Welcome back all you Riverdale fans! “Bizzarodale” is upon us and what we get is. . .a return to the high school drama of season one mixed with the placement of pieces for the second half of the season’s plots. I, for one, am super jazzed about the way this episode came out. It was character focused, put almost ALL of our principal players off to the sidelines or completely out of the picture for the episode, and had a healthy dose of plot progression in ways that felt natural. It’s been a while since I’ve felt this positive about an episode, even if I was screaming in my notebook for large parts of it.
Yeah, I’ll get to that later on.
As always, spoilers ahead.
1. Mrs. and Mrs. Smith
Before I begin, I gotta say, I am livid that I was ONE episode too early with my thought titles. LIVID. This episode is a treasure trove of references to one of the best crime/mystery writers of the 20th century, who I just found out wrote some Black Terror and Fighting Yank comics, and the fact that this episode also deals predominantly with storylines focused on the LGBTQIA+ students isn’t lost on me.
Those stories, though, were dangerously close to being like some other CW TV show and I got the distinct feeling the writers knew that. They managed to dodge that particular bullet, and the resolution to Moose and Kevin’s episode arc was the right kind of heartbreaking, but it still doesn’t fully sit right with me. Stories should be varied, stories should be able to express the full range of human emotions and actions. However, history cannot be ignored and must be reckoned with and new stories must operate with the knowledge that they do not exist in a vacuum.
“Bizzarodale” approaches enough of these stories with care, though, and presents a variety of different experiences, refusing to paint a rosy picture of perfection that, while important to have, is not the aesthetic of Riverdale. Perhaps it stumbles more than it succeeds but at the very least, it does not revel in the unjust and neither does it hand wave away its existence.
Also, fuck the sisters of quiet mercy get worse and worse and worse every time they come up. . .and they’re all dead still! Can’t we be free of their spectre yet? I guess with The Farm coming into the building, that ain’t happening any time soon.
2. Young and Innocent
I really want to spend just a few more moments gushing about how much I missed episodes like these. I had all but forgotten that these were high schoolers, what with Archie becoming a part of Hiram’s mob, Jughead taking over a gang, Betty dealing with the Black Hood & Chic, Archie going to prison fight club and then running away on a quest to find himself and stay one step ahead of the law. You know, usual teen stuff.
Last week brought it back a little but it was still heavily steeped in the Gargoyle King mess and the Who Shot JR. . .I mean, HL stuff. Returning to some of the less pulpy & crime oriented plots, such as Josie trying to get into Juilliard, Moose and Kevin getting together, Cheryl and Toni together, and Veronica and Reggie together, helped lower the stakes from the crazy heights, acting as a re-calibration and giving us the ability to dive deeper into these characters. It’s been a while since the character interaction drove the plots instead of some external source or “greater” plot.
Yes, the Gargoyle King story continues, albeit as a branch connection, and the underworld of the Lodge’s gets a litte (lot) more intense, but the main focus is on the high schoolers being high schoolers. It’s mired by the kind of on the nose dialogue the network thrives on but there are enough moments that hit the right sweet spot and brings the episode back from the brink.
3. Family Plot
Jughead’s mom is the secret buyer?! I did not see that one coming. I should have, considering the cagey answers she gave Jughead in relation to her new work up in Toledo a few episodes ago, but I honestly thought it would be someone new or Elio’s family. I’m so glad I was wrong, even if I am less sold on literally everyone being some kind of mob or gang boss. I’m getting really tired of people suddenly being crazy shrewd without any prior set up (looking at you, Hermione Lodge) but in this case, we’ve literally only seen her once and everything we know about her points to her being sketchier than she pretended to be.
Continued belowWhere this goes from here is anyone’s guess? What does she want? Obviously the town but why? What’s her long game and how come it involves Riverdale and not Toledo? Also, how will FP and Jughead deal when they find out she was going to buy up the drug factory? It’s going to be a wild ride for sure.
4. To Catch a Thief
I’m so glad Reggie is a series regular now. The back and forth between him and Veronica is tons of fun to watch. The two have such an effortless chemistry on screen, it’s like they’ve been friends for years, making the scenes open up with warmth and familiarity. On the flip side of that is Hermione Lodge, who turns every scene she’s in to ice, which I absolutely adore.
I missed this Hermione! Where was she the last season and a half? Where was the cutthroat mob boss who still had a heart? Much as I do enough watching Mark Consuelos act, Hiram as a character is fairly boring to watch. Hermione, on the other hand, has more nuance and a much better connection with Veronica. What she wants, ultimately, beyond autonomy from Hiram is still up in the air but whatever comes next, I’m glad they’ve started the work to rectify their mistakes.
5. Topaz
Cheryl’s arc in “Bizzarodale” was one we’ve been sorely lacking since the onset of season three. Cheryl is a selfish character, always has been, and that was to her benefit at times, providing complexity to the cast. However, if she was to grow as a person, as she did in season two, she has to deal with the consequences of that selfishness. Case and point, this week’s confrontation by Toni after Cheryl decides that pseudo-outing Moose to the ENTIRE SCHOOL was a good idea.
Cheryl acted as she always did but this time, there was someone around to confront her. To tell her that she is not the center of the world, even if she is the center of her world, and that other people have thoughts and feelings and fears and desires too. That she cannot place her own insecurities and battles upon others without first considering what they want. My favorite part of the exchange, playing into the theme of legacies, was when Toni talked about losing the Serpents. I love it for two reasons.
One, because it was a genuinely touching moment that helped Cheryl come to terms with letting go of the ideas that she must continue in every tradition of her family, something she was on the path towards realizing a long time ago but got lost somewhere along the way.
And two, it’s because Cheryl is literally the reason Toni isn’t with the serpents anymore but that never comes up. She doesn’t throw that at Cheryl, which is the easy “drama” route. I’m still bitter about how they wrote Cheryl for that episode and for having Toni just kind of go along with it, but if the show is willing to forget the stupidity of that decision, then I will too.
That about does it for now! What did you all think of the episode? What are your thoughts on the true identity of the “Ur Gargoyle King” as Jughead puts it? Let me know in the comments and, as is tradition it seems, The CW is having Riverdale take the next two weeks off so I will see you all again on the 27th. Why they do this, I genuinely do not know. Until then, stay suspicious of Penelope and keep practicing your music.
Best Line of the Night:
Reggie: “I can’t believe I got shot.”
Veronica: “You sure you don’t want to go to a doctor, Reggie?”
Reggie: “Nah, just a graze. Besides, now I can say, I’ve been shot.”
