We’ve reached the final villain that I’ll be looking at in the High School Musical franchise, Lily from High School Musical: The Musical: The Series season 2. Interestingly, the show held off until the second season to a true mean girl character. Sure, you could argue Gina filled that role in season one as she did do some pretty awful stuff but Lily feels more like a true traditional mean girl.
There is not much more to say here. With that out the way, let’s begin.
Actor
Olivia Rose Keegan
Keegan is quite good in this role and really sells it and has already quite the fanbase around her character. She just revels in playing this character.
Personality
The obvious comparison when looking at Lily’s character is to say she’s like Sharpay but that is rather surface level and there is another better comparison out there.
Lily is a character that comes across as people who watched Glee realizing how awful Rachel Berry could be and through any other lens, she could be seen as the villain. That is very much the case with Lily. She is diva-ish and demanding but not in the same way as Sharpay. She’s a bit more reserved but still believes she’s owed everything because of her talents.
First Appearance
Lily first shows up in the second episode of season two, Typecasting and this is where we get a good taste of what she’s like when she auditions for the role of Belle in the school’s production of Beauty and the Beast.  She seems nice at first but is soon revealed to be cutthroat and looks down upon those that she doesn’t think are as good as her. This is the case when the show goes to a shot of her laughing at the character of Big Red stumbling through his audition.
And it ended up her costing her the role.
Miss Jenn then talks to her about how she got an amazing voice and tells her that the reason she didn’t get the role was because of her attitude towards the others, Lily leaves in her annoyance.
I like this because it shows just because you are talented, that doesn’t mean people will put up with your awful behavior if you treat people poorly.
Grand Desire
This is kinda tricky as it seems to be threefold, first, she wants the role of Belle. She gets that when she transfers to North High.
She also seems to want to drive a wedge between the main couple Ricky and Nini. She is close to doing this and in a way gets this as they break up at the end of the season. She also in the grander scheme of things wants to ruin East High as you see both schools are competing for an award named after Alan Menken where they have to put on a show involving music he wrote. And after she transfers to North High, the latter school changes their show from The Little Mermaid to Beauty and the Beast.  She is willing to do whatever it takes in part because she felt slighted by what happened at the East High auditions.
Lackey
Antoine
While Antonie does work with Lily, it seems born out of reluctance on his part and he is visibly annoyed by Lily and trying to work with him. As the French foreign exchange student explains, he doesn’t get what Lily is trying to do. He still does follow her lead though.
Songs Sung by Lily
A bit weird to be covering these songs on Villains Profile.
Belle
As you can see with this number, Lily is talented and some might argue that her attitude backs up her talent but as we have discussed, you can be the most talented person in the room but if you treat people like crap, they’ll want nothing to do with you.
The Mob Song
This is a fun number from when the East High Drama Club breaks into North High because they think North High has stolen their Beast mask. It does help in serving the story as it shows the couples of East High are going through some rough patches that need to be worked out. It also once again highlights Lily’s talents.
Home
I don’t believe that this number was ever included in the show but as so many YouTube comments point out, it sounds very personal, and learning that Lily comes from a divorced family also speaks to how much might be goi on. at home and what she’s going through.
Most Evil Deed
I knew what this one was when I watched this season. She actively harmed East High’s production by stealing a piece of equipment that they needed for the Beast transformation. She stole a harness that they needed for the transformation.
The episode, Showtime pans to her in the audience with the harness in her lap. This speaks to the lengths that she is willing to go to get what she wants.
Demise
There isn’t one, she wins. She gets to be Belle, Ricky and Nini break up and East High pull out of the competition for the Menken Award in the season finale because it stopped being fun for them. She suffers no real losses, setbacks sure but that’s about it. Returning to the idea of her driving a wedge between Ricky and Nini, that comes from the fact she has a crush on Ricky as he was nice to her. Well, this is taken further in the season finale when he decides to call Lily.
Is Lily A Good Villain?
Lily is interesting as she is both the most human and most evil villain from the HSM franchise, she crosses lines that I don’t think Sharpay would consider. Yes, Sharpay does a lot of awful things throughout the trilogy but part of me believes that Lily’s actions sting more because they happen in the quote-unquote real world. I do imagine that the show might redeem her in the third season but until then, she is the best villain this franchise has seen.
