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Sadly, Betty did not succeed in burning down her house before the mystery buyer took possession of the place, but while that seemed like a good idea at the time, the fact that the house is only scorched a bit — ‘Nothing a fresh coat of paint and some new curtains can’t fix,’ exclaims Alice — the revelation of the mystery buyer certain came as a surprise to everyone as the new owner turned out to be none other than Gladys Jones. So Betty can keep her old room! Good plan, Jughead, that won’t be awkward AT. ALL. Betty thought better of the idea and decided to crash with Veronica.
While Riverdale has been mostly a drag this year because of the interminable Gryphons & Gargoyles storyline, the arrival of Gladys — and Gina Gershon — has at least made those scenes with her something to pay attention to. When we were first introduced to her in Toledo, she seemed like a cool mom with some sage words of advice when it came to Jughead’s devotion to Archie (so much devotion she assumed they were a couple). Her arrival in Riverdale was a welcome one indeed, and then …
… we found out she’s not all sunshine and light, coming into town as the female counterpart to Hiram Lodge, blowing into town to collect on the money Hermione owed her thanks to Ronnie’s actions, and to take over Hiram’s drug turf. All while still maintaining that ‘cool wife and mom’ vibe with Juggie and FP. Only Jellybean knows who Gladys Jones really is (well, her, Veronica and Reggie). Gladys Jones is the newest character we love to hate on Riverdale and that is because of Gina Gershon’s performance.
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Every time Gershon is on screen, she’s electrifying because she can do so much with the cock of her head, a sideways glance, or the upturn of one corner of her mouth. She can take some basic dialog and breathe real energy into it, like how she flipped from mom cooking breakfast to woman defending her territory when Jughead confronted her about her plans to take over the production and distribution of Fizzle Rocks. And in the blink of an eye, she turned back into the protector of her family, begging Jughead not to mention a word of this to FP because it would be the final thing to truly break the man down. Later at FP’s birthday party when Jughead was about to reveal the truth about Gladys to the crowd, Gershon’s face went from loving to concerned to borderline angry back to loving all in the space of a few seconds, and you knew exactly what she was thinking just by watching her face. Gershon has been a huge asset to Riverdale this year, but I fear that her time on the show may be coming to an end once the truth is finally out in the open.
While the storyline with Gladys was riveting, it seems that perhaps the Gryphons and Gargoyles story is maybe finally coming to an end (although I suspect the revelation of who the Gargoyle King truly is will be stretched out over the season’s final seven episodes). We’ve known that one of the final quests for the people playing the game is to kill the ‘Red Paladin’, and we know that is Archie. And it turned out that the card was introduced into the game by Hiram Lodge pre-truce with Archie. Now we learn he had a dozen of the cards printed up and distributed, so even though two attempts on his life have failed, there are still ten more cards floating around out there.
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G&G is certainly an interesting game in that it seems anyone can introduce new rules and quests at their whim, as long as it looks like the directive has come from the Gargoyle King. And that’s exactly what Jughead did, introducing a new twist to the final quest, offering all of the holders of the card one last chance to face off against the Red Paladin in a winner take all bout. Hiram even volunteered the locations of where the cards were handed out, and gave Archie the use of an abandoned gym he just happened to purchase.
Of course Archie vanquished all of his foes, putting an end to the quest once and for all (unless Hiram lied about the number of cards in distribution … and he didn’t seem completely unshady when he gave Archie the information), and Archie got to keep the gym in the process, further cementing the truce with Hiram … or lulling him into a false sense of security? Of course this still leaves us with a bunch of drug-addled teens (and some adults apparently) playing the game and the mystery of the Gargoyle King’s identity to still be revealed. It has to be someone we already know, right? They can’t just drop some new character in. It has to have the impact of the reveal of Hal Cooper as the Black Hood … and that was so obvious it was hardly a surprise so putting different people behind the King’s mask has upped the mystery.
So who could it be? Is it the same person who was the King when the modern day adults were playing as teens? Or did one of them assume the mantle? If it’s someone older, wouldn’t it be a kick if Nana Blossom turns out the be the King?!
Riverdale airs Wednesdays at 8:00 PM.
What did you think of this episode? Let us know what you think in the comments section below.
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