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After a week off, Riverdale is back with the beginning of the second half of the final season … and this week it really feels like things are taking shape but there’s still no real clue as to where this is all going to end. The season so far, due to the time period in which it is set, has really focused on societal issues that were prevalent then but are just as prevalent today. Fiction set in different eras, past or present, have been used to hold a spotlight up to contemporary issues and the storytelling this season has been no exception, mainly focusing on issues of race, sexuality and acceptance.
At the forefront this week is Reggie Mantle. The episode picks up right after the events of the previous episode — a bit unusual for this show since episodes seems to jump forward days, weeks or months between episodes — when a car full of Bulldogs went off a bridge into Sweetwater River. But unlike the previous accident that made Halloween verboten for anyone over the age of 12, all of the occupants of the car survived thanks to the quick actions of Reggie. And while Julian Blossom was the most seriously injured, comatose at the top of the episode, he’s still alive though his fate hangs in the balance. Reggie single-handedly freed all of his teammates from the wreckage and got them to the surface, but even though it is clear that Julian was driving, Clifford Blossom wants to hold Reggie completely responsible for the accident. And it’s crystal clear why.
But Clifford also wants the Bulldogs to win their upcoming game against Stonewall Prep, so he’s willing to let Reggie play but after the game he’s planning to ship Reggie back to his parents and bring in a new player from Boston, KO Kelly (last seen on Season 6 Episode 10, and a regular on the spin-off series Katy Keene). Clifford is unaware that Cheryl overheard his plans, and it particularly incensed that her father is still pushing for the game to take place while her brother, his son, hovers between life and death. She snaps at Clifford that he’s not going to regain his youth as a Bulldog by sponsoring the team and she isn’t going to join the Vixens at the game. His violent response is quite frightening — we have to remember the original Clifford did murder his own son — so Cheryl knows she has no choice but to comply. Clifford alerts Coach Frank that he wants Archie to captain the team in Julian’s absence but Archie feels that Reggie, who is their best player, so take the lead. Frank warns him that it’s best to do what their sponsor says, and Cheryl gives Archie a heads up to her father’s plan. Archie tells Reggie, and he knows immediately that this KO Kelly character is certainly a few shades lighter than he, but he’s not going down without a fight. A visit from the Stonewall team, lead by the oily Bret Weston Wallis, to steal Riverdale’s mascot and to insinuate that Reggie will choke on the court like he did at Stonewall, only lights a fire under the team. They even pay a visit to Clifford and make it clear that if Reggie isn’t captain, then Archie will walk, Reggie will walk and the entire team will follow. Blossom knows they have him over a barrel and he agrees, but they really don’t know how dangerous it is to cross him. Reggie shows his skills as a captain, knowing all of the Stonewall players’ strength and weaknesses, and they easily beat their rivals which will make it all that much harder for Clifford to oust Reggie.
During all this, Archie begins to realize that his heart really isn’t into playing basketball. During one of their classes, their teacher reads a poem by an unidentified student and Kevin thinks CLay wrote it. But the teacher outs Archie as the author and notes that while he’s quiet in class, he certainly has plenty to say and she keeps encouraging him to continue writing and speaking up more. Before the big game, Archie gives Reggie his dad’s coach’s patch — which Frank had given him earlier — and Reggie is honored and promises to return it at the end of the season. Archie is impressed with how Reggie truly has his eye on the ball as far as what he wants after high school, but he isn’t so sure where his own future lies. Reggie assumes that Archie wants to be a poet, but Archie doesn’t think the world is ready for Archie Andrews, Beatnik Poet. And while he will continue to play basketball to honor his father and have Reggie’s back, his true future remains to be seen. But there’s certainly one way he can be a poet but not be a poet — turn his writing into songs. If this version of Archie has any memories of his real life, he (and we) knows his future lies in music.
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This week also put us back in Rayberry’s apartment, the dead milkman being examined by Sheriff Keller, who now believes Ethel’s innocence in the murder of her parents and assures her and Jughead that she doesn’t need to come to the station to make a statement … this was self defense and the case is closed. The guy was probably a drifter. They are both incredulous and suspicious of Keller’s nonchalance, but when he says they have to get Ethel back to the Sisters she refuses, and Jughead says they were abusing his friend. Any way you slice it, Ethel needs to be in the care of an adult, so they head off to Archie’s house where Mary and Alice are … having coffee and a chat? Not sure, but after the two women commiserate they decide that Ethel will be best off with … Alice?! They protest that she was the one who sent Ethel to the Sisters, but Alice denies it and blames that all on Hal. Betty, who is also present, rolls her eyes knowing it’s all a lie. But Ethel moves in and suddenly Alice has a new daughter to dote on, practically shooing Betty away the next morning when she offered to walk to school with Ethel. No, Alice was going to drive her.
Alice’s behavior is really getting to Betty, and she reveals all that’s happening to Veronica while they’re shopping at a boutique where Mary works. Earlier Betty told Veronica that she was ready to just run away from home, and Veronica admitted that she’d been basically orphaned by her parents and is now a ‘squatter’ at the Babylonium. Betty asks why her friend hasn’t just broken back in to her apartment, and the two hatch a plan to reclaim the Pembroke and shack up there together. Betty admits she learned how to pick a lock through the teen mystery books she reads, but worries their presence will alert Smithers. Ronnie assures her that they can make as much noise as they want in the apartment, they just have to be quiet coming up the back stairs. She made sure the boys knew that too. Archie and Reggie are coming over? Veronica says no, because she wants to have fun so Kevin and Clay are coming over after work at the theater. And they do have a grand old time singing and dancing and drinking the night away to the point of being severely hung over at school the next day (they did get some locker room gossip from the boys about Archie and Reggie — they have nothing to be ashamed of, if you catch the drift — but the real boy packing some heat is … Dilton Doily! It’s always the little ones, innit?
While shopping at a boutique where Mary works, the girls discuss their parental problems and pick some clothes to have boxed up and sent to the apartment. Mary is a bit suspicious about Betty having a dress sent there as well, and the girls come clean to her — after he alerts Smithers about the possible squatters in the apartment — that they’ve been abandoned by their parents. Mary is beside herself with anger and disgust that any mother would turn her back on their child (we finally do get some confirmation that Polly Cooper exists in this timeline, but she was so sick of Alice she hightailed it out of town when she turned 18, but no mention of Charles). Mary makes it her mission to have a what for with the mothers and she does, berating Alice to her face and basically shaming her into welcoming Betty back. Betty is still suspicious of her mother but Alice joyfully tells her she has two daughters in the house now. Mary also had a talking to off screen with Hermione Lodge, and next thing you know Smithers is happily returning Veronica’s key to the apartment. But with the girls now back in their rightful places, what does this mean for their relationship? Right before Mary and Smithers burst in on them, they were about to kiss, Betty admitting she had been fantasizing about kissing her friend (and V admitting it wouldn’t be her first time). Back in her own bed, Betty stares at the phone, seeming to want to pick it up and make a call but unsure. Suddenly the phone rings and she grabs it quickly before anyone else is disturbed and it’s Veronica, calling to say good night and that she loves Betty. Betty reciprocates the feelings so will this love bloom?
Ethel, meanwhile, is welcomed back to Pep Comics with open arms, Mr. Fieldstone ecstatic to give her and Jughead a new comic to write. Anything they want. They say they want to continue the Milkman story. Anything but that, Fieldstone replies. Even though it was the company’s top selling cominc of all time, Fieldstone warns them that the heat is on from Dr. Werthers, and besides, the milkman is dead. Literally, Ethel killed him so there’s no need to do another story. Ethel, however, is obsessed with the idea and keeps drawing the milkman to the point that Jughead comes up with an idea. They go back to Fieldstone with their new story about a murderous … mailman. Fieldstone actually thinks that’s a good workaround, but he’s still reluctant to publish it because he says there is a storm coming and they will be in the middle of it. Ethel tells him that they can either hide or walk right into the storm and face it head on. That resonates with Fieldstone and he tells them they are walking into the storm.
In the end, narrator Jughead assures us that storm is indeed coming, like the wrath of God and all of them would be smashed to pieces by it.
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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