What TV show did you last watch a season of on DVD/Blu-ray?

'Chapter One: The River's Edge'

I had a vague memory of reading that there'd be things like incest in this show, but the Blossom twins that the first episode started with via a flashback were giving off such 'twincesty' vibes that I think I would've thought of them as this show's equivalent of the Lannisters even if I hadn't read about such subjects being in this show beforehand. Anyway, the guy half of the pair mysteriously dies and we have our first season-long mystery.

In other news, Archie is so boring. He's got to be the most boring character in the show - which isn't good, since he's the lead. I also found the actor who played him pretty 'weak' (when compared to the rest) in this first episode. And not only is he boring, but he's clearly stupid as well judging from the fact that he has nice girl Betty lusting after him and he's clearly too blind to see it or is just ignoring it. She's way too good for him anyhow, especially considering how easily he's distracted (when poor Betty's trying to tell him how she feels) as new girl Veronica enters the retro diner they all apparently hang out at. Ah, the ol' love triangle that seems to be a prerequisite for any teen show. 

I guess what set this love triangle apart from the many many others was the fact that Veronica, while seeming to have a slightly bitchy edge, was actually trying to be decent and befriended Betty despite also immediately taking an interest in Archie (dear lord, why?!). Veronica even tries to help Betty out with pursuing Archie and getting through his Cro-Magnon skull. As comments I read elsewhere said, Betty/Veronica (and the actresses playing them) had far more chemistry together than either of them had with dull-as-dishwater Archie. They were already much more interesting than him, and this was before they'd even shared a snog at one point while trying out for cheerleading. 



Ditch the ranga, girls - you don't need him!

I liked that neither Betty nor Veronica were entirely what they first appeared to be. Betty seemed like the typical 'perfect' nice girl type of character, but when Cheryl Blossom (these names - Moose, Cheryl Blossom...and we haven't even gotten to Jughead yet. I know they're the names of the characters from the comics, but I want to hear the in-show explanation for why these characters were given such weird names, damn it!) was trying to make her mad during cheerleading tryouts, she dug her fingernails into her palms whilst trying to remain calm - she's also on medication, so I get the feeling that underneath her bright/cheery exterior there lurks some 'darkness'. Contrast that with Veronica, who seemed at first like the typical snarky rich girl, but showed she was more than that when she stuck up for Betty against Cheryl and then tried to help her get with Archie and even made an effort to hold off snogging the redheaded plank of wood when Cheryl purposely stuck them in a closet together just to twist the knife into poor Betty. I liked that they stood up for each other (Veronica for Betty against Cheryl and Betty for Veronica against her mum). 


Too bad Veronica was so into Crimson Cardboard Archie that she couldn't resist the desire to snog (though they were both to blame, as at this point it was pretty damn clear how Betty felt about him...yet he did it anyway). And Veronica was doing so well too! She was shedding her previous self and becoming decent. Disappointing. Damn you, Archie! I think it's his hair that holds power over all the women in Riverdale. It has to be. It's unnaturally bright (like a stoplight) and is the only explanation for not only why these two girls (who're WAY out of his league) like him, but why he managed to bang his music teacher, Miss Grundy, also. You manwhore, Archie! The only one who I haven't seen lusting after him thus far is Cheryl Blossom (though maybe she'll get with him at some point, pretending he's her bro - how messed up would that be?). She was pretty bitchy to poor Betty (I might not get a lot of what 'teenage' characters talk about in shows these days, but at least I got the Betty Draper references), though she was also the character who got the only laugh out of me during the episode.



She's pretty horrible, but at least she made me laugh. Unlike Josie from Josie and the Pussycats in this first episode, who managed to make a bad first impression as a character with her bitchiness (when you have me feeling sorry for Archie because of how you acted towards him...something's seriously wrong) and then in her second scene of the episode later on, she proceeded to butcher Cyndi Lauper's song 'All Through the Night'. Cheryl was bitchy, but funny...whereas Josie just seemed to be bitchy (and not great at doing covers). I even felt a bit sorry for her two fellow Pussycats who didn't even seem to get a line this episode. 

Speaking of not getting much to do, although the character of Jughead had been providing voiceover during the episode and we'd seen him occasionally, his only 'real' scene came towards the end when he chatted with Archie. It was like the show was 'saving' having him properly appear in the episode, like he's something special. From what I've seen on the internet, apparently there are those who do regard him highly...but I myself haven't yet seen anything that really stands out about him other than the fact that in place of his comic book counterpart's crown, this version wears a beanie (big whoop!). 

The episode ends with Cheryl's bro (and possibly more?) washing ashore, looking all corpsified and gross with a bullet wound in his forehead. 

Admittedly, I'm quite behind with this show. I remember reading comments hyping it up quite a bit when it first started, but then it seemed to lose people over time. This first episode got me moderately interested, I liked the characters of Betty and Veronica (as well as the actresses who played them), plus it was nice to see Marisol Nichols and Mädchen Amick in this (playing parents to the two girls). They both still look good.

'Chapter Two: A Touch of Evil'

Okay, so the first episode of the show featured gratuitous Archie shirtlessness, and it seems like this is going to be a regular thing since that's how this second episode begins - him running over to Miss Grundy, at night, shirtless. Who does that?? It's also been bugging me trying to figure out where I recognised the actress playing Miss Grundy from (I do feel it's necessary to include 'Miss' every time I type her name otherwise it just conjures up images of that grey Hulk-like character, Solomon Grundy, from Stargirl and to a lesser extent Gotham). It turns out she was in a short-lived show called Rush alongside Tom Ellis from Lucifer. Thank goodness I finally looked her up on IMDB, since it was driving me nuts trying to work out where I'd seen her before. Of course, she's wearing Clark Kent glasses - Christopher Reeve era (they're HUGE) - so that might've been throwing me off. I forgot to mention in my previous episode review that when she and Archie were bumping uglies on the 4th of July, they heard a gunshot and didn't want to come forth about it because then they'd have to explain why they were out together early morning around where Jason Blossom died. Although, by the end of the episode it appears his sister (who may have been more) could be responsible...except clearly that can't be the case, otherwise this would be the shortest murder mystery in a show ever. Speaking of Cheryl, for the second episode in a row she managed to be the one character to give me a laugh, as she interrupted the principal and sheriff talking about the pep rally and her bro's death being treated as a homicide. 



She's amusingly over-the-top, but also continued to show how bitchy she could be by acting all nice towards Betty, then turning on a dime, insulting her (which she seems to do a lot) and revealing it was all an act. However, Betty proved to be no pushover and threatened to kill Cheryl unless she got out of her house. Now, this could just be a red herring to make us think Betty's maybe responsible for Cheryl's bro winding up dead, but what surprised me was just how threatening Betty became towards Cheryl. For a minute I thought it may have just been Betty imagining what she wanted to say to her...but nope, it actually happened. So, Betty's not all sweetness and light. She's got a dark side (which makes her more interesting than the typical 'nice girl' type of character). Also proving she wasn't by any means 'perfect' (as the nice girl characters are often accused of being) was the fact that she still hadn't forgiven Veronica and Archie for being stuck in a closet together, even after she said she was happy to just be friends with Archie (I personally think it was his sub-par singing that set her off. She broke down because she realised she'd pined after this dude who wants to pursue a career in music...and he can't even sing that well. That's my 'headcanon', anyway).

Meanwhile, Veronica was doing her best to win back Betty's friendship, but not having much luck. I do think Camila Mendes does a good job of making Veronica come across as sincere, when it'd be very easy for her to seem like Cheryl - only pretending to want to be friends with Betty whilst actually stabbing her in the back by pursuing Archie. I don't see it that way. To me it seems like she's wanting to do right by Betty, but also struggling not to fall back into bad habits/her old self. It seemed to be after Betty saw Veronica comforting Cheryl (who'd been nasty to not only Betty, but Veronica too) that Betty finally was willing to give Veronica another chance (complete with 'dark' and 'light' milkshakes). Too bad that after they made a vow to never let a guy come between them again, 3 seconds later Archie and Jughead turned up and Betty could see from the way Veronica looked at Archie that their vow probably wasn't going to last very long. I just hope this Betty and Veronica being at odds, then making up, then being at odds again thing isn't going to be an endless cycle. I went through enough of that with Serena and Blair in Gossip Girl. 

Thankfully Josie was only in the one scene this episode. It took the show until its second episode to work in The Archies' 'Sugar, Sugar' - which didn't sound that great here (what is it with them messing with classic songs?), but at least it was a slight improvement over Josie and the Pussycats' butchering of Cyndi Lauper's 'All Through the Night' last episode. Josie seemed to get along with Cheryl...but then again, any friend of Cheryl makes you wonder about their taste in friends (and vice versa). There's a connection between this show, the last show I finished on DVD and the movie I watched before that show. One of Josie's fellow Pussycats in this show is played by an actress I first saw in the movie Spontaneous with Katherine Langford whose show 13 Reasons Why was another one I'd held onto for forever without watching and then finally did (after watching that movie), and one of the actors in that show plays Reggie in this show, who was giving Jughead a hard time. Speaking of...I still don't get what's so 'great' about Jughead's character. I can see him 'acting'. It's actually quite distracting. Though I finally noticed his beanie has points on it to resemble the crown his comic book counterpart wears.

'Chapter Three: Body Double' and 'Chapter Four: 'The Last Picture Show'

I watched these^ two episodes in a row, so my thoughts on them kind of blended together - which is reflected in this here review. I remember the third episode had more of Josie and the Pussycats...well...more of Josie, anyway. Her fellow Pussycats barely got a word in, and when one of them did start to say something (the character of Valerie, played by the actress I recognised from the movie Spontaneous which I recently watched), Josie basically told her to shut it. Consequently, I already prefer the other two Pussycats to Josie. Hell, I even like Josie's mother (who's also mayor of Riverdale) more than Josie (whose attitude just annoyed me, especially after her big speech to Archie about how he couldn't possibly write songs for her...and then proceeded to use his suggestion when they were stumped for song lyrics). One 'positive' thing I can say is that their singing of Archie's song was at least better than the two covers they performed in the previous episodes (though I didn't like this episode as much as the previous two).

Meanwhile, Veronica goes on a date with a guy who turns out to be a real jerk and who she later finds out has superimposed maple syrup onto her face (ew) in a photo taken during their date and posted it for all to see. Apparently it's known as a 'Sticky Maple' and is 'a visual act of slut-shaming in Riverdale'. This gave me flashbacks to the show I just finished the first season of before I started watching this one - 13 Reasons Why. There was quite a bit of 'slut-shaming' in that too (though I can't recall any involving pancake toppings). There was more heavy-handedness in this show regarding the 'message' they were tying to get across (whereas 13 Reasons Why had a bit of nuance to it), but Veronica continued to prove her awesomeness by once again standing up to Cheryl Blossom and making it clear she didn't approve of her casually calling all the girls 'sluts' (who'd assembled to tell their stories of having similar experiences to Veronica). 

Things took an interesting turn later on when 'B & V' (as they've come be known as) put together a trap for the jerk (though how he didn't even have an inkling something was up, after the way they'd reacted to him earlier, I don't know. I guess he wasn't really thinking with his upstairs brain). The trap involved Veronica in her swimwear and the jerk getting into a hot tub, then Betty showed up in a black wig and I wondered what that was about - were they going for some kinky double Veronica sort of thing? 



Anyway, they basically drug him (which is fine, since he's a jerk) with truth serum and handcuff him to the hot tub so he can't get out. Things take a bit of a turn when Betty really lets her feelings be known to him by slowly pushing him down into the water until Veronica stops her. Has Betty got multiple personality disorder?

Somewhere along the line Jughead figures out Archie and Miss Grundy were together (in the biblical sense) on the 4th of July. By the fourth episode, Betty and Veronica find out about it too, they confront him, but he stands by his teacher/sex buddy. He's already been grounded by his dad in the previous episode (but sneaks out to go co-write songs with Josie and the Pussycats. Ungrateful Archie! His dad even soundproofs their garage so his son can practice his music whilst grounded...not that it'll do him much good, as it would require him to actually be able to sing), then won't listen to Betty and Veronica when they confront him about Miss Grundy after them having done some detective work and discovering she's not who she claims to be.

Elsewhere, Veronica's mum (whose name is Hermione - which will take me a while to get used to not associating with Harry Pothead) proves just as adept at witty comebacks in response to Cheryl's insults (she was really rude, basically accusing Veronica's mum of being likely to steal her money). In contrast, Betty’s mum is constantly bitchy to everyone - which is why I cheered when Cheryl's mum punched her in the face at one point. This isn't enough to slow her down, though, and she goes through Betty's things, finds the gun Betty stole from Miss Grundy earlier (when she was doing detective work and found it in her car) and even reads her diary, then later she is part of a confrontation/intervention featuring Archie, his dad, Betty and Miss Grundy herself.

There are a lot of different arguments/exchanges going on in this scene - Archie's dad just wants to protect his dope of a son, Betty's also looking out for his wellbeing, while her mum apparently has a vendetta against Archie, blaming him for all her family problems. Betty stands up for him, while Archie (dope that he is) stands by Miss Grundy who eventually says she'll quit her job and leave. Apparently everyone's cool with this (including the parents) after some negotiating. Clearly Miss Grundy's 'relationship' with Archie wasn't meant to be seen as anything other than disturbing, given the way she eyes some other potential victims before she's about to hit the road (unlike with Pretty Little Liars, where eventually it seemed everyone was cool with Mr. Fitz and his student, Aria, being together).



The rest of the episode wasn't quite as interesting, as it was something about Jughead wanting to keep the local drive-in movie theatre open because he lived there...or something. I honestly didn't really care enough to pay that much attention. There was some crossover between it and Veronica's storyline, since the biker who Veronica's mum was paying turned out to be Jughead's dad (played by Skeet Ulrich - it's weird seeing the actors/actresses who are playing the parents of these 'teenagers', as I could see several of them playing those parts themselves back in the 90's when they were younger), and I continue to not get what the big deal is about Jughead. Everyone online seems to act like he's so great, but his voiceovering sucks, he's not terribly interesting to listen to when he's interacting with other characters, and the only thing he did this episode that stood out to me was his graffiti/vandalism that included his comic book counterpart's trademark crown as part of his 'tagging'. Honestly, he kind of bores me. 

Veronica was the only part I enjoyed of this^ storyline. First, when she said that anything with Audrey Hepburn or Cate Blanchett should be the final film shown at the drive-in (as if I didn't love her character enough already) and then later when she told the noisy/disruptive bikers to shut up so she could watch the movie (sadly, not one featuring Hepburn or Blanchett like she'd hoped for). It was a bit weird how Cheryl just casually joined Veronica and the guy whose name I'm not even sure of (though he finds himself a new b/f in the form of one of those bikers), making herself at home under the blanket with them in the back of the truck where they were sitting to watch the movie and ordering the guy to go refill the popcorn. Then again, her acting entitled shouldn't really come as a surprise to me, since that's pretty much how she's been from the start. I guess it was more surprising Veronica just went along with it after all the crap Cheryl had given her (and Betty). It seems Cheryl's pulling a Cordelia from BtVS and slowly becoming part of the 'gang', whilst also remaining antagonistic towards them (but having the occasional moment where she shows vulnerability). 

'Chapter Five: Heart of Darkness'

I liked this one more than the last two. What helped was the somewhat amusing creepy atmosphere set up with Cheryl’s gothic house (that has its own graveyard, apparently) and the fact that I thought for this show it wouldn't be out of the realm of possibility, when she was approaching Jason’s coffin, for Jason to turn up as a vampire. I was half-right - he looked more zombified than anything. Though, ugh, more gratuitous Archie shirtlessness while he's boxing? If this is going to become a regular occurrence, it's only fair we get more of Betty and/or Veronica in their underwear or at the very least skimpy outfits (because obviously they're not allowed to show more than that on this show). At least there were some mildly amusing lines from both Veronica (about Archie's 'Post-Grundy' life) and Cheryl (referring to the gang as 'Sad Breakfast Club'), though she's still being bitchy about Veronica stealing stuff after having acted the same way towards her mother in the previous episode (speaking of Hermione...she received a snake in a box this episode. Hey, at least it wasn't a head). It was interesting that Cheryl invited Veronica to a sleepover, and at the awkward dinner with Cheryl's parents it was revealed that Veronica was the only one Cheryl had invited.



The dinner also let us know just how horrible Cheryl's parents are. Her mum makes Betty's mum look not-so-bad (she even goes so far as to threaten to ship Cheryl off to boarding school except they 'won't have her'), while her dad's hair looked like a wig to me and both of them clearly didn't want Veronica there either. I appreciated the scene between Veronica and Cheryl in her bedroom (no, it wasn't like that - though talk about an extravagant-looking bed!), as it allowed the character of Cheryl to show her vulnerable side and for once I didn't think she was just putting on an act (like she had with Betty in a previous episode). Her and Veronica had a really good sincere chat about things and it became clear that Cheryl was just lonely, and that's why she invited Veronica (plus the fact that Veronica was the only one who came after her to be a comfort when she had her panic attack in the second episode).



Something else I liked about this episode was that one of the Pussycats who aren't Josie got more screentime than they'd had in all the previous episodes combined. Valerie (played by the actress I first saw in the movie Spontaneous who was the friend of Katherine Langford's character in that movie) gets to step out of Josie's shadow and help hopeless Archie with his music by suggesting someone to him that might be able to make him not suck so much at singing. I thought it was weird that Valerie didn't acknowledge Betty who encouraged Archie to accept her offer, but nevertheless I enjoyed her interaction with Archie, as she was much friendlier/likeable than Josie had been. At first I thought this actress would've made a better Josie, but then figured the character would still be written the same and therefore would probably be just as unlikeable no matter who played her. I much prefer Valerie as a character and wish we could just ditch the other two Pussycats (Josie has done nothing to make herself likeable and Melody is basically a nonentity thus far).

I noticed that the tune that plays over the end credits for the show was also used during a short montage of Archie doing stuff that led into the show's title card towards the start of this episode and I thought that music should be used as the show's theme tune and played over some actual opening credits (this series is sadly lacking in the opening credits department). Of course, not even the guy Valerie suggested can help Archie have any musical talent and he tells him like it is. There's another part of Archie's storyline involving him being in direct competition with Reggie for who gets to be captain of the football team, and although Reggie's been a jerk previously, he does suggest Archie not risk injuring his hand further (I totally missed why it appeared Archie had an injured hand just like I missed how he got that injury on his face/around his eye in a previous episode. He may have been in an altercation that I don't even remember because I find him so boring). Anyway, he ignores Reggie's advice but later on when he's presented with the captain's jersey by the coach, he says he can't devote all of himself to football (part of him he wants to save for his nonexistent musical career), and so he tells the coach to give it to Reggie. Aww...now let's see how long they act civil towards each other before getting into arguments/fisticuffs.

Betty learns from her dad that her great-grandfather was killed by Cheryl’s over money from their maple syrup company or whatever (it's ALL about the maple syrup! The maple syrup is the key to EVERYTHING!) and that's why her family doesn't like them...or something. I wasn't really that interested, and I blame that on Betty being forced to share screentime with Jughead instead of the person she's most awesome with (ie. Veronica). I'm well aware that there are 'Bughead' shippers out there, but I'm all about 'Beronica'. They're much more interesting, as I find Jughead almost as dull as I find Archie. They learn from Cheryl's creepy grandma that Betty's sister and Cheryl's bro were engaged. Since Betty's sis is in the nuthouse, it appears 'Bughead' make plans to go for a visit and find out more. About the only thing that interests me regarding this storyline is finding out just how nutty Betty's sis really is. 

What was more interesting was at the memorial, where everyone was dressed in black (Jughead made a half-arsed attempt at dressing for the occasion...but still kept his stupid beanie on. Though at least he wasn't like Archie, who wore a letterman jacket to a memorial) and then Cheryl appeared, all dressed in white, and wasn't going to be deterred by her mother in saying what she wanted to say about Jason and how, when they were kids, she wanted her own birthday party separate from her twin, but he insisted they have them together because no one wanted to come to hers and he was sparing her feelings that way. That was a sad story, and I actually felt a bit sorry for Cheryl as she told it. Once again Veronica proved what a great person she is by being the only one to comfort Cheryl. D'aww!



Apparently the name for this ship is 'Cheronica' (damn it! I'm getting sucked back into the world of ship names again!).

'Chapter Six: Faster, Pussycats! Kill! Kill!' and 'Chapter Seven: In a Lonely Place'

Once again I must point out how dull/lifeless Jughead's voiceovers are. If you're going to have someone regularly voiceover in your show, at least make sure they can bring something interesting to the table. Kristen Bell on both Veronica Mars and Gossip Girl was able to make every one of her voiceovers interesting. Cole Sprouse could learn some pointers from KB on how to actually have inflections in his voice and not be so monotone. I'm sure hearing this complaint would piss off all his fans...but I honestly couldn't care less. I didn't really know much about the comic book character of Jughead other than his ridiculous name and equally ridiculous crown he wore on his head, but I thought he was going to be a much more entertaining character in this show before I started watching it. I figured he'd be the typical type of 'best friend' to Archie, making quips, being enthusiastic about stuff and just generally more entertaining than his rather dull friend. So far, though, he's failed to live up to any of these expectations I had and I'm really not seeing what others see in him. 

Still...'boring' is better than 'bitchy', which leads me to the return of Josie (boo!) who we'd been blissfully free of for a couple of episodes. I noticed this is one of those shows that leaves out the actors'/actresses' names from the main cast list if they're absent from any episodes and then their names reappear when they're in the actual episodes. I was saddened to see Madelaine Petsch, who plays Cheryl, was not going to be in this episode, since her name in the main cast list was absent. She may be bitchy, but at least she's the funny/entertaining kind of bitchy instead of just the annoying kind - speaking of, Josie was being just that, as usual (I see she didn't grow as a person while offscreen), towards Valerie who wanted to sing some lead vocals and Josie wouldn't let her (though from what she said earlier, it sounded like Valerie was the actual songwriter of the group - so who is Josie to tell her she can't even sing the songs she writes?). And despite my constant mocking of Archie's singing ability, the way Josie said almost with glee that he was choking whilst onstage, auditioning, made me like her even less than I already did. As I said after her very first scene in the show - if you're making me feel sorry for Archie of all people, then something's seriously wrong with you as a character.
Contrast this^ with Valerie, who's always nice to Archie and offers to help him out on his song.  Why can't we get rid of Josie and promote Valerie to lead singer? At least then Melody might get more than two lines (as Josie's such a tyrant, she immediately shoots down anyone who speaks up). Due to Josie's crappy treatment of her, Valerie gets fed up enough to quit the Pussycats (good for her!), but unfortunately she's now free to help Archie sing his song, and as a result Veronica (who was going to help him) is basically replaced without warning. So, naturally, she goes to join the Pussycats. At least she looked cute in those ears - that's the one good thing I could say about this whole storyline/episode. 



I take back anything positive I previously said about Josie's mum. You can see where Josie gets her attitude from, when she was going on about Josie being the only 'irreplaceable' member of the Pussycats and everyone else being 'disposable'. And, to top things off, Josie's dad isn't much better. He's a music snob, it seems, looks down on pop music and only apparently regards jazz as 'real music' or whatever. He was a jerk to Veronica (questioning Josie about her replacing Valerie with Veronica right in front of Ronnie - talk about insulting) and then was also a jerk to Archie's dad. The scene ended with Josie's dad being judgmental of Archie because he didn't know someone Josie and her dad were talking about (there was also a really abrupt cut there. I noticed this in another scene or two as well. Weird editing this episode). Basically, Josie and her parents aren't winning any likeability awards anytime soon is what I got from their scenes. 

Meanwhile, 'Bughead' had breakfast with Betty's mum and there was, I guess, supposed to be a funny moment involving Jughead distracting her by saying he had to go to the toilet and her showing him the way - all a ruse so Betty could rifle through her mum's purse as part of their plan to go see Betty's sister, Polly, who's locked up in the 'loony bin' (as Cheryl puts it in the next episode). However, I find nothing remotely funny about Jughead so far. I haven't heard anything from him I'd deem as a 'witty oneliner'. The only kind of 'funny' thing in the scene was Betty's mum saying the name 'Jughead' a couple times, since it's such a ridiculous name and she's rather serious - hence it was slightly amusing coming from her. 

Anyway, Bughead go to visit Polly and she seems okay to begin with, but then starts going nutso once she learns Jason Blossom's dead - especially since she's pregnant with his child (DU DUN DUNNNN! Classic soap). She's dragged off (like we saw her dragged away to the loony bin to begin with via a flashback) after Betty's mum has gotten a call to alert her to Betty being there when she shouldn't be. We also learn from Polly that she was going to run away with Jason. Betty's mum plants seeds of doubt in Betty's mind that this was ever going to actually happen, but later Bughead find the getaway car with Jason's stuff in it (though they stupidly touch the evidence) that backs up Polly's story apparently, then run off to tell the sheriff but by the time he gets there...the car's, of course, on fire (someone was watching Bughead earlier - the camera made a point of showing this, as we saw the two of them from the mysterious figure's POV). The pair discover at the end of the episode that Polly has escaped the loony bin (they also kiss at one point, but like I give a damn). 

Archie and Valerie continue to be good together, she’s so much friendlier than Josie (who we're obviously supposed to feel sorry for because of her parents, but that's no excuse for her treating everyone else like crap, since most of the other characters have crappy parents too, yet they're more or less civil to each other). Josie's slightly more tolerable in her scene with Veronica where they talk about their dads, but I still couldn't muster up much sympathy when Josie's dad walked off during her performance later on since the song was pretty average actually, so I could understand him not being overly enthused about it. Speaking of average songs, after some pep talks from Valerie and Veronica, Archie performs his song (disappointingly, it appeared Reggie had regressed to his jerk-like behaviour after showing some character growth last episode. Here he just heckled Archie - he'd done so earlier during his audition too - and how is it everyone just let that slide? Surely at least some of the parents would've shut him up). There'd also been this weird thing throughout the episode involving Archie seeing wolf heads/masks in the audience when he was experiencing stage fright or whatever.

Archie's song isn't terrible, I'll give him that...but it's hardly worthy of the standing ovation it receives. Riverdale must have a really low bar when it comes to music, since they seem to overpraise pretty meh songs from the few singers in the town. We didn't even really get to hear Veronica sing after all this, she just provides some backing vocals and we can't really tell what her singing's like (also, the one time I wasn't so fond of Valerie was her basically just telling Josie to ditch Veronica and take her back after she had her change of heart regarding quitting. Such a shame. She was better away from Josie than with her, plus poor Veronica. Thankfully, she wasn't immediately kicked out and got to sing along with them - thus making them a foursome). Other stuff going on with Veronica? She catches her mum snogging Archie's dad (ew), gets mad at her mum and won't give her the signature she needs to help out Archie's dad with something involving land or whatever...so Hermione just forges her daughter's signature, which Veronica eventually figures out and is none-too-pleased about.

This sixth episode was sorely lacking Cheryl Blossom. She would've made things better (or at least more entertaining). Thankfully, she returns in the seventh episode - though she's back to her usual bitchy self at the beginning with a "Burn the witch!" attitude (which her parents also share) towards Betty's sister once they learn she's escaped the loony bin and they think she killed Jason. Things somewhat take a turn once they learn she is pregnant with Jason's child. Cheryl appears pretty upset at hearing the news (I guess it makes her realise that despite whatever twincest thing she likely had going on with her bro, she wasn't the only one he 'loved'). Her parents act creepy towards Polly as they claim to want to help her, having suddenly changed their tune/attitude towards her from earlier. Thankfully, Betty appears to be cautious regarding their abrupt change of heart and doesn't give out too much information about where Polly is. It becomes clear to her later on, after the Blossoms had arranged to meet Polly, that she made the right choice - as Cheryl comes to warn Polly that her parents pretty much want her out of the way (when Polly thanked Cheryl and told her she knew how much she loved Jason, I thought "Do you, Polly? Do you know just how much Cheryl loved Jason and vice versa? Methinks not."). Consequently, Polly goes to live at Veronica's house (she and Hermione are so accommodating). 

Frustratingly, this episode Veronica was again stuck with Josie (I miss the earlier episodes of her hanging out with Betty. She seemed like much more of a 'best friend' to Veronica than Josie, who barely seemed to interact with her until last episode. Also, sadly, it appears Valerie and Melody are back to getting no lines this episode. I'd take them having lines over Josie any day), as she went out clubbing to stick it to her mother for forging her signature last episode. She then finds Hermione has cancelled her credit card and this leads to them having negotiations about what each of them will and won't do. 

This episode started with a weird dream sequence involving the 'core four' dressed in retro outfits to mimic their comic book counterparts, Archie had a knife comically sticking out of his back and was blaming Jughead for it, then Jughead woke up (last episode he'd been voiceovering about 'fear', this episode it was 'hope'. What's next? 'Love'? These voiceovers are as predictable/common as you can get. They follow such a familiar pattern - episode starts with Jughead mentioning something, usually one word, he yammers on about it, the episode features examples of it, then by the end he mentions the word again and offers some pseudo-philosophical BS about it. Put a sock in it, Jughead! Or, better yet, put your stupid beanie in it!) and apparently when there's no Archie shirtlessness in an episode such as this one, Jughead picks up the slack and we're subjected to him shirtless instead. It was mildly amusing seeing Archie and Veronica's reactions to Bughead casually showing PDA and not even realising they were 'outing' their relationship to their friends (for what it's worth, it looked like both Archie and Veronica were jealous of Jughead - and who can blame them? Betty's the one who is the 'catch', after all). 



This was the first time both Archie and Jughead were somewhat interesting, as their storyline involved both of their dads and talking about what they were like when they were younger, the tension between them, the fact that Jughead's dad (Jugdad?) is now kind of a drunk, but Archie convinces his own dad to give Jugdad a second chance working with/for him. For once Jughead appeared to actually display some feelings (after he'd been arrested, due to it being suspected he was behind Jason's murder, and then got let go thanks to Archie's dad) as he and his dad shared an emotional exchange. Clearly his dad was aware he wasn't the best parent and Jughead would've been better off staying with Archie like he'd offered, but obviously Jughead felt loyalty to his dad and said he wanted to go with him.

Mostly, though, I just felt sorry for poor Betty, Archie and his dad in the background, as I'm sure it was awkward for them to just be standing there witnessing this rather personal stuff between the Jugs (which sounds more fun than it is). Skeet Ulrich did a good job and at last I saw Cole Sprouse was capable of doing some proper acting. I do wonder if at some point Jugdad will be creepy towards Betty (as it seems inevitable with a drunk father that eventually he'll be inappropriate with his son's new g/f he only just found out about - not that he actually acknowledged her in this scene...though it's at least understandable, since there was other stuff going on. I do hope they have an 'official' meeting at some point and also that he doesn't get creepy with her. I guess we'll see). This episode was at least somewhat better than the last one (Cheryl's presence always makes episodes better, it seems).

'Chapter Eight: The Outsiders' and 'Chapter Nine: La Grande Illusion'

The eighth episode began with Jughead voiceovering (ugh) about Polly and Jason meeting, hooking up, getting engaged, etc. It's kind of funny how the actor playing Jason hasn't had any lines thus far. Maybe he's someone they got just because they liked the look of him/felt he had that 'twincesty' vibe about him, but who isn't much of an actor? Anyway, Polly asks Betty to be her baby's godmother at one point and Betty decides the best way to have hers and Polly's mother getting along with the Blossoms is to host a baby shower for Polly and have them all there. I think it was Veronica's mum who mentioned that a bloodbath would result from the Blossoms and Betty's family coming together. I definitely remember one funny moment from her, being like "Oh, yeah, no." when Veronica roped her into having words with Betty's mum, which she was reluctant to do (I can understand why). I forget the context for it, but I also remember enjoying Veronica's smile she gave at one point. It really summed up what she was thinking - I just wish I could remember what it was. I think it might've been in response to Betty's mum.



I noticed that out of the Pussycats, only Valerie and Melody bothered showing up to the shower (so typical of Josie not to - even when she's absent from the episode, she's still annoying). I was amused by Cheryl's entrance, with her super-expensive baby carriage she brought and also when she said the best way for Polly to repay her was to name her the child's godmother (unaware that position had already been given to Betty). Cheryl's parents soon followed and apparently they wanted Polly to live with them, but this naturally leads to a fight between them and Betty's/Polly's (with Betty trying to keep the peace and Cheryl interjecting that Polly "should be so lucky" as to live with her family in their gothic house). Polly, having had enough of all of them, leaves.

There was a crossover in this^ scene with Archie's storyline in the episode. His dad's workmen are offered exceptionally well-paid jobs by Cheryl's dad with the bad wig and consequently they leave before they've even begun construction, so then Archie and his pals turn up to help out his dad but some biker goons are sent to destroy equipment and poor ol' Moose ("Duh, stay out of Riverdale!") gets his arse handed to him when he tries to stop them. Later, Jughead just brushes off Betty's enquiry as to whether Moose is okay with "He's Moose." (like, way to care, Jughead). He then tries to stop Archie from taking Moose to go identify which bikers beat him up, and that turns out to be because he doesn't want Archie finding out that his dad is one of them - which he does. Archie's dad turns up and he has words with Jugdad. This leads to Archie figuring out why Jughead didn't want him to go there and he storms in during Polly's baby shower to go yell at Jughead (I would've liked to have seen some of the guests' reactions to this, but they seem to just continue on, trying to ignore the awkwardness). The two of them eventually make up, though, and Archie mumbles that Jughead's like his brother, to which Jughead replies "Nice bro whisper, Archie." (this is the first time I can recall being even mildly amused by anything Jughead has said). 

We saw that Jugdad had Jason’s letterman jacket at the end of the last episode, and in this episode he gives it to Kevin's (aka Betty's 'gay best friend', whose name I keep forgetting) new biker b/f as 'insurance' and we discover he's only been using Kev because his dad's sheriff...or something. This is also the first 'official' meeting between Betty and Jugdad (since he really didn't acknowledge her during his emotional exchange with Jughead last episode). Later, Veronica’s mum and Jughead’s dad talk and he says that someone alerted her husband/Veronica’s dad to her being with Archie’s dad and that’s who sent people to sabotage the work site (and beat up poor ol' Moose). Elsewhere, Polly reveals that her dad arranged for her to go to an 'appointment' (obviously to get an abortion, not that they actually say the word in the show). Upon hearing this, her mum has had enough of him, he gets threatening and she threatens him back, throwing him out of the house because he wanted her to do the same thing he wanted Polly to do - ie. get an abortion (it's slightly amusing what lengths they go to in avoiding using the word in the show). I'm not really that into unnecessary cuss words, but here it really could've used an F-bomb or something when Betty's/Polly's mum was yelling at their dad, as it felt like she was holding back with what she said to him. The episode ends with Betty trying to smooth things over, but Polly decides to take the Blossoms up on their offer for her to stay with them at their creepy gothic house (Cheryl's dad still has hair that looks like a wig and her mum has patches on the elbows of her tweed jacket that I thought were reserved for professors and the Eleventh Doctor from Doctor Who). 

The ninth episode was one of the more interesting ones so far this season. Amusingly, it began with Jughead voiceovering about maple syrup and how much it means to everyone in Riverdale (as apparently they use it a LOT/for everything - it even appears that they drink the stuff. I guess it must be highly addictive). I liked the snowy setting in this episode (snowy landscapes always add atmosphere). Cheryl asks Archie to her family 'tree-tapping' thing they got going on, since distant relatives have shipped in and it's this whole big deal or whatever. Cheryl’s mum is creepy with Archie (like she was at Jason's memorial when she touched his hair and all of his friends noticed/commented on it) and it got me wondering if she's pretending he's Jason (since she keeps making comments about how he looks like/reminds her of him...but she also seems to have a bit of a thing for him at the same time. So, Cheryl and Jason aren't the only ones who give off incesty vibes in that family). When Cheryl called Archie 'Archiekins', I was a bit offended on Veronica's behalf since that's her nickname for him. 

But Veronica had bigger problems than Cheryl stealing her nickname for Archie. This episode she was trying to help out Ethel Muggs (who was one of the ones who backed up her claims of being treated badly by the jerk in the second episode this season). Veronica makes it her personal mission to brighten up Ethel's day since she's having family woes - this is after Veronica explains to Kevin that she and another girl at her old school were mean to someone there and Kevin immediately thinks she's going to admit they drove the girl to suicide (again giving me 13 Reasons Why flashbacks), but that's thankfully not the case. The one she was mean to just moved instead. Veronica's feeling guilty about that and so she invites Ethel to eat at her place, gives her clothes (that her dad tried to use to buy his daughter's forgiveness for not being around) and everything's going fine until Veronica learns from Kevin that Ethel's dad tried to off himself. I felt so bad for Veronica when she had her breakdown in the bathroom after hearing this news (though NOOOOO! Not the pearl necklace, Veronica! It's your signature just like Betty's is her ponytail or Jughead's is his stupid beanie), but at least Betty came in to comfort her...eventually.




Meanwhile, Archie is getting encouragement to be more than just Cheryl's one-time escort/date by not only her mum, but also her dad who makes a deal with him that if he continues doing what he's doing with Cheryl, he'll help Archie with his 'music career'. He says that she's too 'wild' or whatever to hand over the reins of the family business to, but with Archie there to 'rein her in', things would be better. They're basically trying to buy Archie, which Valerie points out to him. She was apparently fine with him doing it as a one-time thing, but not so much when he keeps going off to be with Cheryl. By the end of the episode she's had enough and breaks up with him, I guess. Shame. They were good together. Though I also enjoy his dynamic with Cheryl. Speaking of, she got quite a few funny moments/lines this episode, like when Archie came to her defense as her relatives were badmouthing her and she added to his listing of her qualities the fact that she has a 4.0 GPA (which he immediately repeated) and then later when she was talking to Betty and Jughead, calling him a 'hobo' - I got a laugh out of that. The funniest part, though, was when she turned up at Archie's house to buy him off with a new guitar and his dad answered the door, was unsure what to make of Cheryl being there and she commented how 'DILF-y' he was looking. It also amused me that after she'd done what she went there to do, she was in a hurry to get out of there because of her claustrophobia when inside small houses.



She's quickly becoming a favourite of mine due to her being one of the most entertaining characters and getting most of the best lines in the show. It must also be noted she was really making that blue dress work for her (though I wondered how she didn't freeze when out in the snow). I also appreciated that we saw more layers to her this episode and I enjoyed her interacting with Archie more (at least she manages to make him somewhat less boring than he normally is). Yes, she wanted Archie and didn't care that he already had a girlfriend, but she also revealed her vulnerable side to him...though that still wasn't enough to convince him, so she took his rejection about as well as can be expected. I got a laugh out of one comment I read about Archie being part of the origin story for the world's next supervillain: Cheryl Blossom. I imagine she's going to rain hell down upon not just Archie, but everyone else in his orbit as revenge. 

Other somewhat less interesting things going on in this episode - Archie learned from Polly, which he then relayed to Betty, that she hadn't chosen the Blossoms over her own family but was in fact acting as a spy of sorts. Betty's mum gets so pissed at Betty's dad she throws a brick through his window (I thought the acting from her there was a bit over-the-top and once again a well-placed curse word would've done wonders). She wasn't the only one pissed off this episode, however. Archie’s dad is pissed at Veronica’s mum after he finds out her criminal husband is the one who tried to sabotage his worksite and beat up poor ol' Moose. He's basically done with her now and says they'll only work together, but nothing more. Someone else who's pissed is Ethel's mum once Veronica comes clean to both her and her daughter at the hospital (after bringing flowers), saying her dad is responsible for why Ethel's dad felt the need to off himself. Ethel's mum is a bitch to Veronica, but thankfully Ethel herself appears to be understanding in a later scene at school and not holding a grudge against Veronica for things her dad did. One person who was NOT pissed, but actually helpful, was Jughead who finally did something that made me like him a bit - his talk with Betty, saying how she was stronger than her mother or father, when she was upset about all her family woes. Good pep talk, Jughead. Continue being supportive of your g/f and maybe it'll make me like you more (I said 'maybe').

'Chapter Ten: The Lost Weekend' and 'Chapter Eleven: To Riverdale and Back Again'

The tenth episode begins with Veronica and Cheryl having a cheerleader dance-off, which Cheryl ends up losing. She then 'fires' her minions who didn't stand up for her (though considering she's not very nice to them, they're probably better off).



Meanwhile, Archie's dad has gone off to see Archie's mum (as they're in the process of a divorce, I think) and it's Jughead’s birthday...but he doesn't like celebrating his birthday, apparently. Betty wants to throw him one anyway. She only wants to invite their 'inner circle' (plus Jugdad), but Cheryl is in the mood for causing a little chaos and teams up with the guy who's a jerk to women (Chuck is his name) to go crash the party along with a bunch of other randos. It's a shame her character backslid into how she was in the first episodes, as she'd somewhat 'grown' (if one could call it that) since. At the very least, I think Veronica had proven a good friend to her and Cheryl really should've remembered that when she was helping Chuck to cause problems. Cheryl makes them all play a game that's about them owning up to their 'truths'. She takes potshots at Veronica while Chuck does the same to Betty, having claimed he knows the 'real' Betty and wanting to bring out 'Dark Betty' (as he calls her) - the version of her who would've pushed his head under water if Veronica hadn't stopped her. Although I've liked Cheryl previously, I was totally Team Veronica when she was pointing out Cheryl's twincesty feelings for Jason (FINALLY someone mentions it out loud! About damn time). Of course, this makes Cheryl uncomfortable...but she brought it on herself/deserved it, I thought.

Things were already going sideways when Jughead made clear to Betty all he wanted was her and Archie to hang out with him on his birthday. He even makes a point of saying Veronica is not his 'friend' or whatever (which is kind of a dick move, since she's done nothing to him personally to warrant such an attitude towards her). Overall, he's pretty dickish towards Betty too (who, btw, can sing 'Happy Birthday' like nobody's business. She was almost Marilyn Monroe-esque with her singing) and it just seems like 'manufactured drama' - ie. drama just for the sake of it, as they've been pretty decent together up until this point. It feels like the argument he has with her is just there to throw a spanner in the works of their relationship. He moans about how he's a 'weirdo' and they're too different for each other or some BS (at least he acknowledges how weird it is he never takes his stupid beanie off - though, ironically, by the end of the episode he does in fact take it off for once). Adding to the list of things going awry at this party is Valerie still holding a grudge against Archie and him being drunk whilst trying to get her to let him explain things. I saw one overexaggerated comment about him 'assaulting' her because he grabs her arm and then tries to stop her leaving briefly, but she automatically throws her drink in his face and although Archie may be a lot of things (boring, dumb, a mediocre musician, etc), one thing I think it's pretty obvious he isn't is someone who assaults women - Chuck is much more closer to being that than Archie.

Speaking of Chuck, the things he says to Betty definitely warrant the punch Jughead delivers to him, and I say good on Jugdad for throwing Chuck out since he didn't just punch Jughead back, but started pummeling him on the floor repeatedly (plus, he's a bigger guy than Jughead, so it wasn't exactly an 'even fight' either). While it was kinda weird for Jugdad to be hanging out at a party with a bunch of 'teenagers', just as well he was there and told everyone to go home. About the only 'bright spot' of this whole storyline/episode was Archie's dog getting some more screentime. Sadly, it was screentime shared with Jughead...but hey, it was worth it to see more of Vegas the dog.



The episode ends with Archie's dad returning and apparently divorcing his mum turned into bringing her home...and she's played by Molly Ringwald (it was funny seeing her in this after seeing her cameo appearance in Not Another Teen Movie, which I'd just finished rewatching for the umpteenth time before I watched this episode). 

How many dances do they have at this school? There was yet another one in the eleventh episode. Archie wants to sing and I thought it was funny seeing everyone's reactions to that - especially Jughead's line about Archie's songs making people want to slit their wrists (yet again I got 13 Reasons Why flashbacks). Too bad he then backpedaled.



Thankfully, Veronica's going to sing with Archie and hopefully make him suck less. I forgot to mention about the two of them snogging at the party in the previous episode (I guess I didn't find it particularly memorable. Though I noted when the two of them awoke, they weren't in bed together...so it seems left open to interpretation just how far they took things). Naturally, Veronica just sees it as a casual thing, but Archie wants it to be more. How many women have shown an interest in his boring self so far this season? Betty, Miss Grundy, Valerie, Cheryl, Veronica - WHY does this keep happening? It can't be because of his singing. Anyway, Betty, her mum, Jughead and his dad (who seems to have cleaned up his act because he's shaved) have dinner together and it's all a plot to see if he's behind Jason's murder, as Archie and Veronica are off snooping through his trailer. As soon as the two of them agreed that Betty and Jughead should never find out about what they were up to, I automatically knew that they were going to find out about it. Betty figures out her mum's part in the plan, but doesn't immediately tell Jughead which causes problems later on when he finds out and he gets mad at all of them, but especially Betty for some reason despite the fact that she wasn't in on the plan. 

Before that^, though, Archie and Veronica sing their cover of 'Kids in America'...and it's not too bad. It certainly beats all of the Pussycats' songs thus far as well as what bits and pieces we've heard Archie sing prior to this. Of course, Veronica is the one who really stands out - she can certainly sing (and it's good that we got to hear her properly this time around, after barely being able to hear her when she was providing backing vocals for the Pussycats in a previous episode). She and Betty should do a duet, if Betty's sexy singing of 'Happy Birthday' last episode was an indicator of her singing ability. Cheryl's upset while watching the pair sing. Other stuff going on with the Blossoms this episode involves her mum having been making Polly drink a daily milkshake that eventually puts her to sleep (it was kind of creepy how they were all standing around her as she slept). Cheryl tells her parents she flushed her grandmother's ring down the toilet (because it could cause problems later on due to Polly figuring out how they got it back off Jason, despite the tale Cheryl spins. I was amused by Cheryl's "Hands off, Gollum." when Polly tried to reach for it). I could immediately tell from the way Cheryl was acting that she hadn't in fact flushed it...which is indeed revealed to be the case later on.

And FINALLY they confirmed that Cheryl's dad not only wears a wig, but he's got a whole selection of them - 'one for every mood' according to Cheryl, when she's telling Polly about how her dad's real hair turned white overnight after seeing a ghost of a dead relative or something. I kind of love the gothic haunted house feel to everything Blossom-related, and although Cheryl calls Polly 'Pollykins' one second, the next she's threatening her, saying just because she's carrying twins that doesn't make her safe. I'm still waiting for the actual ghosts (and possibly vampires) to show up, as they wouldn't feel out of place in this setting. The episode ends with the sheriff finding a gun in Jugdad’s trailer that wasn't there earlier when Archie and Veronica searched it, and they come to the conclusion he's being set up. Well, duh.

'Chapter Twelve: Anatomy of a Murder' and 'Chapter Thirteen: The Sweet Hereafter' (the Season 1 final)

It was interesting that one minute Betty was thinking that Archie and Veronica just missed seeing the gun when they'd checked Jugdad's trailer before the sheriff went there and found it, but later she was on the side of Team Jugdad and maintaining his innocence. I felt slightly sorry for Jughead when he apologised to Cheryl in the school cafeteria. Even though he didn't want to believe his dad was guilty, he still apologised...and then she proceeded to slap him and pummel his chest with her fists. It's not very often I feel sympathy for Jughead, but I did here (though I could also understand Cheryl's misplaced anger towards him).



I'm glad Jughead's friends leapt to his defense and when it seemed like he was the one getting into trouble with the principal, I was also glad that Archie pointed out that Jughead was apologising/did nothing wrong. I like Cheryl, but she does tend to lash out at people who don't deserve her wrath at times. It was good of Betty to go check on her, though. 



Jughead was having a pretty rough time this episode. On top of his guilt and Cheryl taking her anger out on him (plus the fact that he has to sleep in the same room as Archie who insists on sleeping shirtless...because of course he does. It's no wonder Jughead tells Archie he'll sleep in the garage), he also had his dad telling him to his face how he'd committed the murder which he admitted to being guilty of. However, there was never any doubt in my mind that Jugdad wasn't actually guilty. He was clearly taking the fall and if it wasn't already obvious, when he told Jughead never to come back to visit him in jail, there was this long look between father and son which made it abundantly clear that Jugdad just wanted to keep Jughead a safe distance away from all of this. Meanwhile, Archie and Veronica continue doing their sleuthing together, and after talking to Kevin's biker b/f, they pay a visit to the biker dude who Archie got into a fight with that time he took Moose to the biker club to identify the guys who beat him up, but find the biker dude dead, apparently having overdosed (though it's immediately obvious he's just been set up to look like he overdosed). Veronica's convinced her father is behind all this.

Things got really interesting when Betty and her mum heard the sound of someone sneaking into their house (Betty's mum was amusing with her gun and using it in place of her finger to shoosh Betty), discovered it was Betty's dad trying to destroy evidence and he told them the tale of how Betty's great-grandfather was killed by Cheryl's great-grandfather and they were in fact brothers. Betty's face/reaction to this was pretty great. 



Even better was the scene straight after, when she and her mum went to get Polly out of the Blossom's creepy gothic house that just took on even more of a creep factor considering both of Cheryl's parents were fully aware of the whole incesty thing between Polly (who obviously wasn't aware, but when she finds out, you can't help but feel sorry for her since she just learned she's carrying the twins of someone she was related to) and Jason, but then Cheryl's dad dismisses the incest (which I think was a word that didn't really get mentioned prior to this episode, but certainly makes up for the lack of it before now by getting uttered umpteen times in this scene) by saying that it's not like Polly and Jason were brother and sister or anything. Cheryl's mum, if it's even possible, becomes even creepier by saying how it's good breeding and basically making out that it means Polly's and Jason's kids will be 'pure Blossom' (it's like she wants to create a race of Blossoms or something). This scene was equal parts gross and engrossing.

Later, super-sleuth Betty (who should be commended for being able to think straight at all considering the massive revelation she was dealing with) is the one to solve the mystery of who murdered Jason, as she gets an idea and tells Archie to put on Jason's letterman jacket (they found it in a bag in the woods earlier thanks to Kevin's biker b/f). After stating that she knows about losing things in holes of clothes which end up in the lining, she discovers that's just what's happened here, producing a USB from the hole in the pocket of Jason's jacket. I thought it was an interesting choice to play the scene of them all watching the USB footage entirely on their faces, with us just seeing their reactions to it (kind of funny, though, how everyone except Archie and Betty were covering their mouths in reaction). 



It certainly ramped up the tension. Especially when the first person who Betty called after watching it was Cheryl, who then calmly walked downstairs and confronted her father, saying "You did a bad thing, Daddy." (thus telling us who the murderer was). Although I thought it was an interesting choice not to show us the footage as the gang watched it, the impact when we finally did flashback to what they were seeing was somewhat lessened since we already knew who the killer was. The biker who'd been set up to look like he overdosed was on the footage, Jason was tied to a chair and looked to have been beaten up, and then Cheryl and Jason's dad walked in and shot his own son in the head. Poor Jason...he died without ever having a single line of dialogue that we actually got to hear. And colour me shocked that the incest in this show didn't end up being between Cheryl and Jason, but rather Jason and Polly. I thought for sure there was a twincest vibe going on between Cheryl and her bro.

It was somewhat morbidly amusing how both Cheryl and her mum calmly pointed (in unison) to their barn as Sheriff Clueless (as Betty's mum refers to him as) and the cops went in there to find Cheryl's dad had hanged himself amongst all the maple syrup barrels (earlier when Cheryl had asked her mum questions about her dad, she'd gotten pretty intense with her daughter and basically dragged her to the barn to say that was where her answers were). Of course, there's still the mystery of why Cheryl's father killed his son...which he's not going to be much help answering now, since dead men tell no tales. This episode was one of the best of the season, I thought. I was surprised when it finished, as the time flew by. It also felt like a season final...but it wasn't.

The actual season final was the next episode, which amusingly began with Jughead almost breaking the fourth wall by describing what had just happened as "the ultimate cliffhanger". I was surprised that he shared his voiceovering this episode with Betty's mum, who was typing up her exposé (at least she knows how to make her voiceover more interesting than Jughead's and not so monotone). Too bad the show returned to using the same old recap from the first half of the season, involving the car driving by in the town, Cheryl and Jason in white going to the river, etc - I was actually glad when they eventually stopped having that at the start of every episode. 

Anyway, despite Jason's real murderer being uncovered, Jugdad is still in jail (the reason is although he was innocent of killing Jason, he'd still helped cover things up because Jason's murderer/father had threatened Jughead if he didn't comply). I was disappointed that it all ended up being about drugs and not actually maple syrup. Sheriff Clueless proposes a deal with Jugdad that if he gives up the names of the bikers involved in the drug-dealing with Cheryl's dad, he may get a lighter sentence. Jugdad refuses to be a snitch. Elsewhere, Archie wants to sing a song to help his friends who've all been through hell...but naturally, Josie being Josie, she refuses to let him do so at the town Jubilee. Her mother's not much better, excluding Jughead because of his dad (once again, like mother like daughter). She's all for Betty giving a speech, though. 

I wonder how long they're going to keep saying that Veronica's dad is on his way to Riverdale (at this stage he's taking as long to arrive as winter did in Game of Thrones). Veronica's sorry she ever thought her dad was Jason's murderer and I can't remember if it was this episode or the last one that she apologised to her mum for thinking that. Speaking of apologies, Cheryl apologises to Jughead in the school cafeteria for her emotional/physical outburst last episode, wishing to leave him with her spider brooch (she's giving away her stuff...which should've immediately raised alarm bells, but I didn't really twig to what was going on). She kind of gets the brushoff, though, when the gang are alerted to someone having written a threatening message to poor Betty on her locker that says 'Go to hell serpent slut' (in pig's blood, it turns out - how very Carrie) complete with a Betty doll hanging from a noose. Why is it whenever threatening messages like this are written, no one ever uses a comma?

Betty's not the only one having a rough time, as Cheryl keeps reaching out to her mum for some sympathy, but all she can do is suggest that suicide is a better option than living (giving me 13 Reasons Why flashbacks for the last time this season) and she won't even let Cheryl stay home from school when her daughter pleads with her to do so. Clearly she cares very little about Cheryl's mental state and we learn the full extent of just how badly Cheryl's dealing with everything when she texts Betty that she's going to be with Jason and the gang figure out she means the river where she went with Jason on the 4th of July and he supposedly drowned. Apparently Cheryl's intention is to kill herself, but because the river is frozen over, she has to work at breaking through the ice. Despite Archie telling the gang to stay off the ice which is cracking, once Cheryl falls into the water they ignore that advice and all as one they go after her. Cheryl's look before she fell in really said how much she was done with everything. 




Despite the fact that they ignored their own advice, I was glad the gang showed they had come to care so much about Cheryl (given how she'd treated all of them previously). The best part, though, was that this was the MOST interesting Archie's ever been, since he showed how determined he was to save Cheryl by repeatedly punching the ice to get to her, causing himself serious injury as he did so. I think there was more blood in this scene than the rest of the season combined. I was surprised to learn the actor who plays Archie apparently injured his hand for real while filming this scene and Madelaine Petsch who plays Cheryl almost froze. You could tell just how cold it was during this scene by the fact that Archie's lips were almost purple in colour. He eventually saves her (after she's seen a zombified Jason while in the water) and carries her off, Veronica lets her stay at her place to warm up, but her mum makes it clear she doesn't like having Cheryl there. We also see in this scene, as Cheryl's warming herself in front of the fireplace with hot chocolate that Veronica brought her (Veronica's so nice), that Cheryl's makeup/bright red lipstick she usually has on alters how she looks quite a bit. It's kind of nice seeing her looking more 'natural' (for lack of a better word) in this scene.



The next time we see Cheryl, she's making the most of the moody/creepy atmosphere in the gothic Blossom house, holding a candelabra in front of her own fireplace with her back turned as her mum walks in and smells gas, then Cheryl proceeds to toss the candelabra onto the floor, lighting up the room.




At first I thought this was her second attempt to off herself (this time taking mummy dearest with her), but it turns out she just wanted to burn the place down and all the feelings she associated with it, I guess, ignoring her mother hitting at her back as she calmly watches the place go up in flames. I didn't think about it before reading comments online, but I was morbidly amused once I did read people asking whether Cheryl bothered to get her grandmother out of there first (since she seemed to be stuck in the attic). So long, gothic Blossom house. Your creepiness will be missed. 

The other stuff going on this episode wasn't quite as dramatic nor as interesting. Both Archie and Veronica have checked with Betty, on separate occasions, that she’s okay with them being together after telling her that they kissed a couple of times. She naturally says she's fine, and at least she does a good job of acting like it, as I didn't really notice any longing looks at Archie which you usually get immediately after someone says they're fine with two people being together in these types of shows. However, when they go to find Jughead (who's not being allowed to live with Archie and is being fostered out/sent to another school), he's seemingly fine at this other much rougher-looking school and Veronica mentions to Archie that she noted a 'wistful' look from him when watching Bughead together. Clearly she's worried he still has feelings for Betty, but he says he just wants to have with Veronica what Bughead have together. 

'Varchie' (as I've just learned their ship name is) eventually get it on, which is intercut with Bughead doing the same, but this is after the Jubilee where Josie relents and lets Archie sing his song to the town, then Betty delivers a speech about how everyone 'is Riverdale' (including Jughead and his dad the townspeople were so quick to blame for Jason's murder). She tells them they need to do better to prevent further tragedies and the mayor looks none-to-pleased with this since she had previously silenced Betty from talking about such things. Everyone (but the mayor) cheers, though.

Getting back to the teens getting it on...Bughead are the unluckier of the two romantic couplings, as their makeout session is interrupted by a knock at the door and it turns out to be the bikers who say they'll look out for/take care of Jughead since his father proved his loyalty to them by not snitching. They toss Jughead a jacket with the serpent insignia on it and he tries it on, clearly tempted into joining them, but then Betty saying his name seems to snap him out of it. Earlier, Jugdad warned Archie about there being darkness in Jughead or something and then it cut to Jughead taking a giant bite of his sandwich at school, which I thought was mildly amusing. I almost forgot that Betty learned she has a brother, as her mum reveals to her that Betty's dad wanted her to 'deal with it' differently to how she wanted to. So, Betty's got a mystery brother out there somewhere and we're left wondering who it could be (hopefully it's no one she's kissed or anything - it's not like this show needs more incest).

The last scene of the episode involves Archie and his dad at the retro diner, Archie goes to the bathroom and you can tell by the fact that there's just time being wasted on seemingly nothing (plus the fact that Archie seems happy) that something bad is about to go down. Sure enough, someone's robbing the place, Archie wants to intervene but his dad indicates to him with slight shake of the head not to...so, of course, Archie being Archie, he ignores his father and then steps in front of him when the guy is about to shoot. Surprisingly, though, it's Archie's dad who is the one who gets shot. When the episode ended with Jughead's voiceover about "the last bit of Riverdale's innocence finally died and darkness won", I couldn't help but think, "Innocence? Jason's own dad offed him after being fully aware his son was having incest with his third cousin...and only now you think 'innocence was lost'? I'm pretty sure it lost it well before now." (or something like that). I think I liked the previous episode a bit more than this one, but there was still some good stuff to be found here.

Final thoughts on this first season as a whole:

I really liked the characters of Betty, Veronica and Cheryl (I was surprised by that last one. Almost as surprised as I was to discover that although I'd originally thought Holland Roden had been cast in this series just as Teen Wolf had finished when I saw the first promos for this show, that was in fact not the case. However, Madelaine Petsch quickly made me forget about any similarities I'd seen between the two). All three characters proved to be more than they first appeared and I thought the three actresses who played them were the strongest of the 'teens' in the show. I was less fussed on Archie and Jughead, but by the end of the season I'd come around to not-minding them and the actors playing them had shown they were capable of portraying a decent amount of emotion.

I didn't feel like I got to know Kevin enough to really form much of an opinion of him, but he seemed alright. Valerie was also good...until they broke up her and Archie. I hope she's not just going to be angry at him for the rest of the show. She was easily the best/most memorable of the Pussycats. I'd like to get to know Melody a bit better too. Josie, however, I would be happy to never see again (though I know that's not going to happen). The rest of the school characters seemed pretty stereotypical and therefore I didn't really care one way or the other about them.

Out of the parent characters, Betty's mum seemed the most interesting. Even if I didn't like her half the time, at least she wasn't as bad a parent as Cheryl's mum. Veronica's mum was okay, but she fell into the same category as Archie's dad, for me - ie. not the most memorable of characters. I think Skeet Ulrich had the strongest impact of the adults, playing Jughead's dad. Cheryl's parents were literally THE WORST. Archie's mum didn't hang around long enough to really get a 'feel' for her. I'm waiting to see who they'll cast as Veronica's father and Jughead's mother.