The tension between East High and North High finally comes to a head in the seventh episode of High School Musical: The Musical: The Series. In the episode “The Field Trip,” the Wildcats break into North High after suspecting their rivals stole their beast mask, but what they really find is a whole lot of trouble.
First, before all the action of the episode, we find out that Nini’s (Olivia Rodrigo) “The Rose Song” was uploaded onto the East High Instagram and went semi-viral, which is something she’s super excited about and something Ricky (Joshua Bassett) seems pretty supportive about, so all’s well, right? We also find out that Gina (Sofia Wylie) and E.J. (Matt Cornett) have a new radio show together for the morning announcements. It’s something E.J. wanted to do to improve his AV skills, and something Gina agreed to help out with. This definitely seems like a way to kick off a potential relationship between them, so here’s to hoping they explore that soon!
The episode’s main storyline begins when Kourtney (Dara Renee) reveals the costumes for their production of Beauty and the Beast, but the beast mask she made is mysteriously missing. This leads everyone, led by Carlos (Frankie A. Rodriguez) to question whether or not it was North High who stole the mask, based on their suspicious Instagram posts. The Wildcats launch a plan to go undercover into North High and snoop backstage with the goal of getting their mask back. It all sounds like a really horrible idea, and even if it isn’t hard to believe North High might have stolen the mask, it seems like this won’t lead to anything good for the squad.
Despite this, and Miss Jenn’s (Kate Reinders) pleas, the kids break into North High and search around backstage. Gina stands lookout while the rest of them go through the costumes, and a North High student immediately proceeds to flirt with Gina and asks for her “Snap” (a moment that feels very realistic) which makes her seem uneasy. Well, E.J. comes to the rescue and pretends to be Gina’s fake boyfriend. The moment is pretty funny, and it’s clear that we’ll probably see some not-fake Gina and E.J. romance soon.
For everyone searching for the mask backstage, it seems like it’s going okay until the North High kids catch them in the act. The malicious Lily (Olivia Rose Keegan) is back and challenges them to a dance-off to see who’s more talented. It’s refreshing and kind of hilarious when the students immediately reject the idea and say that it’s actually really weird and they won’t be doing that. But of course, this is HSMTMTS, and with a little taunting, they eventually give in to the dance-off, set to Beauty and the Beast’s “The Mob Song.”
Before they perform, the tension kicks into high gear as North High threatens to break up a few relationships. Lily’s co-star Antoine (Andrew Barth Feldman) is interested in Ashlyn (Julia Lester) and says she should break up with Big Red (Larry Saperstein). Then, Lily messes with Ricky’s head and says that Nini’s rose song was suspicious. She says that it seems like Nini feels trapped in their relationship, and everyone else can infer that from her song, too. Honestly, yeah, that is sort of how Nini feels, but Lily meddling with their relationship and planting these ideas about how Nini isn’t loyal to Ricky in his head is annoying. She also finishes the conversation by basically telling Ricky that the two of them would make a better couple.
Ricky then immediately proceeds to confront Nini about the song, and Nini asks why he was pretending to be supportive if he really wanted it to be a duet and was upset at her for writing the song. She walks off, ditching the dance-off. It’s actually pretty irritating that Ricky would listen to a complete stranger’s opinions over his girlfriend and best friend that he’s known all his life, but whatever. Ricky seems insecure in their relationship and has for a while now, so it seems like a breakup is in their near future.
Meanwhile, Miss Jenn heads over to North High at the same time, hoping to talk to her ex and current drama teacher Zack Roy (Derek Hough). She wants the two schools to just get along and is tired of North High’s constant bragging on Instagram. So, she confronts him, and the two perform a duet together to prove that Miss Jenn’s “still got it.” And, of course, Derek Hough is playing Zack, so there needs to be a dance number in there somewhere. It’s really fun and exciting, and the chemistry between the two of them heats up. But even after Zack says he’s missed Miss Jenn, agrees the schools should be friends, and it seems like there might even be a potential new spark between the pair, Miss Jenn discovers the stolen beast mask in his possession. Ouch. It seems like the competition is only going to get fiercer from here on out.
The Wildcats then actually compete against North High, and they get to see just how talented the other school is while also showing off their abilities. North High’s Beast comes out, donned in a mask, showing off his moves and Kourtney faces him with some of her own. It ends with Antoine catching Ashlyn as she almost falls, which makes Big Red jealous and makes Ashlyn seemingly question her feelings.
Another issue is that North High seems to have a huge budget in comparison to them; but then again, East High does have “The Rose Song.” Only, after the dance-off, Lily says East High can’t use the song for the Menkies because it changes the original Alan Menken storyline. Ricky agrees with her, and Nini gets even madder, and to be honest this is justified. Sure “The Rose Song” is kind of strange as a song from the rose’s POV, but Ricky has not been truly supportive and seems to side with Lily super quickly, even after he knows Nini is upset at what he said.
After the performance, everyone seems like they just want to leave, but Kourtney is ready to update new BF Howie (Roman Banks) on what went down. In fact, all episode she’s been texting him, super giddy about their new relationship. And at the end, it’s no different, as she goes to message him about the dance-off. But everything goes south when she hears his text tone in the hallway in North High, coming from the phone belonging to none other than North High’s Beast. He was in costume so she didn’t see his face, but at that moment he pulls it off to reveal that he’s the one under the mask and didn’t tell her before. She looks crushed and says not to bother with his explanation, leaving without a second to spare.
At the very end of the episode, it seems Nini is finally done doing what others – Ricky – want her to do, as Nini begins her own Instagram account for singing. There’s no doubt that this page will most certainly go viral, ironically much like Rodrigo’s own music in real life, and Ricky will just have to deal with it.
This episode was wild, with tons of ups and downs. Each week the competition gets tougher, the humor gets better, and the relationships get shifted around. But if all of the rivalry this week means anything, it seems like Miss Jenn and the Wildcats are finally ready to show what they really have going for them for the Menkies, even without the flashy, big-budget bells and whistles that North High has, just with East High’s unstoppable talent.
