when boy meets world premiered on ABC’s TGIF line up back in the fall of 1993, eric matthews was portrayed as your standard sitcom big brother. a cool and confident ladies man, eric was equal parts mentor and tormentor to little brother cory. then in 1997, with the start of boy meets world’s fourth season, something happened. eric matthews changed into what can only be described as a raving lunatic. as if his brain were some pandora’s box of mental disorders waiting to be opened, eric suddenly started showing symptoms of schizophrenia, extreme paranoia, obsessive compulsive disorder, and severe bi-polarism, just to name a few. in the four ensuing seasons, eric developed a homoerotic obsession with his high school principal, mr. feeny, continuously stalked former girlfriend rachel mcguire and briefly attempted to live as a woman. what makes all of this even stranger is that, for the most part, no one else on the show seemed to take note of his descent into madness. his brother, his parents, his friends, even the show’s resident wise man, mr. feeny — none of them paid any mind to the fact that the once level headed, affable eric Matthews had become potentially dangerous psychopath.

the show offers few clues to the cause of eric’s sudden and extreme shift in personality but it most likely had something to do with his visit to a village called pottstown. In the first episode of season four eric decided he was going to spend the rest of his life in this quaint little hamlet, living a simple existence, never having to face the responsibilities and hardships of the outside world. although cory was eventually able to convince eric to come home one can only assume that this seemingly innocent little town took some un-quantifiable physic toll on him for it was after this episode that he would be forever altered. perhaps pottsville shared some sort of supernatural link to the town of twin peaks. maybe the real eric matthews still sits in the red room while a horrific demon entity now roams the earth in his body. we will never know for sure. all I know is there are two eric matthews and one of them has been missing for a long time.