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Let’s Talk About ‘Ghost Stories’:
- Archie’s mom has put his face on a milk carton, unaware of his sacrifice.
- A violent battle between the Serpents and the Ghoolies ends in a tragedy by the hand of Toni.
- Reggie is back to work at his dad’s used car lot while his dad is hospitalized, and he buys a car from a man that was the same make and model of the first car his dad bought for him.
- Jughead has not started writing yet and is slacking off on his duties around the apartment, so Tabitha takes things into her own hands and discovers a hidden room.
- A mysterious woman in black appears at Thorn Hill and tries to drown Juniper in the bathtub.
- Tabitha learns that Jughead wasn’t honest with her about the previous residents of their apartment, who died in a murder-suicide incident.
- Betty is investigating a Serpent mother accused of drowning her daughter, but Toni doesn’t believe she did it. The woman claims the killer was La Llorona.
- Reggie’s obsession with his car puts Veronica in an embarrassing situation in front of her students.
- Jughead is finally inspired to start writing but his behavior and possible return to drinking is pushing Tabitha to the brink.
- Veronica finds a picture of a woman in Reggie’s car and discovers the shocking truth of her identity.
- Betty is visited by La Llorona which forces her to believe the legend is real, enlisting Cheryl to perform a seance to find out who sent the vengeful spirit.
- Toni must make a difficult choice to save Baby Anthony’s life.
- Sabrina Spellman still did not make an appearance, but I suspect she will appear on the fifth ‘Rivervale’ episode which will also mark the series’ 100th episode.
This week’s episode of Rivervale told three stories of restless, and vengeful, spirits with one ending in heartbreak. But after the sacrifice of Archie Andrews, the Blossom maple groves are prosperous once again, while Mary Andrews is unaware of the activities in town and believe her son to just be missing. Interestingly, the opening cast credits did not include KJ Apa’s name, and I suspect next week’s cast list will be short one more cast member … at least for the duration of this ‘event series’ (and unlike the ‘Arrowverse’ events, it’s unlikely anything that happens in Rivervale will actually cross over to Riverdale). Two of this week’s stories are easily identifiable while the third is a standard ghost/possession story out of The Conjuring.
Reggie & Veronica
This couple’s tale is a play on Stephen King’s Christine. Reggie and Veronica are, I assume, still making plans for the casino but here Reggie is back at the used car lot while his dad is hospitalized and Ronnie is still teaching at Rivervale High. Reggie has been distant while processing his father’s condition, but his spirits are lifted when a man drives a car on to the lot that resembles the first car Reggie’s dad bought for him. Reggie offers to buy the car on the spot for double its value and his obsession with it begins, putting distance between him and Veronica, seeing a vision of a woman in the passenger seat next to him. But she tries to understand and even goes along with him to make out in the car. In front of Pop’s. And her students see them, embarrassing her to no end. Attempting to learn why Reggie is so obsessed with this car he’s named ‘Bella’, she discovers a photograph of a woman hidden under the sun visor.
Storming to the high school where Reggie has been refurbishing the car, she bumps into Principal Weatherbee and drops the photo. He knows the woman. She was the driver’s ed teacher who had been accused of impropriety with some of the male students. Veronica flies into a rage and smashes the hell out of Bella, accusing Reggie of romanticizing an abusive relationship he had with a teacher. Reggie, whose father has now died, assures Veronica that he never did anything with Isabella, she was just the one adult who was there to listen to him while he was being physically abused by his father. Veronica is a bit ashamed of her behavior and has the car repaired to its original condition. Reggie is grateful and she leaves him to enjoy the car again. He flips the visor down and there is the picture of Isabella. Looking in the rear view mirror, he sees Isabella again in the back seat smiling at him. So … there was an inappropriate relationship?
Jughead & Tabitha
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Tabitha is being beyond accommodating to Jughead and his writing process, but she also expects him to do some work around the house. Which he doesn’t. It’s part of his process to get his juices flowing again. When he fails to hang some pictures, she begins and ends up putting a hole in the wall, discovering a previously unknown room hidden behind it (shades of the hidden room story as seen on Tik Tok). They tear the wall down and find the room filled with rum bottles with ships inside. Tabitha talks to the Realtor and learns the previous tenants died in a murder-suicide incident, something she had revealed to Jughead but he didn’t reveal to Tabitha. Furious about the deception, Jughead assures her he didn’t mean to keep it from her but she loved the apartment when she first saw it and he didn’t want to spoil it for her by telling her of the deaths. Tabitha asked her grandfather if he believed in ghosts and he related a story to her of how the diner was haunted, but the noise of a civil unrest that left the windows of the diner shattered seemed to have driven the ghost of the dead waitress away. The humans were too noisy for the spirit.
But Tabitha begins to experience her own strange dreams and behavior. Jughead has become obsessed with building ships in bottles instead of writing, and she suspects he’s drinking the rum from the bottles he’s using for his new hobby. One night she hears him typing away madly and the sound drives her to the brink. When he refuses to stop typing, she picks up a hammer and swings at him … bolting upright in bed from a nightmare, Jughead sound asleep next to her. But the crafting does get his creative juices flowing again and he types all day on his new novel, basing it on the couple who lived and died in the apartment. But he won’t let Tabitha read what he call his ‘vomit draft’, saying he never lets anyone read those until he refines them. But she learns from Betty that he always let her read the vomit drafts and that sends Tabitha over the edge. Returning to the apartment to find Jughead with a box full of rum bottles, accusing him of spending the money that she earns to drink it away and build his little ships, she has had it and throws his typewriter to the floor, smashing it to pieces. The open front door suddenly slams shut and Tabitha snaps out of her rage. Was she possessed by the spirit of the woman who murdered her partner in the apartment? Did their yelling and the noise of the smashing of the typewriter drive the angry spirit away? Who knows, but it will sure make a good story for Jughead’s next book!
Toni & Betty
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Many months ago, the Serpents and the Ghoolies were involved in yet another rumble and Toni was attempting to stop Darla Dickinson from shooting one of the Serpents by throwing a knife at her, to wound. Except Darla’s youngest — and last — son jumped in the way and was stabbed in the heart. Months of therapy have not helped Toni resolve the death by her hand even if it was accidental, and even though the therapist suggests apologizing to Darla, Toni knows Darla will never accept it.
Cheryl has come to Betty to ask if Alice can take care of Dagwood and Juniper for a while because of something going on at Thorn Hill. She reveals that Juniper had nearly been drowned in the bathtub by an ‘evil water nymph straight out of an M. Night Shyamalan movie stalking the hallways of Thorn Hill’. Betty doesn’t seem to take Cheryl seriously but she later goes to Toni with a case of murder involving a Serpent mother accused of drowning her daughter. Toni knows no Serpent mother would ever kill her child and offers to be Betty’s go-between to try and help the woman from being charged. The woman tells Toni it was La Llorona who killed her daughter, but Betty can’t put ‘vengeful spirit’ on the report. The woman will be charged if Toni can’t come up with a better answer. Betty doesn’t seem to have put the two incidents together, and Toni tries to explain the curse of La Llorona to her, relating how the woman and her children had been drowned in the Sweetwater River by the locals, and now her spirit is being summoned to exact revenge for another wrong, even preying on the unborn. While Betty sleeps, La Llorona appears in her bedroom and touches Betty’s stomach, a faint heartbeat can be heard (remember, Betty learned last week she was miraculously pregnant, a factor that led to Archie’s fertility sacrifice). Betty awakens and the spirit is gone, but a wet hand print remains on her nightgown. Visiting Dr. Curdle Jr., he reveals that she no longer shows any signs of having been pregnant. That’s enough to finally make her believe.
The spirit makes an appearance at Rivervale High, and Toni pulls the fire alarm to clear the school, but ends up with a welfare check from a social worker at her own home. While Toni’s social worker friend is at the apartment, they hear Baby Anthony squeal loudly from his room, rushing in to find him on the floor in a puddle of water. After tracking the spirit’s movements through Rivervale, Betty and Toni know they have to take action before another child dies. Betty and Toni know there is one person who can converse with the spirits, and that is Cheryl. They and Nana Rose perform a séance to summon the spirit and learn who summoned her. Speaking through Nana Rose, telling her story (real name Martha Mallon) and nearly drowning Nana in the process, it is finally revealed who summoned La Llorona – Darla Dickinson. Finding Darla in the cemetery at the graves of her fallen sons, Darla laughs at them when they ask her to call off the spirit. Toni tries to apologize but Darla tells them there is no stopping the spirit until her mission is fulfilled — killing Baby Anthony.
Toni has already had Fangs take Anthony to the Whyte Wyrm to be surrounded by the Serpents to protect him, but fearing what Darla says is true they all make their way to the club only to find all of the Serpents drowned or nearly drowned (Fangs was one of the survivors … maybe) and Baby Anthony gone. Heading to the Sweetwater River to try to stop La Llorona but she tells Toni that she has to finish what she was called to do. Toni tries to reason with the spirit, sorry for what happened to her and her children, and that she would do anything to take that pain away from her in order to save her own baby. Toni offers herself up to take on Martha’s curse in exchange for Anthony’s life. Martha hands Toni the baby and she gives him to Betty. Martha’s spirit passes into Toni and she is now in La Llorona’s black lace dress. She asks Betty to protect Anthony and let him know his mother loved him, then she walks into the river.
And so ends the second chapter of ‘Rivervale’.
Riverdale airs Tuesdays at 9:00 PM.
What did you think of this episode? Let us know in the comments section below.
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