Riverdale Recap: 1.03 'Body Double'

SPOILERS AHEAD

With each new episode, we learn more about the darkness lurking within Riverdale and this week, we see even more of it, especially in Betty.

Last week on Riverdale Archie told Grundy he was going to tell the police he was there; Jughead and Archie reconnected; Betty and Veronica make up; Josie and the Pussycats performed an awesome cover of ‘Sugar, Sugar’; and Cheryl was taken for questioning after the revelation Jason was killed an entire week later than originally suspected.

The episode picks up with Cheryl being taken away for questioning. She reveals the truth about what happened on July 4th: Apparently Jason wanted to leave Riverdale and to ensure his parents didn’t come looking for him and bring him back, he staged an accident. We get some more flashbacks of the two twins and you can’t help but feel the ‘twincest’ vibes between them still. Cheryl also tells the sheriff she heard a gunshot on that day, but then her parents storm in and drag her away while scolding her for confessing.

Archie also comes forward to the police and bends the truth by saying he was alone at Sweetwater River writing some songs when he heard a gunshot. Archie’s dad also becomes mad for lying to him and not coming to him first, so poor Archie is grounded.

The high usage of pop-culture references continues in this episode. For example, Betty’s mother Alice says the world could do with more of the Lois Lane-type. While some of them may cause a chuckle, if they keep using too many each episode, it’s going to get old.

With Betty not happy about her parents stories in the local newspaper, she decides to bring the school newspaper back to life, with the help of Jughead. The two decide to target the group of scouts for a story, who were near the river on that weekend.

Veronica gets a date with player Chuck Clayton and while the date goes well, the next day she discovers she’s been publicly slut-shamed by him. She quickly snaps into old-Veronica mode and storms off to put an end to it. We soon discover Veronica isn’t the only girl at school who has been shamed by Clayton and his cronies, and that rumour-has-it they keep record of the girls they have been with.

She soon enlists the help of Betty, Kevin and Ethel (played by Shannon Purser, Stranger Things!) to break into the guy’s locker room to find the book. Cheryl crashes the mission and when they find the shame book, she learns her brother was part of it and listed Betty’s sister, Polly, in the book. This causes something to snap inside Betty, and she’s now on a mission to get revenge.

Meanwhile, Archie wants to collaborate with Josie and the Pussycats. At first Josie won’t have it, but when he suggests some lyrics that work, he’s in.

Back at Betty’s house, she’s getting ready to begin their revenge when Alice walks in and tells Betty her lipstick isn’t appropriate and to use a different one instead. Cue very obvious product placement for Covergirl. With every episode, Betty seems to be slowly cracking, and she’s most definitely going to snap soon if she’s not careful. She then heads to Pop’s to seduce Chuck into going on a date with him.

Archie’s collaboration is performed at a local festival, and boy does the song sound good. Will we be getting a Josie song in every episode? But prior to the song debut, Cheryl’s mother slaps Alice for publishing articles about her son, which causes Alice to stir up more trouble with Hermione, Veronica’s mother, who becomes concerned about Veronica being slut-shamed. She’s a bitch, but I love it. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, there’s something about Mädchen Amick, she just seems to always play such great characters.

Chuck turns up at Ethel’s house (because they’ve got a hot tub) for Betty’s date when Veronica opens the door and said her and Betty have come to an arrangement. Next minute, Betty walks out as a next-level seductress for her character. She also takes the revenge to the next level by drugging Clayton and turning up the heat in the hot tub to get him to confess to the shame book and that nothing happened between Veronica and him.

While all this is going on, Betty doesn’t seem herself as she is taking it too far. This is confirmed when she accidentally calls him Jason and refers to herself as Polly. Could she also have some issues just like her older sister? Is that why her mother is so controlling and demanding, or are her actions why Betty is becoming unhinged?

But because of their evidence, Clayton and four other jocks are cut from the football team and they get #justiceforethel – is this a reference to Stranger Things when people wanted justice for Barb? If so, too many pop-culture references this episode.

Archie’s dad comes to terms with his son’s love for music after a discussion with Ms Grundy, who says he could go places. This causes Archie to go back to talk to Grundy and the two begin to become intimate once again. Bad move, Archiekins.

Cheryl and Betty burn the shame book and she apologies for Jason’s actions and thinks she may not know Jason as well as she thought she did.

While the gang were busy writing songs and getting revenge, Jughead manages to get some information out of one of the scouts. They learn it was the scout leader that shot the gun since he was teaching them, but also that they saw Grundy’s car at Sweetwater River. Oh oh, the truth is about to come out!