GMW 3.14 Girl Meets She Don't Like Me

• Since this episode will clearly be about someone not liking Riley, I would hope that Missy returns in some manner, but I have seen the promo and sadly this will not be the case. Little did I know the true MVP of the episode would be Smackle!

  

  MVP

• We begin in school, which is usually a good starting place for the show, where Riley wants to make new friends. Why? I don’t know why, because she has five others that are super close to her and a few good ones are better than many superficial ones, but this is Riley, therefore, everyone must like her. Riley chooses some unsuspecting victim girl in the hall asks to be her friend in only a way that Starfire, from Teen Titans Go! Would ask. The girl says no. Riley proceeds to pout like a four year old rather than a high school student.

  

  Riley Sad!

• The guys arrive and carry the girls to class. Smackle tries to carry Farkle in our first true LOL moment, but she must instead drag him.
• The gang all of health class together (anyone recall this fun class?) where it seems like this is the first day of class, because Riley doesn’t appear to know her teacher, yet they have clearly been in high school for a while now. Riley is afraid the health teacher/coach will not be delicate or sensitive enough.
• Apparently he wasn’t as Riley repeats her lesson at the dinner table because that’s what every teen does. The topic turns to control- enter Topanga, who in GMW logic controls everything in her life, but not everyone can do that. When her daughter tells her someone doesn’t like her, Topanga threatens to have tax attorneys look into the girl’s parent’s past taxes for inconsistencies. Then Riley begs Corey to talk to the coach to make class more the way she wants it.

  

  The look when someone doesn't like your kid . . .

• What could be worse than having an inconsiderate coach as a health teacher? Having your father as your health teacher! I don’t blame the coach for giving his class to Corey, because Corey can do no wrong.
• My favorite part follows: Smackle time! She is becoming my favorite character because she is so fun and has come so far from where we met her. I also love that this is the second time she has to be censored. Let’s see everyone’s reactions to Smackle explaining what I am sure was the bird and the bees . . .

• 

  Smackle teaches the class more than Corey ever has!

  
  

  

  Farkle was horrified while this was nothing Lucas hadn't heard before . . .

  

  Zay had a question . . .

  

  Maya was intrigued while Riley couldn't believe babies weren't actually delivered by the Stork

  

  Corey couldn't believe the words coming out of Smackle's mouth

  

  Even Auggie was in shock . . .

  Riley has a heart to heart with her mother, where Topanga tells her that life may be trying to shape her into who she is.
• So, Riley asks her friends what they would do? Lucas would smile at them, in only the way that he would smile at Smackle. Zay answers that he moved to NY, which is a backstory I really want to hear!

• 

  That day Farkle realized Lucas was going to take Smakcle away.

  Riley goes back to school, accepting everything is out of her control.
• They release balloons for some reason I forgot because I was too busy laughing at Smackle’s dream about her and Lucas!

  

  The real triangle

• Riley goes back to school, tells the victim girl who doesn’t like her that she still does like her and that’s okay. The victim girl smiles, obviously well on her way to becoming Riley’s friend.

*** Extra Tidbits***

• Corey taught them nothing!
• Auggie is thankful for her parents, sister, his wife Ava . . . LOL!
• Riley telling the girl should would like her, even if the girl didn’t like her would have been a great ending, but instead they do that ridiculous bit where Topanga had the poor girls family sieged by tax lawyers who apparently found out some sketchy stuff, thus ruining the poor girl’s life. She really is a victim of the Matthews family.

IF I WROTE THE EPISODE

I think you’d know what I do. Bring Missy back again to torment Riley, reveal she was the bully we never saw in season two and end it with Riley accepting that she and Missy will never be friends. I would have kept everything about Smackle in this episode because flirty/needs to be censored Smackle is best Smackle and I need more of this if I am expected to sit through lessons that I and most of the viewers learned at a very early age!


Better. So, so much better than last week's episode, for me anyway. I was entertained and I didn't feel too suffocated with lectures. Auggie was used appropriately, Topanga was funny, and let's not forget Smackle Time! I think deep down we all knew she would need to be censored eventually. Not a bad episode at all. 

So, what happened? Well, Riley wants to make a new friend at school. Maya and Riley are people watching when Riley has the idea. Riley, rather obnoxiously, grabs the first girl she sees at her locker, spins her around and proceeds to recruit her as the newest member of Riley Town. The girl doesn't like Riley. I can't really say that I blame her after an aggressively happy girl just disrupted her in between classes. And of course this pretty much wrecks Riley's rainbowed unicorn world, which leaves Maya there to pick up the pieces. And Lucas. Lucas literally picked Riley up off the floor and carried her to health class. 


It's good to know that the kids actually do have other classes with teachers that aren't Cory. Except, wait, Cory would end up teaching this class too; Riley wasn't really feeling the health teacher.

She took one look at him and decided he wouldn't be sensitive enough to teach her or her fellow classmates, so she what did she do? She told her dad. And what did he do? He tried to get his daughter a new teacher. The existing health teacher wasn't really into all this drama so he basically told Cory he could teach the class. Ha. Ha. 

I'm really glad Cory wound up in this situation because the subject matter made him very uncomfortable. It was fun to watch him squirm.

And Smackle Time really pushed Cory over the edge. One big long bleep and Smackle shamelessly illustrating page 73 for the class was probably the best part of this episode. Maya's reactions were my favorites. It's like she was keeping up with Smackle at first and knew exactly what was going on...

But once the instructor went over her head, she grabbed a pencil and began joyfully taking notes.

Everyone else experienced more shock. In the end it was realized that the original teacher, the gym teacher, was most suited for the job. He pops back in when he estimates that they have all had enough of Cory and Smackle, and he gives this wonderful speech about only having control over our own bodies. He goes on to tell them what's healthy and how to rely on their own minds and their bodies. It was awesome. Way to go, man.

Topanga, while she tried, was not able to teach this lesson as well as the health teacher. The whole episode we were reminded that Topanga has a bit of a control problem and that she probably passed it on to her daughter. At one point Maya had to sooth Topanga with her "loo lie lee" song after she found out that someone didn't like Riley.

I liked the way Topanga was used this week. Everything from her entrance to the conclusion of this episode,where we find out that she may have had something to do with a family being convicted of tax evasion, made me laugh. Lots of entertaining moments in this past Friday. I can't say that it was my favorite, but I definitely enjoyed the episode. Thank you, GMW staff. See you back here for the Halloween special!