Editor’s note: The following contains spoilers for High School Musical: The Musical: The Series Season 4
The Big Picture
Ricky and Gina’s relationship in High School Musical: The Musical: The Series feels earned, as they gradually develop feelings for each other over time. Their romance takes a slow and steady approach, with Ricky and Gina empathizing with each other and finding common ground. Throughout the series, Ricky and Gina always have each other’s backs and are willing to work together to overcome conflicts and obstacles in their relationship.
Since High School Musical: The Musical: The Series takes place in a high school, romance is bound to happen at some point. Over the course of four seasons, several of the main characters date one another, creating both predictable and unpredictable pairings that audiences can follow and determine who is their favorite. With Season 4 bringing the story to a close, it’s time to take a look at the best couple among the second generation of Wildcats. Throughout each season, it seems as if nothing is able to stop Ricky Bowen (Joshua Bassett) and Gina Porter (Sofia Wylie) from finding their way to each other.
When the Disney+ series premiered in 2019, Ricky and Gina barely knew one another, and the drama club’s leading man was busy in a very different relationship. The first main plot line of the show follows Ricky and his problems with Nini (Olivia Rodrigo), after she explicitly told him that she loved him, and he couldn’t say it back. This puts a major speed bump in their relationship and causes Nini to date E.J. (Matt Cornett) for a while. A very disappointed Ricky has to find his way back to his partner by any means necessary, completely aware that he will need to be creative in order to enchant her once more.
Meanwhile, Gina is busy adjusting to her life in a new city after moving yet again. Due to her mom’s demanding job, Gina is constantly living in different places, never feeling as if she belongs to any of them. Thanks to her idea of auditioning for Miss Jenn’s (Kate Reinders) drama class, she is able to connect with a group of people who actually care about her, even if she is aggressive with everyone at the beginning. The passion for their work and sense of companionship that she sees in the Wildcats makes her feel like she is in the right place for the first time in her life.
During the early seasons, Ricky and Gina are merely friends, trying to help each other through the difficulties life continues to throw at them. While they are slowly realizing that they have more in common than they originally thought, the concept of a romantic relationship never quite crosses their mind fully until later. The slow burn approach the series takes towards building their relationship is part of what makes it so wonderful. When they eventually confess their feelings for each other, it feels earned. Ricky and Gina weren’t meant to be together from the first moment they saw each other — they needed to take small steps towards that.
After being friends for the first two seasons of the musical comedy, everything changes when the Wildcats decide to attend the same summer camp together in Season 3. Gina is dating E.J. at the time, but since he is constantly busy directing their ensemble’s version of Frozen, he barely has any time to be with his girlfriend. On top of that, E.J. is getting ready to go to college, while Ricky and Gina still have one more year of high school to get through. The couple finding themselves at different points of their lives makes it easier for Gina and Ricky to start empathizing with each other a bit more.
Things start to get out of control at summer camp when it becomes obvious that Ricky and Gina are clearly spending more time together. Even though he is really busy, E.J. begins to notice, and he and Gina finally decide to break up. In the season finale, E.J. leaves the auditorium where Corbin Bleu’s documentary about the Wildcats’ summer premiered, visibly angry at how things turned out between his girlfriend and the boy he considered to be his friend. But this was the perfect opportunity for Ricky and Gina to kiss for the first time, setting the stage for the comfortable relationship they always desired, even if they weren’t sure of what they wanted at first. By the time Season 4 rolled around, tensions around the school were high, as two of the most popular kids in the drama club secretly became a couple.
This was wonderful to see due to the fact that it seems realistic for the characters to fall in love gradually over time due to their mutual respect for one another. While it is true that high school kids often think they will meet the love of their life in an instant, the mature approach taken by High School Musical: The Musical: The Series makes it clear that Gina and Ricky needed to trust each other before they had any chance of going out together. Their relationship is solid because the bases for it were constructed carefully.
The fourth and final season of High School Musical: The Musical: The Series was ready to deal with the fallout of the previous summer, as the show was getting ready to bring the group’s story to a close. In the beginning of Season 4, Ricky and Gina try to keep their relationship a secret because they don’t want the dynamic within Miss Jenn’s class to change if they deliver an announcement of that magnitude. After all, it is high school, and everything feels like the end of the world when it might just turn out to be a minor inconvenience. But one thing they never expected was Gina’s childhood crush to come between them.
The premise of the fourth season is that a fictional version of Disney is making a fourth installment in the High School Musical film franchise. The sequel is being produced in the same school where the original story took place, meaning that the second generation of Wildcats have the opportunity to meet some of the original cast members. But one of the new additions to the cast is Mack (Matthew Sato), an actor that Gina used to be obsessed with when she was younger. Since she ends up playing Mack’s love interest in the movie, Ricky is extremely nervous when thinking about what that could mean for their relationship.
High School Musical: The Musical: The Series places Gina and Ricky in a situation where conflict can arise even after they’re honest with each other about their feelings. And thankfully, the conflict isn’t reduced to something cheap like Ricky being jealous, or about Gina falling for someone else. It’s about school and their dreams placing them in mindsets that don’t seem compatible at first. Their willingness to work together in order to move forward is what makes them the strongest couple at East High.
Even when it meant their relationship could be damaged, Ricky and Gina never give up on their feelings and their desire to be together. Ricky never wants Gina to abandon the big career opportunities that are coming her way because of him. Instead, they find a way to be together, in a relationship based on mutual respect, emotional support, and some of the cutest songs written during the four seasons of the show. That’s why ultimately, Ricky and Gina are the best couple in High School Musical: The Musical: The Series.
Seasons 1-4 of High School Musical: The Musical: The Series are streaming on Disney+ now.
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