Riverdale Archive - Season 5
All recaps written by Chuck Duncan
Episode 1 :: Climax
Archie & Veronica
Everything seems peachy with the pair, that is until Veronica discovers the song Archie had written for Betty. She doesn't know that but it unnerves Archie, who refuses to sing it for her. Plus he's got other things on his mind like prepping for an interview with a commandant from the Naval Academy. That doesn't go as planned either as Archie and Veronica learn that since Archie first turned down the offer, they had their eye on another boxer, who just happens to be KO Kelly, the boyfriend of Ronnie's bestie in New York City, Katy Keene (a crossover reference that was obviously filmed before that show was cancelled ... although it would be nice to see Katy visit and, perhaps, have Josie return to town). Ronnie also has some other great news -- her padre seems to be overcoming whatever his illness is, confirmed by his doctor (he seems to be beating it by actually beating up Riverdale's lowlifes). To celebrate KO's visit, Ronnie sets up a special evening at the Speakeasy where she ... sings Archie's song, having retrieved it from the trash can. To make matters worse, even though the commandant said KO and Archie were in the same weight class, KO easily outweighs Arch by 50 pounds, so the bout Veronica suggested to allow the commandant to choose from the winner is obviously not going to be a fair fight. Archie attempts some psychological warfare ahead of the fight, but in the end he gets his ass whooped, but not as badly as anyone expected. Still, it's a loss and Archie tells the commandant that he can basically take his offer to register again and shove it wear the sun don't shine. Knowing Archie is hurting, she mentions the loss to daddykins, who then offers Archie a position as assistant mayor in charge of community outreach. It's an amazing opportunity but that song is still nagging at Archie, and he and Ronnie still have a prom to think about.Jughead & Betty
[IMAGE: RIVERDALE-S05E01-02 Caption: Screengrab] A new clue about the Mr. Honey video leads Jughead to the Blue Velvet video store, or rather it leads Betty and Kevin there because Jughead was already there once with the FBI raid so he can't show his face. Jughead and Betty pay a visit to their old 'friend' Bret, now in jail, and ask for intel on the video store. Refusing to play along, Jughead tells Bret a certain inmate there is his good friend War Baby and he hates preppies more than anyone. Bret turns white as a sheet, now more than willing to spill whatever beans they want. It seems the store has special invitation only 'red band' screenings of special films and 'The Auteur' is the star attraction. Juggie and Betty talk Cheryl and Reggie into shooting a 'snuff film' to try to gain entry into the next screening event (which is also a rave). The video store owner, David, immediately recognizes the tape as a fake but Betty brought a backup -- an old home video of her father as a child, basically the origin story of The Black Hood. David is sold and invites Betty to the rave. Once inside, she sneaks Jughead in through a side entrance and they attempt to find The Auteur. Instead they run into Jellybean, of all people, and lose track of who they believe to be their suspect. At Pop's, Jellybean tells her brother that she was only there because she went with a friend whose brother got an invite from some email list, and Jughead made her promise to never go to another one of those red band parties ever again. But with their trail coming to a potential dead end with the disappearance of David, they still have the prom to think about.Cheryl & Toni
With the prom back on (after Mr. Honey abruptly cancelled it last season), Cheryl will do anything and everything to be the prom queen, going so far as to 'rig' the election (and this was filmed months before that even became a dog whistle in real life), forbidding Kevin to register his name so Fangs could fulfill his dream of being prom king. You don't rob a girl of the dream she's had since childhood, so before Kevin lost a hand he walked away, like any good friend would. And to celebrate their impending graduation, Cheryl suggests throwing a dinner but not for their friends, for their family ... Toni's in particular. Cheryl's never met Toni's family and even though she's out to her grandparents, she tells Cheryl it's probably best that she act like the two of them are just friends. Chery is not okay with that. When Toni decides to sit down with her nana and explain the situation, she finds out Cheryl has already paid a visit. And it's not the whole lesbian thing that's got nana upset, it's the whole Blossom thing. Yes, the sins of the Blossoms have touched many in Riverdale, including the native population and nana forbids Toni from having Cheryl as her girlfriend. But Toni does not disappoint Cheryl, showing up just in time for Nana Blossom to take a photo before the two head off to the prom.The Prom
As expected, Cheryl and Toni are crowned Co-Prom Queens, and Cheryl invites Archie, Veronica, Jughead and Betty to dance with them as their court. What Cheryl doesn't know is that right before the invite, Archie confessed to Veronica that he wrote that song for Betty, so their dance is all kinds of awkward. And it gets even more awkward when the music abruptly changes to 'Psycho Killer' and a video is projected on the screen. The students thing this is an opportunity to have their own rave in the auditorium, but the group watches in horror as their masked doppelgängers commit another 'murder' -- this time it's David from the video store. Jughead and Betty pull the plug and turn the lights back on, effectively ending the prom. The find the location of where the 'murder' was taking place, but there's no one there. It's not clear if either of them noticed the video camera which still appeared to be running, with a sign dangling from the front that said, 'Smile, God is watching'. With the night brought to a premature end, Toni tells Cheryl she can't go home with her. She promised her nana that she's be home by midnight, and if she went with Cheryl, nana would never speak to her again. Cheryl said she understood the importance of family and sent Toni off, thanking her for at least showing up for the prom. But she broke down with her own Nana, certain that the Blossom curse was going to leave Cheryl alone for the rest of her life. Hearts are breaking at the lodge household as well as Veronica tells her mother that something happened between Archie and Betty. Archie assured her it was just a kiss, but Ronnie didn't know her father was within earshot and neither he nor Hermione have gotten the whole story. It's probably safe to assume that the assistant mayor job is off the table. Before Archie confessed, Ronnie told him she was going to defer a year at college to work by his side, but now they've come to the agreement that once they get through graduation, they will go there own separate ways with no big fanfare ... and they've both promised not to blow up Betty & Jughead's relationship but once they split, Betty is certainly going to know why and that may cause issues for her and Juggie. Returning home from the prom, Archie finds a new VHS tape on his doorstep. Playing the tape, he's confronted with a recreation of the time he was held at gunpoint by The Black Hood at Pop's. So, who was there when that happened? Because it was so specific, the video had to be made by someone with knowledge of what went down that night (sadly, I don't remember who, if anyone, was in Pop's when that happened but if you do, please feel free to comment below!). And that is where we end the fifth season premiere ... or 20th episode of Season 4, if you prefer. It will be interesting to see if the next two episode feel like season enders and if the fourth episode of the season brings us a new mystery as the true Season 5 premiere.
Episode 2 :: The Preppy Murders
Riverdale continues to wrap up its fourth season disguised as the fifth season, wrapping up a major plot point, and laying some groundwork for the actual fifth season.
One of two minor points this week centered around the Lodge family. After Hiram physically attacked Archie at the gym for breaking Veronica's heart and after Veronica was almost killed in retaliation for someone Hiram killed (saved by a few shots from Hermosa), the sisters decided it was time to put Hiram out to pasture before he got them and Hermione killed. Hermosa arranged to have Hiram roughed up so he'd call Veronica for help, but this time she refused to tend to his wounds. They also got Hermione to turn over her stock and Hiram's 'little black book' of crime contacts so they could take over the family business. Hiram resisted at first, flying into a frightening rage at his daughters, but after Ronnie left him bleeding, he decided it was time for a long vacation to the Cayman Islands. Then Hermione dropped a bomb -- she's not going with him. She only stayed with him to protect Veronica, but with her going off to college and Hermosa running the business, she's dumping Hiram, and moving to New York City to take Andy Cohen up on his offer to become a 'Real Housewife'. But will Ronnie ever make it to Barnard, and will Hiram really leave Riverdale? And has no one thought to suspect that Hermosa has manufactured all of this takeover drama just to set herself up in a position of power, to become basically the female version of Hiram? It all smells fishy to me.
Cheryl had some interesting story this week as she attempted to talk the Blossom family into allowing her to reopen the family maple syrup business, but none of them were interested, especially if she was the one running the operation. So Cheryl went to mommy dearest to tell her what went down and Penelope told her to leave town for a couple of days. So she'd have an alibi. So Cheryl and Toni went away for the weekend, and upon returning home Cheryl found Nana Blossom in mourning -- the entire Blossom family 'poisoned themselves' and now Cheryl has complete control of the Blossom family business. What. A. Coincidence. And in the suicide note, they said they did it to atone for their crimes against the native people of Riverdale. One nice little touch to try to smooth over the rift between Cheryl's and Toni's families.
In one of the two main stories, Archie's pent up rage has reached a boiling point, pounding on his punching bag in the middle of the night, refusing to play Veronica's game that they are still together, and just angry at the world in general, having not dealt with his father's death (and this reopens the wound of Luke Perry's loss for the viewers as well). After seeing the video Archie found depicting him held at gunpoint by The Black Hood, and then refusing to talk to his mother about it, Mary called in some reinforcements -- Uncle Frank. Not thrilled he showed up, Archie gave him a good punch but Frank knew that beating the crap out of him was the only way Archie could make peace with himself, so he taunted Archie into giving him a beat down. After a few punches, all of Archie's emotions were released and the Andrews family was able to reconcile their issues. What had set Archie off to begin with was that the father of the boy who accidentally killed Fred was set to go on trial, and they hoped Mary and Archie would write a letter of forgiveness to get him a lighter sentence. After Archie was able to release his anger, the man showed up and told him that his son was stepping up to take responsibility, and Archie found it in himself to offer that forgiveness to help the teenager. Frank also said he was going to turn himself in to face responsibility for his war crimes, and Mary is going to represent him in court. And as a last gesture, both Archie and Frank went to Fred's grave to pay their respects. Hand me some Kleenex, please.
But the big story of the night involved Jughead and Betty. After receiving a call in the middle of the night from Bret in prison saying he had some pertinent information for them but he needed to be moved to solitary immediately, Betty said she'd call Veronica to see what she could do. Going to the prison the next day, they were told Bret was no longer there ... he was dead. At the morgue, Dr. Curdle Jr. showed them the body and aside from the several stab wounds, Bret's eyes had been gouged out. Then another call in the middle of the night from Donna Sweett saying Bret and another of their classmates were murdered and someone was coming after her as well. Betty didn't believe her but after calling the other girl and learning she was in fact murdered, she began to think perhaps Donna was right and there was a Preppy Murderer out there. But who? Who could have gotten to Bret in prison?
The arrival of another tape at the Jones-Cooper household revealed that whoever was making the tapes actually got inside their house, filming them as they slept. Also learning that someone had been bugging their phones, all the pieces fell into place and Betty summoned Charles to the house. And he freely admitted that he had, in fact, bugged them with his FBI resources. And he did kill the video store guy and others to protect Betty. Jughead rightly figured it was Chick who carried out Bret's murder in prison, and that the two of them were still working together. But Charles did not admit to making the videotapes. He said they would figure that out eventually.
And they did. And the videotapes were coming from inside the house -- it was Jellybean! She and the boy she had played Gargoyles & Gryphons with decided to make these tapes but not as a threat. All Jellybean wanted was to keep this brother she was just getting to know from going off to college by setting up a mystery to keep him in Riverdale. She and some friends, after renting actual videos from Blue Velvet and knowing the information Jughead and Betty had gathered, created the elaborate videos by making the character masks and various sets all by themselves (how a group of kids had the resources to pull that all off without anyone noticing isn't explained, so let's just go with it). Jughead breaks the news to FP, and while he was shocked at first, he did not get angry at Jellybean, just gave her a big hug. But Jughead got accepted into the writing program at the University of Iowa, so will he really make it out of Riverdale along with Veronica?
Episode 3 :: Graduation
Archie
Archie's graduation was always in question, and he finally got the official word from Principal Weatherbee -- no graduation, not even summer school will help, he will have to repeat his senior year. But ... he can walk with his friends. Archie lied to everyone about completing the year with summer school, but seeing a picture of a group of seniors from 75 years earlier in a time capsule the day before they went off to war sparked something in Archie, and after the ceremony he did what he promised Veronica he wouldn't do -- enlisted.Veronica
Sharing a final night with Archie before graduation seems to have rekindled the flame that had dimmed, but she's still planning to go to Barnard. Her father gave her some pearls to wear on her last day in school, and everything seemed good. Until she found out what Archie had done, storming off from the foursome's final night together at the football field bleachers. Jughead and Betty were shocked that he hadn't told anyone about his snap decision, and after Jughead left to take Archie to the bus stop, Betty went to be with Veronica ... and to apologize. She told Betty she knew and at that moment she didn't care. What she regretted was not saying goodbye to Archie, so they hopped in the jalopy and headed to the bus stop but it had just left. The picked up Jughead and chased down the bus, and it was clear Veronica and Archie still loved each other very much, so much that Archie was able to convince the driver to pull over so he could say goodbye to 'his girl'. It looked for a moment that Archie might not get back on the bus but he did, leaving his three friends behind. But, they made a vow that in one year they would all meet up at Pop's to catch up, and would do so every year after.Jughead
With the issue of Jellybean being The Auteur all wrapped up, Juggie wondered if going off to college was the right thing to do at this point, but FP would have none of it. He's not going to let the first Jones to get into college blow that chance. And besides ... FP is taking Jellybean back to Ohio. (And now we know why Skeet Ulrich announced he was not returning for the fifth season.) Needless to say, this doesn't thrill Alice very much but she knows it's best for the girl. But is this the end of their story? FP said he hopes it isn't but, well, if he's not coming back anytime soon I'd say it probably is. And that leaves Jughead alone to see himself off to the University of Iowa. And even more shocking, Jughead tosses his signature beanie into the new time capsule to be buried at Riverdale High.Betty
Betty is definitely going off to Yale, but after revealing the kiss to Jughead, there is a strain on the relationship. Betty gave the valedictorian speech at graduation, said goodbye to FP and Jellybean (and apparently the rest of the Serpents are leaving town too?), and had to console her mother who is now envisioning a life alone when she thought she'd at least have FP and Jellybean there when Betty and Jughead are in college. Betty promised she'd be home for Thanksgiving, Christmas and any other time Alice needed her, but would Jughead still be there for Betty?Cheryl
Cheryl had to do what Cheryl does best and upstage everyone at graduation in their blue caps and gowns while she was in her trademark crimson. Of course she did. After graduation, Penelope came out of the bushes to congratulate her only daughter and to announce that she will be turning herself in to the police for at least some of her crimes. With Cheryl also off at college, she has no reason not to and Hiram promised he'd take care of her at his private prison. But ... Cheryl has decided not to go to college. Now that she has control of the Blossom family business, she wants to stay in Riverdale and atone for all of her family's sins. She also has to break that news to Toni, who still assumes they are going to college together. She's even gotten her nana to begin to accept the relationship. But if Cheryl isn't going then Toni doesn't want to go either. Cheryl says she must, and as it becomes clear she's about to break up with Toni, Toni tells her she doesn't want her to say it. And Cheryl says she never will. So there may still be hope for these two. As we get to the end of the episode as Veronica, Betty and Jughead watch Archie ride off into the distance, we learn that Veronica was the next to leave. And with tension still between Betty and Jughead -- because they never talked about how the kiss has affected them -- she tells Jughead she's going to go on a road trip with Alice on the way to Yale. Jughead is left alone, not feeling like he belonged in that house anymore. So he camped out in Archie's old room, and shockingly we see that the Andrews house is for sale. Seems like Mary has gone back to Chicago for good, but as the days pass, the electricity, gas and water to the house are turned off. Jughead spends his last days in Riverdale in the good old bunker.One Year Later
Pop's Diner. Jughead is there, his meal finished, Pop (who now owns the diner again after Veronica signed everything over to him) offering another refill, saying that maybe his friends were just late getting there. The door opens but its not them. Archie, Veronica and Betty never upheld the vow to return. And, according to Jughead's closing voice over, it would be six years before he'd see his friends again, all brought back to Riverdale by ... another mystery. Had the fourth season ended as intended in May of last year, a six year time jump wouldn't have been as jarring with a usual five month break. Now we have a week to prepare for a whole new Riverdale in which Jughead is a published author, Veronica is married, Betty is an FBI agent and Archie has seen action in war. We'll assume Cheryl has revived the Blossom Maple Syrup company, but what of Kevin, Fangs, Toni, Sweet Pea, Alice, Penelope, Nana Blossom? FP, Jellybean and Hermione are all gone, Mary probably is as well. We know Tom Keller is the sheriff, but is he still six years later after Hiram take complete control of Riverdale? Well, we'll find out in just a few days.
Episode 4 :: Purgatorio
What a difference a week -- and seven years -- makes on Riverdale. Over the past four seasons the series has basically rebooted with a new season-long storyline each year (although The Black Hood was one element that always seemed to remain somewhere in the background) while still following the lives of the core four from their first day of high school to the last. And, as in life, even these lifelong friends ended up going their separate ways, failing to live up to the promise to reunite at Pop's Chock-Lit Shop once a year. And now sever years have passed and this season premiere feels exactly like a reboot (and would have felt even more so if there had been a proper 'summer break' between the 'Season 4 finale' graduation episode and the 'Season 5 premiere" even though this is technically Episode 4). And it's fate that first brings one of the group back home.
Archie
Archie Andrews has served in the military these last seven years, but an incident on the battlefield has left him with what appears to be PTSD, although it's never mentioned explicitly. But we see Archie's nightmare of a battle on the Riverdale High football field, Cheryl, Veronica and his other friends cheering him on as his brothers are being killed and injured all around him. As he tries to save one man, he comes face-to-face with Hiram Lodge holding a pistol to Archie's face. That wakes him from the nightmare only to find he's being sent home, back to Riverdale to bring the high school's ROTC program back to life. There may be a bigger reason why it's died off that no one is aware of yet. Returning home, Archie stops at Pop's and is greeted by Tabitha Tate (we'll assume Pop's granddaughter?) who tells him he can have some coffee or head downstairs for something stronger. Archie is confused ... is the speakeasy open again? Not quite. It seems the Serpents have returned and revived the White Wyrm, now under the new Serpent Queen's control, Toni Topaz. Toni is performing then pulls up a seat with Archie, filling him in a bit as Kevin, Fangs and Sweet Pea join them. Toni and Cheryl broke up, but Kevin and Fangs are still together, and Toni and Kevin work at the high school. Also ... Toni is pregnant but she's not telling who the father is. Yet. They tell Archie things in Riverdale are grim and she offers to give him a tour the next day.Veronica
Ronnie is back in New York City, now married for a year to Wall Street hot shot Chadwick Gekko (really). But things are great for the couple since 'the accident'. The pair had been a force to be reckoned with on Wall Street, Veronica even referring to herself as the 'She-Wolf of Wall Street', but Chad insisted she take a less stressful job at Lacy's department store so they can concentrate on having a family. Chad doesn't understand that no one puts Ronnie in a corner, but a quick chat with her mother (nice to see Marisol Nichols making an appearance) helps her understand that being more successful than her husband is threatening to an alpha male. But when Chad finds out Veronica isn't working at Lacy's (she's heading the counter at some kind of high end jewelers where one might say mob types come to buy apology presents for their women), things hit the fan. But Chad surprisingly resets their anniversary a day later, offering her a brand new Glamorgé Egg as a peace offering (and to get her in bed), which she promptly takes to the jewelry store and sells. (We finally learn that 'the accident' involved both of them in a helicopter crash on the way to Marsha's Vineyard. No, that's not a typo.) Chad's not going to be happy when he finds out, but he may not find out any time soon as Ronnie's phone rings. It's Archie.Betty
Betty is now an FBI agent at Quantico, and it would be safe to say she's sort of the new Clarice Starling, having tracked a serial killer known as the 'Trash Bag Killer' to his lair and being imprisoned in a well for two weeks similar to the one Buffalo Bill had in The Silence of the Lambs. Her carelessness also allowed TBK to escape, and now she's dealing with the consequences, namely nightmares that she lies are non-existent but the therapist can see right through her lies and won't let her go back out into the field. Betty also has a boyfriend, Glen, who is also an agent but she would rather spend time at home alone than have dinner with him. After being denied another field assignment, Betty also gets a call from Archie just when she needs it most, and leaves Glen to take care of her cat.Jughead
Forsythe Jones is now a published author -- a single book -- living in Alphabet City, New York. Attempting to start a new novel, Jones is consumed by writer's block, booze and a massive amount of debt. He needs to come up with some pages for the publisher before he loses his advance. His girlfriend has had enough and walks out on him, so he heads to the nearest bar to drown his sorrows. There he meets a young woman, Cora, a fan whom he brings back to his apartment to really forget about his troubles. The next morning she admits she wants him to read her 324 page novel and maybe give it to his publisher. Before he can say anything, some 'debt collectors' pound on the door. He gets Cora to lie that Jughead (he tells Cora that's what his friends call him) just left for Los Angeles for a new writing gig on a TV show. After they leave, she warns Juggie that if he doesn't read her novel by the end of the week, she knows who she can call to take care of him. He starts to read and his phone rings.Riverdale
Toni gives Archie a tour. The fire house has been burned and gutted, the police department is now just one man, Kevin's father. The people who could afford to get out of town did, while those too poor to leave are basically out on the streets (we do not see Betty's mom in this episode, so we don't know what she's been up to or if she still lives in their house). The last straw for Archie is learning that the Goolies have basically become squatters in his old house. Toni also reveals that after she returned to Riverdale she did try to see Cheryl, who has basically locked herself away in the under reconstruction Thorn Hill along with Nana Blossom, indulging in her new obsession -- painting. She dismisses Toni, telling her now is not a good time but to come back later. Toni does, and encounters Hiram and Reggie (yes, Reggie is Hiram's strong arm now) attempting to force Cheryl to sell her maple grove to him. She refuses, again, and invites Toni in, asking if she can paint her. Toni agrees so they can talk but it's not much of a conversation. Cheryl knows all there is to know about Toni, except who the father of her baby is, and tells her beloved TT that while she does love her, the Blossom curse has doomed her to live a solitary life at Thorn Hill. In fact, she following in the footsteps of Sarah Winchester, continually building and adding to Thorn Hill to keep the curse at bay. The next day, the painting arrived at the White Wyrm, Toni believing Cheryl didn't want to keep it for herself as a reminder. What she doesn't know is that Cheryl does have an exact copy, and Nana Blossom is impressed, wondering now if Cheryl is skilled enough to copy the work of a master like Rembrandt? Nana Blossom! What game are you playing with your dear granddaughter, and is Cheryl willfully holed up at Thorn Hill or is she a prisoner? Archie returns to Pop's and we're a bit surprised to see him considering the last time Toni mentioned him when Archie first returned, it seemed like something had happened to him. But he's happy to see Pop Tate and Pop is happy to see him, telling him he's missed Archie and his friends. Looking over at 'their booth', Archie is thrilled to see Jughead, Betty and Veronica. He apparently had told them that Pop was retiring and wanted them to come back for a party. he also insists that Toni join them, finally bringing her into the group, and tells them what Hiram is doing -- attempting to completely bankrupt Riverdale so he can run a new highway through town to his new, high end property, Sodale. Archie says if they don't stop Hiram, there won't be a Riverdale left. But that's not all. We briefly see a young blonde woman whom Tabitha calls 'Squeaky' (real name Lynette ... an obvious reference to Lynette 'Squeaky' Fromme of the Charles Manson cult). Lynette came to Riverdale two years earlier but never found what she was looking for so it was time to hit the road, hoping to find a better life in San Francisco. Walking down the dark highway, Lynette gets the attention of a truck driver coming her way. The truck stops (and she must have missed the terrifying skeleton on the grill), she contemplates for a moment about climbing into the cab, but she does. Jughead's voice over tells us Lynette never made it to San Francisco. Is she the latest victim of the Trash Bag Killer? Has he tracked Betty back to Riverdale? A new mystery begins.
Episode 5 :: The HomecomingIt looks like fate brought Archie Andrews back to Riverdale just in time. Not only did he happen to return just before Pop Tate's retirement, but he got home just before Hiram Lodge was to carry out his plan to totally destroy the town. But was he ultimately too late?
Archie was able to use the ruse of Pop's retirement party to finally get his friends to return, but now he's trying to enlist their help to save the town with Toni's assistance. But coming home has just opened up a lot of old wounds for the group. Even pairing off to catch up, Betty & Jughead had an awkward reunion that at least led to an apology about a miscommunication between them (something about a message Juggie left Betty that made it sound like she didn't need to return his call). Archie & Veronica had a less awkward exchange though and they seem to be in a good place with each other.
Veronica's father and husband are a different issue altogether. Chad has cut off Ronnie's credit cards while she's in Riverdale, forcing her to sell some personal items in order to buy a car and perhaps slip away from her obviously loveless marriage. Unfortunately Reggie owns the used car lot and he works for Hiram, so when she asked to buy a car with cash he told her to ask her father for help. And she tried, but he hasn't forgotten about that time seven years earlier when she left him battered and bleeding, so now she truly has to fend for herself.
Jughead is under pressure to write at least a few pages of a new novel or else he's got to return the advance. And he's got a $9,000+ debt hanging over his head. Hoping to get a temp job while he's in town, Jughead has to avoid the debt collectors by hiding behind the counter at Pop's. Granddaughter Tabitha Tate finally relents and offers Jughead a job waiting tables to keep his legs from being broken. But while he's in town, everyone thinks the world reknowned author is staying at The Five Seasons, but he's really holed up in the bunker.
Betty's return home finds mom Alice taking care of Polly's twins while Polly is at work, waitressing at some dive bar. Next door at Archie's house, the Goolies have taken over, turning it into a drug den. Spying from Betty's room, Archie sees them passing around packages of Jingle Jangle (yeah, that's still a thing), so he asks Sheriff Keller for some help getting them out of the house. Tom Keller is the only law enforcement in town, so Archie has a plan to ask Reggie to help knowing he's also working with the Goolies. When the two go to inspect the house there isn't a sign of drugs anywhere but it gave Arch a good lay of the land so he and Tom can have a raid with the help of the Serpents and Betty, under the authority of the FBI. They crack some skulls, find the drug lab in the bathroom and the Goolies are taken into federal custody. But there was one big problem -- during his initial walk-through, Archie saw Polly with the gang. Betty tries to confront Polly, but she tells Betty that she just can't come back home for a day and start judging her life, storming out of the house.
With the Goolies gone and Archie back in his house (hitting the shower with Betty after some cleaning up) -- and with Jughead, admitting he can't afford The Five Seasons -- Archie turns his attention toward Riverdale High and Hiram Lodge. Funding for the school is basically gone and may not be able to reopen in a week. There are only 100 students and a severe shortage of teachers. Kevin is covering five classes. And with Hiram attempting to unincorporate the town, any federal funding they get would evaporate, leaving the town just a shadow of its former self so Hiram can make money from Sodale. Toni asks Cheryl if she will help fund the school so they can hire new teachers, and she initially refuses but Toni plays the 'if you really loved me' card and Cheryl relents. But until they get the teachers, they need help in the interim so Archie comes up with the idea that he and the gang can fill in until the new hires are in place. But with Jughead under a writing deadline, Veronica planning to head West for a job interview, and Betty just a few weeks away from completing her FBI training at Quantico, it seems a pipe dream at this point.
At a town hall meeting, Toni speaks as the school's representative announcing that they have the funding to keep the school running thanks to a generous donor, and that Riverdale High will become a tuition-free private school with interim teachers Archie Andrews, Veronica Gekko, Elizabeth Cooper and Forsythe Jones III. Hiram is impressed with their fortitude, but there is still the matter of unincorporating Riverdale and ... the vote goes his way. In the blink of an eye, Riverdale basically ceases to exist, at least in the eyes of the government.
Betty, still feeling bad about her confrontation with Polly, tries to call her sister to apologize but her call goes to voice mail. The last thing we see is Polly running down the highway, running for her life as the big rig with the skeleton on the grill bears down on her. Is this the last we'll see of Polly Cooper? Or was that Polly? If it was her coat changed color from a powder blue to brown and she lost her top. Was this a fake out and it was another girl who looks like Polly wearing the same style of jacket? Hard to tell from next week's preview that doesn't show anyone in the Cooper family distressed.
Episode 6 :: Back to School
Whodathunk that after Archie and his pals graduated from Riverdale High that they'd be back to school seven years later ... as teachers? Of course you can't have a show called Riverdale if the main characters no longer live in the titular town so it was a natural way to bring them back. But now the town's very existence is in danger thanks to Hiram Lodge, and he's none too pleased that the high school is reopened because a school gives people hope, and he fears the town may spring back to life around the school 'like weeds'.
But Archie and company have their work cut out for them as far as the students go. Archie seems to have the best of it heading up the RROTC, which functions as both a recruitment tool and gym class. The guys in his class actually want to be there, but the same can't be said for the others. Jughead is teaching an English lit class and his first hurdle is getting the students to do their assignments. No one read Of Mice and Men over the summer like they were supposed to, so Jughead's going to have to go to Plan B -- a pop quiz. His life gets a little more complicated when some of his students find him also working as a waiter at Pop's, wondering why some bestselling author has to take a job as a teacher and a waiter.
Veronica has an economics class but the students aren't her real problem, it's her husband who shows up to her class unannounced with flowers and cupcakes. Betty has a shop class in which they are going to take a car apart, but her students are more concerned about Betty being the daughter of The Black Hood. Yes, that follows her around still. Maybe she can use that to motivate her students who may slack off a bit. And despite that shower they took together, Betty's flame for Archie has been reignited, and vice versa, with the two trying to find a place to hook up without Jughead finding out. Betty suggests the back seat of the car her class will be working on, and that turned out to be a great idea because that was the night Hiram sent some of his goons from Sodale to burn the school to the ground leading to some 'arsonis interruptus' for the lovebirds.
Noticing that some of the firestarters were from the Sodale High football team, coached by Reggie Mantle, Archie decided that Riverdale needed its football team back but ... there's no money in the budget. Toni called in her one favor with Cheryl to get the school funded -- which left Cheryl financially tapped out, causing some issues with her construction crew and may come back to bite her when her art forgeries are discovered -- and told Archie there was no money in the sports budget. He later learned she put it all into reviving the Vixens -- which also causes a problem with Cheryl, who is not happy anyone is taking her beloved Vixens away from her -- telling Archie that cheerleading is a sport. What's a guy to do but turn to his rich ex-girlfriend? He pays a visit to Ronnie and Chad, and she offers him the money, no questions asked. But Chad proves himself a massive tool when he suggests that someone as proud as Archie wouldn't want to accept a handout, so perhaps he can work for the money by renovating their apartment at the Pembroke. Archie says he'll do it, but Veronica sees it as a total dick move, driving a wedge further between them after a night of karaoke at the White Wyrm -- where she and Chad did a duet of 'Shallow' that brought tears to Kevin's eyes -- rekindled their romance. Archie managed to scrape together a team, including one female from Betty's shop class, but it may not be easy sailing now that Hiram has gotten wind of Riverdale High's football team reboot courtesy of his daughter's money. As for Veronica, she's putting the brakes on her marriage, but that may cause her more problems because it seems Chad has been conspiring with Hiram behind her back.
Polly has still not returned home, and Toni revealed that she knows Polly has been using a chat site to hook up with truck drivers that pass through town, either for sex, drugs or both. Betty and Kevin log into Polly's account and connect with the last person she chatted with, setting up another rendezvous with his as Polly. The ambush works, especially as Betty can flash her FBI badge around (and would probably get into trouble doing so in a not-so-official capacity), but the trucker tells her that the last time he saw Polly, something happened and she jumped out of his truck and ran down the highway. He tried to stop her but she just kept running. Using her cell phone signal, Betty tracks Polly's last location to a large swamp area where she, Alice and Kevin go to search. At night. What?! But Kevin find something, and it is a hand sticking out of the ground. Is it Polly?
With business slow at Pop's, Tabitha tells Jughead he can write his book instead of just standing around. He decides to interview her since the book is about small-town life, and wonders why she gave up a career in the big city with a six-figure salary to come to Riverdale and run a diner. For her it is about using her knowledge to build on the diner -- she's installed gas pumps to attract the truckers passing through town -- and wants this to be her family legacy. She also suggests Jughead talk to a local, Old Man Dreyfus, who has stories about 'the mothmen'. Of course Jughead is intrigued and arranges to meet the man at his place, which is decorated with large sculptures of the mothmen. Dreyfus explains to Jughead that many years ago the mothmen came and took his friends to their spaceship. One would go, one would come back. Having lived in Riverdale almost his entire life and never hearing these stories, Jughead doesn't take Dreyfus all that seriously. Until ... attempting to corroborate Dreyfus' story with the men who went missing he discovers that they are all dead from cancer. Dreyfus was the only one who wasn't taken. Could there be something to his story after all?
He may not have much time to find out because back at Archie's house as they prepare to hit the sack, Archie hears Jughead yell that there's a fire. The front and back of the house are engulfed in flames, trapping both Archie and Jughead inside. And there is no Riverdale Fire Department. It's not hard to guess who is responsible.
Episode 7 :: Fire in the Sky
Riverdale is back after a week off and this week finds very little interaction between the core characters. We do pick up shortly after where the last episode left off with Archie and Jughead trapped inside the Andrews' burning house ... but they weren't all that trapped as two handy fire extinguishers helped the guy put out the fire. But the incident did light another fire under Archie's ass to help bring Riverdale back to life -- he's going to follow in his grandfather's footsteps and become a volunteer firefighter ... right after he gets more volunteers and the fire station re-opened. And if he doesn't already have enough on his plate, his military buddy Eric Jackson (Sommer Carbuccia) has been released from the hospital and is on his way to a home for recovering veterans, so Archie offers him a place to crash on his way there.
But starting a new fire department after Hiram Lodge burned down the last one is no easy task. The old captain isn't interested in getting involved, and not even Archie's friends want to volunteer (mainly because none of them know a thing about firefighting). It's Archie's RROTC class who step up, thanks to a pep talk from Eric, who related how as a captain in the army, it was Archie who saved his life so they can all trust him as a captain in the fire department. With the original captain wishing to remain in retirement, Veronica calls in a favor from her bestest, now never seen, friend Katy Keene whose roommate Jorge's ex-boyfriend is an actual New York City firefighter! Welcome to Riverdale, Bernardo Brigsby (Ryan Faucett). Bernardo puts the boys through their paces and all is well until ... an actual fire breaks out in the pool hall practically next door to Archie's gym. Learning there is a man trapped inside, Archie forgets the very first thing he was taught -- never run into a burning building alone. His actions force Principal Weatherbee to withdraw the RROTC students from fire duty, but all is not lost. Fangs and Kevin decide they will man up, the old captain steps up too, and Ronnie delivers the one thing a fire department needs: a fire truck. With all of Archie's good deeds of late, how long before he's elected mayor of Riverdale? He even steps up to help Eric again, who is packing his things to leave, feeling cast aside after his reservation at the recovery home was cancelled. Telling Archie he feels lost, Archie admits that he feels the same way but being back in Riverdale is giving him purpose so there's no reason Eric shouldn't stay so they can both support each other.
With her father offering zero assistance -- and why would he? -- Veronica comes up with an idea born in the past to help rebuild Riverdale's economy: print their own money, and circulate it among the businesses still left in town, with Veronica acting as the bank, supplying $50,000 to get things started. She uses this model for her economics class, and they're all on board, willing to help renovate the old video store into Ronnie's jewelry store, their payment in Riverdale dollars the means to kickstart the economy. Things are going well until Hiram shows up, insinuating that what she's doing is illegal. Ronnie also is wondering where Hiram got one of her bills. When her numbers don't add up -- and her numbers always add up -- she suspects Hiram has been printing bogus bills and circulating them to crash the economy. But that isn't quite the case this time. When posing the question to her class as to whether they should add $1,000 or $10,000 to the economy, they all say the latter but she tells them they need to go slow and not flood the economy. Turns out some of the class members took it upon themselves to print up $10,000 and the basically caused a recession. So 'Daddykins' is off the hook this time, but the kids now have to finish work on Veronica's store ... for no pay until she can fix the mess they made.
Cheryl has come down off the hill to reclaim the Vixens from Toni, but Toni isn't having it because she restared the team, she's funding them, and she's the coach. Cheryl challenges her to a dance off. 'I'm pregnant,' Toni replies. One of the Vixens offers to be Toni's proxy, and while Cheryl says she isn't normally one to humiliate a high school student she'll make an exception this time. The dance off ends with a tie, so Toni and Cheryl agree to be co-coaches ... but Cheryl oversteps her bounds and Toni takes the Vixens away from her. Returning to Thornhill, Cheryl is met with a surprise visitor -- Minverva Marble, the art dealer who has some 'surprising' news: the portrait she bought of Cheryl's brother is a forgery! Gasp. So before she calls the authorities, she wants to have a little chat with Cheryl first.
Betty is knee deep in the swamp at this point, discovering a body that isn't Polly or another girl who disappeared. This one is more than three years dead, preserved in the swamp. Knowing it's not Polly, she, Alice, Tom Keller and some others head back to the swamp -- why are they always going at night? -- but are headed off by Hiram, Reggie and a few more armed goons for trespassing on private property. Apparently Hiram is going to drain the swamp and put a turnpike in to Sodale and he won't have anyone snooping around looking for dead bodies. But Betty is undeterred, especially after a chat with FBI boyfriend Glen (Greyston Holt) delivers the news that the Trash Bag Killer is back. At the swamp, she is again confronted by Reggie but this time he helps her by telling her he found another body and Hiram doesn't know. This is one of the other girls who had gone missing, someone Toni tried to help, but with three bodies all found in one location, and another twenty-one reported missing along the Lonesome Highway, it can mean only one thing: a serial killer. And Reggie even talks some sense into Hiram, telling him he'll be a hero if he allows them to search the swamp instead of filling it in with concrete. Hiram loves that idea, and besides, the turnpike is just smoke and mirrors anyway. So what exactly are Hiram's plans with Sodale?
Jughead is delving deeper into his investigation of the 'mothmen' that Old Man Dreyfus told him about, digging up more news stories to corroborate his claims. One article even told of several Riverdale citizens seeing a bright light in the sky. Tabitha Tate thinks it's all a bunch of malarky but one of the people quoted in the article is ... Pop Tate himself. He returns to the diner to talk with Jughead for his article, recounting the night everything went haywire at the diner, he and the patrons witnessing the light before it disappeared. He says he heard it was military testing although he never saw the light again. Pop really hoped it was something otherworldy. Oh, and one of the witnesses was ... Rose Blossom. Jughead and Tabitha immediately schedule an interview with Nana, and her tale is quite wild. Not only did she see the light, but she saw one of the mothmen, dead in the maple grove. No one has ever talked about the sightings because the mothmen didn't want them too, but they wanted the body of their friend. Rose said she told them it had been cremated but ... she kept it, perfectly preserved in a vat of maple syrup.
Jughead and Tabitha just think the old woman is crazy until ... a large barrel of syrup is delivered to the diner. And inside is a misshapen body, just as she had described (and, by the way, not perfectly preserved because it just looks like skeletal remains). Tabitha isn't too keen on having this thing stinking up the back room of the diner, but Jughead offers to take the night shift so no one goes snooping around in the back. Late that night, Juggie is on duty and there's no one in the diner. Suddenly the jukebox starts playing, the lights flicker, gumballs roll out of the machine and a bright light moves along the front of the diner. Jughead goes outside and the light is gone. Suddenly a bright, white light hits him from directly overhead, and Jughead doesn't remember anything until he woke up four hours later in a booth. Tabitha thinks he was drunk, but did Jughead have a close encounter with the mothmen?
Episode 8 :: Lock & Key
This week's Riverdale put the core four in some interesting situations, and then Cheryl blew everything up. While Archie's been enjoying his fling with Betty, he's still obviously got feelings for Veronica, and doing demolition on her apartment doesn't make things any easier. Betty is still hoping to find Polly alive while keeping her mother from going off the deep end. And her nightmares about TBK don't help her own mental state. Veronica is realizing that her marriage to Chad is doomed, and having Archie around makes it all the more obvious. And Jughead is dealing with his bout of missing time. Did he experience something otherworldly or is he repressing something that he's medicating with booze?
The biggest news of the week actually came from Toni, Fangs and Kevin -- they're having a baby. Yes, Toni revealed that she is the surrogate for Kevin and Fangs, who are also getting married, and they are going to live together and raise the baby as one big unconventional family. But is Kevin actually ready for all of this commitment? At the top of the episode, he was still cruising the truck stop of a quick hookup, but it turns out he and Fangs currently have an open relationship ... that is about to close with the impending nuptials so he's very conflicted.
Cheryl, however, is not happy at all about Toni's situation. now feeling like Toni lured her out of Thorn Hill just to toy with her emotions so as Cheryl does, she needs to plan a serving of revenge. While making restitution for her forged artwork by painting a portrait of art dealer Minerva Marble, Minerva is the one who suggests how Cheryl can cause some chaos -- hold a baby shower/bachelor party. But not just any run of the mill party, this one will be a 'key party' allowing everyone to indulge in their wanton desires one last time before actually becoming 'adults'. Surprisingly, everyone is game and Kevin even tells Fangs to bring his truck stop hookup -- who, Kevin discovers, is his truck stop hookup. Awkward. Even more awkward, Veronica brings Chad. Let the pairing begin.
Things get off to a rip-roaring start when Veronica draws Archie's keys. Cheryl said the rules were that whoever's keys you got that's who you were paired with, no do-overs. Chad was not about to let Veronica run off with her ex, so before he caused any more of a scene than he already had, Veronica put Archie's keys back and took Chad's so they could go home. Cheryl wasn't happy with the rule infraction but said married people were boring anyway so good riddance.
With Archie back in the mix, it was Betty's turn and she drew ... Archie. Reggie got Fangs, gave him a kiss and said he wasn't promising anything but he was willing to see where this went (according to Fangs later, Reggie is 100% straight). Kevin drew his own hookup, Rick. A very drunk Jughead drew Tabitha. Minerva got Archie's friend Eric, and that left Cheryl with ... Toni, of course, almost as if that had been the plan all along. It was because Cheryl wanted to show Toni that she could come back to Thorn Hill and they could raise the baby there. Cheryl had one of the most horrifying nurseries that would make Rosemary's baby feel right at home. Black and red just do not scream nursery. But Cheryl's plan backfired. Toni's certainly not going to allow Cheryl to keep her a prisoner at Thorn Hill so that party was over before it even started. But there does seem to be something blooming between Cheryl and Minerva.
The party only solidified Veronica's feelings about Chad, and the two have decided to divorce. Archie and Betty also came to the conclusion that they are better off just being friends because (a) Archie is still in love with Veronica -- although he doesn't know yet about her impending divorce -- and (b) Betty is heading into some really dark places where she'll need a friend more than a lover so they are actually on good terms now. They got the sexytime out of their systems and can move on. Jughead, who has been experiencing horrifying visions of an alien coming for him, has decided that maybe he does need therapy after all to find out what's going on before he loses his mind. And Veronica pays a visit to Archie at his new fire station to deliver the news that she's now a free woman. Archie tells her about Betty, but Ronnie says the past is the past and she's focusing on the now, so there is at least one fire rekindled.
Another, however, is dying out as the party, his talk with Rick, and his own impulses have him putting the brakes on things with Fangs ... who isn't happy because all of what they've been going through was Kevin's idea in the first place. If he still wants an open relationship after they marry, fine, but there's a baby on the way and now is not the time to get cold feet. It's safe to say Toni isn't going to be happy about this either but ... she has a place to escape to if she needs it. Maybe Cheryl's plan worked after all.
Earlier, Alice told Betty that Polly had called. Betty wasn't sure she believed her when a frantic Alice said it sounded like she was calling from a spaceship (that comment came completely out of left field). But after the key party, the phone rang again and Betty rushed to pick up before Alice did. And it was Polly, desperately calling for help. Betty said they were on the way, and to call her cell phone but where is she? All Polly could tell them was that she was on the Lonesome Highway. Trying to find Polly, Betty and Alice made their way along the dark stretch of road and found a phone booth, destroyed and covered in blood. Was it Polly's?
Episode 9 :: Destroyer
There was one notable thing on this week's Riverdale: the complete absence of Toni Topaze, which may be why we got a lot more Principal Weatherbee than normal. And if you were wondering about actress Vanessa Morgan, yes she really is pregnant on the show. And we'll guess the reason for her absence is that she gave birth on January 29, so congratulations to Ms. Morgan and family!
Toni's absence left the job of school spirit in the hands of Archie, Veronica and Cheryl, but with the Bulldogs' miserable record on the field -- zero wins, zero points scored -- even Cheryl was to the point of dragging the Vixens off the field because there was nothing to cheer for (she did come around and performed Lady Gaga's 'Stupid Love' for the crowd at the game). And Hiram is working hard to destroy Riverdale High by poaching its star quarterback for Stonewall Prep and having the local football organization ask for Riverdale's withdrawal. But Archie isn't about to give up that quickly, and with Veronica's and Tabitha Tate's help, they throw a pancake breakfast at Pop's, get the community spirit they need, a whole new team of recruits for the Bulldogs -- all female, it seems -- and though they didn't win, they did score a touchdown so that was all the win they needed. Take that, Hiram. Even Reggie bailed on him to support the Bulldogs after he refused to break some kid's legs to stop the football game from happening.
With Cheryl back in the Riverdale High spirit, there was something else she needed to fix that even she admits she broke -- Kevin and Fangs' relationship. Hoping to smooth things over with a face-to-face-to-face talk, Cheryl was relieved to learn that her little key party stunt only magnified the problems in their relationship, it didn't cause them to split. Well, at least they are on the same page about that. But Kevin still won't open up as to why he's suddenly having this crisis and why he can't stop himself from cruising. Shockingly, another trip to the sauna (where this sauna is remains a mystery) for Kevin ends with him being savagely beaten by a hot guy who wasn't 'like him'. Between Melanie on Pennyworth and Kevin, this has been a horrifying week of brutal beatings on TV. But it made Kevin open up to his father. Tom was always supportive of Kevin but his mother was another story. When he was a kid, she made some comments about having to buy him 'husky' clothes that hurt him so much he went to the woods just to be alone, not knowing it was a major cruising area. He doesn't say how old he was, but he had to be young and he found men there who told him he was cute and gave him the attention he needed. And now, he believes he's just hard wired to need that affection from anyone who will give it to him. He even wonders if he's ashamed of himself for being gay, something he denied when Fangs asked him point blank about that. Let's hope Kevin can figure himself out and be happy with the person he is.
This week saw the first real team-up between Betty and Jughead since they all got back to Riverdale. Betty learned that the blood on the telephone booth on the Lonesome Highway was a match for Polly's but seeing how devastated Alice already is, she chose to lie to her mother and tell her it wasn't a match. Believing Polly to still be alive snapped Alice right out of her booze and pills funk to the point that she decided to host the support group for the mothers of the missing and dead girls. Picking up a lunch meat tray from Pop's, Betty told Jughead that Polly is dead and he suggested they go see the old man who lives along the Lonesome Highway to see if he can offer any clues as to what happened to Polly and the other girls.
Jughead is still deep into his alien investigation, and he becomes more intrigued when one of his students, Lerman Logan, writes a paper about an alien abduction that is eerily precise in its details. (Side note: Who decided to name this kid Lerman Logan? Was it a joke, a dig, a very deep dive into actor Logan Lerman's acting credits that mirror the Lerman Logan character? Or just a friendly wink to the actor who appeared on Greg Berlanti's other series, Jack & Bobby?) Lerman's parents are too thrilled that Jughead is digging into their kid's past, even suggesting they have been abusing him, and Weatherbee is incensed that Jughead has seriously overstepped his boundaries, with the Logan family worried that Jughead has unlocked whatever demons torment the boy which they claim has led to his sleepwalking, even disappearing for a week, and found on the Lonesome Highway with no memory of the last seven days.
So while Betty is back to staking out the truck stop, pulling young women out of any truck she sees them enter, she comes across the trucker who was the last to see Polly, and she takes him to the woods, ties him to a tree, has a complete breakdown and is just about to murder him when Jughead calls. Lerman has disappeared again and he wants to search the highway. Betty is right off the highway and agrees to help. Jughead's call saved the trucker's life, in that moment, but Betty left him tied up, saying she'd send someone tomorrow ... if she remembered. She's also a bit miffed at Jughead for taking her to see Old Man Dreyfus, telling them that Polly was taken by the Mothmen. She's not buying it, but when they find Lerman and he says 'it happened again', they have to wonder if it was an abduction or something else that's making him 'lose time'. But they may never find out as the Logan family suddenly leaves Riverdale with no forwarding address.
When Betty gets home, she finds Alice in a bad emotional state ... and her FBI boyfriend Glen is there as well. To check up on Betty, unwittingly revealing the truth to Alice. Alice is now furious at Betty for not being honest with her, and Glen is taking her off the case to handle it personally, by the book, leaving no stone unturned. Who thinks Betty is just going to sit back and let that happen?
Episode 10 :: The Pincushion ManIn case you didn’t know, this week’s Riverdale is the ‘mid-season finale’ … and they really saved a lot of the good stuff for this week. But when will the show return in this atypical TV season? The end of episode previews only promised that new episodes ‘will return’ but gave no date. From various sources we’ve seen, the return date is … July 7. That may be contingent on the success or failure of the new Kung Fu series which takes over the time slot next week, but for now we’re looking at a four month break. So let’s chew over the events of this week’s episode.
Everything that happens this week is basically a result of the revelation of Hiram Lodge’s plan for Riverdale. After the football game gave residents hope for the town again, and after Reggie came crawling back after his ‘betrayal’ of Hiram by rooting for the Bulldogs, we now know that Hiram is mining the town for a mineral more precious than gold, something called palladium. A vein that ran behind his prison has dried up but there is another vein that runs directly under the Blossom family maple grove. So Hiram needs to drive the residents of Riverdale away by destroying the school and its spirit, and getting hold of the maple grove.
And how will he do all this? Step one is for Reggie to get back into Hiram’s good graces by securing the maple grove. Visiting Thorn Hill, he woos Nana Blossom with a bouquet of roses and next thing you know he’s got a signed contract and he’s back on Team Lodge. Except … a visit from Cheryl to Lodge’s office let them both know that she had Nana declared senile a decade ago so her signature means nothing. Better luck next time guys. Well, there’s more than one way to get the land a maple grove sits on — burn it to the ground, and hope it takes the house down as well.
Meanwhile, Archie is preparing for the school’s Parent-Teacher Night with Kevin since Toni is out on materinty leave, hoping to impress the parents with the strides they’ve made since taking over the high school. Archie is also quesitoning his former commanding officer’s declaration that Archie is going to receive a medal for his last mission. Archie points out he lost ten men on that mission and General Taylor says he lost ten men too, but Archie saved one and that is good enough for the medal. Archie visits Uncle Frank at the prison to get his thoughts and they both agree that the General is attempting to cover up something by distracting with Archie’s honor. So does he go along even though he knows something is wrong — especially after a reporter calls him to basically verify what he thinks — or does he blow the whistle?
Veronica is dealing with Chad drama, waiting for him to sign the divorce papers but … he’s got compromising photos of her kissing Archie so she needs to go back to New York for a day to deal with Chad. But when she gets there, he’s obviously hoping to woo her back with a good Chinese dinner and a trip down memory lane, promising that he’s signed the papers, he just wants one more night. But, the next morning Ronnie discovers Chad has not signed the papers. Worse, he’s made some bad investments using the name of an established business — Veronica’s jewelry boutique, putting her on the hook for his shady deals and threatening that if they divorce now, he could be compelled to testify against her in court because no one would belief the ‘She-Wolf of Wall Street’ didn’t know what was going on with her own husband. Now she’s stuck between a rock and a hard place, and Archie isn’t happy that she’s not returning to Riverdale as promised.
After Glen’s surprise visit and spilling the beans about the blood at the phone booth, he and Betty are trying to lay out a plan to canvas the Lonesome Highway to see if they can find any signs of her sister. But, the FBI is already working the case, going over the 200 miles of highway so there really isn’t anything Betty can do. Except read over Glen’s dissertation about serial killers, nature vs nurture, and how it applies to the Cooper family. Needless to say, Betty isn’t thrilled her family history is the topic of a ‘term paper’ but recent events may make the paper an important read because recordings her father made make it clear that he had been using the same social media site to meet women on the Lonesome Highway that Polly used for hookups. Many of the bodies recovered along that area may have been his work, but the recent ones may be a copycat. Neither Hal nor Betty have the serial killer gene, but Charles does. Here’s the notion no one raised this week — perhaps Polly isn’t a victim, she’s the Lonesome Highway Killer. That seems even more possible now that Juniper and Dagwood have been identified as children who pushed another kid at school down a flight of stairs for saying their mother was dead. Alice and Betty are shocked by their lack of remorse, so this definitely could mean that Polly is carrying on a family tradition, and her kids may as well.
Jughead has gotten a great offer to publish an excerpt from his new book in a magazine, a spot usually reserved for the likes of Stephen King. But Jughead’s current deep dive into the psychological damage that causes the belief of alien abduction isn’t quite sexy enough, so he needs to turn this into more of a potboiler to get the magazine’s interest. But Juggie has massive writer’s block so he asks Tabitha to keep an eye on him while he indulges in some ‘magic maple mushrooms’. The last time he took a trip he wrote a 500 page novel and didn’t even realize it, but Tabitha doesn’t think falling back on drugs is the way to go. But he calls his dealer anyway and gets a drop … from his ex. Seeing her try to woo Jughead into a night of debauchery, Tabitha jumps in and calls herself his girlfriend and says she’ll take things from here. Jughead and Tabitha do have a moment, but they decide to remain ‘just friends’ and Tabitha cooks up a maple mushroom burger for Jughead. He says she can leave but just to come back and check on him, and when she does he’s just having a good time, dancing around the bunker, not getting anything accomplished. So he handcuffs him to the chair and tells him to work, but out of nowhere both his ex and Betty show up, uncuffing him for a night of pleasure. But they disappear, he notices the handcuffs are off, and there is a stack of papers on the desk. He’s written something … and then a bright light shoots down the entrance to the bunker, drawing Jughead’s curiosity. When Tabitha returns in the morning with breakfast, Jughead his gone and the handcuff are still intact, covered in blood as is the stack of paper.
The second part of Hiram’s plan goes into action just as the Parent-Teacher Night begins — he staged an escape at the prison, releasing everyone from Penelope Blossom to Uncle Frank. Penelope gets to Thorn Hill just in time to alert Cheryl and Nana to the fire raging in the grove approaching the house. Nana says it’s the curse, and the only way to stop it is to sacrifice the interloper, which sends Cheryl’s new girlfriend Minerva scurrying. With that off the table, Penelope says they have to pray that the winds blow the fire in the opposite direction. It works and Hiram and Reggie are puzzled by how the sudden windstorm saved the house. But with the maple trees reduced to ashes, they assume Cheryl will be more than eager to sell the property.
At the high school, with parents, and the General in attendance, the power suddenly goes out. Archie asks Kevin to stay with the parents while he checks the circuit breaker, and he discovers the escaped convicts in the building. Fighting his way back to the room, the General wants them to face the convicts. Archie points out they don’t know how many are there and the General has six bullets. Archie knows the school and Riverdale, and he can get everyone to safety through a tunnel and to the sheriff’s office. Archie is backed up by Kevin and they do make their way to safety. They also learn that the prison break was staged and the convicts were paid to trash the school. Archie knows there is only one person behind this.
While Betty and Alice prepare for the twins’ birthday party, there’s a knock at the door. Who could it be? Alice asks Juniper to get the door — umm, no, you don’t ask a child to answer the door if you don’t know who’s there! — and in walks … Charles. And Chic. Alice casually mentions how she’s been visiting Charles in prison, but has no idea why or how they both ended up at the house. They explain the ‘break out’ and are there to get married. Oh, and Alice reveals Charles talked her into getting a certiifcate online to be an officient so let’s get this party started. And then Glen shows up, and he and Charles were rivals at the FBI. Now Charles can get his revenge by playing a game with Glen called ‘The Pincushion Man’. Each member of the family, starting with the youngest, gets to stick a pin in the Pincushion Man. Juniper is the younger and Chic hands her … a knife! Betty begs Charles not to do that to the children because it will screw them up forever. Charles agrees and says Betty has to do it. They send the twins upstairs and Betty does stab Glen. She then throw the knife at Chic while Alice attacks Charles. The two tussle on the floor and a shot rings out. Charles rolls off of Alice, shot in the chest. Glen has a mere flesh wound, as Betty planned, and Charles is in ICU expected to recover. Chic’s condition is unknown. With everything coming to a head, Betty has vowed now to find Polly and the Lonesome Highway killer by dressing as a trucker and taking matters into her own hands.
Episode 11 :: Strange BedfellowsWow, it's been four months since the last episode of Riverdale aired, but the story picks up pretty much right where we left off with the town under siege by Hiram's 'escaped' prisoners. And we also learn that the governor is in cahoots with Lodge, in exchange for a cut of the 'palladium' that was under the prison. While Archie and company are trying to keep the town safe, while also trying to repair all the damage to the school, Veronica is still in New York, Betty is still staking out truck stops, and Jughead is still missing.
But most of that changes quickly. When Ronnie hears from Smithers about the prison escape, she hightails it back to Riverdale to lend support. Unfortunately, Archie friend zones her because she hasn't gotten Chad to sign the divorce papers yet, telling him it's complicated and the less he knows, the better. But Arch is being cool about it, no pressure, but he's not comfortable moving forward until she's a free woman. In the meantime, she goes back to her jewelry store in town, where she is about to sell a huge uncut opal to a buyer, when a couple of surprise guests show up: Dodger and Darla, last seen in Season 4's 'Tangerine'. They smash and grab what they can, including the opal ... and Ronnie goes running to Archie for help. But now he's not too keen on doing anything for her since she isn't moving ahead with her divorce quickly enough -- that was a quick change of attitude -- but he can't turn her down. So while looking to round up the convicts, he also has to look for a big rock.
Reggie also pays her a visit, and reveals that he's working for Hiram now to pay off his father's debt. But for old-time's sake, he's also going to help Ronnie track down that opal. Things start to look a little fishy when the governor and Hiram go on TV to announce a reward for the capture of the escapees ... why would Hiram help stage the escape then offer a reward? Turns out the escape was not part of the deal he and the governor had, but Archie wants them to know that he intends on collecting that reward money to help rehabilitate the high school. For a second, Hiram seemed impressed by Archie's moxie while being perturbed by the governor's demand for his half of the 'palladium'.
Things get a bit more serious when Ted, the con who nearly beat Archie to a pulp in the school rest room, calls Veronica to tell her that he has her father, the governor and Sheriff Keller. Then he shoots the governor and says she has a couple of hours before he bleeds out so she needs to get the 'palladium' to him ASAP. He mentions that Dodger and Darla are with him, and when Ronnie learns they also have the opal, she springs into action ... by calling Archie. No one knew what had happened to Tom Keller after he'd been at the hospital trying to get information from one of the escapees, but he was attacked by Darla and taken hostage. So with Kevin, Fangs and Uncle Frank in tow, they head to Hiram's office to pry the safe out of the wall for delivery to Ted. Ronnie shows up alone, but the boys make a surprise entrance through a skylight, taking down the three miscreants and saving Ronnie's opal. The governor is in bad condition, but alive, and at the hospital Hiram tells him he's never getting a cut of the mineral and he should just go back to his cushy mansion and never speak of it again ... or else. And even after all of this, Archie is still friend-zoning Ronnie. But she's okay with that, promising to speed up the divorce process.
Tabitha Tate faced a robbery at the diner, but her biggest concern was Jughead so she decided to call Betty, who is still trying to find the person responsible for the killings of young women along the Lonesome Highway. She reluctantly agrees to meet with Tabitha, but tells her that Jughead really isn't her problem anymore, and he's not Tabitha's problem either. But ... she agrees to help look for him. At the bunker, trying to find clues to his whereabouts, they look through his manuscript but since he was tripping on Maple Mushrooms at the time, it's mostly gibberish. Tabitha thinks that perhaps Juggie went back to New York so they call his ex Jessica, who tells them he's not there but she's coming to town to help because she's had experience with his 'walkabouts' when he's tripping.
Jessica takes the girls on basically a wild goose chase that brings them back to the bunker after hitting the rat hole where he lives and the high school. Jessica reveals she's just looking for the manuscript, which puzzles Betty. They go to Pop's for some fries and gravy -- Jessica's treat even though Tabitha owns the place -- and while they discuss their relationships with Jughead, Betty plays for them the voice mail that was basically the end of their relationship, a horrible diatribe calling Betty some terrible names, completely assassinating her character (we will see in a flashback episode what led to that phone call). Tabitha and Jessica are shocked, but Betty and Tabitha suddenly start to feel ... odd. Jessica admits she dosed their food with Maple Mushrooms just to loosen them up enough so they'd give her the manuscript. Jessica is actually more worried about what he might have written about her than Jughead's safety, so Betty turns it over to her even though she says it's mostly gibberish. Jessica helps them get comfortable in the bunker and tells them to just let the trip happen and they'll be fine (she's not sure why Jughead had the reaction he did because it was from the same batch she gave the girls). So they begin to trip and things get weird.
Up at Thorn Hill, Penelope Blossom is back after he escape from the prison and she's a different person, having found religion behind bars. She tells Cheryl she started a program in prison and now she's going to carry that over to her own church right in their house. Cheryl isn't buying this new Penelope, and has questions after witnessing one of her services where she talks about a 'He' that has died for them ... while collecting an offering from those in attendance. Penelope really has the old tent revival thing down, but all Cheryl sees is a snake oil salesman bilking people in need out of their money. When Penelope reveals that the 'He' she's preaching about is Jason, something snaps in Cheryl. She's still got his decaying body in a trunk, and after paying him a visit -- and seeing a vision of him next to Penelope -- she jumps on the bandwagon. Are the Blossoms about to become cult leaders?
This whole scene was paired with Betty's and Tabitha's trip, set to the song 'Walking in Space' from the musical Hair, performed by Lili Reinhart, Erinn Westbrook, Madelaine Petsch and Nathalie Boltt. With Betty and Tabitha enjoying their trip, and Penelope and Cheryl finding their religion, it was all a very trippy, magical moment in the episode. In the end though, it was Jughead who caused us more concern. After being beaten in an alley by a bunch of douchebags, he was taken in by Doc whom Juggie realized was the same guy he saw get beaten in the alley but did nothing to help. Doc took care of Jughead, nursed him back to health, and after Juggie sobered up he admitted who he was and what had happened in the past. Doc already knew but he didn't hold anything against Jughead. With a clearer head, Jughead knew there was something he had to deal with in New York but didn't know what, so he let Tabitha know where he was going ... and then hitched a ride with a trucker on the Lonesome Highway.
That can't be good.
Episode 12 :: Citizen LodgeRiverdale took a brief break from its overarching Season 5 storyline -- in a way, although one important plot point drives this episode -- by giving us the Hiram Lodge backstory we didn't know we wanted. Since his introduction into the series, Hiram has been a sort of one-dimensional villain, no matter how many times he's been reformed or redeemed. He always goes back to being the show's 'Big Bad', but this week's episode titled 'Citizen Lodge' managed to give us some new layers to the town mob boss.
And it all starts with Reggie. We know now that he works for Hiram because Lodge lent his father a ton of money to keep his business afloat. Now Reggie has paid him off but ... he wants to keep working for Lodge because his relationship with his father still has some old wounds that have never healed, and even when his dad almost pushes a customer away and Reggie closes the sale, his dad still doesn't appreciate his son's up-to-date approach when dealing with customers. (He was doing fine until he told the customer the car he and his son were looking at was the car his boy was going to get laid in, which clinched the deal but upset the elder Mantle.) But Reggie wants an accounting job with Lodge, no more being the guy pressuring others to do Hiram's bidding. He's got a deal after he does one more thing for the big man -- get him a 'ghost gun', one that can't be traced. Reggie is on it.
But Reggie also tells his dad that their partnership is done, which prompts Mr. Lodge to pay a visit to Hiram to tell him to let his son go. Lodge says Reggie is old enough to make his own decisions and before Mantle can say something he'll regret, Hiram suggests he leave the office. Later, Hiram tells Reggie about his father's visit, and that leads into Reggie asking about Hiram's father. Being in a generous mood, Hiram relates the story of his family coming to Riverdale. Coming from humble beginnings shining shoes on street corners with his father (Mark Consuelos now playing the elder Luna), a customer who obviously doesn't want to pay for the shine offers the two Luna men something better: a piece of that mysterious mineral Palladium, telling them a small town up north, Riverdale, is rich with the stuff. So yes, the Palladium Hiram has been trying to mine is what brought the Luna family to town in the late 1980s ... even though stylistically it feels like the mid-1950s.
The elder Luna goes to work in a mine, but it collapses so it's back to shining shoes outside Pop's, and getting stiffed by customers yet again. But young Javi shines the shoes of a local named Vito, who pays and tips with a $100 bill. With that kind of money and a name like Vito, it's obvious to everyone but Javi that the guy is a gangster. But after being dissed by his classmate Hermione (Camila Mendes) at school because her mother (guest star Marisol Nichols) doesn't think he's good enough for her, he seeks out Vito to get a job and earn more of those Benjamins. He starts making deliveries, and impresses Hermione with his new clothes that she 'allows' him to buy her dinner at Pop's. But the date is short-lived as the cops show up to arrest Javi for distributing drugs. Refusing to give up his boss, Javi is tossed in jail, and it's Hermione who goes to Vito for help. Before you know it, the bail is paid and Javi is free, but his father is none too pleased about this turn of events. Javi spits back that he's embarrassed to be his father's son, something that he may come to regret saying.
But now he has to win back Hermione, and all it takes is a ride in his new car. Parked outside Pop's, Javi tells her that he's changing his name. He likes Hiram because it sounds strong and powerful (oooo-kay ... does it though?), and he's changing Luna to Lott because that's what he's going to have, a lot. Hermione isn't feeling that and says he needs to think something more grand and palatial so how about Lodge? He's buying what she's selling, and it's interesting to see how she has always been his equal with her contribution to the name. Now he insists everyone call him Hiram Lodge, and he tells Vito he'd like to move up in the organization. So instead of making deliveries, Hiram will now be doing the collections. Hiram's father, however, wants his son out of this business and pays Vito a visit, delivering him an ultimatum to let his son go, or else. Not something you want to say to a gangster. But Vito says he'll sleep on it and get back to him. Of course by 'get back to you' he means he'll send his henchmen to the shoeshine stand and riddle the old man with bullets.
At the funeral, Vito pays a visit, tells Hiram and his mother that if they need anything to give him a call, and that Hiram can take some time off to be with his mother. A nice gesture after having his father murdered. Hiram didn't even put those pieces together until the funeral visit, but once he did he was hellbent for revenge. Heading to Vito's to deliver his own message, the boss was out but Hiram had a gun and he killed all three men, wiping down the gun and leaving it on the table. Vito never returned to town and Hiram took over the business and that's how he became Riverdale's mob boss. But after marrying Hermione and having a baby, she told him it was time to stick to his promise of moving to New York City, and they did. But it was the Palladium that finally brought them back, and that's why Hiram built the prison. But the vein yielded a very small amount and Hiram now needs to get to the vein that runs under the Blossom maple tree grove.
But there's still the matter of that 'ghost gun' Hiram requested, and he asks Reggie to drive him to a nursing home where he has someone to visit. Of course the person he's visiting is Vito. Hiram has been trying to track him down for years and he's found him, finally ready to deliver that payback for the murder of his father. Before the frail former gangster can sound an alarm, Hiram puts a pillow over the old man's face, and points the gun at his head, pulling the trigger. On the way home, Hiram tells Reggie he no longer needs his services, and admonishes him to patch things up with his own father before it's too late. Heartbroken, Reggie goes back to the car lot, and his father actually apologizes for his terrible treatment (remember in previous episodes, it was revealed that Reggie's father was physically abusive). Reggie accepts the apology and says they can still be partners, but his dad has to let him do things his way. Marty is agreeable to the arrangement and the two share an embrace like they probably never have before.
But telling Reggie his story and getting closure, finally, with his father's murder, Hiram lays in bed eating ice cream and watching what appears to be an episode of the 'Real Housewives' show that Hermione and Veronica are on, listening to some harsh realities as they speak about him. But the phone rings and we learn that the voice on the other end is ... Hermosa, his other daughter. She's the one who found Vito for him. Now that that is behind him, the plan now is to focus on the Palladium, and he assures her that once he has that he'll get back everything he's lost.
When I first saw this was going to be a Hiram-centric episode, I thought it was going to be a chore to sit through, but it was actually very engaging. It's always fun to see the regular cast play the teen versions of their parents, and Mark Consuelos was terrific playing Hiram's father who is a complete 180 from who Hiram is, i.e. a decent human being. And while he's made appearances in the flashback episodes as young Hiram, Michael Consuelos gave an uncanny performance as his father's younger character. His brief appearances in the past felt a bit like stunt casting, and that Michael resembles his father so much made it a no-brainer to cast him, this time he really got to stretch as an actor, doing a great impression of his father but not making it feel like he was doing an impression. He really made young Hiram his own character while still making it a believable transition to the older character in the present. 'Citizen Lodge' could have been one of the season's weaker episodes, but everyone involved managed to make it maybe the best episode of the season so far.
Episode 13 :: Reservoir DogsThere was a lot going on in this week's Riverdale that even packed a real emotional punch in the end.
There's no sign of Jughead this week, and no one seems to be looking for him anymore and that's because Betty and Tabitha have moved back on trying to find the Highway Killer, and figure out what happened to Polly. Betty's out on the road pretending to be a trucker hoping to entrap the killer -- without getting herself killed -- and when she thinks she's found a target he turns out to be FBI. Luckily she's FBI too ... but she isn't and her ex Glen is all too happy to remind her of that, threatening to arrest her for impersonating an officer and taking her badge and gun.
But if she can't prowl the highway, she and Tabitha are going to bring the highway to them, convincing Fangs to turn the Whyte Wyrm into a 'Coyote Ugly' joint that is sure to lure in the truckers. They also enlist Cheryl and Veronica for the entertainment, Alice pouring drinks, and Kevin and Reggie will break into the trucks to see if they can find anything other than cargo. The plan actually works, and the boys find blood inside of one empty truck. But it was just a shipment of meat so they struck out. But they now have a data base of names and driver's licenses for Betty to dig into, but before she can get out of Pop's parking lot another trucker pulls in. Since he missed the night's entertainment, he asks if Betty would like to have some fun ... and she agrees. Okay, earlier she said the cardinal rule was that no one goes off with a trucker alone, and here she goes. She did text Tabitha to track her so at least there was that.
Driving to a hotel, the trucker claims, they have a very odd conversation about him being in town to visit his dying grandmother, and how wonderful it is to watch that light go out as someone dies. Um, red flags! He pulls over to stretch his legs for a couple of minutes but comes around to the passenger side of the truck with a huge knife. Betty is waiting and knocks him down with the door ... and then turns her back on him to call Tabitha. Betty! You should know better than that by now. Of course he's gone when she turns around but he's not far, coming back around the truck ... with a chainsaw! He is so determined to kill Betty that he starts carving up his own truck. Seriously? Betty was able to grab a large wrench and also managed to throw it just right so that it hit him square in the face, knocking him out. Tabitha shows up and wants to call the FBI, but Betty has other plans. They need to hide the truck, and then she's going to take him somewhere for safe keeping (not mentioned but I'm going to guess the bunker) so she can question him about Polly before then turning him over to the FBI.
Veronica needs to drum up some business because her jewelry store isn't the cash cow it needs to be, especially since she has to pay off Chad's Ponzi scheme, so she decided to get back into her 'She-Wolf of Wall Street' mode to do her own investment banking with a list of potential clients. But she's not having much luck closing deals so Reggie, who seems to be working for her at the store now, sells himself to her as a closer. She gives him the chance to try to make a couple of deals and is impressed with his salesmanship. She should have known he'd be good at that if he was a used car salesman. As he secures more clients, her list of contacts is dwindling so he comes up with the idea to go after Hiram's investors, selling them the line that Sodale is a scam and there will never be a Sodale. And it works. But what happens with Hiram finds out he's losing investors to his own daughter?
Kevin is feeling down about how he left things with Fangs, and Cheryl suggests he attend one of her and Mumsy's church services. He agrees but doesn't last more than a few minutes. Cheryl confronts him again about the Fangs situation and says that another way to find salvation is to see Fangs face-to-face and make some atonement for his actions. Kevin does just that and finds Fangs with another man -- Moose! Fangs tries to say it isn't what it looks like (but it is) and Kevin excuses himself. Back at school he's even more despondent. Cheryl thinks he's been fired for his continued cruising in the woods (where Cheryl encountered him earlier), but it's even worse: he's been awarded Teacher of the Year. This is not how his life was supposed to turn out. He enjoys teaching but he should be in New York writing, directing and performing, not getting awards from a dying school. Cheryl has an idea to get his creative juices flowing. At the next service she introduces their new musical director, Kevin Keller, and the two perform 'Everything's Alright' from Jesus Christ Superstar, much to Penelope's chagrin. She doesn't want someone stealing her spotlight, but Kevin does just that, appearing to have a true epiphany at the end.
Archie is still dealing with his friend Eric, attempting to get him the assistance he needs from the VA. For as ridiculous as Riverdale can be, this is a very realistic, hard-hitting topic. Archie keeps getting the runaround, and Eric is obviously suffering from PTSD, at one point nearly shooting Archie before Uncle Frank intervened. But Frank has an idea and brings a rescue dog home to try and help Eric with his PTSD. Except the dog was rescued from a dog fighting ring and at one point it freaked out during a walk and bit Eric. Frank takes responsibility for bringing a dog that needs just as much care as Eric does, but Archie is horrified to learn there is a dog fighting ring in Riverdale. Archie also tells Frank about their platoon dog Bingo that got caught in the crossfire the same night Eric's leg was blown off, and he was unable to save the dog. Frank beings to wonder if Archie is in need of help as well.
But Archie, Eric and Fangs find the dog trainer, the rescue the dogs and Archie gives the guy a brutal beat down, complete with brass knuckles. Eric and Fansg have to pull him off the guy, and when they get home Archie just goes to shower, avoiding Uncle Frank. But Frank knows where they went, and he mentions Bingo to Eric. But Eric has some shocking information for Frank: Bingo wasn't a dog, he was another member of the platoon. Archie was forced to leave him in the middle of a shoot-out or end up dead himself. Frank has to sit Archie down and tell him he made the right decision or none of them would be here today. In the morning, Archie's phone wakes him up and it's the VA. Archie again tells them he's trying to get some help for his friend, but when he looks over in the corner of the room he sees Corporal Bingo. Archie then realizes he needs help as well. That was a powerful and emotional ending to the episode.
Episode 14 :: The Night GalleryThe target audience for Riverdale is much younger than myself, so it's unlikely they have any clue what this week's episode was referencing. But when I was a kid in the 1970s, Rod Serling hosted an anthology series (post-The Twilight Zone) called Night Gallery in which he presented a painting that introduced one of the stories for the week. And that is exactly what this week's episode did as Cheryl fulfilled her agreement with Minerva to make up for the forged pieces of art she tried to pass off on her earlier in the season. It was neat how each segment was self-contained so there was a beginning, middle and end (sort of) to each tale.
Archie
The first painting featured a shirtless Archie in a mine, of all places, but it makes sense as the story unfolds. After finally being able to get help for his PTSD -- or so he thinks -- Archie, Eric and Uncle Frank are approached by Cheryl, who is the last person in town to learn about the huge vein of palladium running through the mines under her maple groves, so she wants to hire Archie's construction company to dig it out before Hiram can get his hands on it. Archie points out that he knows nothing about mining, and Cheryl reminds him of everything else he's done from being a firefighter to a school teacher with no formal training so he can probably handle a mine. And Frank actually has some experience so it shouldn't be too hard to open the place up with Reggie, Kevin and Fangs also on the crew.
Archie wanted to go through his therapy drug-free, but after having a horrifying flashback to the war, and after Eric seemed to be having results with his medication, Archie opted to get a prescription since he had a crew depending on him. But after taking one pill, Archie had another severe reaction while in the mine, at one point seeing Eric has a 'mothman' (thanks for Fangs' little campfire story), and then believing his doctor was experimenting on him and Eric, bursting into her office and accusing her of working for Hiram ... whom she's never heard of. Asked to stay above ground for the crew's safety, Archie agreed but heard yelling coming from the mine. Unsure if he was hearing things, Archie rushed in again to find Fangs and Kevin completely freaked out, and Eric trying to choke out Frank, saying he was the Devil. Archie got Frank out of Eric's clutches but he ended up being choked out himself until he punched Eric and knocked his lights out. It was discovered the mines were filled with carbon monoxide and that was causing the hallucinations, including Archie's so he went back to the doctor and tried to aplogize and explain himself but he admitted he's not just seeing his fallen officer anymore, he's seeing all of them. And they were all there in the office. The doctor said she's too frightened to be alone with Archie and that he really needs more help than she can provide. It was a chilling sight, but this is the one story that was short and didn't feel like it had a real ending.
Betty
The next painting featured a bloody Betty with a chainsaw, and Cheryl's tale picked up after Betty and Tabitha caught the man they think is the Highway Killer. Betty advised Tabitha to let her handle this alone to keep her out of any legal jeopardy, so Betty had to go this one alone. While I assumed Betty would take the trucker to the bunker -- because what is more private than that? -- she actually took him to the high school's auto shop. It's a long weekend so no one is around. She tried questioning him to no avail, then she brought photos of the missing women to try to get a reaction, but he was too clever to fall for her tricks. Her next step was to try and humanize the victims by getting Alice to play the grieving mother, which she readily agreed to, showing him pictures and talking about her daughter, and even seeming to make the trucker feel badly. But again it was all an act, and when he said Polly squealed like a pig when he slit her throat, Alice jumped up and got in a few good punches to the guy's face.
Since that tactic didn't work, Alice asked Betty to kill the guy. Just kill him. It would make her feel better knowing Polly's killer is dead and other girls won't suffer the fate of those before them. Betty said she had one more trick up her sleeve, and she told the trucker she wasn't going to kill him ... she wanted him to suffer, telling him first she'd chainsaw his feet off at the ankles, cauterize the wounds then for for his legs up to his knees, cauterize and move up and by the time she got to his arms, he may die of a heart attack but she felt he was stronger than that. All of this was basically the same thing the Trash Bag Killer said to Betty when he had her imprisoned in his pit. The trucker seemed scared for a moment, perfectly described Polly, her tattoo, and the name she used while tricking ... and then said he had no idea who she was. That set off Betty who went to get the chainsaw, but by the time she got back the trucker had bitten off his own tongue, swallowed it and choked to death. Telling Alice what had happened, the both felt some relief that he was dead but Betty doesn't think the killings are over. Something he said to her makes her think there is a kind of 'family' out there working together.
Jughead
Jughead's story goes back to when he first left Riverdale seven years ago for Iowa, and how a year later he got an agent -- and called Betty at college to tell her the good news. What he didn't tell her was that he moved to New York to become a real writer, and then suffered a bad case of writer's block. But thanks to those maple mushrooms courtesy of his girlfriend Jessica, he was able to churn out 200 pages that his agent thought was ... going to be a blockbuster. Setting up a book release party, Jughead invited Betty who promised to come but at the last minute she texted him and said she couldn't make it. And that was the genesis of that toxic voice message he left her. He was drunk and stoned out of his mind and just pissed that she didn't come, reminding her how selfish and hurtful she'd been by hooking up with Archie. And then he fell into a sinkhole, waking up in the sewers, wandering around, deciding he liked it there, setting up a little spot for him to sleep.
Jughead is relating his story to an addicts support group, so they are stunned by what he's telling them, not really sure what's real and what isn't especially when he gets to the part about being awakened by the Rat King, a creature whose domain Jughead had invaded. But Juggie regaled the King with his story (luckily he had a copy of his book with him), and the Rat King decided Jughead could stay and keep him entertained with more tales. A sleeping Jughead was once again awakened, but this time by ... Betty. Actually a vision of Betty who told him the tunnels he was in were about to be flooded and if he didn't leave he'd drown. Leading them both out of the tunnel, Jughead made his way back to the street but the next thing he remembered was waking up in the hospital. Turns out he was infected with rabies. There was no Rat King. When Jughead first fell into the sink hole, he regained consciousness covered in rats, afraid to open his mouth and scream because he thought they'd try to go into his mouth. And all of this is why he's now trying to get sober. But it also sounds like he genuinely wants to repair his relationship with Betty, if that's even possible.
Having told her tales -- and now we are left to wonder if these stories she's told are now canon or just flights of whimsy to explain her paintings -- Cheryl unveiled one last painting of she and Minerva as Psyche and Cupid. Minerva is further impressed by its beauty, and Cherly admits showing the artwork was not the only reason she summoned her ex. But Minerva is leaving the country, in the morning, but Cheryl shows her that they can still enjoy the night.
So, has Archie and his crew actually gone to work for Cheryl in the mines? Did Betty's trucker actually off himself? Did Jughead really suffer from a case of rabies and hopes to reconcile with Betty? We shall have to wait and see, but next week Josie and the Pussycats return! For now, let's give a tip of the hat to Mädchen Amick for her skills in directing a very differently constructed episode. Brava!
Episode 15 :: The Return of the PussycatsI wondered how long it was going to be before Riverdale brought Josie back to town after spinning her off -- not even as the star! -- to Katy Keene, which was cancelled after a single season. This episode is an important one in the grand scheme of things because it directly addresses a lot of wrongs the series and its creators perpetrated against Josie, Valerie and Melody and the actors who played them. If you've been out of the loop on this, a conversation erupted on Twitter between Ashleigh Murray and Vanessa Morgan about how actors of color have been treated on the show, which led to a public apology from Riverdale creator Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa and a promise to do better (his first move was giving Toni Topaze a more prominent role after the seven year time jump, and then her maternity leave has taken her out of the action for a large part of the season). Before Josie was shuffled off to New York, the character was never involved in any of the main storylines, and Valerie and Melody just vanished midway through Season 2. So this episode puts them all front and center, and pointedly addresses the past.
And we get what is probably this season's musical episode to boot!
At first, we don't know why Josie is back in town. All we know is that she's a superstar now, and she vanished in the middle of a global tour. Her first moments in town lead to a production number with Josie singing 'It's All Coming Back To Me Now' and it certainly does. While staying at the Five Seasons, her singing is interrupted by a manager and Hiram Lodge -- no live singing after 9 PM. But Josie isn't having any of that, calling Hiram Lodge a 'little bitch'. But the next day she goes to Riverdale High to ask Mr. Weatherbee if she can use the music room to write and sing. He's thrilled to see Josie again and gives her the space on one condition ... she teach a music class. She agrees, and Archie immediately knows whose voice he hears as he passes the room.
A quick reunion between them leads to a bigger reunion with the rest of the gang (and it's at this point one begins to wonder if this episode is playing completely out of order because Jughead is there as if nothing has happened and a very pregnant Toni shows up too), which in turn becomes a brainstorming session as to how they can use a superstar like Josie to reignite interest in Riverdale. But the reunion ends on a really sour note as Josie calls out each and every one of them for how they treated her while they were in high school ... and she isn't wrong. (It's also a nice way for Aguirre-Sacasa and the writers to admit their fault.) She leaves and runs into Sweet Pea (!) and they hook up, but the next morning Josie has things to do and people to see.
Who she's going to see are Valeria and Melody. At the top of the episode, we get caught up with the two women, learning Melody has written a book (she realized her voice could be put to better use as an author rather than a lawyer) that's been optioned by Tyler Perry, and Valerie is a barista with acting aspirations. In fact, she believes she's up for the lead in the movie based on Melody's book (but Melody doesn't want to tell her that Perry wants a big star or it's no deal). Josie, Valerie and Melody also have a chance to hash out their differences, and Josie tells them she really wants to collaborate with them on a song on her new album, if they're still performing. That leads to a medley of songs performed by Valeria and Melody at the Whyte Wyrm, which totally impresses Josie. But can they put all the hurt behind them to work together once more?
Josie returns to the Five Seasons to find her mother (Robin Givens returns, and she also directed this episode!) waiting for her. It's an emotional reunion and now we learn why Josie disappeared from her tour -- right before going on stage in Berlin, Sierra called Josie to break the news that her father died suddenly from a heart attack. Devastated, Josie just left, returning to Riverdale to try and gather up the pieces of her broken heart. One thing Sierra tells Josie is that her father's last wishes were to have his ashes spread at all the various places around the country where he played his gigs. Looks like Josie has a new tour in the works.
Josie doesn't know that Sierra has called Valerie and Melody to also break the news to them, and they immediately rush to Josie's side to offer her support and to tell her they will absolutely sing with her on the album. Josie is touched deeply by their friendship, and offers up another idea -- maybe it is her chance to give back to Riverdale, so she proposes they all do a one night only Josie and the Pussycats reunion to raise money for the town, with Valerie and Melody getting equal billing. They're in, and they perform at the Whyte Wyrm to an adoring crowd, including Dr. Curdle Jr. who is a Pussycats mega-fan! Also, during Josie's solo tribute song to her father, Toni goes into labor, and Fangs and Cheryl help deliver ... a boy! Anthony, named after her father.
There is another plotline this week as Veronica is confronted by one of her husband's clients, Alexandra Cabot, who wants her investment back. Ronnie has already been approached by Tabitha Tate about investing with her to help franchise Pop's, but with the debt she owes because of Chad, she tells Tabitha it isn't the right time. But ... maybe she can interest Alexandra in this new opportunity. They have a meeting at the diner, Alexandra loves diners and is very interested but she wants a few tweaks -- she wants it to be a singing diner (which gives us a 'Little Shop of Horrors' number in which Toni makes her first surprise appearance with no explanation), and they need to change the recipe of the milkshakes because they are money losers. Tabitha refuses, reminding Alexandra that Pop's started with one menu item -- the chocolate milkshake, hence the name Pop's Chock'lit Shoppe. She also reminds her that Pop's was open 24/7 so that people like them (i.e. people of color) had a safe space to gather. If the recipe changes, there's no deal. In the end, Alexandra comes around and a deal is made.
After the Pussycats reunion concert ends, it's time once again to say goodbye to everyone. But ... the night went so well that Josie invites Melody and Valerie to tour the country with her. They think she wants an opening act, but she wants them to headline with her. For Valerie, it means possibly putting her relationship with boyfriend Alan Mayberry on hold ... something she's not too upset about because he's putting the pressure of marriage on her and she's just not ready. But he wants to tag along, and he's okay with letting her make a decision on her own terms. Melody sees the chance to tour as the same as a book tour, and her girlfriend Nancy is supportive of her decision to hit the road. Even Sweet Pea asks Josie if he can join them, as her roadie or whatever. It'll be crowded on the bus but she's secretly thrilled to have him aboard.
But right before she says her final goodbyes to Sierra, Candyman shows up (okay, it's not Candyman but he sure gave off a Candyman vibe) to hint that Myles McCoy might not have simply died from a heart attack. He'd been involved in some shady things including ... voodoo while in New Orleans. Sierra says that living in Riverdale, they know that any death is a suspicious death, and Josie knows where the first stop on her tour will be.
So ... was this episode a potential backdoor pilot for a Pussycats series? Riverdale always ends with the show's logo popping up on the screen, but this one ended with 'The Pussycats'. And while The CW has talked about another spin-off, nothing concrete was mentioned. And would Ashleigh Murray want to commit to playing Josie again? She had major reservations about returning to Riverdale at all because of the past, but perhaps those fences have been mended and if the reaction to this episode is positive, a Pussycats spin-off where they travel around solving mysteries could become a reality. While the timeline of this episode felt oddly out of place, I still found it to be immensely entertaining, finally doing right by the characters who were always pushed aside. So, would you watch a Pussycats series? It it remained faithful to the original comics and cartoon, I'd happily board that tour bus.
Episode 16 :: Band of BrothersSo after last week's weirdly out of place episode, this week's opens with traditional Jughead narration to prove to us the episode were not aired out of order. Uh huh. Sure. But the fun of that episode has given way to much heavier subject matter this week as the core four (well, five) deal with some heavy ... you know what.
Archie
Archie is dealt the heaviest load this week as he continues his quest to expose General Taylor's actions to the Army. The impetus for Archie ramping up his crusade is that Taylor is retiring with full honors, and Archie just can't let that happen knowing it was Taylor's actions that got everyone in his platoon except him and Eric killed. But Erix drops a bombshell on Archie that may impact his quest -- he was acting as a sniper under Taylor's orders to take out a specific target. Eric knew the rest of the troops were in grave danger but he stayed focused on his mission, and now he believes his actions cost everyone their lives and the loss of his leg was punishment.
Archie is nothing if not incredibly understanding, and he affirms to Eric that he did nothing wrong by following orders. It was the orders that were wrong, and if Archie can have a tribunal launched into Taylor's actions, he will keep Eric out of it. Archie also has to deal with the families of the men killed, those who keep haunting him with their gruesome imagery. Some family members blame Archie for leaving the platoon to go off on his own, and others are supportive of anything he wants to do. He confronts Taylor who tells him it will be a game of 'my word against yours' and they certainly won't believe someone like Archie who 'went rogue'. But the tribunal will convene and ... Eric has decided to join Archie to testify against Taylor. And in the end, they prevailed. Eric was found to be following orders and will not be held responsible for the deaths of his platoon members, and the orders Taylor issued were found to be self-serving in the end and Taylor will be dismissed with no honors. As Archie, Eric and Uncle Frank toasted their victory at the Whyte Wyrm, the ghostly platoon members were seen one last time, now whole again, their wounds healed by Archie's actions taken on their behalf. Excuse me for a second, I have a little something in my eye.
Veronica
As her trading business is growing and her rift with Chad is expanding, Veronica suddenly finds her new business the subject of an SEC investigation. And her books are not going to look good, but she'd rather go to white collar jail than to let Chadwick win. But all she needs to do is pay off all the debt he accrued in their names and there's only one way to do it -- sell her father's stash of Palladium. But where is it? Reggie may have the answer since, as he revealed, he and Hermosa has a 'thing' when she was in town and he can sweet talk her into telling him where the Palladium is. And she does. Which seems weird. I expected she'd send them on a wild goose chase to get caught, but no, the Palladium is right in front of everyone's eyes, hidden in the model of Sodale in Hiram's office.
But she can't just sell raw Palladium so he conspires with Cheryl to state the Palladium cam e from her mines and they will smelt it down into Spanish doubloons and auction them off. Okay. Cheryl is on board with anything that screws over Hiram. The day of the auction, Hiram shows up and starts a bidding war, and even though he's bid more than $300,000, she ends the auction on that bid which is enough to pay off Chad's debts. Chad calls and tries to talk her into a new business deal he's got going called 'Copter Cab' which, as Ronnie explains, takes one-percenters to Marsha's Vineyard. And Hiram is on board as well. Ronnie says thanks but no thanks because his creditors are paid off and a divorce is pending, but after the call she realizes she's been dealing with Chad all wrong. So the day the stock in the company goes public and Chad, Hiram and the investors are celebrating, Ronnie shows up with some 'Good Time Girls', booze and Jingle Jangle to celebrate, telling Chad that maybe she was wrong about him and his deal. And then the other shoe drops as the stock suddenly nose dives. Oh, did Veronica forget to mention she dropped a little tidbit to the press that Chad once crashed a helicopter? Yeah, you can't have a successful chopper business with that hanging over your head. Oops. And she takes pleasure that this is also hitting her father, but he tells her he only invested a small sum that is barely a blip to him. She says he'd better rething his Sodale plans as well and take a closer look at his model. At his office, he lifts one of the model houses and sees the Palladium but ... it crumbles in his hand. Ronnie and Reggie replaced the real stuff with silver-painted Plaster of Paris. Hiram is NOT happy that she's gotten the upper hand on him. Again.
Cheryl
With Kevin by her side, Cheryl is now battling her mother for control of their new religion. Cheryl has gotten so in deep that she now believes she has full authority ... and Penelope claiming that Jason gave her a message that there would be no more singing only pushed Cheryl's buttons further. So how will she convince the congregation that she is the anointed one? Why by performing three miracles, of course, which would qualify her for sainthood. And it just so happens that Kevin was way into magician David Copperfield when he was a kid so he knows a few things about 'miracles'. For her first miracle, Cheryl paraphrases Jesus' act of turning water into wine by turning water into ... maple syrup (Kevin's grand gestures scream 'magician's assistant' but the audience falls for it). For her next trick, uh miracle, Cheryl manifests the stigmata on her hands. That one is a little confusing since Jason, who is this church's God, wasn't crucified. I guess hole in the head stigmata would have been too gruesome.
Kevin has some ideas for the third 'miracle' but Cheryl has her own idea and it involves ... bees. Kevin is deathly allergic to bees so he's not on board but Cheryl convinces him she knows what she's doing. So at the next service she has a clear box full of bees and a honeycomb, demonstrating how she has dominion over the insects. Penelope tries to put an end to this magic show, but Cheryl pulls her hands out of the box with the bees following her, and threatens to unleash the bees on Penelope if she doesn't bow out right then and there. Penelope has no choice, but I'm sure she'll have something else up her sleeve. Later, Kevin asked Cheryl if she used some kind of pheromone on herself to keep the bees under control, and she admits that she did not do anything. But she felt something at that moment, changed inside, and perhaps she is not the living embodiment of a true saint. Kevin's reaction says he thinks maybe it's also time for him to cut and run.
Jughead & Betty
Jughead is back in Riverdale and seven days sober. Time to start his 'apology tour'. His first stop is Betty's house, but a disheveled Alice tells him Betty is working the Lonesome Highway, and he asks her to tell Betty he was there. Oddly, he didn't apologize to Alice for his past actions. Next is Mr. Weatherbee, hoping he can return to the high school to teach but since he just disappeared without even arranging a substitute, Weatherbee is placing him on administrative leave. Tabitha is the only person who shows Jughead any compassion, and she also tells him about Betty's activities trying to find Polly's (presumed) killer. Jughead texts Betty and asks to talk in person, and they arrange to meet at the bunker for privacy.
Jughead also has a publisher deadline hanging over his head with nothing to present, but he remembers the book a young woman in New York gave him to read for his feedback. He finally did read it and it was great. So great, in fact, that he submits it to his agent as his own work. Betty comes to the bunker and Jughead tries to apologize for the awful message he left her, which he doesn't remember most of, and Betty admits that she was going to his book release party that night but she was so consumed with tracking down the Trash Bag Killer that she blew off the party to focus on that (she doesn't mention if this was when she was captured) and that perhaps she has her own addiction to serial killers. As she tells Jughead about how consumed she is with these killers and getting into their heads to find them, Jughead's phone rings. It's his agent who is ecstatic about the book. But Jughead can't deal with another lie and he admits he didn't write it. His agent is forced to drop him as a client but wishes him well, and Jughead says he'll forward the true author's information to him. When Jughead hangs up and turns around, Betty is gone.
Back at her house, Alice is passed out on the couch and Betty is dressed for another night out on the Lonesome Highway, but before she can leave there is a knock at the door. It's Tabitha, who insists that she is going to get changed and go with Betty because what she's doing is too dangerous to do on her own. And she's not taking no for an answer. And the last we see of the two young women, they are traipsing down the road but none of the passing trucks are stopping. Will Betty ever get her man?
Episode 17 :: Dance of DeathAfter this week there are just two episodes left for the fifth season of Riverdale (Season 6 premieres on November 16 with a five-episode 'mini-series'), and they seem to have completely wrapped up the season's over-arching storyline of the Lonesome Highway murders. At least one other storyline was wrapped up as well, so it will be interesting to see where things go from here. Of course, there will have to be a lot of personal healing to be done in the coming weeks.
In a minor bit of story that ties into one of the two bigger stories this week, Kevin begins to question who exactly they're praying to in the Blossom religion (cult). Penelope begins to put questions into 'dear, sweet' Kevin's mind about Cheryl doing this all for herself, and when confronted she doesn't even have an answer. So she goes on a fast -- and nearly falls over from hunger -- but comes up with a painting to show Kevin they are praying to Gaia, Mother Earth. Kevin finally sees the light ... that this is a cult, and he's out but there's always a place for him if he wishes to return.
Cheryl's focus on a deity does play into the mining story with Archie. So far they have not hit the 'mother lode' of Palladium expected, and the money is not flowing in to keep paying for the crew or the operation. Cheryl gives Archie an advance of $517 (sponsored by Chime ... there literally was a Chime commercial right after this scene) and he's happy enough with that to continue the digging. Archie gets more good news from Veronica -- her divorce is final. Of course it came at a cost as Chad wanted everything that Veronica paid for and alimony on top of that, and she was happy to give it to him just to get him out of her life. Probably telling him he'd never be Archie wasn't the smartest move because the little weasel ran right to Hiram to cry on his shoulder, but Hiram told him he'd never have Veronica if Archie was around.
So handing Chad his untraceable 'ghost gun', Chad actually tried to sneak up on Archie and shoot him to death. Archie pulled a nice Captain America move with a trash can lid and hit Chad right in the nose with it, causing him to drop the gun and flee. Armed (no pun intended) with this information -- apparently the gun was easily traced back to Hiram by his daughter -- Ronnie went back to the tables with their lawyers and informed Chad that he'd get nothing but an attempted murder charge if he didn't hit the pavement. Totally emasculated, Chad ran to Hiram, again, but Hiram was done with the pathetic 'little bitch' and also told him to get out of Riverdale. But did he listen?
With Chad unable to do Hiram's dirty work, he did it himself by having a bomb planted at the Palladium mine, causing a cave in which trapped Archie and Eric. Hearing of the disaster, Veronica offered any assistance at any price to get Archiekins out of the mine, even helping remove large rocks with the rest of the crew. Gashing her hand open, Cheryl offers some First Aid and tells Ronnie to go home, freshen up and be ready to welcome Archie back to the land of the living. She reluctantly leaves, and Cheryl decides now is the time to call on Mother Earth, praying to the elements as hard as she can ... and actually getting some results. But back at the Pembroke, Veronica is unaware that Chad has let himself in (girl, change those locks!) but he's not stealthy enough for her to not hear him stomping around. Having her home assistant turn off all the lights and blast 'Ride of the Valkyries', she manages to get the upper hand on Chad. He drops his gun and the two fight over control, and just as Smithers walks in, he hears two gunshots. Asking for the music to stop and the lights to come on, he sees Veronica standing over the dead, bloody body of Chadwick Gekko.
Knowing all of this was her father's doing, she managed to sneak up on him and knock him out, tying him to a chair, and informing him that Chad is dead and that if Archie dies, he will die too. She then gets the news from Cheryl that Archie and Eric have miraculously exited the mine, so Hiram lives to see another day, but as she cuts him free she finally tells him that their little 'dance of death' is done, and he's the big loser. As she returns home with Archie, Hiram really does seem like a broken man, burning a photo of Veronica and Hermione, realizing he truly has lost two precious things in his life (he still has Hermosa, right?).
Meanwhile, Tabitha has called a meeting with Betty and Jughead to help find a former waitress at the diner who's been missing for some time. She fears she was a victim of the Lonesome Highway killer, and she hopes the town's best mystery-solving team can figure out what happened to her. Toni also has an issue with a student who is planning to come out to her parents, but even though it seemed to go as well as it could, the young girl still decided to run away from home, causing more worry for everyone. But Jughead managed to get in touch with Lerman Logan (he'd been forbidden to reach out to the boy while he was a teacher, but now that he's been fired ...), and he comes to the diner to talk about his abduction. He mentions the shed, like a spaceship, and how he was actually rescued by a Mothman, who told him he was a mistake. Lerman also revealed that he knew he was near the highway because he could hear trucks rolling by.
Armed with all of this new information, including the fact that the guy who bit off his tongue and choked on it had Blossom DNA, Juggie and Betty pay another visit to Nana Blossom who tries to play coy with them but finally breaks, revealing the 'alien' remains they had found in the barrel of maple syrup -- and had been stolen from Pop's -- was in fact a deformed human, a result of ... Blossom family inbreeding (ick). In fact, there was a whole family of brothers she had taken to the woods to keep them out of public view so as to not bring even more shame to the family name, but they've since moved closer to ... the highway. And the Mothmen story was just something cooked up to throw people off the trail, and the Blossom family fully embraced it. Jughead and Betty know now that Old Man Dreyfus was their culprit the entire time, and they had already been on the property which makes Betty even more anxious because Polly could have been there the whole time.
Dr. Curdle Jr. had a new body brought to the morgue, but this one was dismembered and difficult to identify, but through a DNA test they determined it was not Polly but it was the missing friend of Tabitha. Knowing that Toni's student is also now missing, Jughead, Betty, Toni and Fangs form a posse to pay a visit to the junkyard, with Jughead acting as the decoy, conducting another interview with Dreyfus about the Mothmen. While the others search the grounds, Jughead doesn't take long before he reveals he knows what Dreyfus and his brothers have been up to, and outside the brothers, dressed in their Mothmen get-ups, go on the attack, The Hills Have Eyes style. Toni does manage to find the shed and the girl, but she is attacked from behind, Fangs steps in a bear trap and Betty is nearly choked out. But they all prevail, rescue the girl and get Dreyfus to the police station.
With their rein of terror at an end, Betty asks Dreyfus to tell her where Polly is. She was at the junkyard the whole time, and he drew her a map of where to find her. Taking Alice along, the two make their way to an old car, and opening the trunk they find Polly's body. It was a tragic and heartbreaking end to this story and to this episode.
So what comes next? From the preview, it looks like poor Alice is not quite ready to accept Polly's death. And let's give out some praise to Penelope Blossom herself, Nathalie Boltt, for her terrific directing on this episode.
Episode 18 :: Next to NormalRiverdale's annual musical episode -- and there have been several episodes with music this season -- has finally arrived and it's a bit of a downer as Betty and Alice try to come to terms with Polly's murder. The whole scenario was the perfect opportunity to use songs from the Broadway musical Next to Normal which is also about a dysfunctional family with a dead sibling and a mother who escapes into her own fantasy world instead of confronting the truth.
Betty can see poor Alice spiraling as she listens to the show's soundtrack over and over again, at the same time slipping into her fantasy world where she prepares a huge dinner for all of her children -- including the not dead Charles, but not the dead Hal -- and spending time looking at photos of Polly while ignoring Betty. Betty seems to be dealing with Polly's death better than Alice, and perhaps that's because she has a support system in her Riverdale friends. Alice really has no one but Betty, but when Betty tries to drag her mother into the real world with a trip to New York City for dinner and Moulin Rouge!, Alice imagines Polly berating her for daring to consider leaving her alone at the house, so she refuses to go with Betty. Even worse, she blames Betty for Polly's death, saying if she hadn't left Riverdale for seven years then Polly would still be alive.
That sends Betty on her way out the door, seeking some comfort from Kevin (no, she didn't invite him to go to NYC with her), which gave them a chance to sing a duet. But Betty becomes even more concerned about her mother when she comes home and there's a piano in the living room, bringing Alice back to a time when Betty and Polly were getting piano lessons. Before her mother can slip even farther away, Betty takes matters into her own hands and removes the piano and the record player from the house, replacing them with ... the urn with Polly's ashes, hoping that something this tangible will shake Alice back to reality. It does in another heart-wrenching moment between the two women as Alice finally lets go. And if you weren't already in tears, the episode ends as the cast gathers in the cemetery for a final number together as mother and sister put Polly to rest. It was a very cathartic moment after a very heavy episode.
Elsewhere, Tabitha is visited by her parents who are in town for Mother's Day. Tabitha is proud to show all the improvements she's made to Pop's but her rather stuffy parents are not impressed. When she suggests they have Mother's Day dinner at the diner, they scoff, telling her they have reservations at a fine Italian restaurant. Tabitha agrees to join them as long as she can bring ... her boyfriend Jughead along. This status update comes as news to Jughead, and Tabitha admits they could be in a relationship if things weren't so messy in their lives. But, in another song from the show, Jughead assures her that he might be a mess but they can make it work. He shows up late to dinner, but by that point Tabitha has had enough of her parents, and she runs off with Jughead to make their relationship official.
Toni is still concerned about Britta, who has been kicked out of her house after coming out and is living in a closet at the high school. Toni calls in a friend who is also a counselor, and they try to find a foster home but Toni is not having any luck. Fangs suggests there is one person in Riverdale who seems to have turned over a new leaf, but that's not someone Toni is confident in turning over a homeless teen to. But with her options basically depleted, Toni visits Cheryl (who earlier 'exorcised' her mother from her religion), and tells her she has complete confidence that Cheryl is the right person to take Britta in considering her own history with her parents when she came out, and Cheryl is honored to give Britta a home. After the whole experience, Toni goes home and tells Fangs she thinks she loves him, and Fangs replies that he thinks he loves her and that they can make this whole situation work.
Not making their situation work is Veronica and Archie. While things seemed to be heading in the right direction, Veronica suggested it may be time to move in together. Archie is surprised that Ronnie would want roommates not understanding she meant him moving into the Pembroke. But he says with his house they have room to grow there so she agrees to give it a shot. She invites Betty and Alice for dinner -- Alice refuses to leave the house -- so it's a huge spread of chicken cordon bleu for Archie, Frank and Jughead (ummm, where's Eric?) but the second they sit down to eat, Archie and Frank get a fire alert so they have to take off, leaving Veronica and Jughead to eat alone ... and even Jughead finds the situation uncomfortable enough to go eat in his room. Later, Ronnie wakes up to singing in the bathroom thinking it's Archie, but it's Jughead, and she sees much more of Frank in she shower than she anticipated. Archie slept at the station to be on call and give the other guys a break.
After spending some time with Reggie helping him brush up on his stock broker accreditation test, and hearing his dreams of where he'll be in five years (hint: not Riverdale), Veronica decides to ask Archie where he sees hiself in five years. Telling her he'd never stand in the way of an opportunity for her, Archie says in his heart of hearts he sees himself in ... Riverdale in five years (probably forever). Ronnie says that's not a deal breaker. Archie can sense that it is and suggests they just go back to dating and having fun but she says this isn't high school anymore, so she packs her bags and leaves Archie for bigger and better things. And perhaps Reggie.
Next week it's the season finale before the show returns in November for its sixth season.
Episode 19 :: RIVERDALE: RIP (?)Let's Talk About 'RIVERDALE: RIP (?)':
- Jughead has cleaned up his act enough for Mr. Weatherbee to call him back to mentor students who want to revive the school paper, The Blue & Gold, turning it into a true source of journalism renamed the Riverdale Choice.
- Archie's friend Eric has gone back to his home, so we won't be seeing him anymore.
- Betty has graduated from her FBI training and is given the plum opportunity to open a field branch right in Riverdale.
- Veronica is not welcome back in New York City, going from the She-Wolf of Wall Street to the Black Widow of Wall Street after killing Chad (even if it was self defense).
- Jughead and Tabitha make it official, while a spark seem to ignite between Alice and Frank.
- A Ghoulie firebombs Pop's, and no one wastes a second pinning the heinous act on Hiram.
- Betty gets a phone call from the Trash Bag Killer congratulating her upon her graduation and promises to not come after her if she can promise him the same.
- With the threat of a Ghoulie incursion, Toni decides it's time to bring the Serpents back to town, making Fangs her Sepent King and baby Anthony the heir to the throne.
- Sheriff Keller asks Kevin to be his full-time deputy, but Kevin wants to give New York City and Broadway one more try.
- Archie, Betty, Veronica and Jughead spearhead a movement to get Riverdale reincorporated.
- Cheryl and Britta take to the mines themselves but instead of palladium, they find skeletons. Lots and lots of skeletons. Nana Rose reveals the truth of Riverdale's horrific past, leading Cheryl to demand a public apology or there will be consequences.
- Pop Tate returns and offers to help Tabitha rebuild the diner ... on the condition that he can come back to work there. Of course he can!
- Reggie fails his stockbroker exam, so he proposes building a casino in Riverdale. Ronnie is hesitant at first but after she learns she's persona non grata on Wall Street, she agrees but selling the idea to the town is another issue.
- The entire population of Riverdale (or at least the actors in this episode) gathers to run Hiram Lodge out of town. He does leave ... with a bang.
The fifth season finale of Riverdale is a culmination of everything that's been built up since the season started with the seven year time jump and Hiram Lodge's stranglehold on the town, getting it unincorporated and ripe for his picking once SoDale was up and running. So pretty much any side plots in this episode were all tied to the main thrust of getting Riverdale away from Hiram. And that campaign was launched when a Ghoulie showed up at Pop's with a Molotov cocktail. No one hesitated to think that it was anyone but Hiram behind the deed and they were right. Toni and Fangs beat the information out of the guy who also added insult to injury when he told them the Serpents were a joke with their jobs and babies, and the destruction of Pop's -- and the Whyte Wyrm below -- would allow the Ghoulies to retake Riverdale. That ain't happening on Toni's watch, so she and Fangs make a pact to fulfill their duties as Serpent King and Queen, with baby Anthony as their prince, and bring the Serpents back to town, no more trucking for them. But they have to make Riverdale a real town again if they plan to give them jobs that pay as well as truck drivers. And knowing Hiram's plan to take full control of Riverdale came at the cost of Pop's and other suspicious fires around town, Jughead and Tabita firebomb Hiram's propaganda newspaper, the Lodge Ledger.
Archie, Betty, Veronica and Jughead spearhead a movement to gather signatures from 51% of the population of Riverdale to get the town reincorporated. Archie asks Toni to get the Serpents to help but at this point she isn't too keen on making them run errands for Archie. She relents though because they know they face a greater foe in Hiram Lodge. After setting the diner on fire, Archie, Betty and Sheriff Keller waste no time in arresting Hiram -- without evidence -- and toss him in jail. But they need something to nail him so Ronnie, Betty and Archie go through his papers to see what they can find. Ronnie does find the smoking gun that shows Hiram was planning to absorb Riverdale into SoDale and that, or course, included the palladium mines under the Blossom maple groves.
But knowing Hiram's well-paid attorneys will get him freed from any and all charges lodged (no pun intended) against him, there's only one thing they can do to make sure Hiram never does harm to Riverdale again -- make him disappear. Veronica knows Hermione won't look for him, and neither will Hermosa. Archie also knows Sheriff Keller will look the other way, and Betty says the FBI won't investigate his disappearance. The final nail in Hiram's coffin comes from Reggie, who gives Ronnie a flash drive containing security video of Hiram murdering the old mob boss in the hospital. So while the sheriff is 'out to lunch', Veronica and Archie pay Hiram a visit, marching him out of his cell at gunpoint. He truly believes she is going to kill him, but when they get to the city limits, the whole town is there for his send off, what he now believes to be a public execution. But Ronnie does show some mercy after playing him the security video footage. He blames Archie for Ronnie's behavior, but she tells him they broke up and this is all her. Ouch. With only the clothes on his back, he's banished from Riverdale. They'll sell what they can of his assets to rebuild Pop's and get the town back on its feet. As Hiram walks away, he stops and turns and everyone raises a weapon, from Cheryl and her bow and arrow to Alice and a shotgun. Is this the last we'll see of Hiram Lodge? (Mark Consuelos will not return as a series regular for Season 6, so he may or may not make a guest appearance, but this leaves Madchen Amick as the last full time parent on the show.)
With Hiram gone, the group now needs to focus on what a new Riverdale will look like. Archie asks Toni to be the new mayor, but she declines. He asks Fangs as well, but in his new position as Serpent King, he has other things on his plate (I'm surprised he didn't ask Alice, who seems to be the natural choice). SO what kind of government should the town have? One with a ruling committee and all major issues brought to a public vote? A mayor who answers to a committee? A mayor seems out of the question since most people still have a bad taste in their mouths from Hiram's abuse of power, so what the government will look like remains up in the air.
They have another major issue to deal with, though, as Cheryl burst in on the meeting. She and Britta had taken to working the mines themselves and came across hundreds of skeletons entombed in the mine. Bringing this shocking discovery to Nana Rose, she tells Cheryl she wondered if anyone would ever find 'The Forgotten'. Nana relates the story of Abigail Blossom, circa 1890. Thorn Hill was a school for girls at the time run by Abigail, but the townspeople of Riverdale feared and hated Abigail, accusing her of being a witch. They also knew of the palladium under the groves so they decided to steal it, storming Thorn Hill with pitchforks and torches, burning Abigail at the stake. Nana reveals the conspirators were Archibald Andrews, Jedediah Jones and Beatrice Cooper. With Abigail's dying breath, she cursed the town, damning them all to tragedy, and not long after while they were working in the mines, there was a collapse, entombing a generation of fathers and sons. And it's all in Abigail's journals.
So Cheryl now demands a public and immediate apology from Archie, Jughead and Betty, but Archie asks her to just hold off until they can get the town stabilized. She reminds them that the roots of her maple trees have become entwined with those bodies which in turn nourished her trees. And she's spent years atoning for her own family's sins so she prays they do the right thing. But at the town meeting, Archie is focused on getting things moving to take Riverdale back. He announces that in lieu of a mayor, there will be a council of four (it really should be five, Archie, to avoid tie votes). Cheryl storms into the meeting and assumes the four will be Archie, Betty, Veronica and Jughead. Archie surprises her with the news that his proposed council would be Tabitha Tate, Toni Topaz, Alice Smith and ... Uncle Frank? I guess he's staying and that spark with Alice will ignite. Why didn't he ask Cheryl to appease her a little?! Archie, Archie, Archie. But a vote is held, it's unanimous, and Riverdale is reincorporated. But still no apology to Cheryl.
Ronnie and Reggie use this opportunity to bring the idea of a new family-friendly casino to town, but Frank and Alice immediately shoot that dowm saying it will turn Riverdale into a modern day Sodom and Gomorrah. Tabitha wants to focus on rebuilding Pop's, but Toni at least asks them to bring a formal proposal to the first council meeting next month. They pair decide to just go ahead and start a small on in a back room. Cheryl return to Thorn Hill telling Nana that the town has no interest in revisiting the past, and Nana isn't surprised. She asks Cheryl to read a document of Abigail's last words, the curse she bestowed on the town. She does and upon finishing the doors fly open as a wind whips through the room. After things calm down, Cheryl announces she is turning Thorn Hill from a church to a school for wayward girls, just like Abigail (is she perhaps now possessed by Abigail's spirit?).
Archie erects a new Riverdale sign at the city limit, and a sudden cold wind sweeps through town. At their casino, a spark ignites between Ronnie and Reggie. Tabitha and Jughead make their own relationship official, and at Archie's house he and Betty agree that it's time to make their relationship work again. They go to Archie's bedroom but they hear a ticking sound. Is it the digital clock? No. Archie looks under the bed and sees a bomb with just a few seconds left on the clock. At the town's border, Hiram Lodge is sitting in his car also watching the time tick down to zero. As he drives away, a fire can be seen in the distance, in the heart of Riverdale.
Now that's a cliffhanger! Fortunately because of the way the show was scheduled this season, Season 6 begins in just a few weeks rather than a few months and it looks like some big changes are coming in the five episode premiere event, not the least of which finds the town now named Rivervale. And while Hiram Lodge may be gone, everyone's favorite teen-age witch, Sabrina Spellman, will be paying a visit! Now that is something to look forward to.
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