Welcome back all you Riverdale fans to the show that just keeps on giving. Last week, we made it through a lackluster musical episode. This week, we’ve got a return to the roots of the show and by god is it beautiful. Again, it could be my genre bias here but this episode was a strong one, not least of which because they’ve stopped pulling a “they’re dead but not actually.” OK, without further stalling, let’s get into it. And, as always, some spoilers are ahead.
1. Lamentations
Poor Mrs. Cooper. I’ve ragged on her character before but these last couple episodes have really gotten me to connect with her. Mädchen Amick put her heart into this week’s episode and put my heart in my throat. Damn. The only downside to this is that Alice spent most of the episode being destroyed by the loss of her son and believing herself to be responsible for his death. It makes for good drama but reduces her for an episode.
Because the show is gearing up for its finale in a month, this episode has to juggle a lot of threads and as such, Alice Cooper gets less time to process on-screen. She cannot express a full range of emotions or actions because of this and because it is Betty’s story, not hers.
2. Revelation
This episode was chock full of revelations, making good on a few lingering threads from the second half of the season and finally resolving the questions that I have bugged you all with, what’s Chic’s deal? Seems our boy Chic has been lying about his identity, his relationship to Betty’s true brother, and has been a manipulative, creepy little barrel of crap this whole time, much to the surprise of exactly no-one who is watching.
Honestly, if this was Chic’s whole purpose we didn’t need him around for as long as he was. I genuinely wonder if this season was conceived of with a smaller episode count in mind and then got extended. Because this episode feels like it could have happened only two or three episodes after the “death” of the Black Hood.
Granted, then we wouldn’t have been so far removed from the event, which for the characters adds gas to the fire of their rage against Sherriff Keller. We, the audience, always suspected he’d been lax on looking for evidence but I always chalked that up to the show wanting to move on and not wanting to dwell on “proving” a solved mystery, although, as I love to remind you all, I didn’t believe for a second that the Black Hood was Svenson/dead.
The final bit of Revelation is about the true identity of the Black Hood. I did not see this one coming and if it’s true, holy crap will this be good. Even though I gave a spoiler warning at the top, I don’t want to talk about this one until next week, when we get some concrete answers…As well as answers as to whether or not Chic is actually dead yet. If superhero comics have taught me anything it’s that no body, no guarantee.
One other point of note, if the Black Hood is who we think it is, this is going to put Archie in a difficult position.
3. Judges
Who is Betty? What path does she want to take? Is she like the Black Hood, willing to act as someone’s Judge, Jury, and Executioner? Is Archie willing to do that as well? What about Jughead?
At the beginning of season one, heck, even the beginning of season two, I would have said none of them but these three characters have changed since their more youthful origins. Jughead no longer writes, at least not in a way that we can see, Betty is willing to work with the town’s resident murderer and Archie has sold his soul to the devil in exchange for some abstract notion of control over his life and safety. By the end of this episode, all three of them have expressed their desires to or performed actions that put them in the path of destruction. The Black Hood is back and no one is safe from his wrath.
Continued below4. Judith
Veronica’s story this week was one I was very worried about. We got the return of Nick St. Shitbag and his posse of posers and considering what happened last time he was up and about, I was about ready to just write “nope” about a million times in my notebook. What we got instead was a nice reversal of Gotham syndrome, with Archie being held captive, and Veronica giving Nick some of his comeuppance via a roofied champagne flute.
It also gave us the first bit of genuine worry I’ve seen from Hiram. I was shocked by how real that scene felt. Like, normally I know I’m watching a show but for a minute, I was in the room with them, worrying about the precedent paying Nick would mean. It was well shot, well-acted and just all around damn good.
5. Jonah
Poor Sheriff Keller. I touched on it earlier but his downfall throughout this episode was tragic. He flubbed the investigation because he believed they had caught the killer and instead of doing his job fully, he let it slide. Again, as with last episode, the side characters are getting more developed and thank goodness for that. It’s been a while since we’ve gotten B plots that actually feel relevant and engaging so having that be the entirety of this episode is a breath of fresh air.
He ran away from his problems once and now he’s doing it again, letting Kevin down. I feel for Kevin here and seeing a police car vandalized with Sheriff Killer makes one wonder, what is Cheryl’s end game? Why’s she gunning after Keller and was she put up by Hiram in some way for this? Hmm. I wonder.
Either way, that’s all from me this week. Let me know what you thought. Any theories on the Black Hood’s true identity or do you think the cliffhanger reveal was true? Until then, keep your weird Jughead hats on and your typewriters typing.
