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This week’s episode of Riverdale shows us that the 1950s may not have been the ‘good old days’ that have been romanticized over the years in movies and TV shows. At least not for some people. We’ve already seen how a real-life event of racism impacted Tabitha Tate — so much so that she left Riverdale to join her parents in the growing Civil Rights Movement (and Erinn Westbrook is missed) — but the 50s really were an oppressive time for anyone who was ‘different’, or outside of the straight, white, all-American male ‘norm’. Sort of like it is today. This week’s episode is certainly a good example of of fiction can illuminate issues happening in the real world (science fiction in particular is good at that). But before we delve into the four main stories this week, there’s just one question to ponder — has everyone forgotten about Ethel Muggs and the murder of her parents?
Betty
Poor Betty Cooper is facing the aftermath of her little strip show with Archie. She’s pretty much branded as the town hussy now with wildly varying stories of what she got caught doing with Archie, none of them true (the boy, of course, is held up in high regard now as a stud with zero repercussions for being an equal partner in the strip show). As Betty keeps trying to point out to her mother, they were in two different houses, so how could they have done any of the things people are claiming they did? But now Betty is ‘damaged goods’ and the Coopers have a reputation to uphold so Alice first seeks assistance from Penelope Blossom — which probably isn’t going to end well for Betty — and then decides that the one way to keep Betty from indulging in any more midnight frolics in the window is that Betty will start dancing on the ‘Riverdale Grandstand’ TV show for three hours. That’ll tire her out (it may also impact her school work but who cares?). Betty does her best to resist her parents’ punishment, standing around the studio moping, but Cheryl, who is the dance coordinator for the show (because Mommy and Daddy own the station, of course), forces Betty to get out there and put on a happy face, making her dance with Dilton Doily. When it comes time for another dance, Betty is approached by a boy named Troy and she agrees to dance with him. Troy, though, is a slimeball and assumes that Betty is ‘easy’ and will put on a show for him too down by the river. When he grabs her ass, Betty slaps him — on camera — which sends Alice into full panic mode, fearing this will look bad … to the Blossoms. Nevermind how Betty feels. And for her actions, Betty will still be forced to come to the show, but she’ll just sit in the audience. All of this comes to a head on the show’s 50th episode special when a new dance is introduced, ‘The Twirl’, a ridiculous dance where the girls just spin enough to gently lift their skirts. Betty marches onto the dancefloor and says if they want to see a twirl, she’ll show them a twirl — and she shows them a lot more than that, her skirt going so high to show off her bright red panties. Well that was the last straw for Alice, and Betty said if she didn’t want that to happen any more then she should kick Betty off the show. Alice has no choice but to agree. But poor Betty isn’t out of the clear just yet. Walking into school the next day, all eyes are on her but at the end of the hallway is Dr. Werthers, who brings her into her office and begins questioning her, insinuating that she is mentally disturbed because of her displays of sexuality, and wondering just what they are going to do with her. I’m going to go out on a limb and say she’s going to find herself at the convent with Ethel.
Veronica
There was another casualty of the Betty/Archie strip show, and that was Veronica. Yes, Alice placed a call to Hollywood and told the Lodges exactly what their daughter did — supplied Betty with the illicit lacy lingerie. And for that infraction, Veronica receives a telegram informing her that her allowance is being cut off and she will begin work at the Babylonium, the local movie house, right after school. While she’s not thrilled about having to actually earn a living, Veronica loves the movies so it’s not the punishment her parents think it will be. Well … turns out business isn’t great so she’ll be almost a one-woman show in the front of the house, selling tickets, taking tickets, dishing up popcorn to the few patrons who may wander in. She also finds Clay works there as the projectionist and usher and they both have a love of film. Clay wants to direct, and Veronica has a mind for the business end of moviemaking so they both make a pact of sorts that one day Veronica will be running a studio and she can hire him to direct his first film. But she still wonders when the rush happens and the manager tells her they’re in it. And no one is there. He blames television (which Ronnie says makes her skin crawl) and that newfangled drive-in down the road (which, if we all remember, is where movie buff Jughead Jones used to live before Hiram Lodge had the place bulldozed in their real timeline). Ronnie suggests they create an advertisement for the Babylonium to air during ‘Riverdale Grandstand’. She knows people at RIVW, and all the kids in town will see it. So she and Clay (somehow) produce a lavish ad extolling the virtues of the cinema — an gentle spoof of that already viciously spoofed ad that Nicole Kidman did to welcome people back to the movies when they re-opened — and it brings a tear to the manager/owner’s eye. Except … he’s deep in negotiations to sell the Babylonium — the Hiram and Hermoine Lodge. And they’re going to tear down paradise and put in a parking lot. Ronnie can’t let this happen so she hatches a plan to trade an Edward Hopper original painting from her ‘personal collection’ (or is it her parents’ property?) for the theatre, its appraised price much more than what her parents are offering. It’s a deal, and just as it was in the present day timeline, Veronica Lodge is now the owner of the Babylonium, relishing in the chance to send her parents a telegram telling them that she has one-upped them (a long-running theme with her and her father).
Jughead
Jughead is still under fire from Werthers and Featherhead over his ‘pornographic’ comics with characters that are obvious representations of the students at Riverdale High. They can’t have this going on under their noses, and even though what Jughead does in his own time is none of their beeswax, they insist that he sign an agreement to stop writing those horror comics in exchange for not being expelled. Jughead take the drop-out route instead. Back at Pep Comics, Mr. Rayberry comes in to exchange a royalty check for cash since he doesn’t trust banks. He’s still miffed at Jughead for ‘stealing’ his manuscript, but he’s also wondering why Jughead is at the office at 12:30 in the afternoon. Shouldn’t he be in school? Rayberry invites Jughead to lunch so he can get the scoop and Juggie explains what happened — while still profusely apologizing for his actions — and Rayberry advises him that while he definitely should keep writing the comics, he also needs to stay in school and get his education. Jughead doesn’t see why since he’s doing fine, but Rayberry insists and is happy when Jughead finally agrees to return to school. But Rayberry has a plan to keep everything as it is without the overlords at school knowing. The two appear in Featherstone’s office and Jughead signs their contract — more a deal with the Devil — but Rayberry puts a few conditions on it as he is now acting as Jughead’s mentor: Jughead will return as a student and he will keep writing for Pep Comics, but he’ll write the more family friendly ‘Super Duck’ comic. The men agree to the terms, but what they don’t know is that Rayberry and Jughead are taking a cue from writers in Hollywood who were blacklisted in the Communist witch hunt — he’ll keep writing the horror comics under a pseudonym while write the Duck comics and keeping up with his school work all at the same time. Jughead is happy that he’s got Mr. Rayberry back in his corner, and Rayberry is even agreeable to making the mentor ruse a reality, happily taking Jughead under his wing. And he admits that because Jughead took ‘The Jupiter Journals’ and read the manuscript, that he was going to revisit it himself and possibly have it published after all. But that may not happen as later in the day, there’s a knock at Rayberry’s door. He opens it and standing in the hallway is … a milkman with a late delivery. Uh oh.
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Kevin
Even with everyone else’s problems this week, the main focus of the episode is Kevin. His dad has found some ‘physique magazines’ in his bedroom — and back in the 50s if you had magazines featuring scantily clad muscle men, you probably weren’t actually reading the articles — and is concerned about this path Kevin is going down. So to help him become more ‘manly’ and ‘normal’, he talks Frank into putting Kevin on the high school basketball team. That doesn’t sit well with Julian, who calls Kevin a creampuff, but poor Archie is completely clueless as to what’s going on. He tries to ask his uncle why Sheriff Keller wants Kevin to play basketball, but Frank just dances around saying what’s going on, just telling Archie that Kevin is a little ‘bent’ (a code word for ‘homosexual’) and getting into sports will ‘fix’ him. A common belief when homosexuality was considered a mental illness. Archie still doesn’t really get it but he does his best to befriend Kevin and show him the ropes in the gym. In the locker room, Julian crows about one of their teammates ‘going all the way’ with his girlfriend in the back seat of his dad’s car, and also pumps up Archie as a real Lothario (unaware that Archie’s reputation has been blown wildly out of proportion). Julian sets his sights on Kevin, asking him about his sexual exploits and Archie steps in to try to squash this game Julian is playing, suggesting that Julian himself is still a virgin. Julian assures him that he is not, having been taking to the legendary Twyla Twist on his 16th birthday, by his father, to be inducted into manhood. Julian pushes Kevin to agree to visit Twlya himself, but Archie senses something is not right here.
Archie, who is supposed to keep his distance from Betty, runs into her at Pop’s and they have a chat. Archie asks her what it was like with Kevin, their love life, and Betty tries to be demure, saying she isn’t going to kiss and tell. But she senses Archie is concerned about Kevin, and he tells her about the visit to Twyla. The next thing you know, Archie is bursting into the room to stop whatever is going on but when he gets there Kevin is sitting on the edge of the bed, crying. Twyla tells him that nothing happened, they danced a little but Kevin started crying and that’s as far as it went. She knows the score with him, she’s been around the block … but Archie is a big strapping boy so maybe she can take him for a spin. Archie gathers up Kevin and they make a hasty retreat. Sitting on the steps of the high school, Kevin tries to explain that he wants to be ‘normal’ but he doesn’t fit in with his love of movies and movie stars and artsy things like that. Archie says he likes those things too, and also admits that he’s still a virgin too. It’s a truly beautiful moment as the two bond, even if Archie still doesn’t quite get it. Kevin goes home and his father is not happy about what happened, or didn’t happen, with Twyla. He got a full report from her because … he was the one who set the whole thing up. He talked Julian into getting Kevin to go because it might have been more natural coming from a classmate than his father. But Tom Keller is not happy and for a brief moment it really seemed that he was going to get violent with his son (it’s so sad to see this version of Tom, knowing in the real timeline he’s perfectly fine with his son’s sexuality). Tom has Kevin pulled off the basketball team, and the next day Archie approaches Kevin and Clay and asks if they want to hang out at lunch. Kevin says he’s not doing the hoops thing anymore, but Archie says that’s fine, they can talk about movie stars. Kevin, and Clay, are impressed and agree to the lunch date. That Archie Andrews is a true friend. But I suspect that Kevin may find himself in a similar situation with Betty because expressing your sexuality in these oppressive times will not be tolerated.
Next week, there’s a new kid in town by the name of … Reggie Mantle!
Riverdale airs Wednesdays at 9:00 PM.
What did you think of this episode? Let us know in the comments section below.
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