Schmigadoon! episode 2×05 is titled “Famous as Hell,” but we think something like “Trading Places” would have been more fitting. The fifth episode in season two of the Apple TV+ musical comedy series is the penultimate one but feels rather underwhelming. One episode remains, and though the episode’s ending sets up an interesting season finale, Schmigadoon! 2×05 could have benefited from a change in pace.
Unlike most of the series, Josh (Keegan-Michael Key) and Melissa (Cecily Strong) aren’t eager to leave the musical town. They even decide to put off trying to cross the bridge home when they think they’ve found happiness for everyone. Similarly, the show feels like it’s also putting something off.
“Famous as Hell” ends on a cliffhanger — Melissa must marry Octavius Kratt (Patrick Page) or Josh will die — which is a completely valid way to end any episode. But it feels a bit random. It’s by no means out of character for Kratt, who’s known to be a murderer and massive polluter among other things. But not much of this episode or even the preceding episode feels like it led to this ultimatum.
Schmigadoon! 2×05 begins with Miss Codwell (Kristin Chenoweth) fattening up her orphans so Dooley Blight (Alan Cumming) can turn them into sausages. In hindsight, this Sweeney Todd x Annie storyline actually is a pawn in the larger Kratt villain storyline. If the odd couple didn’t team up to murder orphans, Melissa and Josh wouldn’t have necessarily been trying to help Dooley exact revenge on Kratt. Then Melissa wouldn’t have been pretending to cozy up to Kratt. But surely a man as powerful as Kratt would have found another way to kidnap Melissa. So while the orphans into sausage storyline did contribute to the bigger, badder, conflict of the season, it is relatively weak.
The other large storyline of the episode was a Jesus-Judas situation with Topher (Aaron Tveit) and Jenny (Dove Cameron) versus Josh and Melissa. After Topher and Jenny get together and enter the honeymoon phase, Topher’s tribe feels deserted and the Kratt Klubb is in need of a star. Naturally, Josh and Melissa fill the roles left behind, but Topher and Jenny feel betrayed. By the end of “Famous as Hell,” it’s unclear how these rivalries fit into the remainder of the show. We’re not complaining about seeing more Topher and Jenny (whose groovy new look is fantastic), but with only one episode left, we’d like loose ends to be tied — or at least tightened.
This leads us to a possible explanation for the sense of “Where is this going?” in the penultimate episode. Near the end of 2×05, Sergeant Rivera (Jaime Camil) and Madame Frau (Ann Harada) randomly sing about twists: “There’s always a twist that you’ve denied/ But then it goes on and on much longer than you thought it would.” The latter lyric is honestly a pretty good explanation of how we feel about the season and episode so far. It wouldn’t be the first time the characters were very literal in their singing. But we weren’t really shocked, satisfied, or surprised in the end. Honestly, we’re still left with more questions than anything.
Again, Kratt threatening to kill Josh if Melissa doesn’t marry him isn’t surprising. Did we expect that? No, but it’s not really a twist. So what’s left? The final scene is Kratt and Melissa in a car off to who knows where to get married. And who’s driving the car? The narrator (Tituss Burgess).
But is the narrator driving the car because he’s the narrator? Or is he driving because he’s been on Kratt’s side the whole time? He could have been singing and closed out the episode on the streets of Schmicago as Kratt drove off with Melissa. The narrator is present in many scenes but typically as a bystander and narrator. We don’t normally see him participate or interact with anyone much. But in “Famous as Hell,” he does.
He eggs on the tribe and joins them in convincing Josh to unknowingly become their new leader, prompting conflict with Topher. When Josh and Melissa ask him for advice, he says he’s on a break. And finally, he’s the one driving Kratt’s getaway car. Perhaps the narrator is the twist. “Famous as Hell” may have given us more questions than answers, but it’s enough to make us watch the finale.
New episodes of Schmigadoon! season 2 is available on Apple TV+ every Wednesday.
