Boy Meets World (season 5)

Cory is so upset when Eric moves back home that he vows to find him a place to stay. But the perfect roommate he picks out is Shawn's long-lost half-brother, Jack (Matthew Lawrence), and there's no love lost as far as Shawn is concerned.

First appearance: Matthew Lawrence as Jack Hunter

In the vein of MTV's The Real World, Cory films a documentary about Jack, Shawn, and Eric adjusting to their new lives. However, when friction develops between Jack and Shawn, Cory must decide whether or not to continue filming his movie or help two friends in trouble. Topanga thinks Cory should prove himself more of a friend than a filmmaker.

After attending a college class and engaging in a winning debate with a professor, an empowered Shawn neglects high-school tasks in favor of collegiate ones – and gets suspended. Meanwhile, Eric forms his own fraternity (Magnum Pi), and arouses the Dean's suspicions.

Witches seem to be invading Pennbrook College when Jack's new spooky girlfriend Millie (Candace Cameron Bure) causes a serious rift between the roommates after Eric tells Jack that he caught her practicing witchcraft. Meanwhile, Cory takes Topanga on her first airplane ride, flown by a not-so-bright pilot. Guest Melissa Joan Hart crosses over in her role from Sabrina, the Teenage Witch.

The time ball swallowed by Salem the Cat from Sabrina, the Teenage Witch takes everyone back to the 1940s: Cory becomes a soldier fighting on the dangerous front lines in Europe, who wants his best buddy Shawn to marry his girl Topanga if he does not return.

Shawn's steadfast rule of dating girls only for a fixed two-week period leads him to break up with Angela; then he finds himself falling in love with the owner of a lost purse he finds, since the contents indicate that she is the girl of his dreams. Meanwhile, Eric studies for a test with the help of an invisible Mr. Feeny, while Jack wonders about Eric's sanity. To be continued...

Guest Star: Maggie Lawson

Confident Cory is amazed when Shawn is more successful at their work-study jobs: Shawn proves to be a whiz at public relations, while Cory gets stuck in the mail room. Meanwhile, Amy goes back to college, but her participation in Eric's creative writing class embarrasses him with her extremely frank self-revelations.

Cory and Shawn are loco with jealousy when the girls get jobs at a Mexican restaurant and start dancing the night away with two handsome, suave co-workers. Soon, they (along with Alan, Eric, Jack, and Mr. Feeny) try to figure out the hidden meaning behind women's words.

When Cory sprains his ankle falling off the bus during the Senior Class ski trip to the Mount Sun Lodge, he doesn't tell Topanga when he spends the night (talking) with the young lady, Lauren (Linda Cardellini), who's volunteered to take care of him.

It's Valentine's Day, and Shawn's jilted exes are so sure he'll ruin his date with Angela that they kidnap him to keep him from hurting her. Meanwhile, Cory lands in trouble with Topanga after she reads a letter to him from Lauren (the "cute mountain girl" assigned to take care of him in the previous episode).

Cory is torn between making up with Topanga, or allowing himself to see how it would be to go out with Lauren. After he goes on a date with Lauren, he decides that he can't live without Topanga – but she decides she can't see him anymore. Meanwhile, Mr. Feeny entrusts Eric to be a substitute teacher for his citizenship class.

Feeling that Cory and Topanga's break-up is having severe ramifications on his life, Shawn instigates a class-wide argument, prompting Mr. Feeny to send them all into detention. However, in a parody of Scream, I Know What You Did Last Summer, South Park, Scooby-Doo and And Then There Were None it soon develops into a detention like none of them have ever experienced.

Note: This is the second time that Will Friedle and Jennifer Love Hewitt starred together after Trojan War. Also, Jack makes a reference to Party of Five in which Jennifer Love Hewitt played Sarah Reeves Merrin and girlfriend of the character Bailey Salinger. Eric makes a reference to South Park by exclaiming "Oh my God, they killed Kenny!"

Guest Star: Jennifer Love Hewitt as Jennifer Love Fefferman, Richard Lee Jackson as Kenny.

Depressed by his break-up with Topanga, Cory gets a reputation of being a "downer," which he tries to shake off by drinking and partying. When Shawn catches Cory in the act, he convinces Shawn to try it as well—with disastrous results. In addition, Shawn discovers why Jack's mother left their father.

Note: This episode was held back from Disney Channel airings because of mature content.

A once-in-a-lifetime Van Gogh retrospective makes Cory blue: he stood in line all night to get tickets for himself and Topanga, but she has gone with Angela instead – and met a terrific, intelligent and sensitive guy, Ricky Ferris (Jonathan Jackson), who claims she has already changed his life once (by beaning him in softball and convincing him to give up sports for art), spends all day with her looking at Van Gogh's The Starry Night and asks for a dinner date with her. Cory remains adamant that he will love Topanga forever and that kissing Lauren meant nothing to him. Topanga cannot bring herself to believe him until Ricky kisses her—and she rushes to tell Cory that it meant nothing to her and that she still loves him.

A reconciled Cory and Topanga pretend to be estranged so Shawn can be the one to "reunite" them, despite Mr. Feeny's warning that "the stupid idea train [is] coming 'round the bend". Shawn's mediation tactics lead to more turmoil for the duo: when he encourages them to be open about their hurt feelings, they insult each other and break up again. It's finally up to Shawn (with an assist from Cory's parents) to set things straight once and for all.

It's a big night: Senior Prom, and Shawn and Cory plan to "leave as boys and come back men." Angela quickly decides she and Shawn are not ready for sex, but Topanga feels that she and Cory may be ready, as long as the night goes "exactly, perfectly right." Meanwhile, Amy is upset because of how Alan reacts to her recent good news: she's pregnant. To make up for it, he decides to check them into a hotel: the same one where the prom is being held. Eventually, Cory and Topanga decide they aren't ready for the potential consequences, and decide to wait.

Note: This episode was held back from Disney Channel airings due to mature content.

It's the end of an era as Cory, Shawn, Topanga, Angela, and the rest of their class prepare to graduate. In the final week, Mr. Feeny assigns the class to write about "what is in their hearts." While Shawn ignores the assignment at first, seeing as high school is now over, he comes to realize that his school days meant more to him than he realizes. Meanwhile, Topanga wrestles with going to Yale or staying with Cory. Cory tries to hide his lying eyes and convince Topanga that he wants her to go away to Yale, and Shawn surprises everyone with his indifference toward graduation. Cory, Shawn, and Topanga reunite with their old classmate, Stuart Minkus, who reveals he has been on the other side of the school the entire time, along with Mr. Turner (unseen). Meanwhile, Eric tries to keep Mr. Feeny from retiring, and Topanga slyly steals the valedictorian position from Minkus and shocks Cory by proposing to him.

Final Appearance of: Lee Norris as Stuart Minkus