Schmigadoon! season 1 episode 3 review: A diverging path

This week’s episode of Schmigadoon! sees Josh and Melissa officially go their separate ways as they each try to make sense of their new realities in the musical town.

At the end of last week’s episode, the former couple had each kindled a new flame, Josh with Betsy (Dove Cameron) and Melissa with Danny (Aaron Tveit), who seems to be Schmigadoon’s version of Billy from Carousel.

After Melissa sleeps with Danny, he sings one of the funniest songs of the show yet, “You Done Tamed Me,” which is really saying something.

As she tries to explain this was all just a one-night-stand, Danny gets progressively more romantic, leading her to explain what an IUD is as he sings about having to steal for their future child. Tveit is pitch-perfect, and they should invent an award for reacting to musical numbers just to give to Cecily Strong.

It’s another example of the show’s excellent moments of subtle and truly hilarious criticism of the past. I’m still laughing thinking about it. But the main crux of the episode focuses on Josh and Melissa’s diverging tactics to deal with their problem.

As they both share what they’ve done post-breakup, they decide to let bygones be bygones and work together again in the face of a new challenge–having nowhere to stay thanks to the absurdly severe Mothers Against the Future who banned them from all inns for being “sinful.”

Melissa sends Josh to break it off with Betsy while she works on finding them a new place to stay, but, instead, Josh thinks he can find another way out, leading him to ask every woman in Schmigadoon to cross the bridge with him in order to trick the town’s magic into thinking he’s found true love.

By the time he’s gone through all the women, Melissa has discovered him and appears to be truly done, calling him out for being unwilling to put in any “emotional effort.”

With nowhere to go, and Betsy’s redneck dad hunting him down with a shotgun, Josh seeks refuge in the church and confides in the Reverend (Fred Armisen) who gives him sound (and meaningful) advice about true love–“It isn’t something you find. It’s something you work for.”

However, there’s still one woman Josh hasn’t tried crossing the bridge with, the schoolmarm, so it appears the Reverend’s advice will likely go unheard for the time being.

Meanwhile, a defeated Melissa sings her way to the doctor’s door, perhaps signaling her commitment to the world of Schmigadoon, to ask about a nurse position that includes room and board.

When Doctor Lopez (the stunning Jaime Camil) answers the door, it’s clear that Josh and Melissa once again are on their own in Schmigadoon working to find true love, but not necessarily lonely.

What did you think of this week’s episode of Schmigadoon!? Tell us in the comments below!