‘High School Musical: The Musical: The Series’ Episode 9: Spring Break Leads to Healing

Wildcats, what time is it? Spring break time! The latest episode of High School Musical: The Musical: The Series features the East High kids all over the place, doing their own things and putting a pause on play practice to relax while on spring break. At first, this seems strange considering the play is so soon, but it ends up being a much-needed break for all of the characters to really get it together. 

It starts with a group video call initiated by Miss Jenn (Kate Reinders), who wants to remind everyone, even virtually, that spring break does not mean they should get complacent with the school play. Miss Jenn even mentions how technology like video calls can connect people despite the trying times which hits a little too close to home in the real world, although she was only referring to the fact that the play’s coming up. 

On this group call, we find out that Carlos (Frankie A. Rodriguez) is on vacation and feuding with BF Seb (Joe Serafini), who’s back home at the farm. Cousins Ashlyn (Julia Lester) and E.J. (Matt Cornett) are hanging out together, while Big Red (Larry Saperstein) and Kourtney (Dara Renee) work at the pizza shop. And Gina (Sofia Wylie) is at the airport, waiting to fly to Louisiana. Nini (Olivia Rodrigo) is trying to focus on her singing account which has racked up an impressive 15k followers, whereas Ricky (Joshua Bassett) is in Chicago visiting his mom and nursing a broken heart.

There’s a lot to unpack here, but let’s begin with one of the most prominent storylines in this episode, with Gina at the airport. She and E.J. have been talking more and have gotten closer, to the point where Gina really feels a romance budding between them. Thankfully, the show let her get over Ricky because that was just torturous to watch, but things between her and E.J. might not be solid yet. At the airport, after a sweet call between the pair, she meets a new face who’s also waiting on his flight. 

He introduces himself as Jack (Asher Angel), and longtime Disney fans might recognize his face from Andi Mack, a show he and Wylie starred in together. The writers bring this up, subtly, when Jack asks if he knows Gina because she looks familiar, and this is definitely a shoutout for the viewers who know of their acting history. Regardless, the two have some fun airport shenanigans. They sneak into the first-class lounge for some food, play two truths and a lie, and get to know each other. Gina surprisingly does open up a bit to Jack, which is new for her, and we find out Jack grew up in airports since his father is a pilot and he knows tons of plane facts.

To be honest, this seems a little random since Gina and E.J. are easily one of the most tolerable pairings on the show and have such a good dynamic, but Jack shakes up their relationship in this episode. Gina and Jack even admit that they think the other is cute and clearly have a lot in common, as well as a quick connection. However, when the two of them part ways at the end of the episode, it’s hard to say if we’ll really see Jack much more again. It wouldn’t be surprising, but Gina seems to believe they won’t really see each other again. She says she’s waiting for the right one, which may be E.J. by the looks of it, considering he shows up at the airport at the very end to take Gina home, with the exact snack she was craving earlier. It’s all very cute, and Gina and E.J. do have great chemistry, but Gina and Jack really do, too. It’s hard to say if we’ll see Jack again, or if it was just a spontaneous adventure for Gina and a cameo for Asher Angel, but it’d be nice if he came up once more later. 

Meanwhile, Nini and Ricky are both struggling. Nini is really excited about her singing account and how many followers she’s gotten, but she can’t seem to write any new songs, which worries her. Ricky, on the other hand, is sulking in his mom’s house in Chicago, barely speaking to his mom until he finally erupts and says he’s upset she brought her new boyfriend to the play last season. It seems he’s still dealing with a lot of pain from his parents’ divorce. This really relates to his relationship with Nini, because he hates change and clings to the idea that this isn’t truly the end for the both of them. 

Both Nini and Ricky end up growing a lot in this episode. It begins when North High says they’re going to release a video bashing East High for taking a break from the play and not working hard anymore (which Kourtney reveals to Nini in a funny video call). Miss Jenn says they need to get North High back for calling East High lazy, and Nini has a perfect idea – a song, of course, because what else would it be. But since she has writer’s block, she calls Ashlyn and the two of them work on it together. This helps Nini feel better and gets her creative energy out. Then, Gina makes the choreography up from inside the airport, and they all film individual parts for a fun music video that says that the Wildcats are #1 and don’t listen to the haters. 

The video is exciting and shows off how technology brings all of them together despite them being in different locations, a theme that certainly reflects life right now. Well, it brings almost all of them together. Ricky misses the whole thing because his phone is off. After talking to his mom, he realizes that maybe it is time to let Nini go, and he writes a heart-wrenching song about their situation. His mom overhears and gets emotional, and after he’s done singing, Ricky, who was hesitant to open up to his mom at all, asks if she wants to hear something he worked on. It’s good to see Ricky channel his energy into making music and to see that he’s accepted that maybe it’s time to stop holding Nini back and let her soar on her own. 

This episode was one of the more enjoyable ones this season, although it’s hard to say why. Maybe it’s because the humor didn’t feel too cringe-y or overwhelming, and a lot of the characters got to grow and learn about themselves. A large part of this is also probably because it didn’t just focus on the romantic relationships, but showed that the characters can be something without them and that there is more to the crew than simply what they experience at their high school. 

With the play coming up, it’s bound to be chaotic when everyone reunites in person and we find out what happens with all of the relationship dynamics floating in the air right now. Of course, they didn’t practice much for their spring production this week so it’s hard to say how it’ll go, but with how much the characters healed this week, it’s hard to be mad about it. 

‘High School Musical: The Musical: The Series’ Episode 9: Spring Break is Now Streaming on Disney+