The sixth episode of High School Musical: The Musical: The
Series continues where we left off last week. We see things have gotten intense on the competition front, with Lily posting a new video showcasing their version of Beauty and the Beast. Gina is still struggling with her feelings, Ricky and Nini are still slightly struggling with their relationship, and Miss Jenn is still the best teacher.
I’m going, to be honest, I went into the episode rather reluctantly. I haven’t seen much progress with the characters and the plot has been slow. Maybe it’s because I watched the first season after all the episodes came out or it’s the fact that this season is not as interesting as the first. I’m not sure yet, I’ll have to wait for the end. The episode overall passed by quickly; I liked the little detail about having separate group chats, Ashlyn’s comment about beauty standards, Howie and Kourtney’s developing relationship, and Ricky’s struggle with his home life bleeding into his performance. All of these things are worth acknowledging and I’m very glad we see these characters that have an identity outside of theatre. At the same time, I’m still annoyed with so many things in the show.
First, Nini and Ricky are struggling but for some reason both of them don’t want to talk about it? It doesn’t make sense that Nini wouldn’t understand what Ricky is going through since she was the one Ricky always went to before. I’m glad we finally got the missing puzzle piece for the Gina and Ricky debacle. The flashback now makes the audience understand why Gina is so hurt and why she wants to leave, but at the same time, it irks me that the reason Gina is struggling so much is because of a boy. In this episode, they made a point with Nini and Kourtney that they don’t want to be defined by who they’re dating and yet Gina gets that treatment. I want to see more of Gina and Ashlyn because that’s inherently why Gina stays, because of Ashlyn’s song to her.
I’m interested to see how the second season ends but I’m especially interested to see if Olivia Rodrigo returns. There’s been a lot of speculation if she’ll come back on for another season after all the rumors with her co-star Joshua Bassett.
Questions for next week:
Muska Olumi is a columnist for the Boardwalk Times
