What’s up river-bitches?! Kevin’s been in the background for too long. It’s time he was front and center for something other than cruising in the woods and being part of not one but TWO cults. What better place than in a musical episode? It seems fitting for the theater kid that he is.
What’s that? He was the center of nearly every OTHER musical episode? Shush! Don’t take this away from him (or me.)
As always, spoilers ahead.
1. Oh, What a Beautiful Morning
It wouldn’t be a Riverdale season without a musical episode. I was starting to get worried there wouldn’t be any this season, what with them sneaking in the occasional music number throughout the rest of the season. Once I saw the preview last week, I was relieved. And then I was afraid again. Because, friends, we all know what those previews are like. And we all know that the track record for CW musicals are…mixed at best.
Thankfully, the writer/director team behind my favorite of the Riverdale musical episodes, “Next to Normal”, came back and absolutely knocked it out of the park. This one may not be quite as tight as that episode but damn if it doesn’t come close. “Archie: The Musical” FELT like a musical, perfectly blending the unreality of the genre with the hyper-reality of Riverdale.
It helps that the songs were (I’m assuming) written for the episode rather than written into it. They were integrated in a far more natural way and actually could play to the actors’ vocal strengths. Seriously, the two weakest singers of past specials, KJ Apa and Cole Sprouse, have never sounded so good. True, Cole ducks out pretty fast but KJ had a LOT more singing on his own to do. As for Madelaine Petsch, Camila Mendez, Casey Cott, Lili Reinhart, and Vanessa Morgan, they kill it as always, showing off for this final episode why we keep having these types of episodes. Can’t forget Karl Walcott (Clay) either. The only one of the main cast that still struggles was poor Charles Melton. Still, he does an admirable job.
I know this thought is going long but I could keep gushing about the singing in this episode – and I probably will – for at least another few hundred words. I mean, did you HEAR all those harmonies!? I struggled to take any notes other than “oooh” and “that voice.” I’m on cloud nine folks. An honest to goodness, excellent and fun episode! This truly is the season that keeps on giving.
2. I Can’t Say No
I know I said I’d move on from the musical aspects but I had to delve into this one last aspect. Every time Riverdale has done one of these, aside from the aforementioned “Next to Normal,” the conceit has been they’re putting on a play and that’s what ties the songs to the episode. That’s still true here. Kevin’s putting on an original play “Archie: The Musical” based on, well, Archie. Or at least his perceptions of him/his life and the projected reality he needs to believe in.
I love this choice. I love it so much. It allows the musical numbers to exist both in the reality of the fiction and a fictionalized version of reality, playing with our expectations of both and often suckering us into thinking what we’re watching is reality when it’s actually the fantasy Kevin’s crafting. This mismatch is the tension at the heart of the show, at the heart of all commercial art, and at the heart of all romanticizations.
It also lets the crew get creative with staging, costuming and continues the season’s commitment to visualizing the imaginary. I mean, did you see Archie in that red tux?? He looked so good! Actually, everyone looked great in every scene. Props to the costuming department for musicaling it all up in as many ways as they could.
Also props to whoever decided that the only way to decide who was the best Archie & Julian was to have their musical-vision-versions compete by seeing who can take their shirts off better while running and harmonizing and then doing the same in the shower. Hilarious, good fan service, and very on-brand.
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3. All Er Nuthin
Turning an eye to the plots within the episode, Archie’s got a dilemma, one that the show previously punted on and then fumbled royally. Will he be what the world expects him to be? Or will he do what he is passionate about? Will he live by obligation alone? Or will he live for himself? He’s been dancing around the issue for the last couple of episodes but Kevin’s musical forces him to confront it.
And confront it he does. He makes a choice, a hard one, giving up basketball in favor of his poetry. Mid-season no less! That’s not something I would have done or been able to do in his shoes. End of season, maybe, but not mid-season. What’s more, he tells Frank and Frank loses his shit. I mean, I get it a little bit but also the reaction is outsized thanks to his rigid idea of what masculinity can and should be.
I can’t tell you how satisfying it was to see Arch stand up for himself in front of Frank though. As a character in this season almost entirely characterized by waffling, doing everything simply because he’s been unable to make a choice, that’s big. Archie made a choice and he’s standing by it. Even though the scene was short and subdued, it felt as momentous as it was.
4. People Will Say We’re In Love
Y’all. Y’ALL. I think they’re doing it. I think they’re going to commit. I think we’re gonna get a Betty and Veronica pairing. Will it last? I don’t know. Riverdale does like to split couples up but I am full of hope right now.
At first, I was worried they were gonna dance around the issue. Essentially, fucking it up with their usual bullshit. We even had the “we’re good friends” speech. But I knew. I KNEW. That lingering camera on their hands? The close ups on their faces as they blushed and demurred and danced around the obvious? This was a feint. Temporary.
And I was right.
Can I also say that their duet was maybe the best song in the whole episode? And this was an episode full of great songs that appealed to my musical loving heart. Even if it ended with an absolutely terrible green screen effect of putting them into space, the tenderness of the moment is all that matters. Godspeed you funky bisexuals.
5. Lonely Day
I saved the best for last. Why? Well, because while the episode was called “Archie: The Musical,” this really was the Kevin show. Yes, most of the musicals featured him but this is really the first time it’s felt like he was central to the whole endeavor. The musical is not his arc, it is merely an additional tool the writers have to poke and prod at his character. To draw out his insecurities, his fears, his hopes and dreams, and to put him into uncomfortable positions that he has to manage.
Kevin, despite the image of the last few weeks, is not comfortable in his sexuality yet. Years and years of ingrained homophobia & heteronormativity and expectations of masculinity have taken a toll. You see this in how he writes the fantasy Riverdale of “Archie: The Musical.” Archie is the center. He’s got it all together. Star footballer AND musician. His only problems are which girl he should date and even that doesn’t bother him. Everyone else is peripheral.
Most importantly, no one can be gay and out. It’s just not “proper” and won’t get the musical approved, a position Kevin just accepts. He doesn’t even try to sneak in the gorgeous number he & Clay and Toni & Cheryl sing by pretending it’s about the hetero-paring they’re pretending they’re in. He can’t imagine it being in his All-American musical.
More than that, Kevin’s home situation isn’t so stable. His father is living at the Sheriff’s station and goes a long way to explaining why he’s been looking more and more disheveled as the season has gone on. Kevin looks up to his father so this is weighing on him. When his parents tell him they’re getting a divorce, it shatters Kevin’s final illusions about the world he was taught. If all these fundamental “truths” aren’t true, then what can he hold onto?
Continued belowHe’s left reeling and unmoored and angry. He blames himself because that’s what the world he knew tells him is right. It’s his fault his parents are breaking up. Because he’s gay. Because he’s not “traditional” enough. Because he’s not masculine in the ways Archie or Reggie or Julian is. That’s the message he’s being given by people like Featherhead and reinforced, subtly and far less maliciously, by his father and Frank.
However, he’s also getting a different message from his mother. That who he is is good and deserving of unconditional love. He gets a message from Cheryl and Toni, that his love for Clay is natural and as worthy of center stage as any of the Archie pairings he wrote. Honestly probably even more. And from all his friends, even fucking Julian Blossom, he is loved and accepted and they are proud to be his friend.
The musical, for Kevin, was a proxy. It was about acceptance and trying to fit into a world that is fundamentally hostile to him and others like him. He sanded down and removed the best parts, the different parts, the difficult parts, the beautiful parts, until all that was left was a sugary, palatable nothing. And we saw how the forces of regression STILL rejected this. Rejected his attempts, berated him for trying, and tacitly told him that no matter how much he tried, he would never be fully allowed in the world they wanted to build.
The musical is a proxy. It was made better by the critiques of the marginalized, the confused, the outsiders. It was enhanced by its complexities and queerness. When Kevin put himself into it and pushed the idea, the fantasy, of Main Character Archie away, it shone. The finale may have been cheesy but it was also true. Community is the strongest force there is. When you find the right one, it builds, it supports, and it will fight for you.
And it will fight tooth and nail, if it has to.
That about does it for now! What an episode. I still feel like I haven’t written enough about it. What did you all think? It’s the last musical episode so how does it stack up to the others? Let me know in the comments and I’ll see you in two weeks for the Ms. Riverdale Beauty Pageant. Oy. Until then, keep singing Riverdale. Keep singing.
Best Line of the Night:
Jughead: “You, my friend, are cutting a rug on what Camus would call an existential crisis.”
