[S2E22] Girl Meets Texas: Part 3 BEST
Riley gets invited to her first boy-girl party, and expects this to be her ticket to popularity, only to find that it is a "geek party". When Riley realizes that she is adored by the nerds, she decides to become their "queen". By doing so, she reinvents herself to make her something that she is not, only to be popular. Meanwhile, Topanga is knowingly on the wrong side of a case, and channels her inner-former self for motivation to do the right thing.
[S2E22] Girl Meets Texas: Part 3
Riley and Maya want money to buy clothes, so they go to Demolition, an accessory store, to buy new outfits. The cashier, Aubrey, manipulates the two girls into giving away all their clothes. Riley sees a pretty dress and becomes obsessed over it, so she decides to use a $500 emergency credit card Topanga gave her to buy it, despite Maya's urging not to. The girls tell Cory what happened and demands to speak to Aubrey, but when he does, she brainwashes him into thinking he looks like Justin Timberlake and he ends up being scammed into buying an expensive outfit. Topanga gets irritated from the circumstance; Cory then tells Topanga they all spent $1,200 worth of clothes. Enraged, Topanga goes down to Demolition to tell the owners that Aubrey scammed her daughter and husband into buying extravagant items. The owners turn out to be Aubrey's parents, who are delighted that she scammed someone into giving her money. Later, Aubrey gets a phone call from Evelyn Rand saying she wants the dress Aubrey sold to Riley back for $2,500, but Aubrey insists on $4,000. Evelyn arrives and teaches Aubrey a valuable life lesson, causing Aubrey to turn over a new leaf. At the end of the episode, Aubrey goes up to the Matthews apartment, asking Riley and Maya to teach her how to be a better person.
Riley and Maya get into a huge argument which threatens their friendship. The feud prompts Cory to call on his older brother Eric to mediate, recalling his people skills in settling a feud when they were in college. After Eric arrives at the Matthews' apartment, he listens to the girls, and Maya reveals a comment Lucas made about her height, which Riley decided to agree with rather than considering how hurtful the comment was to her friend. Eric is later a guest in Cory's class, and he gathers the students just outside the classroom, where Riley and Maya further discuss their problem. It turns out the other students, including Farkle, Lucas and Zay, are dealing with similar issues for their age. Eric shows them that what they are going through is normal, and they should be supportive of each other even with these issues.
Uncle Josh visits Cory and his family again, with great news about being accepted into NYU, to Maya's delight. There is a welcoming party for Josh at a friend's dormitory at the university, which Maya is determined to attend. It starts late at night, so Maya pretends to have a sleepover at Riley's with plans to sneak out. Though Riley knows it is wrong, she decides to accompany Maya, and the two devise a scheme so that Riley's parents are unaware that they are at this party. Auggie later unfoils the scheme, but keeps quiet. While Riley enjoys her first taste of college life, Maya regrets being there when she sees Josh speaking with other girls and realizes she is not in their league. Josh is startled to see Riley and Maya, and takes the two home after trying to set things straight regarding Maya's feelings for him. Riley ends up grounded for two weeks for sneaking out, and Auggie is grounded for one week, for not speaking up about his sister.
For the mid-term science experiment, Mr. Norton has Riley and her classmates examine a solution by placing a mystery marble into clear liquid, with one person of each boy-girl team dropping the marble and the other working out the scientific calculations. When Riley sees it is only the girls who are putting the marbles into the liquid and leaving the boys to do the science, she is offended and refuses to follow that trend. She gathers the girls into her bedroom to discuss why this is happening, and makes them realize they are not seeing their potential. She also confronts Farkle, her science experiment partner, about his perceived stereotyping of girls; he takes the blame and apologizes to Riley for not allowing her to pursue her interest in science. While the marble-liquid solution is simply sludge, there is a bigger picture to the experiment which Riley has already figured out. She presents her finding to Mr. Norton, who informs the class it is at their age that girls begin to lose interest in the STEM subjects. The rest of the class cannot see their partners due to the beaker of sludge in their way, but Riley and Farkle can see each other crystal clear, because they worked together equally to complete the science.
Riley and Maya have not discussed their feelings for Lucas since the new year, so he decides to simply stay friends with them for the sake of not hurting either girl. As Cory teaches his class one last time, the group feels that Cory has not given them enough instruction to move forward to high school. Cory admits to being wrong about not allowing them to feel as a natural part of their changing, but sees how much his class has learned while in middle school. For the final lesson, he challenges them to leave a lasting mark for future John Quincy Adams students to remember them by, prompting them to dedicate a new bench in the school hallway. As they graduate and leave middle school behind, they decide for their class prank to steal their school mascot, which shocks Cory. It turns out it is Cory. Through Riley's call to Superintendent Turner and a heavily-supported petition, Cory is allowed to transfer schools so he can continue to teach Riley and her friends in high school.
When Riley and Maya see other girls in school going through their break-up phase, they meet Sage, with whom they share that they like the same boy. Sage tells them they need to make a decision about him, and Farkle and Zay similarly tell Lucas he needs to choose between Riley and Maya. Meanwhile, Maya struggles with her first painting for her new art teacher, Mr. Jackson, as he questions her about what her work is saying, what influences are behind it, and more importantly, who she is. Riley also wonders since she is no longer seeing the rebellious side of her best friend. Maya denies that she has changed, but after Mr. Jackson shows Maya her painting from a different perspective, she realizes how much Riley and her parents have influenced her. As she has become more like Riley, Maya is in need of finding her true self and asks Riley for help, so they go out in search of that. Around the same time, Lucas comes to the Matthews' apartment ready to reveal his decision about Riley and Maya to them, only to discover they are not there, so Cory, Topanga, and Katy urge him to share this news.
Riley and Maya visit Shawn at his place in upstate New York. When he hears that Maya has lost a part of herself due to Riley's influence, Shawn tells the girls how he was similarly affected by Cory, and like Maya, he wants to find his edgy side again. Knowing the girls are with Shawn, Cory comes for a visit as well and sees Shawn is angry at him for changing him too much. Cory reminds Shawn about his quality of "reckless spontaneity" to help him through his crisis. This also helps Riley to find Maya, as they head back to the city, to their art classroom at school, where Maya expresses her anger at Riley through a painting. It escalates into a paint fight, which Mr. Jackson walks in on; he notices Maya's painting and sees a greater artistic voice in her. Meanwhile, Lucas remains quiet about his choice of Riley or Maya and sits in Riley's bay window until the girls return, but when he finds out Maya has not been herself lately, the three decide to wait until they know who they are first. Shawn, on the other hand, having rediscovered himself, proposes to Katy, and she accepts.
Riley is hoping for Maya's rebellious side to return when Maya reveals she is about to do something big and bad. When the fire alarm goes off at school and money goes missing at Topanga's, though, the group is surprised Maya is not behind those. Maya is still learning what she has become and visits a park she went to when she was younger, bringing with her a hammer, a brick and some paint. At the park, she confronts two girls from her past, Carla and Renee, who are anticipating to see her vandalize the park, but they do not see the same Maya they knew before. Still, Maya gets caught by Officer James, who brings her back to the Matthews' apartment and charges her with vandalism. When he shows the group what she did, it becomes clearer that Riley has changed Maya for the better, and Officer James is willing to let the matter go as long as Maya does not get into trouble again.
Maya has kidnapped a famous international actress, Anastasia Boulangerie, and tells Riley she did so because she is trying to get her mother a role in a movie where she plays herself, but for which Anastasia is auditioning. The girls find out from Katy that Anastasia, whose real name is Bobbie Jo Thibodeaux, is her best friend from their youth in Arkansas and that they have lost touch since Anastasia became famous. Meanwhile, Sarah's father, director DW Preminger, is casting for that movie, written by his daughter. After Katy auditions for her eponymous role, Anastasia persuades Preminger to give Katy the part. As for the other roles in the movie, Riley, Maya, Lucas, Farkle and Zay are hoping to land the parts related to them, but Preminger rejects them all.
Riley wants to celebrate her "Sweet Sixteen" early, which gives Cory an idea for an assignment when he teaches the class about one's personal landmarks. He wants them to think about what will happen in their junior year of high school. Riley feels confident that she and Maya will stay friends for the rest of their lives, and that they will never leave each other, but she becomes worried after realizing the future may lead to the rest of her friends going their separate ways after high school. When Riley decides she will attend the same college as Maya just to stay together, Topanga advises the two that such an arrangement may not work, even though she gave up going to Yale to be with Cory. The class presentations reveal that Farkle and Smackle, Lucas and Zay, and Riley and Maya will still be together in two years. After class, Riley and Maya want to celebrate their lasting friendship at the Matthews' place, just as Topanga shares news that she has been named a partner for the London office of her law firm, which threatens to separate the two girls. 041b061a72