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Episode 6: “Girl Meets the Tell-Tale-Tot”
Introduction
Josh is back and with it seeming he may become Maya’s long term love interest, it seems Maya has quite a bit of growing up to do in order to make him comfortable with the idea. Alongside that, Riley joins Maya in doing something bad and her conscience, a tatter tot, haunts her.
Review (with Spoilers) – Below
Characters & Story
Josh returns and is here to announce whether or not he got into NYU. Something Maya tries to be highly casual and indifferent about, in order to seem mature, but eventually she stops the charade, jumps on his back, and snatches the envelope to announce: HE GOT IN! However, the happy moment doesn’t last long since Josh is talking about going to a college party, which will have college girls, and this makes Maya realize that now she will have to compete with these girls. Leading me to wonder if her middle school self never took note of the high school girls who could have been in love with Josh, much less maybe would follow him to NYU.
That thought aside, being that Riley constantly is trying to break her arrested development and become more mature, or simply capable of being as bold as Maya, she pushes for Maya to let her come with her to the college party Maya is going to crash. Something Maya isn’t for, since it does mean taking Riley somewhere and pretending she doesn’t act like a child. But, being that she wants to give Riley a chance, she lets her come along.
Ultimately leading to us watching what may be a bit of foreshadowing. For with Riley quickly getting whisked away by football teams and sororities, as Maya asks for her to be brought back, it makes you wonder if GMW makes it to the college years, will we reflect on this episode? Riley and Maya’s relationship aside however, what we are left with by the end of the episode is a lingering feeling that while Josh may see Maya as too young, and not mature enough, that maybe, in 3 years’ time, she maybe the type of girl he may like, and he might become the type of guy who can appreciate what Maya can offer.
Praise
Being that I’m a Maya stan, naturally any episode which focuses on her I’m going to like. After all, she is the main reason why this show doesn’t feel like your usual over the top Disney production. For while, yes, we have seen her have her moments, especially with Farkle, where she has fallen in love with a ring and put on a wedding dress, at the same time she faces real issues that everyone else in the cast only joke about.
Speaking specifically on this episode, for a long time now it has become obvious that Maya would love the type of family the Matthews appear to be. Thus making me wonder sometimes, alongside Josh being cute, maybe she wanted to be with him since that would allow her to officially become a Matthews. However, in the episode it shows what many thought was a crush was far beyond that. For with her concrete reasoning being how he interacts with other people, and seems like a genuinely good guy, it does make it seem that as much as Josh might not fully take note of her, she does him.
Criticism
Thus making everything else in the episode either making you roll your eyes, like the tatter tot conscience puppet, or else leading you to question some things. Now, setting the tatter tot puppet aside, since you just have to accept this show is on Disney channel so puppets were bound to happen, I must admit these college girls stanning for a middle school kid was weird. For with Maya being 14 and Josh 17, yeah the age difference isn’t huge, but it does seem weird for college girls to want Josh to possible wait for a middle school kid.
I mean, maybe things are different now than when I was in high school, which wasn’t too long ago, but just dating someone a grade lower than you could get you a side eye. So imagine Josh as a freshman in college even remotely interested in a freshman in high school, and being open about it? I mean, between pedophile comments, and certainly commentary worse than that, while I get the argument the girls used was “when he is 21 you’ll be 18” at the same time I think in an effort to build up the long term possibility of Josh and Maya, they are forgetting how odd the pairing would seem to his peers. Nevermind the idea that he would wait 3 years while not only going to a large school like NYU, but also being surrounded by a huge amount of cute New York girls.
The Josh and Maya issue aside, I gotta say: why is Riley like this? I mean, I get she has been very sheltered and protected, and perhaps maybe I’ve just never met someone similar to her, but my god I can only hope her tatter tot conscience’s talk about how it is going to plant the seed of making everything her fault comes to light. If only because I need puberty to bring this girl down a few notches. For unless they reveal maybe Riley went through some trauma which has led her to be like this, or maybe she has some disorder, I’m unsure how is this character going to evolve? Which I mostly say because, honestly as much as the show is about her meeting the world, I feel like she is thus far largely unaffected by it. For even with knowing what Maya has gone through in life, as seen during the season 2 premiere week, she doesn’t take Maya’s issues seriously and jokes about it. So between something bad happening to her in the past, a disorder, or something bad happening in the future, there seriously needs to be some sort of reality check. For while there is nothing wrong with the child being upbeat, her obliviousness is too much at this point.
Collected Quote(s)
“It’s not the big gestures that we do for other people that help us grow up, but the small choices you make for yourself.”
— “Girl Meets the Tell-Tale-Tot.” Girl Meets World
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