Recap / Boy Meets World S 5 E 17 And Then There Was Shawn

After an argument breaks out in Mr. Feeny's class over Cory and Topanga's breakup, the latter two, and Shawn, Angela and another student named Kenny end up in detention. However, things get scary when they are locked inside the school and a threatening message written in blood appears on the chalkboard. Shawn, having seen his share of horror films through the years, suspects Feeny is responsible for the whole thing following the outbursts they caused. The others, meanwhile, think otherwise and someone else could be the killer. When Eric and Jack join the gang after a game of basketball, Kenny, Mr. Feeny and Freddie the creepy janitor all turn up dead, and a pretty new student becomes involved, as well, at which point the gang begins to suspect either one of them could be the killer.

Although often remembered as a Halloween Episode, it originally aired during February Sweeps, over three months after Halloween. The actual Halloween episode of Season 5 was "The Witches of Pennbrook".

Tropes seen in this episode:

• Bowdlerization: Several in the Disney Channel version of this episode:
  • At the beginning, the word "hell" is cut out when Mr. Feeny chews out the gang for disrupting the class:
    Mr. Feeny: Now listen! This class will not be interested in the romantic goings-on of its students than it is with whatever the hell I am teaching!
  • When the gang suspects Janitor Freddie is the killer after Kenny and Mr. Feeny are killed. As the gang hears his squeaky dustbin approach the classroom, "Oh, my God!" is cut out when Angela starts to freak out, to which the gang eventually finds Freddie's dead body in the dustbin.
    [the gang hears the squeaking of Janitor Freddie's dustbin get louder]
    Angela: Oh, my God! He's coming closer! He's coming! He's coming for all of us!
    Jack: Come on, let's get out of here!
    [the gang bolts from the classroom, but Freddie is nowhere in sight, just his dustbin without someone to push it]
• Bottle Episode: The entire episode takes place at the school.
• The Calls Are Coming from Inside the House / Cut Phone Lines: The phone line being cut is subverted, as the killer still calls the gang even after Eric yanks the cord off the payphone.
• Couldn't Find a Pen: In this case, it's "Couldn't Find Chalk" when the bloody message appears on the blackboard: "NO ONE GETS OUT ALIVE!"
  Shawn: It's Feeny!
  Angela: There's blood on the blackboard, Shawn! I don't think it's because he ran out of chalk!
  Shawn: No, it's fake. It's all fake! Feeny's pulling some sort of elaborate hoax!
  Kenny: Why?
  Cory: Well, why, does Feeny do anything? To teach us something.
  Topanga: What's he trying to teach us?
  Cory: To pay attention or we die!
  (later, when Eric and Jack arrive)
  Eric: Hiii-dee-ho!
  Jack: Oh! Who bled on the blackboard?!
• Detention Episode: Cory, Shawn, Topanga, Angela and Kenny get detention for disrupting the class and are to stay in the classroom for an hour an a half.
  Mr. Feeny: This is detention, people. That means no talking, moving or fraternizing for the next hour and a half.
  Shawn: Where are you going, Mr. Feeny?
  Mr. Feeny: I am not in detention, Mr Hunter, I can do as I please. And don’t for a moment think because of my absence from this room that you’re not being watched! (leaves the classroom)
  Kenny: All I wanted was a pencil.
  Cory: Oh, shut up, Kenny; you're lucky to even be here.
  Kenny: I don't happen to see it that way.
  Topanga: (Shawn gets out of his seat) Where do you think you're going?
  Shawn: Well, if we're going to be in here for over an hour, then I'm going to my locker to get my cheese product. (jiggles the door handle, but it's locked) Can you believe this? Feeny locked us in.
  Cory: He can't do that! It's against the Geneva Detention Convention!
• Disproportionate Retribution: After Mr. Feeny chews out the gang for disrupting the class, he will give those who did so detention if he is interrupted one more time. Cue Freddie the creepy janitor coming in, causing Feeny to reach his wits' end.
• Dream Episode / Nightmare Sequence / All Just a Dream / Or Was It a Dream?: The whole episode turns out to be a nightmare Shawn was having and near the end, after he awakens from it, it leads him to believe it's his fault Cory and Topanga broke up. Mr. Feeny lets the gang leave, considering they were all punished enough, but moments after everyone leaves the classroom, the skullfaced killer comes out of hiding, and exits the darkened classroom, as well, ending the episode. This is also followed by a cold ending, where Feeny dreams that his classroom is more well-behaved in a military fashion, only for him to awaken to a rowdy class and considering going on a killing spree himself.
• Driven to Suicide / The Precarious Ledge / Talking Down the Suicidal: Angela and Jack are the final two victims of the episode. After Eric and Feffy are killed by being crushed by falling library books, Jack attempts to kill himself by jumping out of the second floor library window, because with his friend and roommate dead, he will not be able to afford the rent for their apartment and will face the prospect of being evicted. Angela, however, quickly stops him and reminds him that Shawn is still his roommate and they can still be able to make the rent. However, before Angela and Jack can go back inside, the killer shoves them out the window and both are sent falling to their deaths, just before he is confronted by Cory, Topanga and Shawn.
• Evil Doppelgänger / Karmic Twist Ending: When Cory, Topanga and Shawn confront and unmask the skull-faced killer after he kills Angela and Jack, he is revealed to be an evil double of Shawn.
• Foreshadowing: For Kenny and Mr. Feeny. Kenny just wanted to borrow a pencil from Topanga, which set off the outbursts, and Shawn threatened to stab it through his heart. Shawn then tells Feeny he might recall the pain of being stabbed in the back by a girlfriend after the latter chews them out for the disruptions. This is a warning of what will happen to them later in the episode...
• Got Volunteered: The gang, at first, suspects either one of them could be the killer, but after they don't seem to think so, Topanga suggests there has to be another way out of the school. Eric volunteers to be the watchman and stay out in the hall by himself and search for the way out, at which point he meets Feffy.
• Halloween Episode: This episode can be called that due to it being a Slasher Episode, but the episode actually aired in February. The actual Halloween episode of Season 5 was "The Witches of Pennbrook".
• Impaled with Extreme Prejudice: This is how Kenny and Mr. Feeny are killed. Kenny wanted to borrow a pencil, but instead of it being stabbed through his heart, it's stabbed through his head. For Mr. Feeny, after chewing out his students for disrupting his class, Shawn tells him he might recall the pain of being stabbed in the back by a girlfriend, which then causes the outburst to escalate, and later, after Kenny is killed, he turns up dead in the hallway with the very pair of scissors he was holding impaled in his back.
  Shawn: (Angela screams upon seeing Kenny's dead body) No, no, no. You scream when the lights go off. If you scream when the lights come on, it takes away from the first scream. (Angela continues to scream as she points at Kenny's dead body) Now, you're just being loud.
  (Cory and Topanga turn around to see Kenny's dead body, then as Shawn, Eric and Jack take note of this, they all gasp in horror)
  Cory: (examining the mark on the wall from the pencil used to kill Kenny) We'll always remember he was that tall.
  Eric: Oh, my God! They killed Kenny!
  (the gang runs out of the classroom screaming)
  (later in the hallway, the gang finds Mr. Feeny after the lights flicker and the haunting music plays on the PA System)
  Cory: Mr. Feeny, I have got to hand it to you! You have really outdone yourself this time! I mean, killing Kenny, obvious choice. But the pencil, George, I mean, that was genius!
  Shawn: I knew it was you all along! What's the big lesson? What were you trying to teach us? (pats Mr. Feeny's back, only for his body to slump over, revealing scissors impaled in his back; this is followed by Topanga dropping to her knees in shock)
  Eric: Oh, my gosh! They killed Feeny!
  (the gang runs back to the classroom screaming while Shawn looks on in horror at Feeny's lifeless corpse)
  Shawn: I was wrong! (the show cuts to commercial break)
• Leaning on the Fourth Wall: Jack describes his favorite scary movie as "that one with the hotty-hot-hot from Party of Five" to the killer. Feffy asks if Jack means Neve Campbell, to which Eric is incredulous as to who else he could be talking about. Feffy is played by Jennifer Love Hewitt, who had a recurring role on Party of Five and starred in I Know What You Did Last Summer.
• Let's Split Up, Gang! / Never Split the Party: When the gang tries to hide from the killer in the library:
  Shawn: All right, everybody, as much as this goes against my horror movie instincts, I think we should split up, that way, the killer can't get to us all at once.
• Lights Off, Somebody Dies: Kenny, the first victim.
  Shawn: This is classic— the locked door, the scary janitor, the bloody warning, and our soon-to-be first victim.
  Kenny: Me?! Why me?
  Cory: Well, Kenny, it's certainly not going to be any of us!
• Mystery Episode
• Never the Obvious Suspect: Or as Shawn puts it: it's always the one you think can't be the killer. He would know.
• Our Slashers Are Different: The Skullfaced Killer.
• "Psycho" Strings: Where to begin with this one?
  • The Creepy Janitor appearing during the cold open.
  • The Bloody Message appearing on the blackboard near the end of the cold open, then as the scene cuts back on after a commercial break.
  • Twice when the skull-faced killer secretly runs by the gang.
  • The gang deciding not to stick around as the killer demands they wait where they are so he can kill them.
• Scare Chord: From Eric several times to the point it gets annoying: "Dun-dun-dun!"
• "Scooby-Doo" Hoax: The premise of the episode: everywhere from the bloody warning to the lights flickering while haunted music plays on the PA System, from trying to find an open door out of the school to splitting up in the library, all the way down to the skull-faced killer being unmasked.
  Haunted Music: Welcome to John Adams High, where you are gonna die! That's right! Fall right this way! Here's a knife, here's a gun, there'll be fun for everyone! Death is on the menu tonight!
• Scooby-Dooby Doors: The gang tries to find a way out of the school after Kenny is killed, but all the doors are locked and chained for the night.
  Topanga: I don't care who's behind this! I'm scared! Can we please get out of here?!
  Shawn: Of course we can't get out of here! Feeny is the only one with the keys to all the doors, and they're all locked and chained by now!
  (the gang runs around the school trying to find an open door, but to no avail)
  Eric: Darn it! He's right!
• Screaming at Squick: Several throughout the episode, most notably, from Angela, who has laid claim to the title of scream queen.
  Feffy: I'm sorry, you're...
  Angela: Yes, girl, I am the screamer around here!
  • Janitor Freddie walks by to check on the punished students. Cory and Shawn tell him they're locked in and ask him to let them out. He refuses to open the door, and moments after he walks away:
    Topanga: Hey, this is getting scary.
    Angela: What is going on?!
    Shawn: I don't know, but I like it.
    (the map lifts off the chalkboard, revealing the threatening message, "NO ONE GETS OUT ALIVE!" Angela takes note of this and screams in fear)
    Shawn: Now I don't like it as much!
    (the show cuts to commercial break, then as the episode resumes, Topanga joins Angela in screaming in fear at the bloody message)
  • The classroom lights going out, followed by Kenny turning up dead with a pencil stabbed through his head. The gang joins in after Cory examines the pencil mark left on the wall by the pencil used to kill Kenny. This is also followed by Mr. Feeny turning up dead with scissors rammed into his back, and while the other five run back to the classroom screaming, Shawn can only look on in horror, realizing Feeny wasn't the killer after all.
  • When the gang suspects Janitor Freddie is the killer, Angela does this on her own when he's nowhere to be found and only his dustbin appears, but then the gang joins in when they make a gross discovery, followed by Angela after Shawn finds Janitor Freddie's dead body.
    Cory: So, where is he?
    Eric: He's probably on his way.
    Shawn: I don't think so! Angela?
    Angela: Yeah?
    Shawn: You sick of screaming?
    Angela: Yes!
    Shawn: Then don't look in here!
    (Cory, Eric, Jack and Topanga take a peek into the bin and scream)
    Cory: There's, like, fifteen retainers in there!
    Shawn: And this! (holds up the dead body of Janitor Freddie)
    Angela Oh, me, okay. (screams)
    (Shawn places the dead janitor's body back in the dustbin and pushes it out of sight)
• Sex Equals Death: Discussed, like many other slasher tropes featured in the episode. Shawn points out that virgins never die, and Cory immediately thanks Topanga for saving him. Eric and Jack both announce that they're going to die, and Shawn says that he'll get as sick as you can possibly get without actually dying. They then realize that Feeny, having already been killed, therefore was not a virgin and briefly celebrate that he had gotten laid at some point in his long life. (Angela, who is also present, does not divulge her sexual history.) Interestingly, at the very end of the killing spree, the only three survivors are the three established virgins: Cory, Topanga, and Shawn.
• Shout-Out:
  • The title of the episode is a reference to the Agatha Christie play And Then There Were None.
  • A few spoofs from the Scream series, from the skullfaced killer, who is later unmasked to be an evil double of Shawn, to the scary voice on the payphone:
    Scary Voice: Do you like scary movies? What's your favorite?
    Jack: Ooh, okay. I like that one with the hotty-hot-hot from Party of Five.
    Feffy: Neve Campbell?
    Eric: Duh!
  • References from the I Know What You Did Last Summer film series: The Bloody Warning ("NO ONE GETS OUT ALIVE!") and Jennifer Love Hewitt's guest appearance.
  • A few references from South Park are thrown in and Eric has plenty of them, because the show has two characters named Kenny and Eric: "Hiii-dee-ho!" and "Oh, my gosh! They killed Kenny and Feeny!"
  • Scooby-Doo references: The lights flickering while horrifying music plays over the intercom, the gang trying to find a way out of the school, but are unsuccessful due to all the doors being locked for the night, then, by the end of the episode, the killer is unmasked to be an evil doppelganger of Shawn.
  • The Psycho Strings playing when the killer runs by the gang unseen.
• Slasher Episode
• Special Guest:
  • Richard Lee Jackson as Kenny (the first victim of the episode who has a pencil impaled in his head), and Jennifer Love Hewitt as Jennifer Love "Feffy" Fefferman (the penultimate victim who is killed by having library books dumped on her along with Eric).
  • Averted by the actor who plays Janitor Freddie (who has no lines, and is therefore uncredited). It was long-rumored that he had been played by Joe Turkel, who had played Lloyd the Bartender in The Shining, but the producers confirmed that this was not the case. It was just somebody with the right "look".
• Ten Little Murder Victims: There is a killer lurking around in the school, but with Mr. Feeny and Janitor Freddie ruled out as suspects, could it be someone else or one of the students?
• This Is No Time to Panic: Several throughout the episode. Some overlap with Screaming at Squick above, except for the part where the scary voice calls the gang, followed by the killer after Eric yanks the cord off the payphone.
  Cory: Guys, we can use the phone to help us!
  Eric: That's a great idea, because when we find out who the killer is, we can hit him with this! (yanks the payphone cord off and everyone gasps) Dun-dun-dun. (the phone rings again) Hello? Oh, hey! It's the killer. Uh-huh. Mmm-hmm. Ooh. Uh-huh. Yeah. All righty. Bye-bye. On and on.
  Cory: What did he say? Was he mad?
  Eric: He said what all killers say: he wants to come here, he wants to kill us, wants us to wait right here.
  (the gang flees, and Eric puts the phone back after he broke it, checks to see if there's any loose change, which there isn't, then joins the rest of the gang, fleeing)
• Throw the Book at Them: Eric and Feffy are the penultimate victims of the episode and this is how they are killed while the gang is hiding from the killer in the library, to no avail. The killer dumps dozens of library books from their shelves, crushing them both to death.
  Eric: Feffy! I'll save you!
  Feffy: No, it's too late! But I think I know who the killer is!
  Eric: Save your breath, Feffy! There'll be plenty of time for that later!
  Feffy: Eric, I'm dying.
  Eric: Oh, right, okay, then maybe you should tell me now.
  Feffy: I caught a glimpse of the killer just before the books hit me. The killer is...
  (this is quickly cut off, as the killer dumps more books on Feffy and Eric, killing them both)
• Whoosh in Front of the Camera: The killer does this twice: the first time when the gang tries to find a way out, but no luck due to all the doors being locked and chained for the night (at which point Feeny pops up, only for the gang to find he was killed) and the second time after the gang finds the janitor's body.