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Riverdale‘s annual musical episode — and there have been several episodes with music this season — has finally arrived and it’s a bit of a downer as Betty and Alice try to come to terms with Polly’s murder. The whole scenario was the perfect opportunity to use songs from the Broadway musical Next to Normal which is also about a dysfunctional family with a dead sibling and a mother who escapes into her own fantasy world instead of confronting the truth.
Betty can see poor Alice spiraling as she listens to the show’s soundtrack over and over again, at the same time slipping into her fantasy world where she prepares a huge dinner for all of her children — including the not dead Charles, but not the dead Hal — and spending time looking at photos of Polly while ignoring Betty. Betty seems to be dealing with Polly’s death better than Alice, and perhaps that’s because she has a support system in her Riverdale friends. Alice really has no one but Betty, but when Betty tries to drag her mother into the real world with a trip to New York City for dinner and Moulin Rouge!, Alice imagines Polly berating her for daring to consider leaving her alone at the house, so she refuses to go with Betty. Even worse, she blames Betty for Polly’s death, saying if she hadn’t left Riverdale for seven years then Polly would still be alive.
That sends Betty on her way out the door, seeking some comfort from Kevin (no, she didn’t invite him to go to NYC with her), which gave them a chance to sing a duet. But Betty becomes even more concerned about her mother when she comes home and there’s a piano in the living room, bringing Alice back to a time when Betty and Polly were getting piano lessons. Before her mother can slip even farther away, Betty takes matters into her own hands and removes the piano and the record player from the house, replacing them with … the urn with Polly’s ashes, hoping that something this tangible will shake Alice back to reality. It does in another heart-wrenching moment between the two women as Alice finally lets go. And if you weren’t already in tears, the episode ends as the cast gathers in the cemetery for a final number together as mother and sister put Polly to rest. It was a very cathartic moment after a very heavy episode.
Elsewhere, Tabitha is visited by her parents who are in town for Mother’s Day. Tabitha is proud to show all the improvements she’s made to Pop’s but her rather stuffy parents are not impressed. When she suggests they have Mother’s Day dinner at the diner, they scoff, telling her they have reservations at a fine Italian restaurant. Tabitha agrees to join them as long as she can bring … her boyfriend Jughead along. This status update comes as news to Jughead, and Tabitha admits they could be in a relationship if things weren’t so messy in their lives. But, in another song from the show, Jughead assures her that he might be a mess but they can make it work. He shows up late to dinner, but by that point Tabitha has had enough of her parents, and she runs off with Jughead to make their relationship official.
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Toni is still concerned about Britta, who has been kicked out of her house after coming out and is living in a closet at the high school. Toni calls in a friend who is also a counselor, and they try to find a foster home but Toni is not having any luck. Fangs suggests there is one person in Riverdale who seems to have turned over a new leaf, but that’s not someone Toni is confident in turning over a homeless teen to. But with her options basically depleted, Toni visits Cheryl (who earlier ‘exorcised’ her mother from her religion), and tells her she has complete confidence that Cheryl is the right person to take Britta in considering her own history with her parents when she came out, and Cheryl is honored to give Britta a home. After the whole experience, Toni goes home and tells Fangs she thinks she loves him, and Fangs replies that he thinks he loves her and that they can make this whole situation work.
Not making their situation work is Veronica and Archie. While things seemed to be heading in the right direction, Veronica suggested it may be time to move in together. Archie is surprised that Ronnie would want roommates not understanding she meant him moving into the Pembroke. But he says with his house they have room to grow there so she agrees to give it a shot. She invites Betty and Alice for dinner — Alice refuses to leave the house — so it’s a huge spread of chicken cordon bleu for Archie, Frank and Jughead (ummm, where’s Eric?) but the second they sit down to eat, Archie and Frank get a fire alert so they have to take off, leaving Veronica and Jughead to eat alone … and even Jughead finds the situation uncomfortable enough to go eat in his room. Later, Ronnie wakes up to singing in the bathroom thinking it’s Archie, but it’s Jughead, and she sees much more of Frank in she shower than she anticipated. Archie slept at the station to be on call and give the other guys a break.
After spending some time with Reggie helping him brush up on his stock broker accreditation test, and hearing his dreams of where he’ll be in five years (hint: not Riverdale), Veronica decides to ask Archie where he sees hiself in five years. Telling her he’d never stand in the way of an opportunity for her, Archie says in his heart of hearts he sees himself in … Riverdale in five years (probably forever). Ronnie says that’s not a deal breaker. Archie can sense that it is and suggests they just go back to dating and having fun but she says this isn’t high school anymore, so she packs her bags and leaves Archie for bigger and better things. And perhaps Reggie.
Next week it’s the season finale before the show returns in November for its sixth season.
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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