The Wildcats are heading into battle this week. It is all out war between East High and North High but who will win? Who’s the better Belle? And who will reign supreme at The Alan Menken Awards. We are going to break down every moment so beware of spoilers.
The Field Trip
It’s another fine morning at East High and EJ and Gina are hosting The East High Morning News. After EJ reminds the students to buy tickets for Beauty and the Beast, they bring on Nini to talk about The Rose Song. The song has garnered a lot of attention online. In the hallway, Big Red and Ricky watch Nini on The Morning News. Ricky appears disheartened by the fact that the song is no longer a duet. He fails to hide it well.
In the dressing room, Kourtney is getting ready to unveil her original costume designs for the show. As she attempts to give a speech, she gets a text from Howie. Kourtney has set Howie’s text tone to the sound of an elephant and Howie has done this for Kourtney as well. Carlos wonders why she can’t keep it on silent. After Carlos reads a post from North High’s Instagram, Miss Jenn suggests they move on. Kourtney unveils the Gaston costume. As she unveils Ricky’s Beast costume, Kourtney realises she has lost the mask. Carlos believes North High stole the mask after zooming in on their latest Instagram post.
Miss Jenn reassures them they didn’t steal anything. However as soon as she said that North High posted that they will be stealing everyone’s hearts this Spring. Miss Jenn advises them not to “dance with the enemy” but they ignore that and head to North High. Carlos comes up with a plan to get the mask back and says they’ll blend in. Ashlyn intends to blend in as Diane a volleyball playing North High student. Gina offers to be look out and they all head on their mission.
On a mission of her own, Miss Jenn is heading to North High to speak to Zack. In her confessional, Miss Jenn stalls out of nervousness. Back in the North High hallway, a student flirts with Gina who pretends to be “Diane”. As he asks for her Snap, EJ arrives pretending to be her boyfriend. As EJ and Gina share a moment, Lily spots them and alerts her fellow North High students. Backstage, Nini is relishing in the success of The Rose Song and is thinking about setting up an Instagram account for her music. Ricky asks her about it and makes a joke that he is scared.
Nini notices fur popping out of the trunk Kourtney is sitting on and she opens it. The mask isn’t there, it’s just a bunch of wigs. As Ricky asks where the mask is Lily and Antoine stroll in. In another classroom, Miss Jenn and Zack discuss burying the hatchet between the two schools. As he attempts to reminisce on the good old days, Miss Jenn wants to stay on topic and an argument breaks out. He feels he can out sing and out cha cha her and he challenges her to do so.
Back in the costume room, Carlos accuses the rival school of taking their Beast mask. Antoine explains that their costumes are most excellent and calls Kourtney’s work “fugly”. Lily starts to brag and quotes High School Musical, telling them to stick to the stuff they know. After Seb suggests they Bop to the Top, Lily challenges them to a dance off. As East High decline their offer, Lily insults Miss Jenn and suggests Ashlyn can’t cut it as Belle. Gina decides to take them on and they head to the auditorium.
Back in the Music Room, Miss Jenn and Zack challenge each other through the duet Around You. The two share a moment and Miss Jenn realises she’s “still got it”. Back in the North High Auditorium, the classes are getting ready for the dance off. Lily grabs Ricky’s attention and tells him it’s cool how he is handling Nini “stabbing him in the back” with The Rose Song. As she relays the song to him, she flirts with Ricky in case Nini “wants some space”. Antoine approaches Ashlyn and begins to flirt with her. After he asks her out, she declines and tells him she is with Big Red. Antoine suggests Ashlyn dump Big Red and date him instead.
Lily gets ready to press shuffle on the Beauty and the Beast soundtrack as Antoine says he is going to remix it. The Mob Song is the choice for the dance off to everyone but EJ’s disappointment. The curtains are pulled back to reveal North High’s stage, Nini turns to Ricky telling him how insane it all is and he makes a snarky comment about her feeling confined. She takes off and the dance off begins. Ricky and North High’s masked Beast start it all off. Everyone is giving their all in this scene. As Lily and Ashlyn face off, Antoine catches Ashlyn as she is about to fall. The song end and in his confessional Big Red shares his distain towards Antoine.
As the East High students are preparing to leave, Lily tells them that North High won the dance off. They disagree and tell her that they have The Rose Song, which will help them win the award. Lily laughs and tells them if they perform an original song they will be disqualified. Nini suggests they perform the song anyway. Carlos asks if there is a sports metaphor for this situation and everyone turns to EJ, who says nothing. Ricky makes a comment about The Rose Song not fitting in the show and Nini walks off. The East High students leave as Ricky and Lily share a look.
Back in the Music Room, Zack and Miss Jenn are bonding and he suggests they have the students work out their differences. She agrees and suggests they sing one more song together. As she opens the piano bench, Miss Jenn pulls out Ricky’s Beast mask. Zack admits to taking the mask and says “it’s a contest”. Miss Jenn takes this in her stride and the competition is heating up. Ricky catches up to Nini, the two have a dispute over The Rose Song. He shares that he is relieved Nini isn’t singing the song because a song can “say everything”. EJ and Gina walk out together and the two share a laugh. Big Red and Ashlyn follow shortly behind and argue about Antoine.
Kourtney, Seb and Carlos walk out and she texts Howie to tell him all about what just happened. As she presses send, she hears Howie’s elephant text tone coming from North High’s mysterious Beast. Carlos and Seb walk away as it is revealed Howie attends North High and is playing The Beast. He asks her to let him explain but she tells him not to bother. Kourtney walks away as Nini comforts her. Back in her home, Nini has set up her own music Instagram and is getting ready to post her first video. Nini hits record and introduces herself as Nina.
High School Betrayal
If there was one theme of this week’s episode it was definitely betrayal. Everyone went to North High as a team but were more divided than a pizza at Salt Lake Slices. Someone who felt betrayed was everyone’s favourite whiny baby Ricky. After Nini receives praise and approval for her incredible original song The Rose Song, Ricky feels betrayed and angry. The song was initially planned to be a duet between Ricky and Nini but clearly having the male lead wasn’t enough for him. He could’ve been happy for Nini for going viral but of course his fragile ego was hurt.
When Lily revealed that putting The Rose Song in the show would break the rules of The Alan Menken Awards, Ricky is more than happy to have the song removed from the show. Nini setting up hew new Instagram and becoming Nina signifies her growth and she needs to leave that little boy Ricky behind.
In this episode we see Gina and EJ grow closer and after all of the emotional torment that Ricky put her through, she deserves to be with a good guy like EJ. Sofia Wylie and Matt Cornet have amazing chemistry and they bounce off of each other very well. We saw another interesting pairing in this episode in the form of Miss Jenn and Zack. This pair showed off their incredible dance skills and we got to see Miss Jenn thrive. If only Zack hadn’t stolen The Beast mask, they could have rekindled their romance but as I mentioned earlier the theme of this episode is betrayal.
We need to talk about the epic dance off between East High and North High. Although The Mob Song is not the most exciting song from Beauty and the Beast, this dance remix will have you up out of your seat. Gina proved North High don’t have the moves, Carlos showed us that he is ready to take that stage, Ashlyn showed us once again that she is the perfect Belle and Lily proved that she is just annoying and troublesome.
Someone else who felt betrayed in this episode was our dear Kourtney. It is revealed that Howie not only goes to North High but he is playing The Beast in their school production for The Alan Menken Awards. This reveal had me jumping out of my seat and screaming at the screen. I was rooting for this adorable pairing but similar to Kourtney I felt betrayed.
As we draw closer and and closer to opening night, tensions are rising and The Wildcats have a lot more work to do if they want to win that award and stick it to North High.
High School Musical: The Musical: The Series is available to stream on Disney+. New episodes every Friday.
