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Riverdale really got back on track this week, finally giving us some of the over-the-topness of the first season as Hiram Lodge’s plan for Riverdale finally comes into focus. But is what he’s telling us the truth? And this week gave us some great Blossom family action too! It’s been too long since Cheryl has been in the spotlight.
But let’s start with the Lodges. Now that they’ve successfully removed Mayor McCoy from office, the Lodges are hoping to ‘help’ someone take her place, and of course that means they really need a puppet. And who else would they choose but … Fred Andrews? Really? Fred? And then it turns out Fred has always wanted to me the mayor of Riverdale. As a kid he even envisioned a Riverdale of the future (2020) that looked like a World’s Fair complete with a monorail. Perhaps Hermione knew this from their childhood, but Fred seems the least likely candidate. I actually thought he was going to suggest Archie.
But Archie is completely against his dad being the Lodge puppet because he just knows too much about the family business. He knows Hiram has been buying up property in the town but when he learned that Hiram also bought Pop’s, that was the last straw because Pop’s is the heart of Riverdale. Arch knows the only way to stop Lodge and protect his dad is to expose this transaction but with the paper now under Lodge’s ownership, there’s only one other outlet — the school paper, so he gives this news to Jughead.
Juggie does speak to Pop Tate to see if this is true, and he confirms it is. However … when Pop took over the family business, his mother made him swear he’d never sell it to anyone and mama is still alive. It would break her heart to find out what he did — and he did it only to keep the business afloat — so Jughead agrees not to reveal this information to the public. But it seems there are others out there willing to snitch on Hiram Lodge and Jughead is contacted by one of them … and it turns out to be Smithers! And he’s now a bus driver! Smithers tells Juggie that he used to coordinate transportation to and from Shankshaw Prison where Hiram has been taking meetings with the warden. That’s enough to send Jug and FP to meet with a Serpent on the inside, a man with all the info — War Baby. (Yes, War Baby.) And he spills the T.
Meanwhile, Veronica is suddenly uncomfortable toying with Archie for her mother, so she agrees to do whatever Hermione tells her but Archie is off limits. Archie enlists Josie’s help to get her mother to speak with Fred about the demands of being mayor, hoping to talk him out of accepting the nomination. But he will not be deterred. Until … Hiram learns of the Jones’ visit to Shankshaw — and that someone, namely Archie, leaked the information about Pop’s to Jughead — and is forced to reveal his plan to Fred before it hits the press (except there is no press to reveal it to as Principal Weatherbee refuses to run the article). It should be noted that Veronica took the bullet for Archie about the leak, insisting that she told Jughead because he was too focused on other Lodge dealings so she thought this was small potatoes compared to everything else. Hiram was not happy, but Hermione stepped in and said she did the right thing, calming Hiram’s anger.
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But back to Fred. As a pre-emptive strike, the Lodges invite Fred and Archie to dinner where Hiram explains his true plan for Riverdale — he’s going to turn South Side High into a private, for profit prison and all the new housing they’ll build will be home to the new employees. Fred is not happy that his town is about to be turned into a prison complex and refuses to accept the offer to run for mayor, storming out of the dinner. But Archie stays, willing to hear Hiram out. Archie has been (mostly) loyal to the Lodges, and now he’s going all in. Hiram knows Archie has a journal full of Hiram’s secrets and now that Archie is on board with his plans, Hiram makes Archie take a blood oath (!), slicing open the palms of their hands — and seriously, could it not just have been a pin prick to the thumb? — and dripping their blood on the journal. Which Archie then tosses into the fire as Hiram tells him, “We come first.” Archie probably should have fled with his dad.
But before we get to the Blossoms, we have to check in with the Coopers real quick. Hal has formally asked Alice for a divorce. He thinks Alice and Betty are against him when it comes to Chic, but Betty insists she’s on his side in this matter. Hal offers Alice half of what Hiram gave him for the Riverdale Register. Later, Polly shows up to introduce her twins to Alice. When Betty comes home and sees Chic holding one of the babies, she gets a little freaked and immediately decides that is the baby she wants to hold. And still later, Betty enlists Kevin to chat with Chic online, to try and get more personal information from him. It goes well enough until Chic notices that Kevin is obviously getting signals from someone else in the room and Kevin removes himself from the equation.
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Back to Hal’s request for a divorce. It seems that Clifford Blossom had a secret will that he requested be read in public after a certain amount of time. Cheryl, whose friendship with Toni is growing, asks her to accompany her to the reading, much to her mother’s dismay (and disgust … Penelope can be a whore but Cheryl can’t be a lesbian). So the Blossoms and Coopers attend, minus Alice, and learn that Granny Blossom gets Thistle House and Penelope gets Thorn Hill … or the charred husk of Thorn Hill. The rest of the assest are divided in half, one half going to Cheryl and Jason (so Cheryl) and the other half going to anyone in Riverdale who can prove they have a drop of Blossom blood in them. Meaning Hal, Betty, Polly … Chic (who refuses to submit to a blood test because needles ‘trigger’ him)?
And then Alice storms in, accusing Hal of wanting the divorce so she would be cut out of any Blossom inheritance. After she’s forcibly removed from the premises, Cheryl decides now is the time to give her own little speech, which seems highly inappropriate, but she does have a decent plea that there should be no more blood, madness or horror in Riverdale (let’s hope that’s not the case or things will get boring). And Clifford Blossom agrees, his appearance causing Cheryl to faint dead away.
But … classic soap opera twist! … it’s not Clifford, but his twin brother Claudius who was to take over the Blossom empire but when the brothers were 14, Clifford pointed a gun at his brother, telling him about the Blossom curse, that one twin always killed the other. It was enough to scare Claudius away, joining the Merchant Marines (where he discovered the island of Lesbos, which gave Cheryl and Toni a chuckle). But now he’s back, Penelope offering him the room above the garage (which she says is freezing in winter and boiling in summer) but … after everyone else leaves she also tells him they need to get their house in order, dealing first with Nana and then Cheryl. And then they can take revenge on the Lodges.
Back at the Cooper home, Betty rummages around in Chic’s bathroom looking for something with his DNA on it (dental floss) because Chic won’t submit to the blood test to see if he’s eligible for a piece of the Blossom fortune. He says he really doesn’t care about the money. He’s also not happy about Polly being back, she and the babies taking Alice’s attention away from him. Later Betty is shocked that Alice and Polly would allow Chic to take the babies for a stroll down by Sweetwater River! Everyone returns safe and sound, but perplexed by Betty’s behavior towards Chic. And then Betty gets the DNA results presents them to Chic, telling him he’s not who he says he is. So who is he?
And Hermione Lodge is now running for mayor. If Fred was smart, he would run to oppose her knowing what he knows about the Lodge plan for Riverdale. But as Jughead puts it, the Lodges win. At least for the moment.
And this week’s episode title, ‘There Will Be Blood’, does have a bit of a connection to the movie of the same name which featured fights for ownership of property and twin brothers vying for their share. Great movie!
What did you think of this episode? Let us know what you think in the comments section below.
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