, while Topanga wants him to understand the reality of the world. I’m with Topanga on this one. Topanga does the 1-2-3-Trick with Cory again, getting him to spill his true thoughts while she says nothing. They revisit when she did the same thing to get Cory to spill about Angela being in love with Shawn, and Cory marks this as the 100th time she’s pulled this trick on him.

Next, Ava sends an email to Auggie from London, pleading that he send her all of his money because she lost her wallet. Cory and Topanga are still split on how to deal with emails like this. Topanga decides she wants to stop tricking Cory and for him to get rid of his lists, but he insists he wouldn’t have things any other way. Ava arrives to chastise Auggie for leaving her hanging–and to show them that she’s $30 million dollars richer. Oh wait, this is Auggie’s dream.

This week’s Girl Meets World was an improvement over last week’s, though not much. Everything centered around Riley’s self consciousness and the dangers of relying too heavily on social media to build up your self esteem was handled very well. There were a ton of funny lines and important points made about internet culture. However, this seems like a complete 180 from last week’s episodes, where Riley is so sure about her belief system and personality that she stood in The Hole and fought with her friends to prove it. It was consistent with the bullying episodes we saw last season, but not with what they just showed last week. As for the B plot, the entire thing was ridiculous–being as how the internet is CHOCK FULL of scams, it’s not a good idea to tell children that it’s not. Plus, keeping Auggie and Topanga so separate from Riley’s storylines makes whatever they’re doing feel tacked on as opposed to being part of the greater family story.

Boy Meets World Throwback Factor: Mild, thanks to the throwback where Topanga gets Cory to reveal that Angela is still in love with Shawn.

Episode Rating: 6/10.