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It has been a little more than a month since the last original episode of Riverdale was broadcast and I have to say the anticipation for this week’s musical episode was almost unbearable as they took on one of my all-time favorite movies (unfortunately, I have not seen the stage version), Hedwig and the Angry Inch, for this season’s musical episode. In a departure from the previous two musical episodes, this one did not involve a full-scale production of the stage version of Hedwig, instead it brought back the school’s talent show with Kevin Keller at the helm and his desire to perform a number from the show … which Principal Honey has deemed less than family friendly, but Kevin insists that the musical’s themes of identity and love speaks directly to his generation. Honey is having none of that, refusing to allow Kevin to do the number.
A dejected Kevin gives in and decides to do a number from Oklahoma. Fangs suggests that Kevin put on his own show and he does, taking over the music room to perform ‘Tear Me Down’. The little stunt costs Kevin his job as talent show coordinator. To cheer him up, Betty, Veronica, Cheryl and Toni have a ‘girls night’ and the five perform ‘Wig in a Box’. Betty suggests that everyone in the talent show do a song from Hedwig and Cheryl hatches a plan to sway Principal Honey.
Cheryl, Toni and the cheerleaders, however, don’t help Kevin’s cause by confronting Honey at Pop’s to convince him of the show’s family friendliness by performing a highly sexualized version of the song ‘Sugar Daddy’, of which the title alone has its own implications. At this point, Honey decrees that anyone performing a song from Hedwig at the talent show will be barred from senior prom. At school, the entire student body dresses in their finest Hedwig regalia to confront Honey head on … which prompts him to cancel the talent show altogether. But if you can’t bring the talent show to school, bring the school to the speakeasy.
Earlier in the episode when Kevin was still in charge of the show, Archie decided to sign up with his new band, a fact he hadn’t discussed with his proposed bandmates but once he did they were all on board. When asked what the band’s name is, Archie was a little embarrassed to say it was The Archies, prompting Jughead to ask if The Me Me Me was already taken. Veronica thought it was fine and they all agreed to perform. But the performance did not come without some drama.
At the gym, when Hiram was supposed to be at a doctor’s appointment he was lifting weights instead, but he nearly got trapped under the weight of the barbell and Archie had to rescue him. Archie alluded to Hiram’s health issue but Hiram denied it in such a way that he was also admitting it while telling Archie it was none of his or Veronica’s business. When Archie did tell her about the incident, Ronnie lashed out at him and the two broke into the song ‘Exquisite Corpse’.
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Meanwhile, Betty is trying to help Jughead get caught up on his school work after returning from Stonewall so he can graduate, but Jughead has offered to help Charles scrub through the mysterious VHA tapes, including some that arrived at the beginning of the episode. After showing Betty a phoned-in book report, she catches him in the bunker watching the videos and they fight, joining in on ‘Exquisite Corpse’. I have to say the direction and editing for this scene as it cut between the two couples was electrifying. In the end, Betty ended up at the band rehearsal that Archie hadn’t had a chance to cancel, and the two decide to rehearse anyway, performing my favorite song from the show/movie, ‘The Origin of Love’. The emotion of the fights have Juggie and Ronnie singing too, solo, and a nice use of flashbacks to the show’s first season when Archie and Betty were still a thing leads to the two kissing, but for real this time (not like the ‘for show’ kiss when everyone believed Jughead was dead). But when their respective others come to apologize, the guilt Archie and Betty feel is palpable.
But the show must go on, and the four plus Kevin make their debut as The Archies (loved the use of the original font from the comics on Jughead’s drum) performing the rousing and moving ‘Midnight Radio’ to a packed house. For the finale, the five leave the stage and lead everyone outside of Pop’s where they finish the song on the roof, the crowd below holding candles in the air (I assume this was planned and maybe Cheryl and Toni handed them out as everyone exited). But as they performed, Jughead’s voice over kicked in, wondering if the mysterious voyeur was right there in the crowd. After the show, Jughed went back to watching the tapes (he did complete a book report to Betty’s satisfaction) and found something horrifying: someone wearing a Jughead mask (resembling the comic book character) mugging for the camera. Creeping up behind him was someone in a cartoon Betty mask. Suddenly, ‘Betty’ started bashing ‘Jughead’ with a rock to the skull. Did he just witness an actual murder?
We may or may not find out, at least not this season. The show will take another break until April 29 so The CW can stretch the remaining episodes until May. Unfortunately, Riverdale was one of the first regular TV series to shut down production when a crew member came into contact with a COVID-19 infectee, leaving production on the season’s final two episodes in limbo. But, as far as the series’ musical episodes go, this one has to be my favorite. Everyone handled the songs beautifully and the direction and editing, plus the twists in the storytelling, was spot on. This is one episode I can see myself rewatching.
A little episode trivia: the composer of the music for the show, Stephen Trask, was on set during filming. Trask is apparently as much a fan of Riverdale as show creator Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa is of Hedwig. Also, the Hedwig wig Kevin wears is the actual wig worn by John Cameron Mitchell in the movie. Pretty cool!
What did you think of this episode? Let us know what you think in the comments section below.
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