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Five Thoughts on Riverdale‘s “The Stranger”

By | January 24th, 2019
Posted in Television | % Comments

Welcome back all you Riverdale fans! While I’m sad that my distrust of this show’s cliffhangers was correct, there were some neat moments this week that made me wonder why THIS wasn’t the mid-season finale. It has all the hallmarks of one, sans a huge end of episode cliffhanger, and thematically works in much the same way as season two’s did.

But what do I know? I’m not in the writers room thinking about how many times we can mortally wound but not kill a major character. What did we learn this week then? Read on if you dare and, as always, spoilers ahead.

1. The Longest Time

Before we begin, did Riverdale actually name these last two episodes after existentialist works? If so, they really missed the opportunity to name “Outbreak” The Plague. OK, tangent over.

Question for the group, who else forgot they were still in high school? Seriously. Last season was nominally still set at the school but a majority of season three’s taken place: a) in the woods, b) in jail, c) in the speakeasy, d) in various non-school Riverdale locations, e) serpent land and f) random-ass towns, farms and the wilderness. Now that Archie’s back, the SAT’s are on everyone’s mind and it’s suddenly the crux of Archie’s story.

I’m very much OK with this. The one scene with Reggie and Archie on the couch, right before Reg spills the beans on his relationship with Veronica, reminded me of season 1 in the best of ways. It was casual, low stakes, and had this charm that’s been missing from much of the rest of the show. A lot of that is down to Charles Melton’s Reggie & his effortless charm but there was a sense of reality otherwise. These ARE still high schoolers. It was a much needed reminded that, although it didn’t remain, I hope isn’t forgotten again.

2. All for Leyna

Well, it’s official. I have no gripes about calling Mrs. Cooper an abusive mother. When, exactly, the writers decided to change it from an overprotective, callous mother who’s trying to make sure her daughter doesn’t repeat her mistakes to a full-blown emotionally manipulative, controlling, and remorseless one, I couldn’t tell you. As I have said before, it feels deeply out of character but by this point, it’s who she’s become.

I probably could’ve made this declaration earlier, all the hallmarks were there starting when she first gaslit Betty but I was hoping they would address things via The Farm much earlier. Instead, we’ve gotten to the point where she’s literally signed away Betty’s funds — all the stuff she’s earned, saved and extorted — to some asshole we haven’t seen ONCE.

Thankfully Betty treats this as the invasion that it is and takes steps to rectify it but there’s a sense I get that they only did this so they could bring Hal back into the mix & to further make Mrs. Blossom seem shady as shit. It’s not a storyline that’s meant to talk about manipulative and abusive parents, it’s not there to add depth and lasting conflict to the family dynamic, it’s meant to further the plot and to push Betty into seeing Hal as the more “reasonable” parent.

Which. . . is frankly insulting to Alice’s character and to Betty’s. I enjoyed watching Hal and Betty’s conversations, even if the scenes were more like Silence of the Hams, but at what cost did we get them? Also, just show us the farm, cowards!

3. Leave a Tender Moment Alone

With Archie’s return, and the conclusion of his arc, it was only natural that the fallout of his spiritual death and his abandonment of the town be the focus of his return. First and foremost was his relationship with Veronica and I was about ready to go off on the show when he rolled up and Veronica was like, ARCHIE! Fuck you but also fuck you. I get it, she still has feelings for him but it’s been weeks, months, since he left her high and dry. She’d moved on and, much as I love Archie, he royally screwed up and needed to experience the consequence of his actions.

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Then the episode played out and I was thankful that they had her react the way she did. It made the subsequent break up, something I thought had technically already happened, all the more sad. . .and it made Reggie’s return with flower and a balloon at the hospital all the more heartwarming. I said last week that this Reggie is a much better person than he was and this week he got to demonstrate that.

He confronts Archie on his shitty behavior, respects Veronica’s decisions, and then shows his caring for Veronica by showing up to the hospital to comfort her. It’s sweet.

As for the rest of Archie’s fallout, it’s hard to say how the rest will play out at the moment. What I can say is that I really appreciate KJ Apa’s performance changes. It feels like a totally different Archie, one with less fear, less trust and more anger, more issues. He’s been broken by his experiences and his friends and father are noticing. The heart of Riverdale is dead. What remains is a husk, animated only by revenge and rage.

4. I Go to Extremes

I knew they weren’t gonna kill him but DAMN, I was not expecting them to actually shoot Hiram. Is it strange that the set up reminds me of “Who Killed Mr. Burns?” Regardless, who do you think did it? It’s probably not Archie, he’s too sauced up, and it can’t be Clifford Blossom because he’s very dead. Maybe it was Hermione Lodge.

We know she’s been plotting something this season and while we have gotten frustratingly little insight into how, why, or what she’s doing, it’s now apparent she’s muscling for something and isn’t even kept in the loop as far as Hiram’s “business” dealings are concerned. She’s got the motive, means and access but whether or not it’s her is pure speculation at this point.

On that, while I’m glad Hermione is showing that she’s got a plan in the works, I wish we would have had more set up. I know I return to this a lot but good foreshadowing is key to making events like this feel earned. FP become Sheriff is cool and all but when did this get planned? There was no indication that the two were working together before this. A little bit of set-up goes a long way. Small tidbits sprinkled throughout previous episodes, Hermione being shown working on something fishy and going behind Hiram’s back without him noticing, anything really. But now that we’re here, I can’t wait to see where this leads.

5. Keeping the Faith

We got so many answers this week y’all! I know I buried this as the last thought but I had to make sure I got my thoughts in order first. So, after 10 episodes, we finally have our first, true blue Gargoyle King reveal. It seems Tall Boy, you remember Tall Boy, was our Gargoyle King the whole time. I call bullshit. Not because he isn’t the Gargoyle King, but because he’s not the REAL Gargoyle King. Bear with me for a second.

On the meta-level, this is mid-season, with a lot of mysterious, unanswered questions still out there so there’s no way this is the whole story.

My theory — Hiram was merely taking advantage of the return of the Gargoyle King, as told to him by his wife, to do the exact same thing he did for The Black Hood. Hell, it’s even the same guy posing as him; how Tall Boy survived is a question that’s not worth asking because Hiram has his ways. What this means is that all the crimes Tall Boy takes credit for — breaking into Betty’s house, killing & branding Joaquin, being the leader of the Gargoyles — are actually him but everything pertaining to the cult of G&G is not.

It always felt out of character that the Gargoyle King would menace Betty in her home and it fits in the timeline, that is, after the Goolies were rebranded by Hiram. I thought that attack had to do with The Farm and, while I can’t discount it still, now it seems that Mrs. Cooper just used it as an excuse instead of setting it up so she could use it as an excuse to send Betty to the torture nuns.

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As for the identity of the original Gargoyle King, who may or may not be the same as the new one, I got nothing other than The Farm is involved & Mrs. Cooper is hiding WAY TOO MUCH. Hal is a lonely, somewhat clever serial killer who may know more than he’s letting on, and his lie was somewhat believable until you think about it, but is probably just here to add some more conflicts for Betty. Mrs. Blossom obviously knows something but she’s an ass (which is thankfully in character) and loves fucking with Betty.

Side note — that whole scene in Pop’s was fantastic. The choice of extreme close-ups really helped sell the mood and make it feel distinct from the rest of the episode.

I’m glad we got these reveals though because it’s moving us into new territory. We have some answers, even if they are obscuring the full truth by pretending they’re the whole thing, and now the season feels like it has a new trajectory. There’s been resolution while at the same time plenty of new threads to start following.

That about does it for now! What did you all think about this week’s episode? Do you agree with my theory or am I just not trusting enough? Either way, we probably won’t get many answers next week but join me anyway for the start of the reign of Sheriff FP and the fallout of the death of Tall Boy. Until then, remember, sometimes we create our own cages and the only way out, is through our friends.

Best Line of the Night:

Fred: “I survived the Black Hood. Twice. Hiram doesn’t scare me.”


//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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