REVIEW: ‘High School Musical: The Musical: The Series’ Season 2, Episode 10 – “The Transformation”

Season 2 of High School Musical: The Musical: The Series continues with its 10th episode, “The Transformation.” In the previous episode, the Wildcats communicate with Miss Jenn (Kate Reinders) over video call since they’re all on Spring Break. Gina (Sofia Wylie) makes a special connection with a stranger (Asher Angel) at an airport while waiting for her flight to be rescheduled. Ricky (Joshua Bassett) is visiting his mom (Beth Lacke) in Boston in hopes of mending their relationship. Meanwhile, the Wildcats come up with an original song and post it online after another video was posted by North High.

In “The Transformation,” the Wildcats have a dress rehearsal, but things take a disastrous turn. Wanting to make improvements, Nini (Olivia Rodrigo) proposes a plan to split into separate sleepovers to come up with new ideas. However, these sleepovers bring out hidden secrets and big reveals amongst the group. Seb and Carlos are avoiding each other because of what happened during Spring break. Nini finds out that Gina thought Ricky sent her chocolates on Valentine’s Day and confronts her about it. Ricky receives a phone call from someone unexpected.

“The Transformation” gives Seb and Carlos’ relationship more development, which has definitely been missing from the show. As the series’ main LGBTQ+ couple, they have already made a major impact on the show. From their first official dance back in season one to the entirety of “The Quinceañero” episode, Seb and Carlos quickly became many fans’ favorite couple. So it was about time that the show gave them a dilemma to deal with since every other couple on the show has been given multiple things to go through. Not only does this normalize their relationship on the show even more, but it gives their characters the time they deserve. No matter how their story arcs are written, focusing on the same couples or characters gets rather boring. Plus, the dilemma that Seb and Carlos go through shows the incredible support systems they have within the Wildcats drama club, which HSMTMTS has done an incredible job in establishing.

“The Transformation” sets up the possibility of the start of something new for Ricky. He’s still dealing with the fallout of his breakup with Nini but doesn’t completely lose sight of the mistakes that he made. The episode also does an incredible job showing his personal growth from his original song, “Let You Go,” by deciding not to share it with Nini. That was something the old Ricky would have done to try and get her back or to even get the last word in. He does, however, put effort into the musical and into supporting Carlos with his relationship dilemma. It was the first time their characters ever bonded in that nature, and it was incredible to see. Here’s hoping that they get more scenes or story arcs together. The turn-around for Ricky’s character has been immense. It’s great to feel like fans can once again root for Ricky to be the best person he could be, especially with how the episode ends. There’s also the possibility of the mysterious phone call leading him to make major decisions about his future and its impact on the series.

One of the major reveals to come from the episode trailer of “The Transformation” was that Nini found out about Gina thinking Ricky sent her chocolates on Valentine’s Day. Just from the trailer alone, the tension that the scene brought was big. The scene could have led Gina to be honest about the feelings that she kept hidden, or it could have led Nini to rethink her entire relationship with Ricky. However, the scene didn’t lead to anything important. Besides a few side comments related to the issue from Nini, neither character addressed the big reveal. It doesn’t make sense for the trailer and episode synopsis to include this specific detail if it never impacted their friendship. There’s also the fact that Ashlyn (Julia Lester) was the one who brought up the incident in the first place. There could have been a scene where Nini confronted Ashlyn about never saying anything to her.

Ultimately, “The Transformation” offers yet another fantastic episode that gives the limelight to Seb and Carlos’ relationship while also focusing on Ricky’s character growth. With only two episodes lefts in Season 2, things are bound to speed up in terms of plot, which tends to be a downside to only having 12 episodes. However, it was great to have this episode focus on character growth and give other characters their moment as things begin to wrap up.

HSMTMTS Season 2  is streaming now on Disney+ with new episodes airing Fridays.