The three youngest heroes are cleaning out the garage at the Matthews house, which allegedly hasn't been done in years. Cory is having trouble throwing any of his old stuff away. It's cute at first, like with his Strawberry Shortcake doll- "She's cute. She's my friend."- but then he finds his old retainer. It seems like almost every cleaning-up-old-stuff gag has someone find their old retainer. Am I crazy? Feels like I've seen this on a thousand other shows.
Shawn observes that half of this stuff is Eric's and questions his absence. Cory doesn't really have a good reason for not inviting Eric along, commenting that he'd rather do it with Shawn and Topanga anyway. TO BE FAIR, the insufferable klutz of a braindead zombie that Eric's been this season would undoubtedly make a gigantic mess and break everything. I wouldn't want to clean the garage with season 7 Eric either, highlighting once again how much he's changed since seasons 4 and 5.
Rider actually looks like he knows what he's doing with that sword.
Eric shows up now, and he is not happy. Apparently Alan wanted his sons to do this together (why not with Morgan huh? HUH?), meaning Cory blatantly ignored his father's wishes by going on without Eric. Your immediate reaction is to wonder how Cory could do something so cruel to his brother, but let's look at Eric's list of activities this season. He stalked Topanga for the sake of revenge, joined the Amish to escape a bookie, forgot Cory and Topanga's wedding rings, gave away The Union's money to an organ grinder, and was willing to kill Morgan for Alan's surprise party. In the positives column, Eric gave Cory his lucky penny and effectively saved all of their friendships in Seven The Hard Way.
Would you want that guy around? I dunnooooooooooooo.
Okay here we go, at The Union we've got Rachel and Angela sitting with each other on the couch engaged in some sort of dialogue. Yet another vain attempt at convincing us that these two are friends. There's even some jokes between them that the audience laughs at that just sort of make me hate the show.
By the pool table, Shawn and Jack agree to try to act more like brothers in light of what happened with Eric and Cory. Indeed, Shawn says that Eric got him thinking, which surprises Jack, and Shawn explains that Eric "seemed well rested." That's the running gag this episode, that Eric seems well rested simply because he's acting like a rational human being. So "well rested" is basically just code for "like season 5." It's kind of annoying, but I appreciate that the writers are aware enough to comment on such a drastic change in his personality.
Cory's at Brew Lagoon, so it's time for the second confrontation of the Matthews Brothers. Eric's clearly worried about his degrading relationship with his brother and thought this garage-cleaning would be a good chance to reconnect, it's very season 4/5, which means that I like it. Cory doesn't see the value of cleaning it together, so Eric spitefully resolves to just "get it done" by selling everything at a garage sale.
Eric: "Are you really sorry, or are you just sorry you got caught?"
Jack: "You're right, he does seem well rested."
Maybe all of our season 6/7 Eric woes are just due to perpetual sleep deprivation. Maybe he was taking night classes and that's how he's graduating so fast.
Later, at The Apartment, Shawn and Jack are trying desperately to find something they can enjoy together. Much like Angela and Rachel being friends, the writers are making a last ditch effort to remind us that Shawn and Jack are supposed to be brothers. We learned in A Very Topanga Christmas that they both love ice skating, but that means absolutely nothing on this show. It's spring time coming up on summer during this episode, but they could at least mention it. And Jack doesn't want to go bowling when Shawn suggests it, even though Jack liked bowling enough to ignore his girlfriend back in Last Tango In Philly. Grumble grumble grumble.
Eventually they just decide to go check out the Matthews' garage sale.
It's a nice day out here and the birds are chirping, contrasting with the tension between Eric and Cory. Eric has pretty much shut down and is putting cheap price tags on all their nostalgic artifacts with abandon. Including the sled that, as Cory reminds him, they took up to Dead Man's Hill one winter when the schools were closed. The same hill, I remind you, where Mitchell Davis crashed his bike and "slammed his head into some garbage cans", causing him to repeat the 6th grade eleven times (re: Season 4 Episode 8). It's amazing what details they'll preserve while completely dismissing others.
The three women show up with some of their own things to sell, with yet another attempt at portraying the "they're definitely friends" thing with Rachel and Angela. Simply because the writers hate him, Eric buys one of Rachel's old tank tops for fifty dollars. Why? Why did they include this? We were doing so well, Eric was looking so strong. This was totally unnecessary.
Topanga: "Why do you want Rachel's old tank top?"
Eric: "I'm a collector..."
Yeah Rachel laughs it off, and it seems like he might have just said it to be funny, but he still walks off with the tank top... He actually did pay fifty dollars for this tank top and is keeping it... It's weird.
The Hunter boys arrive eventuallly, making exaggerated laughs to make it seem like they're enjoying the other's company. It's actually pretty great, this is the best thing they've done with these two in a while. Stupid Eric makes a quick return when a customer wants to buy some fuzzy slippers. Eric ends up paying the customer for them instead. It's just like the tank top, we could have gotten on just fine without this. It's goes completely against the serious Eric that's critical to the story. Is NO ONE ELSE capable of pulling off a joke? They couldn't give him ONE episode of being serious?
The third confrontation between the brothers begins, but there's a third player this time. Some woman is constantly nagging Cory about the price of a picture frame while he's trying to talk to Eric, and eventually Cory snaps at her. The woman's husband comes to her defense and lands a right hook straight across Cory's chin. This, in turn, causes Eric to snap, delivering a few gutshots to this guy. It's a nice sentiment but it looks absolutely ridiculous. Why is this tank of a man letting Eric wail on him like this? Here's the gif, it loses a lot of its effect just because it's so stupid looking.
It's reminiscent of Eric showing up to help against Harley in the season 2 opener, against someone he similarly had no chance of beating. It's very sweet, but you also have a sister, Eric, and you were willing to let her die for a party. But if we ignore the entire season up to the the last few episodes, then yeah, this is awesome. Episodes 14 through 17 were all stellar showings from Eric, 18 was a little hiccup but still okay, and now this is great too. So let's just agree that episodes 1 through 13 aren't canon.
The tank of a man fires back at Eric, and soon the whole garage sale is one giant brawl.
The next scene opens in the Emergency Room, where Cory and Eric are icing their wounds. This is the fourth confrontation, and is, for me, one of the most memorable scenes between these two in the whole series.
Eric: "Dad wanted us to do that together, and you chose to leave me out. Those were OUR memories!"
I haven't watched this episode in years, and when I thought about it coming up, that's the only line I could remember. That line stuck with me since the first time I watched this episode. "Those were OUR memories!" The delivery is soul-shaking, and the context is overwhelming. He continues by asking "Do you have any idea how it felt to go down there and see Shawn and Topanga there instead of me?" This is especially cathartic since he was forced to set aside his own feelings of exclusion during The War. But here they are now, in all the glory that Rachel and Angela and Jack couldn't have hoped to achieve in The War.
Eric leaves, claiming that Cory doesn't like him and that they aren't friends, just brothers. Cory's pretty much speechless, and so am I.
That's definitely the highlight of this episode, but the next scene is pretty good too as Topanga helps Cory understand what this is all about. In the past, Cory always wanted to hang out with Eric (according to her, that's not really ever reflected in the show) and now they've grown apart.
This is a continuation of excellent showings by Topanga, and really Danielle Fishel. It's like a light went on and suddenly she's one of the best characters.
She advises Cory to think on whether he wants to reignite his strong bond with Eric and heads home. To the tune of the emotional acoustic guitar, Cory continues packing up junk in the garage. Eric shows up, and without a word helps him clean up what's left, but not without a quick playful shove.
This is a spectacular ending (there's nothing during the credits). When the clock starts running out and there's no resolution, I always start to worry about a way-too-neat tied-with-a-pretty-bow resolution a la Seven The Hard Way. Rather than solving the problem, they've both acknowledged that the problem exists, and they both appear hopeful about fixing that problem in the future. It also (can't believe I'm saying this) sets the groundwork for Eric's choices in the series finale. That's right, groundwork has been set, and I'm very excited about it.
Plot: 1.0 - Eric's hurt feelings and concerns are perfectly legitimate. Cory excluding Eric is perfectly legitimate and follows the trend we've seen this season, particularly in The War when Cory didn't want him on his team. Cory even says to Topanga in that last scene "the guy's a total screw up." So while we haven't all been happy with Eric's status as a "total screw up" this season, this use of it has certainly made me more accepting.
Character Development: 1.0 - Shawn and Jack try to be closer (even though they aren't really successful), and of course Cory and Eric resolving to regain their old, closer bond.
Humor: 0.5 - I really wanted to give this episode a perfect score because I haven't given one this season, but I can't honestly say it was very funny. And that's FINE, it wasn't supposed to be funny, it completely works without being funny. Shawn and Jack were silly, but we lost them after the garage sale, and then it was all business.
Life Lesson: 1.0 - Brother stuff.
3.5 out of 4.0. The Matthews Bruthassss. For the humor side of Boy Meets World, episode 17 is probably my favorite this season, but for exploring the relationship between characters that we love, this has to be my favorite. And a lot of it is owed to Eric finally being "well rested." BUT KBM WHAT ABOUT THE CLASSROOM SCENE AT THE END OF THE FINALE?!????? Yeah yeah, that's the best scene in the season, but it hardly makes up for the 40-minute-clip-show of a finale. I don't know, I haven't watched the finale in a while, I guess we'll find out.
Thanks for reading, see you Friday. I'm not excited about it.
All images used under Fair Use.
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