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The plot thickens in this week’s episode of Schmigadoon! / Schmicago as Melissa believes she has evidence to save Josh from the electric chair, but Josh went and screwed it all up by following Topher and his band of merry-makers to a secluded area where he finds (a) he now has a full head of hair and (b) their solution to all the world’s problems is to … get naked. Not something Josh is comfortable doing. Now Bobbie Flanagan is going to have to pull out all the stops at Josh’s hearing once Melissa tracks him down. This whole scene at the top of the show is so bonkers, juxtaposing the 1930s city of Schmicago with the 1960s hippie commune. When Melissa first appears in Bobbie’s office in her coat and huge hat, it was funny enough. But to see her interacting with the hippies in their 60s vests and bell-bottoms is incongruity at its best. And the look Melissa shoots one of the group when they ask (a totally stoned) Josh, ‘Who’s the square’, says it all. And her reaction to Josh calling her ‘my old lady’ is also priceless. Come on, Emmys, Cecily Strong is simply brilliant!
Speaking of Emmys, Jane Krakowski … give them all to her for this performance this week. Once Melissa gets Josh back to his old self (and not a mention of where his new head of hair went) and into the courtroom, all eyes are focused on Bobbie Flanagan, who makes her entrance not dramatically through the doors at the back of the room but from the ceiling … on a trapeze! And then she razzle-dazzles the defendant, the spectators, the judge and jury with a number that includes all the bells and whistles of the title (figuratively and literally) — even including a quick homage to Krakowski’s performance in Starlight Express — ending with a rapid-fire verse recapping everything that’s happened to Josh over the course of the last two episodes, leaving the jury no other option than to proclaim him not guilty.
But that still leaves the question of who murdered the showgirl, and all the clues point to Octavius Kratt. While searching for Josh, Melissa encountered the lady who runs the Home for Unwanted Orphans, Miss Codwell (Kristin Chenoweth), who tries to sell Melissa an orphan with the sales pitch that at her rate it’s either cats or plants, and they can’t take care of themselves when she dies. Ouch. What Melissa really wants is the location of an address, which happens to be right next door to the orphanage, Blight’s Butcher Shop (‘Meat Cut Fresh … Almost Every Day’). Chenoweth is a hoot as Miss Codwell, serving in this moment as Annie‘s Miss Hannigan, but there is a touch of Sweeney Tood‘s Mrs. Lovett there because of her connection to the butcher.
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The evidence to suggest Kratt is the killer is piled on by Dooley Blight (Alan Cumming) who favors Melissa about a butcher whose wife and daughter were led by a rich man like lambs to the slaughter — and if it wasn’t obvious enough, Dooley specifically says in this scenario the butcher is him (and again Cecily’s reaction is perfection) — vowing one day to make the man pay … to which Melissa replies, ‘First of all … no.’ But Blight’s story and his reaction to Melissa asking if the rich man was Kratt puts all the pieces together so she can take this news to the police. But Blight assures her that Kratt has the police in his pocket so it will do her no good. Blight also reveals that the showgirl, Elsie, was his daughter’s roommate so that makes Jenny Banks (Dove Cameron) his daughter, from whom he is estranged for his own reasons, not a happy story. Melissa suggest that instead of using his ‘Justice Clever’ to ‘kill them all’, maybe talk to Jenny first. But Jenny has no idea her father is out of prison and back in town … and she must never know. Got it, but Melissa assures the butcher she’ll keep an eye on Jenny for him because he reminds her of an old friend (Mayor Menlove back in Schmigadoon). Oh, and he really needs to get those shrieking door hinges fixed.
After Josh is told to ‘hit the dirt’ by the judge, he and Melissa believe they got their happy ending and need to get out of town before anything else happens. As they leave the courtroom, the look on the Narrator’s face tells a completely different story as the scene cuts to the office of Kratt reading the account of the trial (the newspaper headline screams ‘Surprisingly Not Guilty’). Kratt launches into his right hand men, berating them in song about their plot to frame Josh failing, revealing that his attempts to find a wife — first the butcher’s wife, then Elsie, have also failed, wondering out loud why God made him so difficult to love, flagellating himself over wanting the women who don’t want him, always ending in tragedy. Heading to the window, the Narrator hands Kratt a pair of binoculars so he can see Melissa and Josh back in the regular clothes on the way out of town. But perhaps this Melissa Skinner — the Narrator corrects him that she goes by Gimble — will be smarter than the rest, that this will all turn out for the best, and maybe they can kill two birds with one stone. But what does that mean?
We’re halfway through the season now, only three episodes left, so it will be interesting to see where things go, but for now this season of Schmigadoon! is pretty much topping the already excellent first season. I can’t wait to see more, but I don’t want to rush it (even though I could with the press screeners). This is a show that deserves to be slowly savored. Also, you really need to be able to rewatch this show to catch all the fun references like the names on the buildings in Schmicago, including Sondheim’s Children’s Playhouse (No orphans!), Schwartz Happy Family Portraits, Herman’s Hummable Tunes, Ebb & Co Apothecary and the Kander Absinthe Cafe. If you get any one of those references, you just might know a little about musical theatre! Brilliant stuff!
New episodes of Schmigadoon! stream Wednesdays on Apple TV Plus. Subscribe through our affiliate link and catch up on Season 1.
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