“The individual is valued here.”
Warning: Full spoilers for the episode follow.
Not unlike this season’s “Girl Meets Fish,” “Girl Meets Commonism” felt jarringly out of place, and that’s because it was literally out of place. This episode was shot in 2014 and remained unaired until this week, which made parts of this storyline feel dated. Farkle’s brightly colored outfits were the dead giveaway, but the characters themselves also seemed less enlightened than they are now, which at the time was probably fine but this far into Season 2 was a little hard to watch.
That said, “Girl Meets Commonism” was a fine standalone episode — much better than “Girl Meets Fish” anyway. The class’s crash course in communism was definitely an interesting basis for an episode, if also simplistic in execution. For example, Cory’s “incentive leads to advancement” speech hit on all the major points of why democracy works in America. At the same time, this episode did a good job of showing why communism might appeal to young, developing minds. However, it didn’t seem very characteristic of Riley, Maya and Farkle to blindly embrace cheating, even in their earlier days. Which is to say, the inciting incident was pretty weak.
But that didn’t stop this episode from being enjoyable overall. Riley and Maya drinking the “commie Kool-Aid” brought about some fun exchanges. My personal favorite was Riley calling for a jury of her peers on the John Quincy Honor Board, only to have Lucas explain to her that she had just described the Criminal Justice System. (“You and your answers.”) I also liked how Topanga was brought in to recreate the crime scene (although I was a little thrown by the mirrored seating arrangement). It’s not often she gets to be involved in classroom scenes, so I wasn’t surprised to learn that Danielle Fishel also directed this episode.
Cory clinging to his precious American flag throughout this episode was also amusing. I was even a little touched when Riley pledged her allegiance to the flag and Cory returned the gesture by saying, “I’m proud of you.” And his next line, “Mr. Friar, tear down this wall” was a nice touch.
Meanwhile, Auggie’s B story was at least a little different in that we got to see his own classroom for the very first time. We also met two more of his classmates: Emma Weathersby, Ava’s rival for Auggie’s affection; and Frankie Big Hands, who bore a striking resemblance to one Frankie Stecchino. (No relation?) Other than that, though, this subplot was about as unremarkable as the rest of them.
“Girl Meets Commonism” wasn’t the most challenging of episodes and it definitely had a Season 1 vibe (probably because it was shot during Season 1’s production), but it was still an entertaining episode, with a broad but valuable lesson in communism vs. democracy.
