In case you missed it, check out my review of the first two episodes of season 3 here!

For those who have been watching High School Musical: The Musical: The Series since the first season, the third episode in each season is legendary.

In the first season, "The Wonderstudies" found our cast in flux. E.J. discovered Ricky's voicemail to Nini from the previous episode, Nini and Gina had a face-off for reasons, and Mr. Mazzara found out about Miss Jenn. In the following season, "Valentine's Day" found our favorite Wildcats under the spell of love, as the episode name would suggest. Nini and Ricky get their wires crossed (a theme in season 2), which leads to Gina confiding in Ricky. At the same time, Kourtney begins working at Slices, Big Red's family pizzeria, struggling to earn the respect of Howie, a long-time employee. At East High, Beauty and the Beast rehearsals begin, and Ashlyn becomes worried that she doesn't look as beautiful as Belle is supposed to look. Big Red spends the episode finding ways to comfort her and planning a surprise for her. Another couple spending Valentine's Day together is Carlos and Seb, who struggle with their insecurities about each other's personalities - good and bad. Meanwhile, Lily quits the production to help North High with their competing Beauty and the Beast production.

Suffice to say, my expectations for this episode are sky-high. Thankfully, I was not disappointed. I don't use slang often in my reviews, but this episode is a banger of an episode. Not only does the story deal with the mounting pressure from episode 2, but it builds on them and somehow even finds time to challenge the audience's assumptions about where the story is going, rather than sticking to the status quo (throw your tomatoes later). Of course, it also helps that this episode provides some great tracks I could listen to on repeat all day.

This episode finds our favorite Wildcats Ricky, Gina, E.J., Ashlyn, Kourtney, and Carlos, and fellow campers Maddox and Jet as they embark on a Camp Shallow Lake tradition: Newbie Initiation Night after the cast list is revealed.

Speaking of the cast list, let's talk about the performances in this episode. To sum it up in one word: wow. There's so much more nuance to the performances here than in any episode of the series so far.

I want to call out Sofia Wylie, Matt Cornett, Julia Lester, and Saylor Bell Curda specifically as the superstars of this episode. Without saying too much, these performers portray the microcosms of insecurity, stress, and overall lack of identity.

Now, these topics aren't uncommon grounds for exploring what is ostensibly a television show made for teenagers, but I feel each performer brought a twist to each scenario that wasn't as straightforward as it initially seemed.

Angela C. Tortu's direction of this episode is crucial to how these moments are depicted. Her direction feels very generous, as though she told the cast to wander the woods or take their time rooting themselves in a specific scene. She also seems to be having as much fun with the episode's format as the cast, as the structure feels more free-form than any other episode this season. Kudos.

Another major bit of props that is well-deserved is Natalia Castells-Esquivel's script for the episode. As a first-time writer, I don't have any context for her previous work, but I get a strong sense that she went into this doing a ton of research on the prior episodes of High School Musical: The Musical: The Series. That, or talked to each performer to see what they thought their character would do in a situation and wrote them into situations where something new and unexpected happens.

I especially enjoyed the horror movie sendup in the back half of the episode, the numerous confrontations, and role reversals that occurred in the episode. I can't go into specifics, but you know what I'm talking about for those who've seen the episode already. As I mentioned in my review of the first episode of the season, it's a breath of fresh air.

If I have one pet peeve with the writing is that it reuses a character arc for Ashlyn that feels out of character (sorry, Ash!) for her to experience the feelings she's going through yet again. We're three seasons in. I feel like, at this point, Ashlyn would be over these insecurities, especially since we revisit them every season.

I also particularly enjoyed the cinematography from Hisham Abed. Like the direction & writing are experimented with in this episode, so is the cinematography. There's a fisheye lens used at one point, which is still burned in my mind two days later. The music video for Julia Lester's song, "Rising," is impeccable. Unlike previous performances in the series, there was an artistic flair to this performance that is commonplace in modern music videos. Kudos to Hisham Abed, as well as Maggie Ruder, the production designer, who probably had a hand in creating the visual design for the music video.

Alright, I've held off as long as I can - let's talk about the music of the episode. In contrast, neither of the songs performed in the episode is flashy like Joshua Bassett's original song from the season opener, "Finally Free" they are the most vocally impressive of the season thus far.

Matt Cornet gets to sing a spooky camp song that feels equally country and pop, with great backing vocals from Saylor Bell Curda and the various extras in the scene. What impressed me the most about "Ballad of Susan Fine" is that it feels like a song usually reserved for Joshua Bassett's vocal range, yet Cornett pulls it off without a sweat. Even more notable is that this is Cornett's first leading song since "A Billion Sorrys" in the aftermentioned episode, "The Wonderstudies," from season one.

Julia Lester gets to sing an original song, "Rising," which is stellar (pardon the pun!) Lester continues to be one of the best performers of the series besides Joshua Bassett. However, like Cornett's song, there's a twist: the power ballad reminds me of a bunch of Rodrigo's previous songs on the series like "Granted," "The Rose Song," "Out of the Old," and, well, you get the picture by this point.

It's interesting to see Gabriel Mann shake up our preconceived notions of who gets to sing what in the series, and I hope to see more in the coming weeks. If I may suggest, give Kourtney or Maddox a song usually reserved for Gina or Nina, Jet a song reserved for Ricky, and Carlos a song traditionally reserved for E.J. That would blow my mind.

So, Wildcats, if my previous review had you feeling down - don't worry! From what I can tell so far, episode two was a fluke, and I tend to be in the minority regarding these things.

★★★★★

"The Woman in the Woods" is now available to stream on Disney+. Seasons one and two of High School Musical: The Musical: The Series is available to stream on Disney+, as well as two specials and a sing-along version of the first season.

If you'd like to listen to me watch the episode, click below to buy the audio commentary!

Until next time!

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