What’s up river-bitches?! 130 episodes somehow feels like way too many and way too little. Much like how 2020 obliterated any sense of the flow of time I had, Riverdale has managed take my understanding of how far back events happened, throw it in a blender, smash that blender with a hammer, and then scatter the resulting sharp, pointy goop into Sweetwater River. It can never be reassembled. And I wouldn’t have it any other way.
As always, spoilers ahead.
1. It’s About Protecting the Children, Innit?
No 50s story would be complete without a good old bout of rampant censorship and repression of literature. Of course, this being Riverdale, we can’t just get the slow destruction of free speech and anything “subversive.” No no no. The literature teacher has to be dragged out of class in as dramatic a fashion, replaced by the mayor’s wife who, presumably, has zero qualifications, the newspaper has to be shut down with a dismissal of “you never did anything worthwhile in it anyway,” and Betty’s mom has to literally rip the phone cord from the phone instead of, you know, disconnecting the plug,
Unless the copper wires were unwound. In which case I retract that last statement.
Basically, it’s a concerted effort to restrict access of information – be it fictional or factual – to the kids of Riverdale, who are driving the progressive change that threatens the conservative establishment. Silly as it all is, we have learned time and time again throughout history, reading is a radical act and in times of oppression, radical acts are feared. Information is power as it allows for one to question the world around them. To be exposed to new ideas that spark the imagination. To become restless with what is by wondering what could be, something those who benefit from what is fear very much.
2. Reality, Thy Name is Riverdale
It’s a bit ironic how Riverdale’s heightened sense of reality helped make this episode feel more real rather than less. There’s an immediacy to the events, starting from the firing of Mrs. Thornton and ending with the bonfire made of every comic book in Riverdale. Even when we get moments that seem patently absurd – see the back alley newsstand that looks like it fell out of a penny dreadful – and we know the stakes are far less deadly, they’re amped up reflections of what we’re seeing all around us, which provides the kind of clarity something less batshit wouldn’t.
I don’t know how else to put it. If things were more grounded, more nuanced, more true-to-life, it would have somehow felt more manufactured. Less true. Less scary. Because what’s scary about these kinds of moral panics IS their absurdity.
They’re never about actually helping children – and they’re ALWAYS framed around protecting children/teens – but instead controlling and policing how they, and everyone else, thinks, acts, and believes. The lengths to which people like Ron DeSantis or Moms for Liberty or McCarthy go are ludicrous and contradictory and the rhetoric is no less scenery-chewingly evil than Dr. Werthers and Principal Featherstone’s, characters whose only jobs are to be odious, conservative, and punitive.
As they say, I know writers who use subtext. They’re all cowards.
3. Rebellion!
One of the recurring motifs this week is rebellion. They take many forms. Be it a small one, like Archie rebelling against expectations by continuing on with his poetry, or more major ones like Cheryl defying her father’s pressure to out her classmates or Ethel & Jug setting up a comics black market. Some of these rebellions are secret and personal – see Veronica’s ultimatum against her father or Cheryl, Toni, Clay, and Kevin hiding their relationships by trading partners – and others are public, though anonymous & underground like Betty’s “The Teenage Mystique.”
Not all rebellions are positive, however. Evelyn rebels against Cheryl’s leadership and Hiram rebels against the FBI by trying to buy his way out of being publicly named for something he technically didn’t do while doing something else scummy. Yet the episode has more positive rebellion than not, even if by the end most are resolved or rendered bittersweet. I have to wonder what will come of the other rebellions as the crackdown gets harsher and the consequences more dire.
Continued below4. Leave Me My Name
I was skeptical when Mrs. Thornton gave Archie a copy of “The Crucible.” I mean, it’s a little on the nose and while I know this show is very, very on the nose, usually there’s a little more restraint. But now I think it was the right move to directly insert it into the text, thanks in no small part to KJ Apa’s reading of John Proctor’s monologue. Damn was that powerful. It also successfully buttoned up the scene with Julian & Hiram earlier in the episode while also setting the stage for Veronica’s “King Lear” speech later on.
What worked best was the internal use of Archie’s choice. It motivates Cheryl and Veronica, though in different ways. Both wonder what they want their name used for. Both are responding to ultimatums from their fathers, though of quite different kinds. In the end, Veronica decides she’ll use it to lie for the truth while Cheryl does the same by withholding hers.
Interestingly, they both reject their fathers in the end. For Veronica, this is an ending and a new, freer beginning. For Cheryl, it is the start of something much darker, I suspect. Let’s hope she makes it out OK.
5. The Crucible
I’ll be honest with you all. I struggled to write my thoughts this week. Not for any particular reason but I felt I couldn’t get them to coalesce as I usually do. It’s a shame because I’ve read a bunch of Arthur Miller and his commentaries on 50s America, the rot at the heart of the myth, and the disaffection it breeds remains poignant today, even more so when it’s not being co-opted by the very ideologies he’s critiquing. There were just too many small things going on and enough disparate big ideas that I kept getting distracted. I guess this is what happens when you have at least 10 principle characters that have to be juggled.
Like I have no idea how I would squeeze in the return of both Mrs. Grundy – dear g-d I hope she’s played as a regular, supportive teacher – and Hermione Lodge other than to just drop it here. I’m hopeful that Hermione gets to stick around for at least another episode because her 2 minutes of screentime were so welcomed. No knock to Mark Consuelos but I’d had enough of Hiram 3 seasons ago.
That about does it for now! Thanks for reading along with my very scattered thoughts this week. Perhaps next time will be a little more focused as we join Riverdale for its final musical episode! Get ready folks. I’m sure they’re gonna pull out all the stops. And completely ignore the giant comic book bonfire at the end of this episode. Until then, keep buying your comics from the shady booth at the local diner Riverdale.
Best Line of the Night:
Cheryl: “Stop right there, you fake Judas!”
