Helen Back Again

Helen Back Again

   I didn't understand the title of the episode the entire time I was watching it. It wasn't until reading a 12 year old's post on the Victorious wiki that I was informed it's supposed to be a riff on "Hell-and-back again"

Which still doesn't make any god damn sense

   Hey. Remember the principal from the first episode? He's back in this episode after a season and a half. Instead of being established as a character he simply says "Hello, I am the principal here. Goodbye!!" and quits. He says some other stuff but I don't remember.

  Anyway. So Yvette Nicole Brown (From Drake and Josh and Community) replaces him and immediately decides that everyone must re-audition to the school. Now you may be asking yourself "Well why is she doing that?"

so everyone has to reaudition and it's a pretty good premise for an episode. We see all the characters strengths and it gives everyone a justification for their place within the group. Tori does song and dances, Andre writes and produces songs, Beck is a talented dramatic actor, Jade writes and creates movies, Robbie is a comedian/ventriloquist, and Cat is kind of a jack of all trades with various talents. 

Trina however fails her audition, being universally seen as untalented in the performing arts. Despite being kicked out fairly reasonably Tori makes it her quest to appeal to Helen (Yvette) to let her sister back in. However instead of simply crafting a persuasive argument Tori creates a scheme where Robbie will pretend to rob Helen before Trina fights him off. This works out (presumably because there are only 2 minutes left in the episode and no one could be bothered to think of something better) and Trina is accepted back in. And that's about it.

   It's a good one I would say. The middle seems like it's just a bunch of filler for 5 minutes, but it's nice to see all of the auditions. It does a good job to catch all of the cast, and the plot feels pretty grounded in the setting of Hollywood Arts. The plotline kind of rambles around which causes it to feel a bit forgettable, but overall a solid 8/10.