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Oh my gosh, I am loving this season of Riverdale with all of the familiar faces coming back in surprising ways. Of course we all knew that Mark Consuelos was returning this week as Hiram Lodge, and we got the added bonus of Marisol Nichols as Hermione Lodge as well. But it seems this may be the last time we see Hiram. Another familiar face returned and that one was quite the surprise, but we’ll get to that shortly. It seems, however, that we won’t be getting a cameo from Skeet Ulrich as news broke that a deal for his return apparently fell through. Too bad. But maybe we could get Gina Gershon? Even with all of the thrill from seeing old friends, this was a pretty heavy episode, working themes of the Communist witch hunts of the 1950s into the story, along with the attacks on comic books, and a different witch hunt designed to suss out the ‘sexual deviants’ at Riverdale High School.
Right off the bat, the threat of the ‘Red Menace’ reared its ugly head at school as English teacher Mrs. Thornton is escorted off school property, a suspected Communist (and on what grounds is never revealed). In her place, Penelope Blossom is installed and the move seems more designed as a way to keep an eye on the students rather than to actually engage in academics. Does Penelope even have teaching qualifications? It doesn’t matter when your husband is the mayor, it seems. It remains to be seen, however, what the long game is here, and who is actually pulling the strings behind the scenes. Dr. Werthers certainly isn’t the grand poobah, he’s got to be taking his marching orders from someone higher up, no? I could be reading more into this, but it just feels like there are forces outside Riverdale that have completely corrupted Werthers and Clifford Blossom, who in turn have corrupted Principal Featherhead, Sheriff Keller, Alice Cooper and Frank Andrews.
Archie’s close connection to Mrs. Thornton has also raised suspicions about their time together. While she was simply helping him with his poetry writing, Werthers wants to know if she was trying to indoctrinate him into the Communist party. Poor Archie is just befuddled by these accusations, and things go even deeper when Uncle Frank suggests that Archie might not want to pursue a career in poetry lest people get the ‘wrong idea’ about him, i.e. that he’s gay. Because, of course, all poets are gay. Archie is devastated by the loss of the woman he considers a true mentor and he pays her a visit before she leaves Riverdale, heading over to Greenvale where, she tells him, they are less judgmental. But she knows Archie is talented, and she knows he’s really struggling to put things together so she leaves him with a copy of Arthur Miller’s The Crucible, a play that certainly sums up exactly what is taking place in Riverdale, with false accusations flying around to persecute anyone who isn’t falling in line with the decrees of the town’s political leaders. Archie is surprised when a new English teacher arrives and offers to mentor him, and she is … Geraldine Grundy, Mrs. Grundy, whose husband also happens to be a poet. Archie is obviously taken with her, and it seems she may be taken with him as well, especially after his passionate performance from a scene in The Crucible in class (and again, kudos to KJ Apa for his emotional performance; he’s been hitting it out of the park this season).
And speaking of Communists, Veronica gets a surprise visit from her father, allegedly in town just to visit his daughter and present her with a new Glamourgé egg. V knows that Hiram doesn’t just give her a gift without an ulterior motive and she assumes he’s in the dog house with her mother. She’s right, of course, but that’s only part of the story as she learns when FBI agent Glen Scot confronts her about her relationship to Hiram. It seems the FBI is after Hiram for suspected Communist activities during his recent visit to Cuba, and Glen shows her pictures to prove he was in the company of a Communist leader. He was also with a dishy blonde so she had to call Hiram out on his game. He admits he was in Cuba but it was just to buy cigars, and if he happened to be sitting with a known Commie, well that was just a coincidence. The presence of the blonde is a little harder to explain (her name, it turns out is Kelly!) but Hiram needs Veronica to tell the Feds that they were on a father-daughter trip to Cuba and there was no contact with the Communist party. That’s easier said than done with the photographic evidence, and the fact that he was also with another woman makes it even harder for her to justify lying to the government. But after Archie’s performance in class, and her own monologue from King Lear for inspiration, the message about protecting one’s good name and professing their love for their father resonated with her and she presented Hiram with a signed affidavit stating that she was indeed with him in Cuba. But the statement came with a condition, two in fact — he has to confess his dalliance with Kelly to his wife, and if he doesn’t she will. He also has to sign over ownership of the Pembrooke to her so she never has to fear being put out onto the street again. Over a proverbial barrel, Hiram agrees and departs Riverdale. But V is surprised yet again when her mother arrives, revealing that when she returns to Hollywood, she and Hiram will make a joint announcement that the seventh season of ‘Oh, Mija’ will be the last as it is time for them to move on to other projects. What they won’t reveal, at least not until the last episode airs, is that they are getting a divorce. Hermione is taking her life back into her own hands and asks Veronica if they can have an East Coast Christmas together this year, just the two of them in New York. It’s an offer that V has been wanting for a long time, especially after being exiled to a town where she was completely alone. But has something new sparked for her and Archie after she gives him a tender kiss on the cheek for helping open her eyes to her family’s situation? Archie seems to think so.
Betty, for a change, got the smaller storyline this week. Returning to her bedroom after school, she finds that not only is her typewriter missing, the phone has been removed from her room as well, the cut wires left exposed for her to see. Betty is also concerned about the status of The Blue and the Gold with the class adviser, Mrs. Thornton now no longer employed at the school. Principal Featherhead gives Betty the news that the school newspaper is being shut down as they don’t have the funding for it and, besides, it never was a great source of news, but Betty isn’t buying it. Instead she absconds with the typewriter and decides to launch her own publication, ‘The Teenage Mystique’, with a letter asking for questions to be submitted for her, as a teenager, to answer. After Betty puts flyers in all the lockers at school with the information and a P.O. Box address for ‘The Girl Next Door’ — which also confirms that Riverdale is in the state of New York — she pays a visit to the post office but finds a card in her P.O. Box. The attendant at the post office tells her they use that when they can’t fit the mail in the box. Turns out Betty has a full mail bag of letters seeking her guidance.
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Meanwhile, a different witch hunt is progressing as Clifford and Penelope present Cheryl with a list of ‘sexual deviants’ at school. And Cheryl’s name is at the top of the list, followed by Toni, Kevin, Clay and six others. Clifford demands that Cheryl confirm that the names on the list are student engaging in this reprehensible behavior and she will be protected, but Cheryl doesn’t want to out her friends (and lover). Clifford assures her that if she refuses, he will take away the one thing in this life that gives her joy — the Vixens. Cheryl meets up with Toni, Kevin and Clay to tell them what’s happening and Toni asks who might have it out for her, who would want her to no longer be in control of the Vixens? Cheryl can think of only one person, Evelyn Evernever, but she wasn’t even at the Babylonium on Halloween, so she could not have seen Cheryl kiss Toni during the floor show. But Cheryl confronts her nonetheless, and Evelyn admits that it was she who notified Clifford about the kiss, and even though she didn’t see it, she heard about it, and she’s had it in for Cheryl from the beginning. Still unsure of what to do, Toni tells her that they have come up with a plan to take the heat off of them — they will show the school that Cheryl is in fact dating Kevin, and Toni is dating Clay. That will be their face in public and then they can still be themselves in private. Cheryl knows that this goes against everything Toni stands for, putting on a false face, but Toni is doing it for Cheryl, so she can keep the Vixens. As they march through the school in their new couples formation, causing Evelyn’s jaw to drop, Cheryl also marches in to see her father and tells him that she is not going to name names, he can take the Vixens away from her, and now she’s going on a date with her boyfriend Kevin. It was a selfless act on her part, but how long will they be able to keep up the charade?
Meanwhile, Jughead and Ethel are facing opposition to their newly published comic book. When they go to the newsstand to buy some copies they are told the comics were returned to Pep because they were obscene. It seems that Werthers’ crusade to remove the comics from Riverdale is succeeding as Mr. Fieldstone shows them all of the returned bundles. Ethel asks if she can have a few copies for her portfolio and he tells the pair to help themselves, but the one thing they are not going to do is back down in the face of this threat. Jughead and Ethel get the idea to take the comics and sell them on their own little ‘black market’ set-up at Pop’s. A customer will come in and sit at Jughead’s booth, while Ethel in the next booth will hand him a comic under the table. It’s a slick operation until a boy scout comes in for a comic and after the transaction, the scout leader and Sheriff Keller burst in. It was a sting operation and while the comics were confiscated, Jughead and Ethel suffered no real consequences. But back at school, Werthers is enraged that they have not been able to carry out the plan to eradicate comics from Riverdale. So he now has a plan to fight fire with fire, literally. The next day at school, Jughead sees a line of students, stacks of comics in hand, lined up to go into the principal’s office. Dilton tells Juggie that Werthers is offering them cash for comics, and since he’s already read the ones he’s carrying, he might as well make some money off of them. Jughead smells a rat but doesn’t try to dissuade Dilton from getting paid. But he, Ethel and their friends are horrified by what is taking place outside of the school later that day — a comic book burning with students and other residents whipped into a frenzy as they throw their comics into the fire. A fire has certainly been lit in Riverdale, both literally and figuratively, like Jughead warned at the end of the previous episode, but will the gang be able to put it out before they are all consumed 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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