Schmigadoon! – Season 2 Episode 2 Recap & Review

Bustin’ Out

Episode 2 of Schmigadoon season 2 starts with Josh behind bars as our narrator begins singing about Elsie’s murder and how Josh is responsible. Unfortunately, his punishment is the electric chair. Josh has a friend come visit though, a guy called Topher (who was Danny Bailey in season 1). He’s all “flower power” and believing in peace and prosperity now though. Naturally, he bursts into song and makes it all about him, including how he’s struggling to find his purpose.

Meanwhile, Melissa heads off to find an attorney to help Josh, and who should it be but none other than The Countess. This time though, she’s playing the character of Bobby, and she’s a swanky “lady lawyer”. She’s the most expensive lawyer in town and with a $20 bill, it’s enough to get Bobby on her side… but not before she breaks into song. She recommends Melissa get a job as a dancer at the club, auditioning for the new dancer role and investigate from the inside out.

While Bobby busies herself with a different play to get Josh out, Bobby heads down to the club and auditions. She shows up late, tries (and fails) to get into the right tempo and then has to prove herself with a convincing story to show just why she wants to dance so badly. Melissa’s tale sees her break into song, as she discusses how she feels worthless in her job and wants the dancing to see her stand out. Octavius Kratt all of this take place and he makes the final decision, allowing Melissa to dance.

While things go great for Melissa, Josh is greeted by Bobby, who shows up to see Josh, handing over a card and confirming that he has a press conference. With Bobby on his side, her prepared statement for him includes how Jazz is to blame for this and he’s all messed up. Everyone seems to garner a good deal of sympathy for him… until Josh goes off-script, getting himself into a muddle and inevitably stuck with a one-way ticket to the electric chair.

Melissa shows up to see Josh, buzzing that she’s got the job as a dancer. Josh gives off a pained smile, until he admits that he’s not in a good way. Melissa promises to do everything she can, and now that she’s going to be moving in with Jenny, it gets her one step closer to finding the real killer.

While Melissa sings a song in the club about “Bustin out”, the Happiness Bus smashes into the prison, letting Topher out. Josh is conflicted over whether to go or not, but with the narrator there too, egging him on, not to mention everyone chanting Josh’s name, he decides to leave with them.

With a standing ovation for Melissa, she’s given the key to the kingdom, allowed to use Elsie’s changing room from now on. Given the police haven’t actually done anything with this, Melissa finds a notebook inside, presumably belonging to Elsie, and sporting a note scribbled inside:  “17 Quick Street, 11am every Sunday.” What could this mean?

The Episode Review

Schmigadoon comes to a close with another solid episode, one that really leans into this era of musicals, with plenty of minor-key numbers, sexed up dancing and plenty of colourful characters. The narrator is a wonderful part of the story and as I said in the first episode recap, Tituss Burgess is an absolute star and so good in this role. His expression at the end of the episode is a great touch.

Beyond that, the show has some stand-out moments, and it seems like the story is going to lean into the differing fortunes of our two characters this time, presumably with Melissa feeling like a million bucks at the club while Josh has to stay on the run from the police, depicting more of a rags and riches forbidden love angle.

Either way though, Schmigadoon has been real fun to watch and the ending certainly leaves plenty on the table for next week’s follow-up!