What Episode of Boy Meets World Do Cory and Shawn Fight?

Cory and Shawn fight in Season 3, Episode 17, The Pink Flamingo Kid. Shawn is upset that Cory plans to use incriminating footage of his half-brother Eddie from the trailer park to enter a student news contest and tears up the tape.

Cory fails to get over Shawn’s action by the next school day, leading to a heated argument in the John Adams High School hallways. Although Shawn initially tries to diffuse the confrontation, Cory shoves him into the lockers, prompting a fight.

Mr. Williams and Mr. Turner break up the fight quickly, and Eli even poses the question, “Did you guys know you were fighting each other?”

While this is the first time Cory and Shawn trade physical blows, it’s not the first time they get into a fight. So first, let’s look at the Boy Meets World episodes where Cory and Shawn fight.

Alan tells Cory that Chet lost his job and Shawn won’t get many Christmas gifts. In response, Cory decides to gift Shawn his official NBA basketball as an early Christmas gift, but Shawn throws it back in his face.

He bats the ball out of Cory’s hands and goes home. The friends make up by the end of the episode, but it’s the first instance of a near-physical confrontation between the two. 

After Cory dumps Shawn as his running mate in the class presidential election, Shawn grows furious with his friend, whom he convinced to run in the first place. Also, Shawn fed Cory most of his best campaign ideas.

Despite a confrontation, their qualm never turns physical. Later, Shawn and Cory both drop out of the race by the end of the episode, and Topanga takes over as president.

Shawn joins Harley’s gang after a snobby girl rejects him for being “trailer trash.” Cory disapproves of his friend’s lifestyle change and confronts him by grabbing his shirt. In response, Shawn brushes him off and walks away.

Later, Cory takes things a step further by preventing Shawn from destroying Turner’s motorcycle as his gang initiation. By the end of the episode, Turner and Cory convince Shawn to leave the gang.

Cory aggressively confronts Shawn about asking out his crush, Topanga, in the Season 3 premiere. Elie Williams agrees with Cory that Shawn’s actions violate the gentlemen’s code, though Cory’s anger never turns physical.

We learn later in the episode that Shawn’s actions were a ruse for Cory and Topanga to get together, which ultimately works successfully.

After Cory accidentally films Shawn’s half-brother unloading stolen goods into his trailer, he decides to enter the tape into a student news contest. However, Shawn stops him by ripping up the tape. Cory is expectedly upset by his friend’s actions.

Their disagreement lingers into the next school day when they engage in a physical fight before Mr. Turner and Mr. Williams break it up. We noted this episode as the first instance of Cory and Shawn physically fighting in our intro.

Ultimately, Shawn’s anger stems from his instinct to protect his brother Eddie Hunter from prosecution. Shawn comes to terms with Eddie’s criminality by the end of the episode and decides that Cory is more of a family member than Eddie.

Eric sees Shawn consoling Topanga at Chubbie’s before physically confronting him. He later tells Cory about the incident, which prompts Cory to confront Shawn as well. Cory eventually shoves Shawn into the wall at Chubbie’s.

While Shawn refuses to explain why Topanga needed consolement, he indicates that there was nothing romantic about their interaction. Later in the episode, Cory learns that Topanga’s family is moving to Pittsburgh.

Cory grows suspicious of Shawn’s behavior after he joins The Centre, a cult for young people struggling with identity crises. Most of Shawn’s support system attempts to reason with him, including Mr. Turner, Mr. Feeny, and The Matthews’.

Later in the episode, Mr. Turner suffers a motorcycle accident, landing him in the hospital. Initially, Shawn is unable to face the emotional heaviness of the situation, but Cory physically forces him to stay in the hospital room with Turner.

By the end of the episode, Shawn makes peace with God and denounces The Centre. Although it’s a stretch to call Cory’s physical confrontation a “fight,” it’s worth noting that he put his hands on Shawn.

Cory and Shawn disagree over colleges and how it will change their relationship as they graduate high school. Although they are technically fighting, the episode’s tone is comedic and light-hearted, and the confrontations never turn physical.

The feud culminates at Chubbie’s when Shawn and Cory throw drinks in each other’s faces before Shawn storms out of the restaurant with his new friends.

The writers drive home the concept of Cory and Shawn as a faux couple, bickering like a marriage. Of course, the friends make up by the end of the episode with Topanga’s help.

After Cory convinces Shawn to express his feelings for the purse girl, Shawn throws his caution to the wind and agrees. However, when Shawn returns the purse at Chubbie’s, he learns that its owner already has a boyfriend.

After suffering a presumed heartbreak, Shawn aggressively scolds Cory and warns him to stay out of his personal life. However, we soon learn that Angela Moore is the owner of the purse’s contents, which makes her Shawn’s soulmate.

After Topanga breaks up with him, Cory self-medicates by getting wasted on a bottle of his dad’s whiskey. When Shawn learns of his friend’s behavior, he decides to get drunk too.

Unfortunately, Shawn’s abusive alcoholic tendencies emerge following their experimentation. Later in the episode, Cory scolds Shawn for refusing to stop drinking, and things get even worse when Shawn shoves Angela.

Bu the end of the episode, Shawn apologizes to everyone and agrees to stop drinking. However, Shawn’s alcoholism reemerged later in the series.

In Season 6, Shawn kisses Topanga for a student promotional video prompting Cory to go temporarily insane. Cory analyzes the video frame by frame and declares that his friend and fiance have deep-rooted feelings for one another.

Meanwhile, Shawn and Topanga find Cory’s accusations hilarious and decide to feed into his paranoia by simulating lovemaking sounds in their dorm room. By this point, Cory was such a peculiar character that the series no longer made sense.

Eventually, Angela convinces Cory that Shawn and Topanga have no mutual interest in one another romantically.

In Season 6, Cory forces Shawn to read one of his poems at the student union poetry reading. Although Shawn cannot get through the poem, Cory finishes it for everyone to hear, including Angela, the poem’s subject.

When Angela realizes Shawn’s unresolved feelings, she slaps Shawn in the face. Shawn grows disgusted with Cory for forcing him to open Pandora’s box. It is clear that Shawn is genuinely upset and is tired of Cory’s delusional antics.

In Season 7, Shawn blows off many of his best man duties before Cory and Topanga’s wedding. As Cory’s resentment grows, his frustration culminates during the ceremony.

Cory calls Shawn trailer trash shortly before his best man charges at him and wrestles him to the ground. In typical Boy Meets World fashion, they make up right after the fight, and Cory exchanges his vows with Shawn directly by his side.

After returning from his honeymoon with Topanga, Cory is forced to move to the married dorms, which feature run-down amenities and bad plumbing. Meanwhile, Shawn and Angela live together in one of the nicest off-campus apartments.

Cory thinks Shawn doesn’t deserve his lifestyle, while Shawn thinks Cory is weak for not fixing up his dorm and taking some pride in the place. By the end of the episode, they both take each other’s advice and find common ground.

After Shawn receives a letter from Virna Hunter detailing how she’s not his birth mother, he starts a quest to locate his biological mom. Knowing Shawn’s history, Cory tries but fails to dissuade his friend from getting his hopes up.

In a predictable fashion, Shawn’s birth mother does not want to be found, leading Shawn to the realization that he’s an orphan. With Chet’s death and Virna’s revelation, Shawn must now go through life without having any parents.

Later in the episode, Shawn goes on a drunken binge where he disrespects everyone from Angela to Alan Matthews — who offers to adopt him. Ultimately, Shawn respectfully declines Alan’s offer but comes to peace with his identity.