Girl Meets World – Girl Meets Upstate

By starrymag | July 11, 2016

By: Dustin Bradley

 

Girl Meets Upstate may have been the best episode of Season Three so far! There was the return of Shawn Hunter (Rider Strong) and all that he brought to the table. Plus, we have the unfolding of the Maya identity crisis that will lead to next week’s aptly titled episode, Girl Meets True Maya. This episode shows us the what Girl Meets World does best – giving us laughs while also making us cry. Let’s go ahead and venture on to this episode!

Are we running away?

In a callback to the pilot, we see Maya (Sabrina Carpenter) and Riley (Rowan Blanchard) on the subway running away to an undisclosed (yet totally obvious) location. We get a cute moment where they talk about their first encounter with Lucas (Peyton Meyer). That leads us to…

What did you decide?

As we know from the previous episode, Lucas “decided” on which girl he most wants to pursue. We cut to good ole’ Topanga (Danielle Fishel) and Katy (Cheryl Texiera) trying and pry it out of him. So who did he pick? Well, we don’t know yet!

Come on in.

It seems that Riley has dragged them to Shawn’s cabin upstate! Thanks to a little tip from Cory, Shawn has tea and Swedish Butter Cookies ready for them when they arrive.

Why are they there? Well, according to Riley, “There can’t be two Rileys, just like there can’t be two Mayas. For the world to work, there needs to be one Riley and one Maya.” (This is such flawed logic on Riley’s part, but I will forgive it because she is young.)

Shawn knows what this is. It’s “Topanganese!” He has been down this road before in the past when Cory (Ben Savage) constantly wanted to be like him. (We get treated to an early Boy Meets World flashback that was so much fun to revisit!) The same thing is happening now.

Shawn explains that Cory had a great family and “Then, Cory met Topanga. Do you know what it’s like to go to highschool with Romeo and Juliet? Ugh. And so, I loved Angela. Because I thought I was supposed to. Because Cory had Topanga and they influenced me. It didn’t work. I mean, how could it not work? They worked. Then, they had you and I couldn’t catch up.”

They need to pinpoint when Maya stopped being Maya, which is why they brought her clothes that Shawn bought her last year. Was this his fault?

I care about your daughter very much.

We are back with Lucas and the adults. He tells the moms that he cares about both of their daughters and has a moment with Katy where he tells her that she is a wonderful parent because she taught Maya to care about her friends. (I would say that it was probably 30% Katy and 70% the Matthews, but I love Katy so I will let her take the credit!) Lucas then goes to the bay window to meet someone or someones.

I’m very extremely fond of you

Maya sees a photo from her birthday and one of Shawn and Katy on their first date on his wall of important and meaningful photos. He tells her that he likes her mother and her very much. Maya reminds him that he wants and has the ability to be a father someday. Sooner rather than later?

I’m Feeny!

Well, Cory arrives at the cabin soon enough. He and Cory don’t share their usual cheerful greetings because Shawn has realized that Cory has turned him into another version of Cory. After a little wrestling, he soon realizes he’s not Cory – he is Mr. Feeny. (Even though Cory retorts that HE is Feeny and Shawn is merely Feeny’s father, Captain Feeny.)

While the boys fight, the girl act like adults and talk things out. Maya admits that she has been acting like Riley recently because she wanted everything that Riley has. Riley asks if that’s the reason she likes Lucas, but Maya doesn’t really know yet. I’m not a “Lucaya” shipper and I know this show doesn’t revolve around a ships, but around friendships yet I can’t help to feel dishearten that they would potentially generalize Maya’s feelings like that.

It hits Shawn that he doesn’t want what Cory and Topanga have, (good thing cause “Corpanga” is one of a kind!) he wants what he is supposed to have. So, now we are off to find Shawn, too.

I love somebody. And somebody loves me?

I LOVE KATY HART! I needed to get that out of the way because this next scene was so freaking adorable.

Topanga and Katy have a heart to heart about the fact that Topanga has never seen Shawn’s eyes light up as much as they have when he is around Katy. This hits a core with Katy because she has never really had that…True love. That OTP kind of love!

That’s the best part of you. And the greatest thing that ever happened to me.

Shawn looks like Shawn again, but like Maya said before, those are just clothes they don’t change you completely. So, Shawn asks Cory what makes him Shawn and Cory responds with this: “You always lived in the moment, Shawn. You never cared about what happened or what people thought. I mean, you blew up a mailbox, you turned Feeny’s house into a bed and breakfast and you ran away to find yourself, like, seventy-six times. This ain’t new. You wanna find yourself? Remember your reckless spontaneity. That’s the best part of you. And the greatest thing that ever happened to me.”

This monologue leads to one of the best moments in the episode! THE HANDSHAKE!!! Cory and Shawn do the handshake and it was glorious! Just like old times!

But does the reemergence of old Shawn change how he sees Maya? Well it kind of does, but Maya needs to find herself before she can know the answer. So, off we go to Abigail Adams High to yet another obvious yet undisclosed location!

A unique voice who learned to appreciate the influence of hope.

They go to, hopefully you already guessed it, the art room! That way, Maya can paint on a blank canvas. She explains to Riley that she wanted what Riley had…A family. She wanted a family that ate together and truly loved each other. This anger starts a paint war akin to Season One.

During their mess, they get busted by Mr. Jackson, who likes to paint in his classroom at night because it is quiet. Mr. Jackson forgives them for breaking in because Maya has painted something that he feels has a purpose. It tells a story of anger, desperation and hope. Riley is the hope that Maya needs, not her downfall.

No matter who you picked, you picked Riley. You pick her, you got Riley, you pick me, you got Riley, ’cause that’s who I’ve been lately.

Lucas is at the bay window waiting for my favorite boys, Farkle (Corey Fogelmanis) and Zay (Amir Mitchell-Townes). He wants to tell them that he made a decision.

Before we get to that, we have to talk about Zay and Farkle. They are the best! Zay admits that he is in love with Maya and Riley too, which was hilarious because the fandom ships him with every character since he is so precious that he could make it work with any of his friends! And Farkle admits that he can love both Maya and Riley because he is a genius and Lucas is an idiot with a face. Farkle is so cute, even when he is being mean. While I do believe that Farkle loves the girls, he clearly loves them in a sibling type way. That has been shown many times. I’m sorry Riarkle shippers! Maybe one day, but not right now.

The girls come in the window. (Does any of these teenagers know how to use a front door?!) Maya tells Lucas that it doesn’t matter who he picked at the moment because Maya hasn’t been her true self for a while so either way he has picked Riley or a version of Riley. They decide to derail this situation until after Maya goes back to being Maya.

We get a cute moment that calls back to Shawn’s flashback earlier where Riley asks if Maya thinks she cool, to which Maya says “no.” She is Maya and Riley is Riley, just like always. SO CUTE!

I love your daughter. And I’m in love with you.

MY. GOODNESS. SHAWN HUNTER PROPOSED TO KATY HART! I’m sorry to those who were still hoping for some Shawn and Angela because that ain’t happening. MY PRECIOUS ADULT BABIES ARE GETTING MARRIED! I can’t wait for this wedding. I can’t wait to see them happy. I love them so much! I love Katy Hart. I love Shawn Hunter. SO MANY FEELS!

Join us next week for Girl Meets True Maya where “Maya leaves Riley and their friendship aside for a while and tries to figure out who the real Maya inside her is.” As always, you can count on me to have your latest recap a few days after the episode airs. Can’t wait for next week!