Episode 5x23 "Things Change"

Angela, Topanga, and their boyfriends are at Chubbie's, all four with their respective letter from Pennbrook. We find out that everyone has been accepted except Shawn, who is on the waiting list. Dang, that sure was less exciting than Eric's acceptance. But it's probably better this way, anything they tried would have paled in comparison to Eric's moment of triumph. During all these proceedings, Shawn's taking pictures of everyone as they open their letters, including himself. Ah, I see, they pulled out the old Hat of Hobbies again for this episode.

(I made a little animation of a hand pulling a piece of paper that says "photography" out of a hat)

I imagine the script said something like "Shawn takes as many photographs as possible to convince the viewers that this is actually something Shawn does." Just like Topanga's art, all of Shawn's "hobbies" in Chasing Angela, Cory being a filmmaker... The list is as long as the series. I'm sure we'll see the Hat of Hobbies again.

At school, Cory and Topanga are convincing everyone who got accepted to Pennbrook not to go, so that the college will start admitting from the waiting list. It's an effective strategy, and it's fun to watch Cory and Topanga doing their silliness. Maybe we've turned a page after Starry Night. Topanga was good in 21 and 22 as well, but the comments are assuring me that she gets annoying again next season.

Ah yes, the next scene takes place in the darkroom at Shawn's photography job. He enjoys the security of this job, and is honestly considering staying here even if he gets accepted to college. Hat of Hobbies indeed. We've invented a new character trait for the sake of the story, and have to pretend it's always been there. It was different with Shawn's philosophy class though. I liked that because it was a discovery, we watched him become interested. But with this I'm just left asking "why the fuck is he a photographer".

Cory and Topanga arrive in The Kitchen to find Amy, Alan, and Eric trying to choose a new wallpaper for Cory's room once he moves out. (Recall that Amy is pregnant.) Eric wants the wallpaper with duckies, and Cory's upset that everything is changing so fast.

Cory: "I sorta thought you guys would keep my room the way it is."

Eric: "Actually Cor, for that I think you gotta be unexpectedly killed by a truck or something."

Woah! That's some dark humor! I like it. Eric is the master of all forms of comedy.

So Cory leaves to go to Chubbie's, which is by gum the most consistent and unchanging thing on this show. We're doing almost the exact same scene as before now, with Shawn opening another letter from Pennbrook. And this time, he's been accepted. Woohooooo.

Where the hell is Chet? I wanna see Chet's reaction to his boy getting into college. For that matter, everyone in the previous scene was too preoccupied with WALLPAPER to discuss the fact that Cory got into college! Either way, Shawn mentions that he's up for a big promotion at his photography job and thinks he's going to stick with the job rather than go to Pennbrook. Cory is obviously upset about this, claiming that Shawn is "throwing away his entire life", but let's think about it. If we accept the Premise Of The Day that Shawn wants to be a photographer, then he hit the fucking jackpot. The only reason to get a degree in photography is to get a job in photography. But he already has that! And he's about to get promoted! But it's not really about logic for Cory, he's just afraid of not having his best buddy around at college. Topanga also has a new letter, this time from Yale. She made the waiting list, but that's not what she wanted. Boo hoo Topanga, you spend all your free time goofing off with Cory. They don't really look for that when you're applying to an ivy league school.

Cory drags Jack to where Shawn is setting up a photo shoot to convince him to go to college. Jack ends up doing some modeling shots instead. Funny stuff.

Shawn explains that he's genuinely excited about coming to this job to learn, something he's never felt about school. They're actually making a great case for Shawn not going to college. I don't remember how this episode ends, but we all know Shawn ends up going to Pennbrook, so I'm genuinely interested to see what makes him change his mind.

Cory's last hope is Mister Feeny, but he's already given Shawn his blessing to stay at the photography job. Good for you, Feeny. The old man comments that things change, "and not just for students."

Old man George is retiring and moving to Wyoming. :(
Taking it one step further, Topanga arrives with another letter from Yale, this time an acceptance. Everything seems to be falling apart for our boy Cory. Morgan comes outside to comfort her brother, and they end up going to Chubbie's, the last bastion of normalcy in Cory's life. Except it's not. Chubbie's is finally gone. Kaput. No more Chubbie's in this series. It has been bought out by Peg Leg Pete's, a pirate themed restaurant. R.I.P.

I didn't mean "Rest In Peace" there, that stands for "Restaurant Is Pirates".

It's crazy how quickly they just delete something we've had since season 2. Chubbie's has almost certainly been in a majority of the episodes, and now it's just gone. But that's sort of the point, you know? How quickly you can lose your familiar settings. I'm sad to see it go, honestly. That's good writing. Imagine if they'd done like... a party for the "last night at Chubbie's" or whatever, that would have been terrible! Much better to keep it like this and keep the theme intact. 

So yeah, the story of this entire episode is that Cory is unhappy with the way things are changing. Morgan runs outside to bring in Eric and then everyone else to try to make Cory feel better. Slowly, but surely, he begins to accept all the changes going on around him, as he encourages Topanga to go to Yale and Shawn to stay at his job. Angela doesn't have any lines in this scene because who the hell caaaaares what she thinks. Cory even begins to accept Feeny's retirement.

Eric's been all zen about change so far, but Mr. Feeny moving to Wyoming just crosses the line, dammit!

So I guess this all gets resolved in the next episode, since it's time for the credits. During which, it's... that scene... ...Where Eric doesn't want Mister Feeny to leave...

(Mobile users, you're missin out on some quality gif right here)

"If I'm really really quiet.... will you stay..?"

;_____________________________________;

That rips me apart from the inside every time I watch this episode. Every single shred of innocence that we love in Eric bursts out in this moment of complete and total vulnerability. It is the saddest kind of beauty, and the most beautiful kind of sadness. No one on this show comes anywhere close to the raw emotional power that Eric has, especially with  Mister Feeny. I adore that line. Top five moment. I don't care how many times I've said that, this is a top five moment.

Plot: 0.25 - Stuff is just changing. There isn't really anything going on. I did like the small touch of having Shawn on the waiting list first, it would have been a stretch for him to get straight in. And we've talked about this before, but when the hell did Cory become a good student? It just sort of happened and they made it seem like it had always been that way. And the whole thing with Shawn's photography, the Hat of Hobbies, that's really annoying. We know that'll never come up again. Why didn't they just pick something we've seen about Shawn in the past? Something poetry related, or GEE I DON'T KNOW, the fucking advertising agency from How To Succeed In Business? For crying out loud.

Character Development: 1.0 - I should change this category to like, "character exploration" or something. I'm giving the point for Eric's love for Feeny, even though that's not really a development.

Humor: 1.0 - Cory is hilarious the whole time since he's angry, the modeling scene with Jack is funny, and Eric is funny as always.

Life Lesson: 1.0 - Things do, in fact, change. It's kind of cheap since we already know none of these changes are permanent, but the theme still works.

3.5 out of 4.0. This is a fantastic penultimate episode. It does exactly what it's supposed to, we're totally set up and excited for what's to come in the season finale. There's a lot of interesting plot threads to follow. I for one am super excited for the next episode. That's a job well done.

Thanks for reading, see you Wednesday to close this bad boy out.

All images used under Fair Use.