The Show Must Go On

The Show Must Go On is the seventh episode of season one, and the 7th episode of the CFK 2 Go! series Wild2ide. It first premiered worldwide on May 4, 2023.
This episode was the eleventh episode to be filmed in Season 1. Primary production took place between March 27-31, 2023.
==Overview==
Alexa accidentally books the friends a gig at a high school prom.
==Episode Summary==
The episode opens with Rachel and Dean making out and undressing each other in the empty bathtub in the bathroom. The two engage in a small conversation that eventually leads to Rachel stopping the intended intercourse to mention her fluro green thong; leading her to leave the room to get it from her bedroom. Dean is left in nothing but his underwear as he closes the door behind him, swiftly giving himself a pep-talk in the mirror in the meanwhile. After a little while he receives a knock on the door, and believing it was Rachel, he proceeds to open it. Unfortunately it ends up being Jane, and after she makes a few offensive crude remarks, Alexa and later Blanket end up walking in on him as well while doing the same thing. He ends up lying to them about his circumstances before Rachel finally arrives back to the bathroom, shutting his lie down. While annoyed, she ends up dismissing the other women and proceeds to ask Dean about what they were doing. Dean ends up lying again, however the conversation soon shifts back to Rachel's thong. The two begin to make out once more, however Rachel quickly notices that she was missing lubricant. She agrees to leave him once more, but accidentally locks the bathroom door behind her once she leaves.
Following the opening credits, Rachel enters the kitchen holding her bottle of lubricant, making Jane and Alexa confused. She ends up lying about it before heading back to the bathroom. When she goes to open the door, it is revealed that it was locked and that there was no way of getting Dean out. She expresses this to him through the door, making him annoyed, however he doesn't appear to speak to her after that. Soon after, Alexa is seen browsing something on her laptop and Jane asks her about what she was doing. She tells her that she was looking at the prom gallery for South Burbank High School and proceeds to go into a story about her horrible high school prom experience. The scene then shifts to a flashback of a 17-year-old Alexa getting stood up at her high school prom. When the scene shifts back to the present, Jane and Rachel attempt to make Alexa feel better by telling them about their prom experiences. The scene then shifts to two flashbacks, first Jane's, where it shows her getting drunk and getting a light shone in her eyes resulting in her tripping over, and second Rachel's, where it shows her getting a cupcake thrown at her dress. As the scene shifts back to the present, Jane and Rachel reassure Alexa that she wasn't alone in her prom experience. Alexa responds by expressing her desire to do over her prom.
Rachel is seen attempting to pick the lock to the bathroom when Jane asks her about her progress. After she gives her an update, Jane approaches Alexa who is looking at her laptop screen and asks her about what she was doing. Alexa is still seen looking at South Burbank High's website and she shows the page to Jane for her to get a closer look. They take notice of the school's advertisement for a live performer. Upon scrolling down, Alexa ends up accidentally clicking a button to apply for the role, although neither her or Jane appear to take notice. A little while later they receive a knock on the door, which ends up being a delivery person delivering Alexa a bunch of prom dresses that she ordered online. Alexa sheepishly takes the dresses up to her room to try them on.
Alexa is seen wearing one of her new prom dresses and proceeds to admire herself in her bedroom mirror. Suddenly she receives a phone call from the principal of South Burbank who invites her and her friends to their prom, under the condition that they would perform an original song. Alexa ends up accepting the invite. They also tell her that the details of the gig would be located in an email before she hangs up on them. Alexa feels immediately elated after her phone call, however a few seconds later the elation quickly turns to panic. She decides to head downstairs to tell the friends.
Downstairs, Rachel is seen hitting the bathroom door handle with a hammer with Jane and Blanket watching her when Alexa approaches them. After they make a quick comment about the dress she was wearing, she tells them about the phone call she just had and invites them to come with her. Although the three women disagree at first, they eventually get convinced. They end up leaving the room to change, noticeably leaving Dean still locked in the bathroom.
The four women arrive at South Burbank High School wearing prom dresses when they discover a security guard at the entrance. They all end up approaching him and attempt to get inside by referring to themselves as the "Sex Guns". The guard makes a sly comment about their name before they are eventually let in.
When they arrive in the school gymnasium, the four women decide to keep themselves low-key by heading straight to the refreshments. Soon after, a teacher named Mr Farber introduces himself on a makeshift stage and proceeds to introduce the "Sex Guns" to the students. The four embarrassingly make their way up to the stage and Alexa introduces them, immediately banning cupcakes in the process. They soon realise that they didn't have an original song to perform, so they end up asking Mr Farber for at least two hours for them to get ready. When the students become rowdy at this news, Mr Farber grants them ten minutes. They decide to walk off the stage with noticeable boos from the students.
The four women begin to discuss what song they could sing. Blanket offers them to sing one of Rachel's own songs, however she immediately declines. Jane then brings up the way Jumpstart was written in the original series and offers for them to write their new song that way. Rachel declines this by stating that they didn't have enough time. They end up in a compromise that they were to improvise their lyrics and instrumental while on stage.
The women make it back on stage under their new plan. Alexa ends up apologising to the students before telling them the name of their new song, No Control. Before they begin Dean ends up mysteriously showing up on the stage, revealing that he somehow broke out of the bathroom. The five end up breaking into a performance of No Control, which ends up being a massive hit with the students. Following their performance they each stand side-by-side with one another and make comments about their glory.
A little while later, Alexa and Jane are seen talking when Jane offers to get her a drink of punch. When she goes out to reach for a cup, she accidentally grabs one at the same time as Mr Farber. Mr Farber formerly introduces himself as Charlie to Jane, seemingly falling in love with her at first sight. The two end up sharing a heartfelt conversation that eventually leads to them discussing their own high school prom experiences. Charlie tells her about his story of getting a permanent limp after being forced to hide in the back seat of his date's father's car for six hours straight. Jane ends up finding his story fascinating and the two eventually agree to hang out. Jane suggests for them to make out in Rachel's car, and they agree. Meanwhile Rachel and Dean are seen slow-dancing with one another, with Rachel eating a cupcake in between. The two share a brief conversation until Dean turns him and Rachel around, where he spots Alexa looking glum sitting on the other side of the gym. He stops their dance by offering to bring Rachel punch, and she lets him do so. Dean proceeds to walk over to the refreshment table before heading straight to Alexa, where he asks her about why she was looking down. She tells him about her previous and current prom experiences being lousy. In an attempt to cheer her up, Dean offers to slow dance with her as a friend. They do so, rather awkwardly at first. Rachel appears to be preoccupied with her cupcake to notice Dean and Alexa.
During the closing credits, Rachel is seen carrying a whole plate of cupcakes to take home; all with the impression that her previous "cupcake curse" was lifted. Dean suddenly remembers that Rachel kept a container in her car, so he agrees to go out and get it for her. When he unlocks the car, he gets horrified when he discovers Jane and Charlie making out in the back seat. A conversation heavily mirroring the one from the beginning of the episode takes place before Dean heads straight back to the gym; abandoning his container idea. When he arrives back at the gym, he swings open the door, however the door ends up hitting Rachel square in the chest, causing the plate of cupcakes to get squished onto her dress. Alexa proceeds to use Rachel's old catch phrase while Rachel chooses to go after Dean; chasing him out of the gym.
==Continuity==
===WildSide===
*This episode serves a homage to the episode Wild Dream Come True, therefore there are many similarities, parallels and references to it.
**Both episodes feature an alternate opening title sequence and transition music that feature the characters performing the theme song in a different tempo. While the original featured a sped-up version of Wild, Wild West, this episode featured a slowed-down version of Disaster.
**Both episode's main plots deal with the characters being forced to perform an original song in front of a disapproving and impatient crowd.
**When the friends are put up with the task to write an original song, Jane directly mentions the way Rachel wrote Jumpstart in the original episode.
**The songs featured in both episodes, Jumpstart and No Control respectively, share a similar sound as they were produced as the same genre. The later was also released with a music video and soundtrack in the same vein as the original.
*The scene where Jane, Alexa and Blanket all walk in on Dean in the bathroom while he is in his underwear purposely mirrors a similar scene from Wild Broken Faucet where the characters walk in on Dean in the bathroom while he is in a towel. At one point Alexa even repeats Justice's iconic line, "What's going on, is Santa Claus in the bathroom?" from the scene.
*The scene where Rachel gets a cupcake thrown at her dress in Wild Valentine's Day is referenced several times throughout the episode; directly and indirectly. It is revealed that the original scene started a "cupcake curse" that made Rachel get a cupcake squished onto her dress at every dance she attended.
*The scene where Dean discovers Jane and Charlie making out in Rachel's car mirrors a scene in Wild Record where he discovers April making out with a random guy in the kitchen. His reaction is the same in both scenes.
==Future References (contains spoilers)==
*In this episode it is established that the bathroom didn't have a window in it. This fact is later brought up by Alexa in Not Yams, Spams! when she herself ends up getting locked in the bathroom.
*It is later revealed in Keep Your Body Parts to Yourself that the scene where Dean slow danced with Alexa was the moment she gained stronger feelings for him.
*Charlie mentions that he fell in love with Jane at first sight during his proposal to her in Are You Gonna Light a Cigarette With That?. Their very first meeting occurred in this episode.
*While Alexa attempts to convince Jane to allow her to be her maid of honour in You've Bruised All the Apples, she mentions the events of this episode that allowed Jane and Charlie to officially meet.
**Jane later thanks Alexa for this while she's saying goodbye to her in Not So Stupid After All.
*Charlie brings Jane back to the school gymnasium again in Not So Stupid After All so that they could recreate the feelings of their first meeting.
==Title Reference==
The title of this episode is a reference to a part of a quote stated by a guest character Nigel in the WildSide episode Wild Dream Come True, while proposing the idea for the friends to perform on stage.
==Cast==
===Main Cast===
*Sierra McCormick as Rachel Ford
*Zach Gordon as Dean Ford
*Jamie Cox as Jane Freebairn
*Marija Stove as Alexa Wilson
*Jill To'oh as Blanket Thompson
==Memorable Quotes==
==Trivia==
*This was the first episode to premiere on a Thursday instead of a Saturday. The reasoning behind this was due to the release of the single No Control.
*Dean's role in this episode had to be reduced due to his actor Zachary Gordon taking a trip to London part way through the episode's production. His sudden absence gets explained by including the plot of Dean getting stuck in the bathroom.
*As mentioned above, some plot points of this episode heavily resemble the plot of Wild Dream Come True from the original series. Coincidentally, both episodes were produced as the 11th episode of their respective seasons (111 for W2, 211 for WS).
*A few revelations have been made about Rachel and Dean's relationship in this episode:
**Dean bought Rachel a fluro green thong as a gift for her seventeenth birthday. He also likes seeing her in it.
**Rachel and Dean took each other to their high school prom. The night was cut short however when a fellow student accidentally squished a cupcake at Rachel, ruining her dress.
*Rachel's fluro green thong is a reference to the actress Sierra McCormick in real life, as she revealed that she famously owned a pair of fluro green underwear a few years prior. Sierra famously uploaded a picture of herself in them on Instagram in 2019 in response to the Storm Area 51 event of that year.
*It is revealed that Alexa's prom date stood her up on her prom night and attended with another girl. Alexa would later describe this night as one of the worst nights of her life.
*It is revealed that Jane started wearing glasses after a security guard flashed a flashlight into her eyes while she was drunk at her high school prom.
*The set of the exterior of South Burbank High heavily resembles the high school exterior set in the How I Met Your Mother episode Best Prom Ever.
*Jane and Rachel end up wearing the same prom dresses that they wore during their respective flashbacks. Alexa ends up wearing a completely different one in the shade of purple, which is a reference to her character's favourite colour.
*The friends' The Sex Guns alter ego is a parody of the real life band The Sex Pistols.
*The scene during the end credits where Dean smashes the door on Rachel causing her to have a bunch of cupcakes smashed onto her resembles a similar scene in the Austin & Ally episode Wedding Bells & Wacky Birds. Rachel's reaction is also the same as Ally's.
*Alexa uses Rachel's original catchphrase of "RAN-DOM!" towards the end of this episode. This marks the first time it is heard in this series. Additionally, Alexa is only the fourth character to use it besides Rachel in the show's universe:
**Gary first used it indirectly in Wild Justice while describing his version of the story (he isn't actually shown saying it as his story version of Rachel says it instead).
**Justice first used it in Wild Reputation.
**Dean first used it in Our Big Wild Wedding (Prep) - Part 3.
==Navigation==
Category:Wild2ide Episodes
Category:Wild2ide Season 1
Category:Season 2 Title References