The death of Jason Blossom takes a backseat this episode as we delve into other (and very real) insidious things going on in the quaint town of Riverdale.
1. Men Suck
No, really, we seriously do. More specifically, this male-dominated society that allows such awful shit to happen like what takes a center stage here. The last two episodes had Jason’s death as the catalyst, and that does tie into the group of football jock asshat Chuck and his posse here. They essentially have a journal of their… egh… “conquests” and keep a running score throughout the year. And thing is, this crap happens. It’s disgusting, and it rarely ends like how it ends here.
2. Queen Veronica
I know this comes off as incredibly repetitive week-after-week, but Veronica just keeps topping herself each week. She was the clear standout this week by rightfully calling out the bullshit above and doing something about it (which we’ll talk about). All the credit in the world goes to Camila Mendes’ performance, running the gauntlet of confident, vulnerable, empathetic, inspiring and furious and making it all feel very real.
3. You Guys Didn’t Think This Plan Through, Did Ya?
All that being said, Veronica, Betty and all the other girls’ plan to get Chuck to confess is… yeah no beating around the bush, they (and by that I mean “Betty”. More on that in a bit.) straight up torture a teenager. Even Veronica’s passion, confidence and desire to see justice done errodes a bit when she sees how far her friend is willing to go. This is also a bigger look into Betty’s own demons. Over the last few episodes, we have seen glimpses that Betty doesn’t have exactly the greatest home life, what with her emotionally abusive mother (who it took me until this episode to realize her name is “Alice Cooper”. Huh.) and we see some of the damage begin to seep out. It’s a genuinely uncomfortable scenario. And hell, as Jughead’s foreshadowing alludes too, this is going to come back and bite them in the ass.
3.5. Oh, Hi Barb
Nothing major here except Ethel, one of the girls, is played Shannon Purser, who played Barb in the Netflix show Stranger Things, a show without an original idea in its head. And Riverdale clearly casted her because of that when Cheryl at the end of the episode makes the “#JusticeForEthel” remark, alluding to how mad fans were when Barb died and was a line that nearly made my eyes roll out of my skull at the cringeness.
4. Archie No!
So we have the above and the below, but what about what’s going on with Archiekins? Well, he has the B-Plot, involving tensions with his dad as well as him wanting to get more into music. He has a very good scene with Josie and the Pussycats that directly tackles the mass amounts of racist crap that happens in small towns such as “Riverdale”. Like this plot in general, it’s a low-key thing while simultaneously not sugar coating it. The other part of Archie’s plot is… Ms. Grundy and the secret here driving him up a wall. I really cannot wait for this woman to get her comeuppance.
5. The Suspects
So, while all this is happening, Jughead (who shows that he’s a food-stealing ninja in this episode) continues the investigation behind Jason’s murder. In particular, we find out what the gunshot was on July 4th, which only leads further and further down the rabbit hole. At this point, the suspect list kind of looks like:
Cheryl Blossom
Polly Cooper
Alice Cooper
Leland Palmer
Vince McMahon
That Mad Dog My Neighbor Own-
….Oh. Sorry. The list got away from me. Anywho, the ending to the episode finally brings a crucial piece of evidence to both Jughead and Betty that is going to lead into the next episode. I’m hoping it was as good as this one.
