High School Musical: The Musical: The Series: The Recap: “The Quinceañero”
“I can’t thank you all enough for just getting me.”
Season two, episode five of High School Musical: The Musical: The Series, “The Quinceañero,” was directed by Kimberly McCullough and written by Emilia Serrano.
“I think you, kinda, you know it’s Carlos’ quinceañero,” Nini awkwardly fumbles when her and Ricky announce the cause of the celebration at Seb’s barn this week. It serves as another delightful callback to season one, which feels even more precious now that Nini is a part of the ensemble once again. While last week’s A-story largely focused on her, though, she and Ricky are relegated to the deep background for the majority of the installment. Instead, it’s a full-on focus showcase for Carlos and Seb, as the series finally makes good on its promotion of Joe Serafini to series regular.
Glee (a close comp for this series) was a monumental network series for a number of reasons, but its repetitive nature grew to be a deterrent to its quality. What initially made the show so iconic (a cappella covers, slushies) grew trite over time. Like, yes. We get it. The glee club kids were nerds and the school had deep homophobia roots, so they all got slushies thrown at them and were bullied to extreme lengths.
One of the things I love about High School Musical: The Musical: The Series is that it could easily go the Glee route and explore the effects of high school bullying. But whether it’s because of creative disinterest or a generational gap (Glee does belong to the generation before HSM: TM: TS, it seems. Olivia Rodrigo name-checks it in “Deja Vu”), the show is completely disinterested in what would-be bullies might be up to at East High. Instead, it solely focuses on celebrating its main cast and all the beauty they add to the world.
For this installment, Carlos and Seb doled out a ton of that beauty. As a couple Disney has promoted for Pride Month on the Plooos, they’re kind of the Goldilocks of the show. Nini and Ricky are endlessly cute and Ashlyn and Big Red are endlessly cringe. But Carlos and Seb occupy the “just right” middle ground of being authentic, supportive, and in love. They don’t just hug at the quinceañero either; they kiss. The show doesn’t skirt around their love; it celebrates it and never diminishes it. It’s come a long way since the original sequel movie’s highly coded baseball number, “I Don’t Dance.”
Carlos’ quinceañero is the result of some stealth, in media res planning by Seb and Gina (who grew closer to him over their choreography tension). It’s hosted at Seb’s barn, but made all the more fun because it’s been planned as a surprise party. Carlos thinks everyone’s forgotten about his birthday (“My love language is riddles,” he informs us while dressing in an Éponine-inspired sad outfit, as if it’s George Costanza feeling “morning mist”) and Seb is terrible at lying (he never learned how!), but the fact that a party was thrown at all is hardly the best gift he receives.
That instead comes in response to an old Instagram video from Carlos. When he was thirteen, he uploaded a video of himself dancing on Instagram. This became an inspiration for a young Seb, who watched the video over and over from his bedroom. It’s likely Seb would’ve never come out if it wasn’t for that video, which displayed Carlos as his unabashed self. The show embodies that spirit, too, as Seb relays that story and subsequently transitions into a piano cover of Miley Cyrus’ “The Climb,” from Hannah Montana: The Movie.
In a show that has had a great deal of wholesome Disney covers and stellar original songs, it was fun to see them branch out to a Disney story these kids would have grown up with that is also not being performed by them. Sure, he could’ve performed a slowed-down version of Beauty and the Beast’s “Human Again” or High School Musical 2’s “Everyday,” but the choice of “The Climb” represents the show’s innate willingness to explore new musical terrain. It may be more wildly unpredictable, but it’s better than being formulaic.
And while that season two confidence hasn’t worked for every musical number this season, it certainly does for Serafini’s performance of “The Climb.” His overall acting and singing works better for me than most of the actors on the show (perhaps Rodrigo and Matt Cornett excluded), so it was delightful to see him shine more than just comedically in this episode. But seriously, he can belt out a song like that and he’s relegated to Chip? Miss Jenn must be self-sabotaging that Menkie drive.
Another non-tangible gift Carlos receives at his party is Sofia Wylie’s rendition of “A Dancer’s Heart.” (The title refers to the one thing she shares with Carlos.) It begins as a dance recreation of Carlos’ aforementioned Instagram video and transitions into a full-blown musical extravaganza. (The kids mention Big Red’s rapid decorating skills, but Gina put together a whole number in seemingly three days. This must be a school for the gifted. Who are these backup dancers at Carlos’ birthday?)
It’s a pretty decent number that mostly works as the show’s tri-weekly reminder that Wylie is a fantastic dancer. But it’s also introduced by a prologue from Gina where she hints at the idea that this is the last thing she will do for her friends at East High.
The episode’s B-plot largely revolves around Gina subconsciously planning Carlos’ quinceañero as her own pseudo-goodbye party because she’s too hung up on her feelings for Ricky to stay at East High and live with Ashlyn anymore. At first, I didn’t know what was gnawing at her (neither does Kourtney, as her fun, light conversation with Gina keeps spinning out into vague, attention-demanding platitudes like you might seem from someone who’s on Facebook too much), but when she snapped at Ricky when he asked for advice, I realized it was the return of a subplot that has probably outstayed its welcome at this point.
Initially, I was happy the show didn’t abandon it entirely, but now Gina’s pining has tipped too much into “this needs to be satirized” territory. Every line she delivers is underscored by faint piano twinkling, as if she is Arrested Development’s Uncle Oscar dropping hints that he’s Buster’s real father. Except on HSM: TM: TS, it’s not played for laughs.
Fortunately, the show always remains a step ahead of its audience because it also reactivated the thread from the season one finale that Gina and E.J. might have feelings for one another. Now that he’s joined the AV club, E.J. has a bit more to do (his side stories are a ton of fun, but he could receive thirty percent more screen time and receive no complaints from me) in this episode, as he’s tasked with creating a video tribute to Carlos.
When it comes time to interview Gina, though, he simply asks her how she’s faring. It’s only when he presses record that she realizes he was genuinely asking her feelings because he cared and not because he needed a clip for Carlos’ video. The two continue to share meaningful glances that seem to imply Gina will not be leaving and, thankfully, Gina will not harbor feelings for Ricky much longer.
Another romance rekindled in earnest this episode is the budding love triangle between Ms. Jenn, Mr. Mazzara, and Ricky’s father, Mike. The latter two exchange lines for what is the first time during the series and both are smart enough to recognize that the other has feelings for her. Mike goes about it in the overbearing sense by claiming he does not want to come on too strong and then proceeding to wear a whole-ass suit with a tie clip to the quinceañero of a kid he does not know. Mr. Mazzara goes about it in the awkward sense by responding to her statement, “Don’t forget to get my good side later” with, “Which side is that?” Considering, “The Quinceañero” also reignited Ms. Jenn’s fear of fire (following the arson-adjacent incident her and Mr. Mazzara instigated last season), I’m assuming the faculty member has the advantage long-term.
Ms. Jenn also gets one of the episode’s funniest moments when Carlos is tasked with naming a madrina (godmother) as part of his celebration and he chooses Ms. Jenn. The episode jumps quickly (and humorously through the edit) to E.J. asking her what it means to be chosen and Ms. Jenn’s makeup smeared across her face while sobbing. I remain boundlessly impressed by the show’s ability to balance genuine humor with hopeless cringe. Derek Hough dances the salsa in silence while sipping advanced caffeine (?). Ricky says, “Okay, boomer,” to his father (??). Big Red’s last name is Redonovich (???). Yet, there’s also Lily chugging a “scalding hot black coffee” and Big Red mentioning, “I always wanted a nickname,” while the camera zips right past Kourney, who is clearly Jimming the camera. It is a balance I delight in.
The episode does end with two minor cliffhangers for the next installment (already the midpoint of the season, if you can believe it). One is in reference to Gina’s arc, as she calls her mother and insists that she wants to come home, rather than live with Ashlyn. The other revolves around two minor arcs in the episode. Ricky tried to find a way for Nini to be in the Beauty and the Beast production and Ms. Jenn’s old flame-turned-rival, Zackey Roy, tried to find a way to one-up East High at the Menkies.
When she learns that he poached her idea for real wolves in the act one climax of BatB and cast Lily in the lead role, she decides to throw a Hail Mary (what’s the theater equivalent of a Hail Mary? A Hail Satine?). We don’t learn what it is this week, though. We only learn that it involves Nini. And while I hope Ashlyn remains Belle and I applaud Nini for not forcing her way in to the show to force drama, too, I can’t say I’m not excited to learn what Ms. Jenn’s plan is. Especially since I can already predict Gina’s.
Read previous recaps:
High School Musical: The Musical: The Series: The Recap: “New Year’s Eve”
High School Musical: The Musical: The Series: The Recap: “Typecasting”
High School Musical: The Musical: The Series: The Recap: “Valentine’s Day”
High School Musical: The Musical: The Series: The Recap: “The Storm”
