TV Review: Girl Meets World (3×11-3×12) “Sassy Halter Top” & “Bear”

Girl Meets World (3×11) “Girl Meets Sassy Halter Top”

Cory’s Class: the kids are mid-debate. The topic? Whether the sun shines during the day. Riley argues that this rings true, while Farkle argues against it–the sun is always shining, just not always on us. “I don’t understand–I argued what I believe, how could I be wrong?” Riley asks. This question is too relevant and rare. “History teaches us that most wars start because we don’t listen to the other point of view…it’s not enough to go through life without considering the other point of view,” Cory argues. He then challenges them to switch sides, as a good debater needs to understand both so that they can be ready for any argument. Their next debate will be whether people are inherently good or inherently evil. Riley will argue the side of evil, while the rest of the class will argue for good.

Bay Window: Maya tries to acclimate Riley to the evils of the world by exploring the news online, which is in fact the best way to explore evil, tbh. Especially in the current news climate. They discover that the beaches are too trashed for people to enjoy going there anymore, which sends Auggie over to Topanga. He needs to go to the beach to clean it up. “Do you know how much I love you?” Topanga asks. “Those are words, raise my allowance,” Auggie demands.

Topanga’s Cafe: a horrified Riley finds out that the Riley Committee (i.e., their group of friends) protects her from discovering the world’s horrors. “Reality is only as powerful as you let it be. Sometimes you can create your own reality! Right, me and Lucas in Hawaii?” Smackle explains, doing a bit of hula in Lucas’s direction. Riley remains unsettled, declaring that this knowledge of evil will cause her to become Riley Matthews, Evil Person. They challenge her to do the most evil thing she can think of doing. “Hi to everyone but you! I’m sorry,” she says to Maya. She fails, but her next opportunity awaits. Zay walks in holding a single cookie from his grandmother, discussing how she only ever sends him one so that he appreciates it more. He considers that this might be the last cookie, which is pretty morbid for such a youngin. Riley eats the cookie out of his hand.

Bay Window: “I’m evil now,” Riley declares. “Yeah, you’re my new dark leader,” Maya drawls. Maya says that her five minutes are up and it’s time to apologize to Zay, but Riley declines–she liked the shock factor of what she did. Maya doesn’t think anything of it, as everyone has that angel and devil on their shoulder. Riley declares that her devil is named Sassy Halter Top, explaining the episode title. The rest of the kids show up to give Riley a chance to apologize, but she declines. Maya is concerned that her evil behavior will snowball; after all, she didn’t give Two Shoes Louie her daily dollar since she decided it’s probably a scam.

The Matthews Dining Room: When Topanga and Auggie return from their beach cleaning excursion, Riley is the worst. “Do you really think what you did actually did anything?” she asks her younger brother. Topanga chastises her, explaining the starfish story. For those of you who don’t know: a kid throws a washed up starfish back into the ocean, because even though there are hundreds of the, he makes a difference to that one.

Cory’s Class, Debate #2: the kids want Riley back, as a change in her personality triggered a change in the world around them. They declare that their recognition of this fact means that people are good, since they can all recognize inherent goodness in others. Zay decides to forgive Riley’s actions because what she did wasn’t really her. Riley argues that if all of the bad things still exist, people haven’t done anything good. Cory then challenges them to switch sides, which brightens Riley. “This is a world where children wake up at 4a.m. to save starfish because it’s the right thing to do,” Riley says. She explains that being bad was fun but she feels terrible and asks for Zay’s forgiveness. “If you choose good, the world is more than willing to help you out,” Cory says, dishing out our final lesson for the week.

Topanga’s Cafe: Riley apologizes to Two Shoes Louie for not giving him the dollar, presenting him with spaghetti and hot dogs. He wanted Riley to be the one to give him the last two dollars for his boots. He gives Riley the two dollars so he can come back and ask for it. I don’t have much to say about this one besides another filler episode, though not the most offensive one they’ve ever done.

Episode Rating: 5/10.

Girl Meets World (3×12) “Girl Meets Bear”

Bay Window: “I would regard not being first in line as my greatest personal failure since not understanding fractions,” Maya announces, describing her dedication to be first in line for twenty-five cent taco day. Cory jumps in to remind us of his taco love. Maya gets even more intense when she realizes that the first ten people in line get novelty bobbleheads.

Bay Window, Next Morning: the taco plans are immediately waylaid when Riley’s childhood toy, Beary the Bear Bear, goes missing. She sounds the family alarm. They’re joined by Farkle, Lucas, and Zay, who have arrived for tacos. Maya invited them so they would know the true pain of missing out on tacos. They all revisit a flashback in which Auggie bites the face off of Beary the Bear Bear. Zay offers comedic relief and continuity when he says that maybe the experience will teach Riley not to eat other people’s cookies.

Another flashback gives us the origin of Beary the Bear Bear. When little Riley was sick, Cory and Topanga gave her Beary the Bear Bear to keep her company when they had to go out. The story invigorates the search, especially for guilt-ridden Auggie. He finds Alan’s silver boxing mittens that he gave to Cory back in the first season of Boy Meets World. Cory explains that Alan wanted Cory to have something that meant so much to him. Farkle talks to Topanga about her hippie past. I wonder why we’re having all these directionless out of the past moments.

Back to the Living Room: Josh shows up to do laundry, fresh from his first few weeks of college. He and Maya greet each other with “Long game?” and a nod, claiming the most adorable ever title. Riley is about to give up the search, but Josh insists on renewing it. He’s having a rough time at college, so he thinks Riley should hang on to Beary the Bear Bear as long as possible.

Sadly, the bear seems to be gone for good. Maya delivers the news to Riley, who seems to be unshaken. She presents Maya with a bag full of tacos and a bobblehead. Cory gives his Alan’s silver gloves to Auggie, even though he’s sure he’s going to lose them. Josh decides that it’s time to go back to try to make friends. And here it gets weird. Zay affirms that he’s happy about Maya and Josh playing the long game, but he feels like she’s kind of missing out on the present. He offers to sit next to her when she’s hanging out with Riley and Lucas, because she helps him feel less out of place. Josh agrees. I’m confused about what just happened, probably because it came out of nowhere and used ridiculously verbose dialogue. Auggie saves it by asking Farkle to go to the movies.

Episode Rating: 4/10.