[S1E11] The Father Son Game
It's a bright, Friday morning at the Matthews house. Morgan woke up early to eat all the marshmallow bits from the cereal box, Eric tries to get a later curfew for his date that night (with no success), and Cory is just looking forward to the weekend. Alan gets down to the breakfast table, completely excited for the upcoming annual softball game with Eric and Cory. It's apparent, by their tone and posture, that they do not share their father's enthusiasm for the sporting event.
[S1E11] The Father Son Game
Mr. Feeny's class begin their morning by saying the Pledge of Allegiance, save for Topanga. When Cory makes a crack about her getting in trouble, Mr. Feeny turns it around and assigns him and Topanga as opponents for that day's debate: Pledge vs Protest. Topanga defends the right to protest, claiming you shouldn't do something just because it's tradition. Cory thinks it's not worth protesting something that only takes a few seconds out of the day and makes the higher ups happy. When Topanga calls him out on not even knowing what the pledge means or what he's saying, Cory blusters and gives a rambling patriotic speech (with background help from Shawn) until he's saved by the bell. During lunch, Cory gripes about going to the game when he could be enjoying his precious free time. Shawn barely listens as he dumps salt and pudding all over Minkus' unattended hamburger. Unfortunately (for Shawn), Minkus figures it out and tricks Shawn into eating the tainted hamburger. And unfortunately for Cory, when he gets home, he sees his father practicing for the game and feels too guilty to tell him he doesn't want to go.
Eric and Cory try to convince their mother to help get them out of it but she refuses to let them off the hook that easily. She leaves with Morgan on an errand, giving the two boys precious minutes to come up with an excuse. Eric thinks their dad would be okay if only one of them goes and he volunteers Cory. Both threaten to reveal secrets about each other to their dad if forced to go. When they rush downstairs with excuses in hand, their father cuts them off and says the game was cancelled because it "couldn't generate enough interest." Monday morning comes around and Topanga tells Cory that the game was not, in fact, cancelled and her father's book store beat his father's supermarket. Cory realizes that his dad made up the excuse because he didn't want to play alone.
Back home, they tell their mom what happened and she tells them she knew. When they plead again for her help, she just tells them to learn a lesson from the whole thing and that their father will get over it and so should they. Cory and Eric can't get over it so they call Leonard Spinelli, Alan's emotionally neurotic assistant manger, to bring over some food from the grocery store. They throw Alan a barbecue to make up for missing the Saturday softball game. Lenny manages to guilt himself an invitation and though their dad claims he's having fun, Cory and Eric know that a measly barbecue can't make up for a game Alan wanted that only came once a year. The debate wraps up in Cory's class and he can better argue it by thinking about his father. He says that if you care about something, like a country or a father, you should show your allegiance (defined as loyalty or devotion) and respect their traditions.
Cory and Eric finally manage to make it up to their father by proposing a rematch against the hippie bookstore, and they promise they'll be there to take back the title. In the end-credits tag, the Matthews arrive, happy that they beat the hippie bookstore. Though Alan, hobbling on his baseball bat and clearly worn out, is not so happy to learn the bookstore wants to play another game next week for a best two out of three.
Lenny: (to Eric) Mr. Matthews? (to Cory) Mr. Matthews? Leonard Spinelli. I work for your father at the grocery store.Eric: Uh, we know you you are, Lenny. We're the ones that called you.Lenny: Yeah, I know. And it was a rare treat! But, but since you never called me before I thought I'd give you one last chance to make sure you got the right guy.
Cory and Eric both don't want to attend the annual father/son softball game. Alan tells the boys that the game was cancelled but Cory learns from Topanga that the game was played. Upon hearing this, Cory and Eric try to come up with a way to make it up to their father.
Bob Lee kidnapping and then walking Brooks into the woods so he could talk to the guy was pointless. Brooks didn't tell him anything else he didn't already know or suspect. It wasn't rewarding when Bob Lee concluded that he's honorable like his father and wouldn't kill Brooks.
A happy reunion on Walker quickly turns awkward as Cordell Walker and Geri Broussard's secrets uncomfortably come to light as an old friend returns home. And as Stella and her boyfriend Trevor Strand's teenage romance goes to freewheeling new heights, Trevor's own secrets involving his father finally catch up with him, putting lives directly on the line as the Texas Ranger races to protect his family.
One major absence from the welcome back party is Stella, who is continuing her runaway road trip with Trevor. The teenage couple plans to stay off the grid, complicated by them not particularly carrying a lot of cash on hand. Walker's concerns about Geri and his daughter are put on hold when a prison convoy, carrying Trevor's father Clint, is intercepted by a biker gang and the convicts being sprung free. Walker and Micki scramble into action to track the fugitives down, with Walker suspecting the convicts will immediately turn to accumulate a cash base, informed by his own undercover experience with the bank-robbing gang, and interrogates one of his gang still in prison.
Stella and Trevor go to his father's old home and recovers Clint's stolen stash of cash, fake identification and spare guns, and Stella reminds him that she intends for this sojourn to be temporary while Trevor plans to run as far away as they can. This leads to the two arguing about their feuding fathers while Micki informs Walker that the boy is Clint's son, prompting Walker to frantically search for his daughter. To reconcile, Trevor burns the stolen cash, just as Clint returns to the hideaway, with Stella accidentally wounding Walker as he arrives on the scene. Both Trevor and Clint remain missing, and Walker and Stella argue over whether they should search for him, threatening to rupture their mended relationship.
Iggy (Tyler Labine) has a heartbreaking case: Tony (Jake Ryan Lozano) is a talented young artist with horrifying delusions. He hallucinates a vicious wolf repeatedly attacking him. They've tried all sorts of meds, but the poor guy can't shake these visions. His father Hector (Teddy Cañez) is by his side every step of the way. He asks Iggy to try brain surgery to see if that will help. He's willing to lose a part of his boy in order to give Tony peace of mind he desperately needs.
This cast brings their A-game in every episode, with so many moving performances! Next week, the chemo hits Max even harder. He's in for tough times ahead, but thankfully he has Georgia (Lisa O'Hare) and the Dam Fam there to help him out.
A new discovery suggests possible trouble for Cordell and his family in Walker season 2 episode 11, titled "Boundaries." The CW reboot of the popular 1990s western drama series Walker, Texas Ranger premiered in January of last year and looks to expand upon its early success, becoming the network's most-watched season debut since The Flash returned with season 4 in 2017. The series tracks Jared Padalecki's Cordell Walker, a ranger and widowed father who returns to his home in Austin after spending two years undercover. Fans of the show last saw the Walkers looking into property records between themselves and the Davidsons, finding an original map indicating that the family may be living on their rival's land. Walker season 2's tenth episode, "Nudge," also featured the introduction of Cordell's new partner Cassie Perez, played by Ashley Reyes following the departure of series regular, Lindsey Morgan.
Added to the mix is a somewhat tepid Tommy (Colin Donnell) subplot, in which his father contacts him under the pretense of making amends, following his cutting Tommy off of his trust fund and apparently calling him a "loser." Tommy reluctantly agrees to dinner with his father and Laurel (Katie Cassidy), only to learn that Malcolm's objective was to get Tommy to sign off on the closure of his late mother's free clinic. While the row between father and son bears little importance to the overall plot of the episode, it does provide some background on Malcolm, suggesting that the murder of his wife may have played some key role in shaping him into the man he is today.
But it's not swords and sorcery that highlight this week's Stargirl. Instead, it's the painful story of an abandoned daughter who learns the sad truth about her real father. All season long, Courtney (Brec Bassinger) was convinced her father was Joel McHale's Starman, the brave leader of the Justice Society of America.
But when Courtney learns the truth, that her father wasn't a great superhero but some jerk in a leather jacket, she's shaken. She's no longer a hero, she decides. Instead, she's a liability for having been responsible for Joey and Henry. And for putting others, including most of all her family, in danger. It doesn't help that the staff stops responding to Courtney, reinforcing her (mistaken) belief that her lineage to Starman made the difference.
Courtney could have learned this lesson early on. At the beginning of Stargirl, Pat insisted Starman wasn't her father, but she wouldn't listen. Neither did Courtney listen when her friends told her lineage doesn't mean anything, because it didn't for them. Courtney simply couldn't accept it until she was ready, but you can't fault her. For a girl whose head has been in the clouds, she had to fall back down before she could land on her own two feet again. 041b061a72