In 2019 the cast of High School Musical The Musical The Series took over our lives. Now three years later season three came out and let’s just say I have a few thoughts. 

Episode 1: Happy Campers

   Opening the season we see Ej, Carlos and Kourtney picking up Gina is greeted by a kiss from Ej confirming that Portwell is finally official. The group then drives to camp and jams out to “What Time Is It” from the second High School Musical and “Start The Party” from Camp Rock. Nini and Ricky are not heading to camp this summer. Nini is going to California to focus on writing music and Ricky is spending the summer with Lily. Or at least that was his plan until he finds out that she was the one that took his beast harness back in season two. He leaves Lily and that results in a classic Ricky song. 

   Once the gang is at camp we meet some new characters. First we have Maddox or Gadget and she greets Ej by calling him Rocket Man. Right off the bat it’s very clear that she is very headstrong and sometimes speaks before she thinks. Next we meet Jet who is the opposite of Maddox, he is quiet, angsty and a bit angry. Then there’s Val, the resident college kid and as this is summer camp there’s a few kids. Emmy and Alex, they are two middle schoolers who idolize Gina. 

   The camp musical gets revealed the first night and it’s also revealed that Corbin Bleu will be directing the musical. The musical is Frozen and after Corbin announces that he walks off. He has a chat with the camp director and he says that he is directing the show about the musical, Frozen The Musical The Series. Ej happens to be standing nearby when this is said and he somehow ends up becoming the director of the musical. As Ej is telling Gina what just happened Ricky runs in and that’s where episode one ends. 

Episode 2: Into The Unknown

   Episode two is all about camp auditions. Everyone is quite nervous, especially Ej. He has never directed or casted a show before and nobody knows he’s directing the show. Val offers to cast the show as Ej might be a little biased. Gina is trying to get Ej to tell everyone that he’s directing the show and not Corbin. 

   During auditions everyone is wondering where Corbin is and Ej does have to come clean that Corbin is only directing the show about the musical. While everyone is at auditions Jet is caught not at any activities so he’s forced to go audition for the musical. He runs in late and wows everyone with his vocals just as Ricky had in the previous two seasons. Ricky said “running in late, pretending to hate theater, he’s like a little Ricky”

   During all of this Ninis’ moms tell her that she’s going to be meeting her sperm donor father after 17 years. They meet and have a nice chat about Ninis’ life and his life. Then once he leaves Nini grabs her guitar and sings a song called “You Never Know”. She sings about growing up and how everything is unpredictable. 

Episode 3: The Woman In The Woods

   The episode opens with the cast list coming out. Everyone is nervous but excited to see who they got cast as. Kourtney and Gina will be sharing the lead roles as Elsa and Anna. Ricky once again got the male lead as Kristoff and Jet is really embodying season one Ricky because he was cast as Hans. Then there’s Carlos who will be playing Olaf. Ashlyn is casted to be in the ensemble and considering the fact that she was Belle in Beauty and The Beast she was a bit taken aback. 

   During the first week of camp is the sleepover in the woods. Everyone sets up tents, there’s a bonfire and they tell spooky stories. Maddox and Ej are incharge of telling the stories this year. Ej agrees to sing “The Ballad of Susan Fine” if he can get back to work after. Maddox starts to tell the actual story but Jet keeps on making snarky comments. Eventually Maddox gets fed up and runs off. 

Later in the night Ashlyn, Ricky and Gina are out walking and go see Ej. Ashlyn needs to know what time she was born as Maddox questioned her birth chart earlier but Ricky and Gina just want to know if Ej wants to join them. Ej is very stressed and answers Ashlyn but refuses to get up from his work. Ashlyn goes off and Ricky and Gina just walk around. The two eventually hear what seems to be singing or crying. They follow it all the way to the barn and hear singing more clearly. They open the doors ready to be greeted by a ghost but it’s just Ashlyn. She is singing a song called “Rising” which is about figuring out who she is. 

   Jet finds Maddox after she runs off. It’s revealed that the two are siblings. Jet tries to argue saying that Maddox should be happy that he’s at camp at all. Maddox is not happy as Jet is not the best brother. When he found texts of her and her ex girlfriend he outed her to their parents. 

Episode 4: No Drama

   Halfway through the season. This episode opens with the cast doing a cover of “Fabulous” from High School Musical 2. Everyone is trying to make sure everything is perfect and there is no drama because Corbin is back and he is here to film for the show.

   Ricky has a bucket list that he has to complete before his 18th birthday and one of the things is to hug a celebrity. So throughout this episode he is trying to hug Corbin, he does end up getting that hug. 

   The group is doing vocals and they need to run “Love is an Open Door” but Jet seems to have checked out of camp. Ej fills in for Jet and he sings with Gina resulting in a very cute scene between the two. 

   It appears that Ashlyn might be coming around to Maddox. There’s a camp movie night but the two talk through the entire thing leading fans to believe that there might be something between them. 

   Once the movie is over you see Kourtney on the phone with her mom. She is discussing how bad her anxiety is and she isn’t quite sure how to handle it and how it is really hard for her.

   A letter from Ejs’ dad arrives telling him that he is being forced to go to Caswell training camp. Rather than tell his girlfriend he tells Val and Gina finds out.

   Episode 5: The Real Campers Of Shallow Lake

   In episode five it’s brought to everyone’s attention that the reality show needs drama or else people won’t watch it. With that being said Carlos, Ej and Val decide that everyone is going to get roles in the show to make for interesting. For example Maddox is “the crier”, Kourtney is “the judgy one” and Ricky is “the jilted ex”. Carlos has the idea to make Maddox and Ashlyn fight over Jet because Carlos doesn’t realize that Maddox is queer and is Jet’s sister.

  Of course in this episode there’s a song. One of the songs is “What do you know About Love” sung by Gina and Ricky and during the song there are very obvious romantic hints. 

   Towards the end of the episode Gina and Ej get into a fight in front of everyone. They start arguing about how Val read the letter that Ejs dad sent and Val agrees that Ej is in the wrong for that. Ashlyn hears this and calls Ej by his full name, Elton John Caswell. This argument leads into an argument between Jet and Maddox. In this argument Maddox tells Jet to explain why he didn’t show up to her 15th birthday party, why she loses all her confidence when he’s around. She wants Jet to explain why he told their mom and dad about her and Madison when he saw the texts on her phone. Those things being said makes everyone realize that the two are siblings. Everyone is shocked but especially Ricky and Carlos. 

  After all of this goes down Carlos and Ricky are talking. Carlos calls Ricky “bro” and then Carlos says “Oh no I called you bro and now you’re going to tell me something”. Carlos was correct Ricky did tell him something. He shared that he likes Gina. They continue to talk when they hear the bushes and see that they were being filmed the entire time. While this is happening Jet is trying to figure what to say to Maddox and he figures he’ll just sing a song. He sings a song called “Right Place” about how he is sorry and would like to go back to when they were kids and were very close.

   Episode 6: Color War

  Episode six is all about color war. The two teams are yellow and blue. Ricky, Ej and Gina are on the blue team and Maddox and Jet are on the yellow team. Jet explains to Ricky that he wants to be a better brother. Ricky gives him the advice to take interest in something Maddox cares about, which is camp. 

 While Jet is trying to be a better brother, Ej is trying to prepare for opening night and Gina is not happy that her boyfriend is barely around. She is also still a little upset that he lied and kept something from her. She feels like she’s having a completely different summer than Ej but she is trying to look on the bright side of things. 

  Color war goes on with different challenges and activities but one of the last challenges is to climb the rock wall. Kourtney is selected to climb for the yellow team but her anxiety takes over and she physically cannot. While Kourtney is freaking out, Mrs Jenn appears. She calms Kourtney down and has a talk with the wild cats. 

   After Mrs Jenn leaves it’s time for the final challenge. Val picked it and it’s a sing off she picked the song “It’s On” from Camp Rock 2. Both teams sing but Jet really shows himself and wins the color war for  the yellow team. 

   At the very end of the episode Ej finds Gina in the barn and there she asks him to camp prom. He turns her down but only because dates aren’t allowed at camp prom.

Episode 7: Camp Prom

  The second to last episode is my favorite out of the season. This episode is all about camp prom. Every year the theme of the prom is the 70s. Jet is still trying to be a better brother so he has the idea to call Maddox’s ex-girlfriend, who is played by Jojo Siwa. When Maddox sees her for the first time she is confused but then they get to talking and she understands why she’s there. They agree to talk after camp ends. 

  When the dance first starts Ej, Ricky and Carlos are standing at the snack table together when Gina, Ashlyn and Kourtney walk in. Ricky sees Gina and nearly spits out his drink. He is so infatuated with Gina that he cannot contain himself around her. 

  Prom falls the day before the opening of Frozen. Therefore Ej is incredibly stressed and can’t take his head out of his script. This causes Gina to get really fed up with the fact that Ej is more interested in his script than her. She says that it’s like they’re living two different summers and they break up. As a Portwell stan this broke me. 

  On a happier note, throughout the entire season Ashlyn has been trying to find herself. In this episode she finally comes to terms with the fact that she likes Val. She also comes out as bi, which is so huge. Carlos is one of the first people she tells and to congratulate her on coming out he gives her a pin. While Carlos is talking Ashlyn sees someone that makes him very happy. Seb, Carlos’ boyfriend, has come to camp to visit. 

  As every episode in this show there’s a song. This time however Maddox and Jet are the leads. The song they sing is “Wouldn’t Change a Thing” from Camp Rock 2. Halfway through the song Seb and Carlos join them. 

   At the very end of the episode Carlos and Kourtney face their fears. Kourtney climbs the wall and Carlos gets water dumped on him. 

Episode 8: Let It Go

  The end of the season. It’s opening night and everyone is feeling quite nervous. Along with opening it’s also Ricky’s 18th birthday. He officially finished everything on his list. Due to it being opening Kourtney is extremely nervous about playing Elsa. 

  Mrs. Jenn and Nini are back to wish everyone good luck. Nini is specifically here to continue her tradition of giving out opening night cards. 

  Of course the reality show is still going on but the cameraman, Channing, has gotten a little power crazy. He is trying to stir up so much drama and making everyone’s lives so much harder than it needs to be. Corbin sees this and fires him. 

  During intermission of the show Kourtney finds Nini and they are finally reunited but Nini doesn’t stay for long. Right after curtain call she leaves. Ricky opens his card from her and it’s a lottery ticket as Ricky has been planning to get a lottery ticket on his 18th birthday for years. He knew that if no one else she would remember and she did.  

After the show Corbin, Mrs. Jenn and all the kids sing one final song which is “Everyday” from High School Musical 2. This made me very happy as it’s my favorite song from the second movie. 

  A few months later is the world premiere of the reality show. Everyone is brought to this theater to watch the trailer. Things in the trailer are a bit out of context. Even so it is revealed that Maddox does indeed have feelings for Ashlyn. Big Red makes a quick appearance at the end and all he says is “I’m Big Red, I’m Ashlyn’s boyfriend and I’m bi” Ricky and Ashlyn share a look to clarify they just heard that. 

Closing out the season Ricky and Gina finally confess that they like each other. Ricky shares that his life has been so different since they met and he’s never met anyone like her. Gina cuts him off by kissing him. 

This season has definitely got to be my favorite. I love the new characters and the songs, but I just wish I saw more of Nini. I’m very excited to see what season four has to offer!