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After last week’s excellent Riverdale episode that gave Ethel Muggs the spotlight, this week we’re back to a multi-story episode written by Ryan Terrebonne that has turned Riverdale into a town of teenagers with raging hormones. The script left me a little confused, amused and perplexed by some of the wild turns some of our characters took, but I did appreciate the bit of history woven into the story with the introduction of the Comics Code Authority, which was actually introduced in 1954 and was similar to the Hays Office Production Code that imposed broad and sometimes vague censorship on motion pictures from the 1930s until the late 1960s.
Riverdale’s Dr. Freiderich Werthers is a crusading zealot clearly modeled on Dr. Fredric Wertham, whose book Seduction of the Innocent led to the imposition of the Comics Code. Werthers has already published a scathing newspaper article against the terrible moral influence comics have on society, clearly aimed at Riverdale’s Pep Comics due to its penchant for lurid horror stories and gruesome artwork (but they do have a cute duck character for kids!), and how these tales of terror have had an obvious influence on the person who killed Ethel’s parents and Brad Rayberry … and has this whole killer milkman story been dropped now that he’s dead? Sheriff Keller, Werthers and Principal Featherhead seemed to know more about this than they let on but Jughead didn’t buy the whole vagrant story they were feeding him since the killer never moved on. But since Ethel killed the milkman in self-defense, there’s been nary a word about him. Now with this new code pressing down on them, Mr. Fieldstone wants Jughead to join him to speak with Werthers about his vague demands — such as banning the words ‘terror’, ‘horror’ and ‘mystery’ from the comic covers, and forbidding any lurid artwork with wording so vague it can include anything.
Jughead, while a good wordsmith, needs a negotiator so he turns to Veronica since she really knows the art of the deal. Even she is aghast at the hazy wording of the code, which she tells Jughead is just a proposal at this point so he and Fieldstone need to draw up a counter-proposal to present to Werthers. They do have their meeting, which includes Featherhead, Mayor Blossom and Sister Woodhouse, but after Jughead and Fieldstone offer their rebuttal to the proposal, Werthers informs them this meeting was just a courtesy not a negotiation, and if they don’t adhere to the Code like all the other comic publishers in the country already have (what?!) then they can basically kiss Pep Comics goodbye. Without that seal printed on their covers — a seal they can’t use without agreeing to the Code — the comics cannot be printed, shipped or sold on newsstands anywhere. Does Werthers have Jughead over a barrel this time? Jughead goes back to the Pembrooke to tell Veronica what happened and she assures him that they will come up with a new plan. They? It seems that even though V has had eyes for Betty recently, she’s still carrying a flame for Juggie as the two lock lips.
While Werthers is focused on comic books, he and Featherhead seem totally unaware of the raging hormones around them in school. Archie, Betty and Clay are being schooled on the works of the Beat Poets, specifically Allen Ginsburg’s Howl, by Mrs. Grundy who is quite passionate about it herself. Clay is definitely more informed on the subject and fills everyone in on the whole Beat Generation experience of sexual experiences of all kinds. Archie feels that a square like him will never be able to write like Ginsberg but Mrs. Grundy assures him that he can as long as he experiences life. An experience falls right into his lap as Julian has procured a stag film and offers to let all the guys watch it … if they can get a projector. Kevin and Clay want to watch it too, and since they work at a movie theater that has a small portable projector, they are invited … but Julian assures them this is not like the wrestling films they like to watch (how does he know what kind of movies they watch?). Attempting to sneak the projector out of the theater past Veronica, she tells them they can just watch their wrestling films there, after hours, as long as they clean up afterwards. They explain to her what the projector is for so she tells them to just invite the boys there and she’ll run it on the big screen … as long as she can watch as well with a gal pal (and of course she means Betty). It’s a deal and as the movie, ‘The Wedding Night’, begins to unspool, Betty is shocked to see the lead actress is … Polly. How could this be since her parents told her Polly was doing Broadway? Betty calls her sister and gets the truth — she’s a burlesque performer under the name Polly Amorous, and she’ll come to Riverdale and explain it all to Betty.
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Betty tells Veronica this news and V is thrilled because she has heard of Polly Amorous and is excited at the prospect of meeting her. Polly arrives and explains that she was hoodwinked into making that film and she thought she had obtained every copy of it. Betty lets her have it, and Polly talks about how their parents, particularly Alice, drove her away but once she discovered burlesque and developed her own show, she invited them to New York to see it. They walked out after five minutes and never spoke to her again, instead telling everyone that she was doing Guys and Dolls on Broadway. And there’s more — she’s engaged to a wealthy man who puts her up in a lavish penthouse, and she’s going on a European tour. Betty asks if Polly was going to invite her to the wedding, and she says of course, and in fact she wants Betty to be her maid of honor. With this happy reunion of sisters, Veronica asks if Polly would be interested in doing a special performance at the Babylonium — a girls only night. She is breaking in some new material so she is more than happy to try it out there, and V invites all the girls from school to attend. Betty admits to Alice that she’s spoken to Polly and knows the truth, and practically begs her to come see the show. Alice is close to livid, but Betty still hopes that she will come, especially since it’s just for the girls. Of course Alice does not show up, but while Polly performs Betty can picture herself doing the same thing. V notes that Polly did her show without showing any skin, and Polly tells her that if you’re good enough you don’t have to. She bids Riverdale adieu and Betty returns home quietly. The next morning she tells her mother about the show, and how she’s had it with her controlling ways over her life, and the minute she’s able she will be out of Riverdale just like Polly. In fact, she may just follow in her sister’s footsteps but she’ll take off all of her clothes. Betty pushes all of Alice’s buttons which results in a shocking slap across her face. Betty freezes for a moment, but seems satisfied that she got her mother to that point, sneering at her, ‘I’m surprised it took you this long to do that.’ I have to add that this scene was written with such ferocity and was performed to perfection by Lili Reinhart and Mädchen Amick, who also performed a really stunning rendition of ‘Rose’s Turn’ from the musical Gypsy.
Elsewhere, Toni and Cheryl came into possession of a lesbian skin mag called ‘Femme-And-In’ and the saucy photos give Toni an idea for the two to do their own photo shoot. She’s got a camera with a timer so they can both be in the pictures, and Cheryl says she will pick the best one to paint in the best pulp fiction book cover style. She also suggests they do the shoot at the chapel at Thorn Hill since no one from her wretched family ever goes there, so they do and they choose a photo that Cheryl will paint. Cheryl works on her painting in the chapel, but does not count on Penelope wandering by, and when Cheryl returns the canvas is slashed and all of the photos and her paints and tools are on the floor. Now Cheryl wants revenge of the highest order and Toni is more than willing to help.
When we last left Archie, he was trying to resolve his feelings after reading Howl, and Julian’s stag film debacle at the Babylonium only made things worse for him. But Julian told Archie and Reggie that he had a new film and a projector that he’d let them rent for $2.00. It’s a deal because the boys have a serious case of blue balls. Archie sets things up in the garage and as the film begins they see … male wrestlers. Oh that Julian! But as the wrestling action commences, the boys decide to keep watching because maybe there will be a girl joining them. Can’t hurt to watch, right? Afterwards, both of the boys seem shaken to their core because … the actually enjoyed what they saw? Archie also explains the Beat Poets to Reggie, how the men had girlfriends or wives but also were free to have romantic or sexual relations with each other. The tension in that bedroom could have been cut with a knife, but before the proposal to give it a try could be made Reggie jumped up and said he was going to take a cold shower. Archie said he was too — um, after Reggie that is. At school the next day they went after Julian for his joke and demanded the $2.00 back, which he returned, and he also gave them — gratis — a real stag film they could watch. The boys can’t wait to get that one started and it seems to be going well until … the film jams and melts! Are the Fates trying to tell these two something? With even bluer balls, Archie says he has a solution to their problem, and the next thing you know they are at Twyla Twist’s apartment. She can see the boys need attention (they’re both covering their crotches with jackets) and asks who is going first … or maybe they want to come together? They both eagerly jump up and enter the room together. Mrs. Grundy told Archie earlier that there is nothing better in life than staying up all night with your friends or significant other, talking and drinking coffee and watching the sun rise. It’s a transcendent experience that she and her husband do once a month. After the evening with Twyla, Archie and Reggie end up on the steps of the high school, Archie totally seeing the sunrise for the first time (even though he sees it every day during his morning run), totally filling him with such emotion that he tells Reggie that he loves him. Reggie replies that he loves Archie too.
Now the question is — will any of this have any impact on their lives when, or if, they ever get back to their own timeline? Because we only have six episodes left for things to start moving. Next week, however, we finally get the return of Josie McCoy, now apparently a big movie star whose latest picture is going to premiere in Riverdale!
This piece was written during the 2023 WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes. Without the labor of the writers and actors currently on strike, the series being covered here wouldn’t exist.
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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