HSMTMTS Review: Spring Break (Season 2 Episode 9)

The East High Wildcats take a break in High School Musical: The Musical: The Series Season 2 Episode 9, “Spring Break,” giving time for rest, relaxation, and a whole lot of personal epiphanies.

The structure of “Spring Break” is peculiar; reading almost like the first episode filmed post-COVID, with characters spending the majority of their scenes on Zoom, or only in close contact with one or two other characters at a time.

Kudos are always deserved when it comes to writing around pandemic restrictions, but the Zoom format doesn’t quite land how the show probably intends.

There are cheeky COVID references, a millennial who doesn’t know how to use the internet, and a Tik-Tok-themed dance sequence in homage to a time stuck at home, doing anything possible to stay stimulated.

In many ways, it feels like an intended celebration of technology; an insinuated appreciation for what the digital age was able to do for people during a time of intense isolation. Unfortunately, it’s all “too much, too soon,” and only sparks traumatic flashbacks of a year nobody wants to revisit.

The show tries its best to entertain considering the platform it’s given. The fight against North High produces one of the best upbeat songs of the season, highlighting how creative and talented these kids really are, even when constrained to tiny boxes on a screen.

While the Zoom approach mostly fails, the more intimate two-partner scenes soar. “Spring Break” allows characters to sit with emotions in ways they never could back on stage at Easy High.

Ricky finally gets an opportunity to work through his emotions; something long overdue since the beginning of the season. The show is delicate in its approach, with Ricky’s entire episode arc solely revolving around reconnection with his mother, and the healing process after losing Nini.

It’s been an entire season filled with Ricky not understanding how to process or communicate his emotions. The fallout from that inability in his personal life has been cataclysmic.

Everything that’s happened stems from the estrangement from his mother and disillusion over his parent’s divorce, so the choice to have Ricky work through his breakup alongside her is poignant. 

Those conversations between them are filled with emotional gravity, and HSMTMTS’ willingness to discuss the option of therapy is imperative for Ricky’s character.

It’s essential for the acknowledgment of his deteriorating mental health from a story perspective, but also proper representation for the depression and struggle that exists for kids with broken families.

We also get a stellar vocal performance and new original song out of Joshua Bassett. That itself is worth celebrating over.

Back in Salt Lake, Ms. Jen may be worried about the drama over at North High, but this episode is really all about Gina Porter.

Andi Mack fans rejoice as Gina meets Jack — played by fellow Andi Mack alum Asher Angel — in an airport terminal while stuck on a long flight delay.

The premise is a clever way to let Wylie and Angel reconnect and play around on-screen together one more time. The familiarity between the two actors makes for a chemistry-filled dynamic worthy of its own, separate romantic comedy.

Seriously, Disney could make an entire movie about these two being stuck in an airport, and it would be a hit.

The story isn’t just fun, it’s relatable. As teenagers, we meet people for brief amounts of time — on family vacations, at summer camp, or in this case, at the airport — but they manage to make lasting impressions on our lives; ones we tend to never forget.

Jack does that for Gina. His purpose as a character is not to be a longstanding love interest, but simply to help Gina recognize how far she’s come this season, and how ready she is to give love another shot. The right guy just has to show up.

She realizes all of this while wearing EJ’s sweatshirt — something he notices when he “shows up” to take her home from the airport.

HSMTMTS clearly knows the story it wants to tell, and, the care it puts into its character trajectories is absolutely unparalleled.

The seeds were planted for Gina and EJ from the very beginning — they are two characters who share similar desires, and have gone on almost identical journeys of growth since HSMTMTS began.

When you pair two characters together — especially romantically — it’s important to think about how those two individuals can grow as a unit. It has to be about what that relationship is going to actually DO for them or teach them moving forward. It can’t simply be something that idly exists in their story or lives.

Everything about EJ and Gina means something to their characters on a greater scale, and it’s always pushing them forward.

That’s great storytelling.

It’s unfair to praise the story of Gina and EJ without giving accolades to Sofia Wylie herself, who has portrayed a girl riddled with heartbreak — to a girl filled with hope and the possibility of a new love — in an exceptional way.

Her final reaction after being handed a granola bar from EJ — one she’d been craving all day — is a true moment of epiphany that says more than any dialogue ever could.

EJ is the guy who shows up. EJ is the guy she’s ready for. He’s been that guy all along.

It’s the stuff all the best teenage romances are made of, and HSMTMTS is telling this one without missing a single beat.

Random Thoughts:

• Nini taking off her necklace physically pains me.
• Ricky’s human blanket burrito look is a total mood.
• The comedic duo of Julia Lester and Matt Cornett is ALWAYS on point.
• The tension between Seb and Carlos is getting HEATED.
• “Excuse me Ms, have you seen a Duke sweatshirt anywhere?”

 

 

What did you think of this episode of High School Musical: The Musical: The Series? Share your thoughts in the comments below!

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High School Musical: The Musical: The Series airs Fridays on Disney+.

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