Corpanga Divorce Truther

If you don't know, 'Muriel's Wedding' is a 1994 Australian comedy about a young woman called Muriel Heslop who dreams of getting married. Not of falling in love and having a husband, that's an important distinction! She just wants to be a bride and have a wedding because she craves validation from her peers, and she believes she'll get that by being a bride.

In the film description on whatever streaming service I watched it on (it's been about 3 years) it said the plot was about her going on holiday and finding love, a description that was either written by someone who didn't watch the film or someone who did watch it and understands it the way I do.

She does indeed go on holiday, gatecrashing this girls' trip she was uninvited to (her 'friends' are mean girls) and she does meet someone! She meets... Rhonda.

Rhonda was someone Muriel went to school with but only kind of knew(?) Anyway, the two really hit it off. They do a lip sync performance of 'Waterloo' by ABBA (Muriel's favourite band) and stick it to the girls who uninvited Muriel and they end up lying under the stars together and dreamily singing 'Fernando'.

They move to Sydney and become roommates, and to cut a long story short Muriel is still obsessed with being a bride to impress people so she agrees to marry this South African swimmer so he can compete for Australia in the Olympics.

Worth mentioning that Rhonda ends up needing a wheelchair after getting cancer (she lives! Worry not!) so when Muriel marries the swimmer, Rhonda has to move back in with her overbearing mother, something Rhonda is understandably pissed about, especially after Muriel literally told Rhonda that Rhonda makes her feel better than 'Dancing Queen', the song Muriel always listens to when she's at her lowest.

Anyway, even longer story short, Muriel sleeps with the swimmer guy one (1) time after her mum's funeral and finally realises she doesn't want this, so she leaves him and apologises to Rhonda, asking her to move back to Sydney with her, and she does! They practically drive off into the sunset together!

I've skipped a lot of details but the main stuff you need to know is:

Muriel only wants to get married because she thinks it will improve her social standing.

She cares for Rhonda more than any guy she interacts with.

So in conclusion:

In S4 E5, Topanga talks about the break down of the American family and how it's like the number one thing plaguing society or whatever, the kind of thing pre-retcon Topanga would never say.

That whole thing has always annoyed me because my God they defanged her so much as the show went on...

But y'know what? This could have been a really important moment for her. Walk with me here:

S4 E16&17 have the whole Pittsburgh saga, we all remember that, and then at the end of S6 and start of S7 the explanation is that Jed and Rhiannon moved there in an attempt to save their marriage since Jed was in cahoots with some woman called Marie (I'm going off of memory here, but I think that's the basic story the writers went with), something that Topanga had no knowledge of.

So going back to the whole "break down of the American family" thing, wouldn't it have been so interesting if that was a product of her at least subconsciously knowing something was wrong with her parents' marriage? It would make a lot of sense for her to say it in that context, and also explain why she was so upset with Cory for not being dad material at sixteen.

The difference between Shory and Jeric is one is a pair of star crossed lovers and the other are friends-with-benefits who need to talk about their feelings.

The long version is:

I think Mack was under the impression that Shawn really had no one, because that's what Shawn would have told him. He would have told Mack about Chet not being around and about Virna leaving again, so he's all alone living in a trailer park. Then Shawn would have probably mentioned adults not understanding him and "being against him", etc. And so Mack would see a vulnerable boy with no caring adults in his life, prime for grooming.

But then Amy and Alan show up, with Mr. Feeny, Shawn’s principle and the man who's been trying to shut down the Centre. This, on top of Shawn being a minor, means that if Mack tried to keep Shawn in his "care", Mack knows the Matthews' and Feeny wouldn't stand for it, and he knows that the law is not on his side.

The other members of the Centre are, in my understanding, largely made up of older high schoolers and college students. Most of them are probably between the ages of 18 and 22. Even if their parents kicked up a fuss, Mr. Mack can fall back on "Well so-and-so is an adult, they can make their own choices". He has the comfort of knowing the police are less likely to do anything if those people's parents make a complaint.

He does not have that with Shawn.

It's also made writing about the Centre really interesting, because one of the key components of a cult is what the goal is. Everyone who starts a cult has a goal, and it's usually at least one of these three: money, power, or sex. And yes, a lot of cult leaders want all three, especially male cult leaders.