Girl Meets World: Season 3/ Episode 17 "Girl Meets Hollywood" – Overview/ Review (with Spoilers)

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Overview

Katy returns! But it is without Shawn. Add onto that, it is a slightly sappy episode with an eye roll inducing plot.

Review (with Spoilers)

Perhaps one of the unfortunate things about Girl Meets World isn’t so much it is on the Disney channel, but it never learned how to balance Disney Channel styled comedy/ writing with a more serious tone. Thus leaving us often with a constantly changing tone from episode to episode and sometimes even scene to scene. There is no natural transition and that has always been what dragged Girl Meets World down. But let’s move on to talking about “Girl Meets Hollywood” shall we?

Main Plot (with Commentary)

Katy

Pretty much the episode is about Sarah, one of the kids who rarely talks but is consistently seen, apparently writing a screenplay about Maya and her mom’s life. Which no one finds creepy at all, but hey it is New York. Anyway, Katy is up for the role of… Katie and her competition is this famous French actress named Anastasia Boulangerie (Stephanie Lemelin) who Maya kidnaps. Yeah, it is one of those episodes with a ridiculous, only on Disney, kind of plots.

Yet, eventually, it makes sense how Maya, a teenaged girl, somehow lured a grown woman to her room, got to handcuff her to her portable radiator, and tie her up. For, you see, this woman who goes by Anastasia is actually Bobby Jo, Katy’s best friend from when she was a Clutterbucket. Thus leading us to what the episode is about: How not all friendships last forever or remain close knit, but sometimes once a friend always a friend.

Though digging a bit deeper, it kind of pushes you to understand why Katy had such a breakdown after Kermit left her. The only friend she had, the one she was as close to as Riley is to Maya, she couldn’t bring herself to talk to. For while you may think Bobby Jo abandoned Katy, she notes she has been keeping tabs on Katy. With that comes this thought of guilt between the two. Bobby Jo feeling guilty that the person she used to do fairs with is struggling and hasn’t made it. Then for Katy, she feels bad for while she is happy for her best friend, there is this jealousy because day after day, year after year, she is still a struggling artist. One which just can’t catch a break. So even in her darkest of moments, she feels like she can’t turn to the girl she grew up with. Not only because she has allowed her to become almost a stranger, but because she is another reminder of the one thing which has always alluded her. Which, post-Kermit and pre-Shawn, was something she just couldn’t face head on for she just wasn’t in the state to handle it.

For, lest we forget, Katy maybe smiling quite a bit and can put on a brave face, but with all Maya has told us, and what we have seen when Cheryl Texiera is seen, Katy is a fragile woman. Not in terms of having a breakdown any minute, but you can see that between her family history of broken dreams, Kermit, Bobby Jo to a point, and who knows what else, she has to make an effort to try to be happy, to try to be positive. For even when she talks about Shawn, to me anyway, there is this slight caution to sharing her joy. Like she is just enjoying it while it lasts vs. thinking it is forever, but honestly that maybe just me.

Highlights

Katy is an Onion

I find myself really pulling a 180 when it comes to this book I’m reading called Around the Way Girl by Taraji P. Henson. For while that book seemed like just marketing before, it is starting to help me understand more about acting in a way. Take Texiera’s journey for example. If you check her website, but specifically her confessions web series linked, you can see that part of her life mirrors Katy. Not to the T, but with age and committing to the craft, she can tap into the nervousness, the uncertainty, yet she can still hold onto her dream of not just being a working actress but someone who is fairly consistently happy.

On top of that, you have to admire how, like Maya in a way, and mostly through Maya when I think about it, layers have been made to Katy’s character, and arguably Sarah’s too. But that’s a different point to make. What matters here is that even with the nonsense of Maya “kidnapping” someone, through that BS Katy’s character was allowed to grow and become a bit fuller and autonomous from Maya. For, increasingly, she is being established as someone who had a full life before Maya was even born.

Background Actors Get Some Development

Between learning Yogi’s father is a cop to Sarah being a creeper, as well as her dad being a director, it was a decent episode for the usually named but not heard. Thus kind of explaining why they consistently keep the same handful of students around. Though, even with that said, I still low-key miss Marly from the first two episodes of the season. She had spunk.