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So after last week’s weirdly out of place episode, this week’s opens with traditional Jughead narration to prove to us the episode were not aired out of order. Uh huh. Sure. But the fun of that episode has given way to much heavier subject matter this week as the core four (well, five) deal with some heavy … you know what.
Archie
Archie is dealt the heaviest load this week as he continues his quest to expose General Taylor’s actions to the Army. The impetus for Archie ramping up his crusade is that Taylor is retiring with full honors, and Archie just can’t let that happen knowing it was Taylor’s actions that got everyone in his platoon except him and Eric killed. But Erix drops a bombshell on Archie that may impact his quest — he was acting as a sniper under Taylor’s orders to take out a specific target. Eric knew the rest of the troops were in grave danger but he stayed focused on his mission, and now he believes his actions cost everyone their lives and the loss of his leg was punishment.
Archie is nothing if not incredibly understanding, and he affirms to Eric that he did nothing wrong by following orders. It was the orders that were wrong, and if Archie can have a tribunal launched into Taylor’s actions, he will keep Eric out of it. Archie also has to deal with the families of the men killed, those who keep haunting him with their gruesome imagery. Some family members blame Archie for leaving the platoon to go off on his own, and others are supportive of anything he wants to do. He confronts Taylor who tells him it will be a game of ‘my word against yours’ and they certainly won’t believe someone like Archie who ‘went rogue’. But the tribunal will convene and … Eric has decided to join Archie to testify against Taylor. And in the end, they prevailed. Eric was found to be following orders and will not be held responsible for the deaths of his platoon members, and the orders Taylor issued were found to be self-serving in the end and Taylor will be dismissed with no honors. As Archie, Eric and Uncle Frank toasted their victory at the Whyte Wyrm, the ghostly platoon members were seen one last time, now whole again, their wounds healed by Archie’s actions taken on their behalf. Excuse me for a second, I have a little something in my eye.
Veronica
As her trading business is growing and her rift with Chad is expanding, Veronica suddenly finds her new business the subject of an SEC investigation. And her books are not going to look good, but she’d rather go to white collar jail than to let Chadwick win. But all she needs to do is pay off all the debt he accrued in their names and there’s only one way to do it — sell her father’s stash of Palladium. But where is it? Reggie may have the answer since, as he revealed, he and Hermosa has a ‘thing’ when she was in town and he can sweet talk her into telling him where the Palladium is. And she does. Which seems weird. I expected she’d send them on a wild goose chase to get caught, but no, the Palladium is right in front of everyone’s eyes, hidden in the model of Sodale in Hiram’s office.
But she can’t just sell raw Palladium so he conspires with Cheryl to state the Palladium cam e from her mines and they will smelt it down into Spanish doubloons and auction them off. Okay. Cheryl is on board with anything that screws over Hiram. The day of the auction, Hiram shows up and starts a bidding war, and even though he’s bid more than $300,000, she ends the auction on that bid which is enough to pay off Chad’s debts. Chad calls and tries to talk her into a new business deal he’s got going called ‘Copter Cab’ which, as Ronnie explains, takes one-percenters to Marsha’s Vineyard. And Hiram is on board as well. Ronnie says thanks but no thanks because his creditors are paid off and a divorce is pending, but after the call she realizes she’s been dealing with Chad all wrong. So the day the stock in the company goes public and Chad, Hiram and the investors are celebrating, Ronnie shows up with some ‘Good Time Girls’, booze and Jingle Jangle to celebrate, telling Chad that maybe she was wrong about him and his deal. And then the other shoe drops as the stock suddenly nose dives. Oh, did Veronica forget to mention she dropped a little tidbit to the press that Chad once crashed a helicopter? Yeah, you can’t have a successful chopper business with that hanging over your head. Oops. And she takes pleasure that this is also hitting her father, but he tells her he only invested a small sum that is barely a blip to him. She says he’d better rething his Sodale plans as well and take a closer look at his model. At his office, he lifts one of the model houses and sees the Palladium but … it crumbles in his hand. Ronnie and Reggie replaced the real stuff with silver-painted Plaster of Paris. Hiram is NOT happy that she’s gotten the upper hand on him. Again.
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Cheryl
With Kevin by her side, Cheryl is now battling her mother for control of their new religion. Cheryl has gotten so in deep that she now believes she has full authority … and Penelope claiming that Jason gave her a message that there would be no more singing only pushed Cheryl’s buttons further. So how will she convince the congregation that she is the anointed one? Why by performing three miracles, of course, which would qualify her for sainthood. And it just so happens that Kevin was way into magician David Copperfield when he was a kid so he knows a few things about ‘miracles’. For her first miracle, Cheryl paraphrases Jesus’ act of turning water into wine by turning water into … maple syrup (Kevin’s grand gestures scream ‘magician’s assistant’ but the audience falls for it). For her next trick, uh miracle, Cheryl manifests the stigmata on her hands. That one is a little confusing since Jason, who is this church’s God, wasn’t crucified. I guess hole in the head stigmata would have been too gruesome.
Kevin has some ideas for the third ‘miracle’ but Cheryl has her own idea and it involves … bees. Kevin is deathly allergic to bees so he’s not on board but Cheryl convinces him she knows what she’s doing. So at the next service she has a clear box full of bees and a honeycomb, demonstrating how she has dominion over the insects. Penelope tries to put an end to this magic show, but Cheryl pulls her hands out of the box with the bees following her, and threatens to unleash the bees on Penelope if she doesn’t bow out right then and there. Penelope has no choice, but I’m sure she’ll have something else up her sleeve. Later, Kevin asked Cheryl if she used some kind of pheromone on herself to keep the bees under control, and she admits that she did not do anything. But she felt something at that moment, changed inside, and perhaps she is not the living embodiment of a true saint. Kevin’s reaction says he thinks maybe it’s also time for him to cut and run.
Jughead & Betty
Jughead is back in Riverdale and seven days sober. Time to start his ‘apology tour’. His first stop is Betty’s house, but a disheveled Alice tells him Betty is working the Lonesome Highway, and he asks her to tell Betty he was there. Oddly, he didn’t apologize to Alice for his past actions. Next is Mr. Weatherbee, hoping he can return to the high school to teach but since he just disappeared without even arranging a substitute, Weatherbee is placing him on administrative leave. Tabitha is the only person who shows Jughead any compassion, and she also tells him about Betty’s activities trying to find Polly’s (presumed) killer. Jughead texts Betty and asks to talk in person, and they arrange to meet at the bunker for privacy.
Jughead also has a publisher deadline hanging over his head with nothing to present, but he remembers the book a young woman in New York gave him to read for his feedback. He finally did read it and it was great. So great, in fact, that he submits it to his agent as his own work. Betty comes to the bunker and Jughead tries to apologize for the awful message he left her, which he doesn’t remember most of, and Betty admits that she was going to his book release party that night but she was so consumed with tracking down the Trash Bag Killer that she blew off the party to focus on that (she doesn’t mention if this was when she was captured) and that perhaps she has her own addiction to serial killers. As she tells Jughead about how consumed she is with these killers and getting into their heads to find them, Jughead’s phone rings. It’s his agent who is ecstatic about the book. But Jughead can’t deal with another lie and he admits he didn’t write it. His agent is forced to drop him as a client but wishes him well, and Jughead says he’ll forward the true author’s information to him. When Jughead hangs up and turns around, Betty is gone.
Back at her house, Alice is passed out on the couch and Betty is dressed for another night out on the Lonesome Highway, but before she can leave there is a knock at the door. It’s Tabitha, who insists that she is going to get changed and go with Betty because what she’s doing is too dangerous to do on her own. And she’s not taking no for an answer. And the last we see of the two young women, they are traipsing down the road but none of the passing trucks are stopping. Will Betty ever get her man?
Riverdale airs Wednesdays at 8:00 PM.
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