Things are kicking up for East High as the play looms closer and they have to confront the reality of their skills. Are they really good enough to beat North High? In “The Transformation,” the crew struggles to make the Beast transforming into a human look realistic, but it’s far from the only “transformation” they face.
At the start of the episode, the Wildcats are reasonably worried. After all, North High reportedly has broadway-level, show-stopping special effects. They talk about the anticipated rival performance so often, but it wouldn’t be surprising if it was actually all talk and North High doesn’t really put on the most upscale, jaw-dropping play in history. But, we’ll have to wait and see for sure. At this point, all they know is that North High does have some amazing effects in store, especially for the part where the Beast transforms into a human in Beauty and the Beast.
Miss Jenn (Kate Reinders) is probably the most worried of them all, as she wants to live up to North High and doesn’t want to disappoint the kids. Right now, Ricky (Joshua Bassett) isn’t pulling off the role and the transformation scene looks sloppy. Recognizing this, the students decide it’s time to take their play up a notch if they want to beat North High, and they divide into two teams to get stuff done: boys versus girls.
The girls decide to make a one-of-a-kind cape for the Beast to wear, while they tell the boys to make a machine that can make the Beast spin and elevate their transformation scene. While the groups are split up, they address a lot of drama going down.
First, Carlos (Frankie A. Rodriguez) and Seb (Joe Serafini) are experiencing relationship problems, stemming from how Carlos met a bunch of cute guys over spring break. This made Seb feel like Carlos is only with him because he’s the only option available for Carlos at school. It’s refreshing to see them talk about real emotions that an LGBTQ+ teen may have and show a deeper side to Carlos and Seb’s relationship. Both of the boys discuss their feelings with the groups they are hanging out with, Seb with the girls and Carlos with the guys, and it’s clear that both of them want to fix it but don’t know how to.
They also bring up other topics, namely the budding romance between Gina (Sofia Wylie) and E.J.’s (Matt Cornett). Everyone’s curious to know what’s going on with them, but they both deny it. Still, of all the relationships that have formed, Gina and E.J.’s does seem the most easygoing and organic. Then, Ashlyn (Julia Lester) brings up the incident where Gina thought Ricky got her chocolates when he didn’t…but Nini (Olivia Rodrigo) didn’t know about this incident at all. Though everyone laughs it off and says it was funny, Nini clearly doesn’t agree. She feels like they kept a secret from her. It’s a bit annoying to see Nini and Gina fighting again because it seems the writers always want to pit them against each other and make them argue over Ricky.
With the guys, E.J. also admits he’s cautious about pursuing anything with Gina because he doesn’t want to “get rejected again” like when Nini ended up with Ricky instead of him. It seems like Ricky and Nini are at the root of a majority of the relationship problems in the group and they seem to make things pretty awkward for the rest of them. Although Nini and E.J.’s breakup seemed pretty mutual, the fact that Nini and E.J. dated may hold both Gina and E.J. back from pursuing a relationship.
Miss Jenn is also trying to calm her nerves while the students work up something for the play and talks to Mr. Mazzara (Mark St. Cyr) about it. He helps her understand that a lot of her feelings have to do with her living vicariously through the students and not confronting her own emotions. He relates to her in this way and they bond over being teachers, but they are definitely something more to each other.
Some weird things also happen with North High. Ricky first gets a call from North High’s mean lead Lily (Olivia Rose Keegan), who previously expressed her interest in Ricky. It’s super random and she says almost nothing, just tells him that she’s worried over the play. It’s awkward, to say the least. Later, Kourtney (Dara Renee) says that Howie gave her North High’s broadway staging plans for the Beast transformation and they all meet up at school to try it out in order to get on equal footing with their rival school. It’s not unbelievable that Howie caved and gave Kourtney the plans since he’s been trying to get back on her good side, but it is interesting to see him give up his school’s chance of victory.
Just before they all rush to East High, Ricky calls Carlos and tells him that he finally understands that Nini hasn’t looked at him the way Carlos looks at Seb in a long time. He says that he’s going to officially let their relationship go and that he wants to help Carlos fight for Seb, so he thinks they should write a song together to tell Seb how Carlos feels. That’s a lot to unpack, but Carlos – after making some hilarious jokes – agrees. Back at school, Carlos pulls Seb aside and sings him the song he and Ricky wrote (which is shocking because they must’ve written it in like twenty minutes?). The song is beautiful and expresses how Carlos would always choose Seb and it’s not because he’s “the only option.” It shows that their relationship is true and solid, and there’s even a callback to the homecoming scene from season 1 where the two of them first danced together.
The scene is sweet and the couple makes up, and it all ends with Carlos thanking Ricky for his help. It’s great to see Ricky helping someone else and putting effort into his friendships. Carlos and Seb aren’t the only couple to get their moment, though. At school, it’s clear Nini is still upset over no one telling her about the chocolate incident. This makes Gina uncomfortable, and she’s pretty awkward around E.J., probably because of this and due to the fact that everyone ships them together. But E.J. takes his chance, and he asks her on a real date, to which Gina says yes. It’s good to see them finally going on a date, but who knows…Jack from the last episode may still come in later to mess with things.
At the end of the episode, the crew tries the new Beast transformation that Kourtney got from Howie. It all looks to be going well, as Ricky is lifted into the air with a harness and rope, making the scene look grander and more awe-worthy. But everything goes downhill fast as the rope snaps and Ricky falls to the stage. Then, the episode ends.
Wow. Way to leave us on a huge cliffhanger that’ll completely change the fate of the play. There’s no telling what they’ll do. Either someone will step in for Ricky or he’ll perform and probably not do his best considering the fact that he’s likely severely injured. One thing’s for sure: this was not a random occurrence. It seems like North High is written all over this, with the random, prying phone call from Lily and Howie giving Kourtney North High’s plans for the scene. They must have meddled somehow because there are too many coincidences.
As the play inches closer, it’s clear that the team just isn’t ready yet. Though this episode fixed many of the relationships, it also caused tension in some others, and with Ricky’s injury, it seems the students are going to be scrambling to get their play together on time. Can they win at the Menkies? No one knows. A better question is if they’ll be able to put on a good production at all.
