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Schmigadoon! continues to impress with its humor, heart and wonderful musical numbers. They packed a lot into 37 minutes this week … and I can’t believe there are just two more episodes left in the season. Will Josh and Melissa find true love and leave Schmigadoon? I think right now the bigger question is does Melissa even want to leave the musical town? Maybe even a bigger question is … is this even real? Did something happen to the couple while they were lost in the woods during their hike and is this all a figment of Melissa’s imagination like Dorothy in The Wizard of Oz? I only say it’s in Melissa’s head because she’s the one with the knowledge of musicals, and this week they manage to incorporate The Music Man and The Sound of Music into the story in their own humorous way.
Melissa is finding her new job as a nurse with hot Doctor Lopez a bit trying on her patience. Doc Lopez is, in a word, strict. He won’t assist an expectant mother because she’s not married, and he frowns even more upon his elderly father trying to sneak some personal lubricant off a shelf so he and his wife can have some fun. That lubricant is for medicinal purposes only! So while Doc is off playing golf or fishing, Melissa decides to give the elder Lopez the lube, and goes to assist the young woman with her pregnancy … which is a challenge because she doesn’t know how long she’s been pregnant or where the baby comes out. She assumes there are a couple of options and both of them are terrifying.
Perched atop a mountain like Julie Andrews — in her ridiculous nurse uniform — Melissa proceeds to educate the couple on human reproduction, using words not used in polite company like ‘vagina’. So she puts it all into song, going through the whole reproductive cycle in a very funny riff on the ‘Do-Re-Mi’ song. It’s not long before Melissa is back at the office and the baby comes due. Doc is still out but Josh just happened to stop by at the right moment and assisted with the delivery. The first time Melissa and Josh have ever seen a baby come out dry. But Doc Lopez was not happy she helped the young woman. Compounding things. old Doc Lopez had a heart attack but died with a smile on his face, and Melissa can’t help but blame herself for giving him the lube. At the funeral, things take a turn when Mayor Menlove, who’d already had an encounter with Reverend Layton at the bake sale over some rhubarb squares, decides that life is too short and let’s everyone know, in song, that he’s a homosexual.
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Meanwhile, Josh is still looking for a place to stay and learns the room above the schoolhouse is available but schoolmarm Emma isn’t about to let him stay there. Unless he agrees to be the school’s new handyman which comes with the room. Josh accepts but proves he’s not very good at fixing anything, giving up after a few seconds when he can’t unstick a door. That prompts Emma and the class to break into a song and dance — complete with some amazing tap dancing — about never giving up on anything. While talking with Emma, Josh begins to have an epiphany and he hears the music begin to play — which suggests this is his time to sing — but he refuses and Emma storms off.
Melissa tells him he’s stuck in a musical and he has to sing and suggests the situation he’s found himself in is basically The Music Man, and if he wants to impress Emma, he has to do something selfless to help someone. In the movie it was Marion the librarian’s little brother, and it just so happens Emma has a little brother too — the little kid with the lisp who comments on the action. Melissa tells Josh to buy the kid a trumpet, but they are hard to come by in Schmigadoon so he goes with a kazoo instead. And it works! Little Carson finds he can make music with the kazoo and that was all it took to win over Emma’s heart.
Doc Lopez also realizes that he’s been a bit of an ass, not only to Melissa, but his parents and the pregnant woman (among others) and opens up his heart to her, at the same time Emma is opening up her heart to Josh. The wonderful ‘duet’ is brilliantly staged as a split screen number as both couples dance across the line into each others’ scene. The song was lovely and the production was pretty amazing, and in the end Josh and Melissa both believe they may have found true love. But … their eyes connected during the dance and both seemed to feel that they weren’t quite ready to let go of each other.
It’s a very big complication for the couple as the conclusion of the season rapidly approaches.
What did you think of this episodes? Give us your thoughts in the comments section below.
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