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So this week’s Riverdale is titled ‘The Ides of March’ and I have to wonder if the target audience of the show even knows what that means. In Roman history, the Ides was originally celebrated as the New Year on the 15th day of March. Later, though, it became known as the day Julius Caesar was assassinated, not taking heed of a warning from a soothsayer to beware the Ides of March.
And that day also becomes synonymous with another ‘death’, the one that’s been teased since the end of last season — Jughead’s. But first … the original tease for this event indicated it happened during Spring Break, yet no one mentioned anything about this being Spring Break, which is usually in February. No one at Riverdale High was talking about it and the folks at Stonewall Prep just invited Jughead, ‘Ponytail’ and their friends to a party in the woods behind the school. So now it’s an Ides of March party with smarmy Bret in a toga and golden wreath on his head.
How we got to this point was that Jughead learned that his Baxter Brothes contract had been terminated because he failed to turn in a book on time … which happened to be March 15. No, I think on the show it was March 13, and technically the Ides can be between the 13th and 15th depending on the full moon. Anyway, Jughead assured Mr. Dupont that he would have a suitable story on time. Of course just as he was making progress there was another monkey wrench thrown into the works — the short story he wrote to get into Stonewall was plagiarized from a fellow student, Johnathan. Jughead could prove he wrote the story because it was on his old laptop … which had gone missing. Juggie vowed to prove his innocence.
But Bret told Jughead he might as well quit while he’s ahead because he does in fact have a tape of Jughead and Betty and if Juggie continues to fight, Bret will release the tape to destroy Betty. Facing a tribunal, Jughead has two choices — fight or quit. Knowing the consequences of fighting, he does the noble thing and quits to preserve Betty’s honor. By not fighting, Jughead is kicked out of the Quill & Skull and he must leave Stonewall. Jughead had also learned that his original story, ‘The Boy in the Lake’, was in fact going to be published but found it had also been ‘polished’ but the members of his class.
But to prove there are no hard feelings, Bret invites them all to the party. Dressed in his Serpents jakcet and Bret’s rabbit mask, Bret gets the message that Jughead means business so he takes him to a clearing in the woods. Bret does not know that Jughead has a knife and is possibly preparing to Caesar him. Betty sees Donna heading to the woods as well and says she doesn’t care about the sex tape, She’s the daughter of The Black Hood, so it’s going to take more than a tape to ruffle her feathers. Donna then surprises Betty with some information, that she’d been to visit Shankshaw Prison and met with Evelyn Evernever, who told her the trigger word. Betty assures Donna that ‘tangerine’ no longer works on her but … there’s another word, one that will make Betty hurt the ones she loves most.
After making out in the woods, Archie and Veronica ask if anyone’s seen Jughead and Betty and they are pointed in the direction of the clearing. It’s there that they find Betty standing over Jughead’s lifeless body with a rock in her hand … and there is no pulse. And of course there is no show next week so we will be hanging to learn exactly what happened.
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Elsewhere, Veronica was spiraling out of control over her father’s illness … which actually does seem quite real now … and is trying to mask her grief by jumping Archie’s bones any chance she gets. Even in the school’s music room … which has a window on the door. To make matters worse, Hermosa is back in town, first trying to disguise herself to get into the Maple Room (but Toni & Cheryl seemed to already know who she was even with the platinum Party City wig … or maybe because of the wig, so they made sure Veronica was the one to unmask her. But Hermosa knows all about Hiram’s illness and that nearly pushes her over the edge.
Archie, of all people, finally talked some sense into her before she finally self-destructed: Hiram is at his most alive when he’s feuding with her over business. So she goes to breakfast with a whole presentation about how her new maple rum business is growing and that Cheryl is updating the maple factory to produce 300% more rum in the next year. Hiram congratulates his daughter for finally … waking the dragon. Hermosa and Hermione were livid that she would do such a thing in his condition but she shot back that SHE was the only one who really knew how to deal with Hiram and she was going to be the one to save him. She’s off to a good start, even if it means ruining her new business.
And Archie was feeling the pressures of school (he’s not going to graduate and walk the stage with his friends), Andrews Construction and his rec center so something has to give. Archie decided to sell the construction company to one of the workers and bring Tom Keller on at the gym. But on the day of the paper signing, Archie could not go through with selling off his legacy so he made Tom the foreman and he hung the Andrews Construction sign in his office at the gym.
So lives are in danger but are they really going to kill off Jughead and Hiram? Are the foursome all in on this somehow to expose Bret or Dupont or Stonewall Prep in general? Stay tuned.
What did you think of this episode? Let us know what you think in the comments section below.
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