| “ | My parents are Cory and Topanga. And they gave me the best parts of both of them. | ” |
Girl Meets Cory and Topanga is the sixteenth episode in season 2 of Girl Meets World and the 37th episode overall. It aired on September 18, 2015 to 2.4 million viewers.
Overview
As Riley observes Cory and Topanga making a positive impact on the world, she wonders if her contributions will ever match those of her parents.
Plot
Getting up for a late night snack, Riley finds both of her parents still awake and working at the kitchen table: Cory grading pre-Cold War essays written by his students, and Topanga working on briefs for a case involving a major fast food chain wanting to close down a neighborhood book store to open another restaurant in its place.
Riley realizes that while she sleeps soundly in her bed at night, her parents are working hard to make the world a better place. Thinking of how they excel in everything they do, Riley begins to feel as though she could never possibly live up to them. The next morning, she shares her thoughts with Maya, who's already aware of how amazing Cory and Topanga are; Riley muses "What do you do when you know you're never going to be as good as your parents?"
In class, Cory has each student write down on a piece of paper the one thing they think is impossible for them, and then crumple up the paper and throw it away. Next, he gives the class an assignment to try to achieve these impossible things. When Cory asks Riley what she wrote down, she reveals that she sees no future where she's as good as Cory and Topanga. But as Cory asks Riley to explain, the bell rings and Riley walks out discouraged.
In an attempt to find her own path Riley, with Maya in tow, goes to a convent and tells a nun her trouble, and says that she wants to join the sisterhood. The nun tells Riley that human perfection in unattainable, and that she herself knows of only one person who ever came close; this person turns out to be Topanga, who just saved the convent’s orphanage from becoming a Super Cluck restaurant.
Disappointed in her experience at the convent, Riley decides to join the circus. She meets Jingles the clown, who tells her that becoming a clown got in the way of his education, but that things are looking up now, because there’s an amazing teacher who dedicates his free time to educating the circus clowns. This teacher, of course, turns out to be Cory, leaving Riley even more discouraged.
At the Bay Window, Maya reasons that Cory and Topanga were probably just as messed up and confused when they were their age. Thinking Maya could be onto something, Riley decides they should see for themselves; she knows all of her parents’ stories, and if they concentrate hard enough while she’s retelling them, maybe they can see what her parents were actually like as kids. Initially Maya is against the idea, saying "it's not like someone recorded everything they did", but Riley is adamant, and the two concentrate while Riley tells the story: They envision Cory and Topanga (using actual footage from the original "Boy Meets World" series with Riley and Maya digitally added to the scene) at age eleven playing basketball with rolled-up socks; while they finally see how goofy Cory was, they notice that even back in the day Topanga seemed to have it together.
When Cory looks at what Farkle wrote down for his impossible thing, "athlete", Cory instructs a reluctant Lucas to help Farkle try and become one.
Farkle's X-Factor
In the gymnasium, Lucas has Farkle try his hand at several different sports, only to fail miserably at each. But Farkle is convinced that, as a spectator, sports can be just as much a matter of physics as it is athletics, which he demonstrates when he helps Lucas shoot a one-handed free-throw basket from the other side of the gym. Back in Cory's class, Farkle and Lucas discuss with the class the parallels of sports and life, that you don't have to be as good an athlete as the others to enjoy the game, that the fun of the game is in running the bases, and that your teammates will help you get home.
Back again at the bay window, and with Maya's prompting, Riley reluctantly tells another story: they see Cory and Topanga (again using BMW footage) discussing how they're going to perform an oral book report on the ozone layer in Mr. Feeny's class: Cory suggests they do a quick in-and-out using as few words as possible (with Cory wearing his Philadelphia Phillies cap), while Topanga suggests Cory read aloud a poem she wrote called "Donut in the Sky" while Topanga does an interpretive dance which involves drawing on her entire face with red lipstick. Riley finally realizes that at times Topanga was even goofier than Cory, and that she inherited personality traits from both her parents. The next day in Cory's class, Riley proclaims that she is now confident of finding her own niche in life, and that she is now comfortable with the fact that she has the best parts of both Cory and Topanga. She then puts on Cory's old Phillies cap, a symbolic gesture that she's glad he and Topanga are on her team and that they'll help her run the bases.
Cast
Main cast
- Rowan Blanchard as Riley Matthews
- Ben Savage as Cory Matthews
- Sabrina Carpenter as Maya Hart
- Peyton Meyer as Lucas Friar
- August Maturo as Auggie Matthews
- Corey Fogelmanis as Farkle Minkus
- Danielle Fishel as Topanga Matthews
Guest Cast
- Ken Hudson Campbell as Jingles the Clown
- Diona Reasonover as Sister Mary Beth
Quotes
Young Topanga: Why do you care so much what other people think? When people laugh at you they're depleting their own karmic reservoir. Young Cory: You're going to be one of those girls who doesn't shave her legs, aren't you? Young Topanga: I haven't decided yet. Young Cory: Do you actually try to be weird? Young Topanga: I don't think I'm weird. I think I'm unique. |
Riley: I don't think I'm weird, Maya. I think I'm unique. He's Cory. She's Topanga. But I'm both. |
Cory: Ferdinand Magellan. What'd he do? Maya: First bull with a last name. Farkle: First man to circumnavigate the globe. Maya: Who 'ya gonna believe? |
Riley: Maybe they're the lucky ones. Maya: Why? Riley: They're Cory and Topanga, and I'm just their little shadow living in the reflection of the sun. What do you do when you know you'll never be as good as your parents? |
Maya: Riles, the great thing about being us, we don't have to worry about being them. Riley: Too late. I started and I don't like where it's going. |
Cory: "'Why no one should talk but me' - Farkle Minkus." |
Riley: So you guys are staying up and protecting our city and our minds, while what I do is sleep. Topanga: Well, honey, you're really very good at it. |
Riley: Dad, mom's trying to save the entire city. How are you gonna beat that? Cory: I'm trying to get through Maya's paper. Riley: He beat you. |
Riley: So you stay up late and protect our community? Topanga: Trying. Riley: Well, you know what I do at night? I sleep. Topanga: Well, that's very important, honey. Riley: Well, a kid like me needs fifteen hours. |
Topanga: They're trying to throw out those people who own that wonderful old bookstore over on Jane Street. They want to put in another fast food Super Cluck. Riley: But they're the world's most powerful bucket of food people. Topanga: They don't scare me. Riley: Who are you? Topanga: I am no friend of the Super Cluck. |
Maya: Look at them. Your dad's as weird as you. Riley: Yeah. He kinda is. |
Maya: Riles, they were kids just like us. |
Maya: Look at them. They're eensy. Your dad's adorable. Riley: Maya! Maya: Hey Matthews, how you doin'? |
Maya: You tell a good story, Riley. |
Riley: Once upon a time, there was a Cory and Topanga. Maya: It's not like someone recorded everything they did. |
Riley: Get out of here. Auggie: But this is where the spaghetti is. |
Riley: My parents are superheroes. Maya: Calm down, blinky. |
Maya: What's a matter, honey? Did something happen? |
Riley: Mr. Jingles, is there any way you would even consider allowing me to look at the pretty flower? Jingles the Clown: Is she for real? Maya: I try, I try, and I try. |
Lucas: I believe everything you say now. Farkle: And I believe basketball may not be so bad. |
Farkle: Huh. I probably should have considered the X factor. Lucas: And what's the X factor? Farkle: I stink! |
Farkle: Every sport is the same. Being good at sports is just being good at physics. Lucas: Don't you mess up America's most favorite thing with America's least favorite thing. |
Sister Mary Beth: What's your name? Riley: Riley. But I want my nun name to be Sister Riley of Perpetual Bleh. Sister Mary Beth: Sorry, that name's already been taken. How about Sis Ri Per Bleh 84263? Or Blinky? Riley: Blinky was my second choice. |
Riley: I'd like to renounce all my worldly possessions, except for all of my stuff. |
Maya: We'll be at the river. |
Riley: So, I have to go and find my own way. I have to go and create my own individual path, and I must do it all alone by myself. Come on, Maya! |
Riley: The only thing going away is me. Can somebody please direct me to the edge of the earth? I assume it's near the river. |
Cory: Riley, is there any thing in your sweet Riley mind that you consider impossible? Riley: There is no future to look forward to where I'm anywhere near as good as you guys. Cory: What are you talking about? Riley: You and mom. Cory and Topanga. You're my impossible thing. Cory: I don't understand. Riley: Maybe some people do just fall off the world, Dad. Cory: What do you mean, Riley? [bell rings] |
Cory: Okay, so, Farkle has just given us a great idea for an assignment. Class: Oh! Farkle: Yay! |
Farkle: Why you smiling at me so pretty? Maya: Because I want the last thing you ever see to be nice. |
International Premieres
- March 28, 2016 (Israel)
- May 19, 2016 (Poland)
- June 16, 2016 (Latin America, Brazil)
Trivia
- Third episode directed by Ben Savage.
- Footage from the Boy Meets World episodes "Cory's Alternative Friends" and "Boy Meets Girl" are used. This marks the first time where the Girl Meets World cast are digitally edited into scenes/episodes from the original show.
- This is the first episode aired, but second written, by Joshua Jacobs (son of Michael Jacobs who appeared in BMW episodes "Eric Hollywood" and "It's About Time"), after Girl Meets Commonism.
- First appearance of Morgan Matthews (Lily Nicksay), albeit only in the Matthews family portrait hanging over the fireplace in the flashback set in the Matthews' living room.
- George Feeny was mentioned in the Boy Meets World flashback.
- Maya's joke about Ferdinand as a bull with a last name is likely a reference to Munro Leaf's classic children's book The Story of Ferdinand, which was adapted into an animated Disney short in 1938, two years after the book's initial publication.
- The scene from Cory's Alternative Friends stops right before Topanga would have named her parents. If she had done so, she would have called her mother Chloe, which runs contrary to the established name Rhiannon.
- Although the bay window in the Matthews' kitchen did exist, it was never mentioned (or even used) during any Boy Meets World episode.
- Farkle does not initially share his dad's love of basketball, as Stuart even joined the Jefferson Elementary Warriors basketball team in his youth.
- This episode shares similarities with the Boy Meets World episode, "The Eskimo."
- Riley takes a liking to the nickname of "Blinky."
- The scene where Farkle analyzes the basketball hoop and its distance make it seem like he really is a robot, but we know from Girl Meets Farkle that he is a real boy.
Gallery
 |
The image gallery for Girl Meets Cory and Topanga may be viewed here.
|
Transcript
|
To view the Girl Meets Cory and Topanga transcript, click here.
|
Videos
|
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Learn more about Matthews Summer Vacation.
We're currently on the LAST DAY! You can go to the starting page of the entire hunt here!