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Five Thoughts on Riverdale‘s “Survive the Night”

By | May 16th, 2019
Posted in Television | % Comments

Welcome back all you Riverdale fans! The finale is upon us so let us take stock in how far we have come. We’ve lost many: some to movies & other shows, one to time & sickness, and others to the fickleness of the writer’s pen. The season has had its ups and its downs, having finally fully embraced the complete litany of pulpy nonsense while attempting to exorcise it from the previous season. And now, here we are, three seasons, 57 episodes down, once again in the hands of Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa as we were at the start of the season and for the 50th episode.

Once more, we return to this.

As always, spoilers ahead.

1. Mothering Invention

Welp, despite all my confidence in Edgar and The Farm’s connection to the G&G game, turns out they had absolutely nothing to do with it! The show really got me good with that red herring and while I was never all-in on Edgar being the king — there were way too many questions that would be left were he to be the mastermind there — I certainly failed to speculate enough on this possibility. I feel defeated for not connecting all the dots sooner! I was so confident! Hell, I should’ve put two and two together back when they were discussing the death of Daryl Doiley.

Sure, I guessed last week that this was one of two probable solutions, with the second being more a “this is just obscure enough for them to do it” type choice and I’ve been deeply suspicious since the mid-season finale, but I was so stuck on Edgar having something to do with it because I hated the way they were handling The Farm, that I completely disregarded the possibility that Penelope Blossom was the Gargoyle King. . .or, was the orchestrator behind the scenes. Chic was the Gargoyle King.

. . .WAIT? Hold the FUCK up. No. No. No, no, no no nonono. That’s some grade A, premium, Texas-sized retconning bullshit you’re trying to feed me Riverdale and I ain’t having it.

There’s a set of rules from the late 1800s, early 1900s that says that there are a few things that a good detective novel should not have. Now, that kind of prescriptivism is stupid and holds back a lot of good twists on the genre (not to mention the original list is racist as all hell) but the underlying idea is that proper set-up is necessary to make a twist/reveal feel earned.

Penelope Blossom being the “Gargoyle King?” 95% earned. Her grudge is very well established, she’s a master manipulator, was always around/involved in roundabout ways during key moments of the G&G plot, and was part of the original G&Gers. I think they played it a little too cool with her, and never cleared up any of the original Midnight Club details, but more might have made it too obvious.

Chic being the Gargoyle King? 5, maybe 10% earned. There was no indication prior to the reveal last episode that it was “Jason” under the horns and we knew that Edgar was brainwashing people rather early on, so that put too broad a scope on the identity of the fake Jason Cheryl saw. Then, there was no indication that Chic had survived, that Hal was lying about that or that Chic was hiding out at Thorn Hill. There was no indication of another person that could be a part of the mystery so dragging him in is just stupid.

Then again, his presence really doesn’t matter as he’s just a plot point to help make the hypnotism sequence explanation seem a bit more realistic, and to distance Penelope from being beneath the mask. It could have been anyone, really, I just take umbrage with it being the worst part of last season and literally another example of Riverdale saying: no EXPLICIT BODY, no death. Hell, they do that twice this episode with Sister Woodhouse.

It’s stupid because even with a body, it seems like they won’t kill a character off (Archie, Moose & Midge the first time, Hiram Lodge, etc.) which also takes some of the teeth out of the final cliffhanger, which we’ll get to later, and means that, since they didn’t pan over to Hal’s dead body, he MUST still be alive. . .well, that one I think is safe to assume.

Continued below

But, regardless, the red herring with The Farm and all that G&G speech like ascension but no other tips of the hat was a really nice touch. Tying Fizzle Rocks to the Sisters of Quiet Mercy which was related to Hiram & The Farm was another. The whole season was a complicated web of plots, much more so than the previous one, and that worked well to obfuscate the real Gargoyle King’s identity; by which, to be clear, I mean Penelope.

Well played Riverdale, well played.

2. Rising Action

OK, I know I just spent about 800 words talking about Penelope (whoops) but I have to talk some more about her because 1) I’m so glad she escapes at the end of the episode and 2) she was the fucking highlight of the episode, and for this episode in particular, that’s saying something.

Penelope has always been a fun character to watch in ways that Cheryl cannot hope to match. While last season and the one before had us hating her by virtue of her position relative to Cheryl/the town, this one has seen her in a more sympathetic light while also reveling in the victorian gothic aesthetic that she embodies. Shifting all of the ambiance and mystery and the deliciously over-the-top glee in making others squirm that Cheryl used to have onto Penelope, the show managed to redefine the character without making it seem out of place and turning this reveal into something that lived up to the hype.

Sure, the Chic thing was stupid — have I said how much I hate Chic yet? — but everything else fit with her brand of extra and deception. Why she picked now to do this? I dunno. How the game got everyone so hooked? I dunno, I blame the drugs and fanaticism and the Sisters of Quiet Mercy. I’m sure if I thought harder about this, I could poke holes in the whole G&G plotline but the show successfully got me to suspend my disbelief enough to buy into the premise, so doing that would be besides the point for me.

Watching Nathalie Boltt act, having the time of her fucking life while torturing these children, brought glee to my face even as I sat there, horrified at what Penelope Blossom was doing to Archie, Jughead, Betty, and Veronica.

3. Commercial Suicide

I gotta say, the strongest episodes of this season came from when Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa writes/co-writes the scripts. He knows how to balance the pulpy nonsense, the horror aesthetic & tone, and the pathos & melodrama necessary to hold the tone together. This was a deeply entertaining episode that had me glued to my seat wanting to know what happens next, what the characters would do or say next, and how, or if, they would get out of it. Despite knowing all four main characters would probably make it through, the stakes still made me think that maybe, just maybe, this was the end for one or more of them.

The direction of the episode, by Rachel Talalay, was also excellent; even the use of dutch angles felt clever and was used more to convey motion & the mood of the character on screen rather than to evoke a feeling of “oooh, the camera is tilted, everything is spooky.” This is her third Riverdale episode, the first being the one right before I took over full-time coverage back in season two from Ken, but she’s no stranger to TV, having directed one of the best Doctor Who episodes of the reboot series, “Heaven Sent.”

No wonder all those close-ups had weight to them.

4. Imperial Phase (Part 2)

One other thing I really appreciated was how they spent most of the episode focused on the G&G resolution but gave just enough room for the The Farm storyline to complete. . .for now. We see Cheryl finally, fully break free from The Farm’s clutches and try to confront Edgar, who does his usual gaslighting thing but then Mrs. Cooper, in a rare moment of lucidity and in-character action, steals her granddaughter, gives her to Cheryl, and sneaks them out.

Oh, and Edgar was about to give Betty an icepick lobotomy because that’s how subtle this show is and also how deeply fucked The Farm plot is.

Continued below

I’m glad they kept this plot to a minimum this week, seeing as how most of the big reveals were done last time, but there are two big things that rubbed me the wrong way.

One: why the hell did Toni go to Penelope Blossom first? She knows how awful the mother is and how duplicitous she can be! Toni knows exactly how little Cheryl is cared for by Penelope, who was literally plotting to kill her last season. That stood out like a sore thumb and while I’m glad we got more of Nana Blossom thanks to it, I’m really pissed at how stupid Toni was acting there.

Two: I still don’t fully buy into the whole hypnotism thing. Is it really effective for these people, even knowing that it’s a cult? They have a slavish devotion, especially Fangs & Kevin, in such a short amount of time, cutting out all the people they love and care for and I still just don’t buy the severity of it all. They did a poor job of convincing me of it and, coupled with the coincidence of the drugs in the water, it felt like they just needed a way to make Betty feel alone. It was poorly explained and poorly resolved and I wasn’t able to suspend my disbelief enough, probably because of Alice Cooper’s transformation. Speaking of. . .

5. Fandemonium

Alice Cooper working with the FBI is the biggest load I’ve ever heard and is even less believable than Chic being alive, no matter what Veronica might have said. It’s a frustrating way of waving away all the sudden and firm inconsistencies surrounding Alice’s acceptance of The Farm’s doctrine and only serves to make her abusive decisions throughout the season all the more infuriating. She put her daughter through hell: gaslighting her, sending her to the torture sisters, bankrupting her, selling her home where she still lived, destroying precious photographs and all without even showing a modicum of regret or conflict.

Was this supposed to be read, post FBI revelation, as her being 100% committed to being deep undercover? I’m sure it can be read as such but it was not earned and totally doesn’t track. It’s maybe the biggest problem with the episode, which sucks because up until that point, it was doing quite well.

6. Imperial Phase (Part 1)

There were also a few other resolutions to some smaller plots. The first being Hal & his hook hand of doom, which, if somehow he survived a bullet to the head, will be joined by a second hook hand. The next is Hiram & Veronica’s feud. Hermione gets locked up for planted evidence, although she did, in fact, try to have Hiram killed. It’s stupid but only because I wanted Hermione to be around more; this is exactly what Hiram would do.

Although, him audibly gloating to the prison guards is fucking hilarious. How does he command such power here now that his assets are destroyed and his empire crumbling and his allies abandoning him? I dunno but however he’s doing it, it seems to be working.

The last real resolution is with The Farm & ascension, which isn’t really addressed and is instead left ambiguous for the next season, with Kevin, heartbroken, left behind. Where they’re going with this, I have no idea, but I’m kind of glad they didn’t even attempt to wrap it up neatly, leaving it instead as a mystery for later.

7. Old is the New New

I also wanted to talk about how mental those fights Archie & Jughead participated in were. Just. . .just so stupid and silly and yet somehow they played it was such conviction. Archie fights a bear, but a shirtless man in a bear suit in a pit with fire and bones and then clubs the bear man to death(?) and then Jughead fights fucking Chic, who is also shirtless, hitting him over the head with a pipe, killing(?) him. It’s so over-the-top but so earnest that you have to buy into it. The same was true for the archery scene but that was more traditional, so the charm was lessened.

Also, also. What the absolute, ever-loving fuck is up with Jason Blossom’s body? Why did Edgar exhume it? Why leave it in the room for Cheryl to find? Also, is Cheryl so broken that she’d talk with her dead brother’s corpse even though she’s been reunited with Toni? That was such a weird choice and I dunno how I feel about it other than ewwwwwwwwww.

Continued below

8. The Faust Act

Which leads us to the final cliffhanger of the season, the big one that will haunt us as we wait for season four to light up our screens. What will it be this time? We’ve had Fred Andrews (oh how we’ll miss you) shot and almost dying, and then Archie getting arrested. One panned out as set-up and the other didn’t but both set the tone for their seasons and deeply affected Archie, shaping him and informing his actions.

This time, we get a bit of a flashforward, one which does two things: it casts a pall over the next season, clearly building to the mid-season finale, ending this one on a note of excited worry & the promise that happiness will never be in the cards for these teenagers, and calls into question the framing device that’s been used for three season.

If it really is Jughead who’s dead, as implied by the flashforward, then how has he been narrating these past three seasons? Yes, we see him writing but the frame is of future Jughead’s book, recounting the slow unraveling of the town of Riverdale and all its inhabitants. Which begs the question: what actually happened to Jughead and who did they really kill?

My money’s on Chic again.

9. Okay

Thank you all for following along on this journey with me! I know this finale recap has been long (oh god, it’s so long) but you made it through! You survived the night and the whole season.

It’s been a wild season too, that somehow, beyond all expectation, nailed the finale and has gotten me hyped for what’s to come. It left mysteries unanswered but gave them a satisfying conclusion, spun off Josie into her own show where she’ll hopefully thrive better, and gave us some of the most fun, atmospheric and tonally consistent moments the season has had. It got what makes Riverdale fantastic and I hope that they can keep it going in season four.

Let me know what you all thought of this finale in the comments. Did anyone get it right? Make your guesses for next season soon! It only counts if its in writing, after all. I will see you again in the fall, whenever that may be, for the start of Archie & Co.’s senior year. Until then, stay away from the red mistress of Thorn Hill and her cart of poisons and potions, for you never know when the woods will call your name, and you will find yourself once again at the mercy of the dead.

Stay strange y’all. Stay strange.

Best Lines of the Night:

1. Cheryl: “I’ll call Keller’s father! He wouldn’t want his son rotting in the tenth circle of Hell!”

2. Penelope: “No. . .all of the challaces were poisoned.”

3. Chic: “Who doesn’t wanna be king? Who doesn’t want blood sacrifices in their name?”


//TAGS | Riverdale

Elias Rosner

Elias is a lover of stories who, when he isn't writing reviews for Mulitversity, is hiding in the stacks of his library. Co-host of Make Mine Multiversity, a Marvel podcast, after winning the no-prize from the former hosts, co-editor of The Webcomics Weekly, and writer of the Worthy column, he can be found on Twitter (for mostly comics stuff) here and has finally updated his profile photo again.

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