SPOILERS AHEAD
Last week The CW’s latest TV show Riverdale premiered. While it may not have pleased all of the Archie comics fans, it was an enjoyable pilot episode which showed potential for the series. At the end of last week’s episode Jason’s body was discovered with the first arrest to be made shortly.
Jughead opens the episode once again as narrates us through how the town hoped to see Jason again and sharing more twincest moments with Cheryl. Unfortunately his corpse (which looks amazing, props to the prop department) lies in the morgue with a gaping hole in his head. Whilst Jughead’s narration didn’t seem to fit at first, it works better now since the tone of the show has been set.
Archie struggles with not coming forward to the police about the gunshot himself and Miss Grundy heard on that weekend. He tries to talk to Betty, except she’s still upset and so instead, he runs to Grundy’s. He tells her he wants to come forward, but she says no because it could mean jail.
The next day, Betty seems to forgive Archie despite her still-present feelings and Veronica also attempts to apologise with flowers and cupcakes because ‘there’s no wrong the right cupcake can’t fix’. She seems to be in a forgiving mood because she agrees, but only because she believes her friendship with Veronica won’t last long. It becomes obvious later on that Betty isn’t coping as when Archie sings a new song, she begins to cry.
Jughead gets a lot more screen-time in this episode, and you can’t help but to love him. We learn Jughead and Archie were meant to go on a road trip over the July 4th weekend, the same weekend Jason was killed and he believes Archie might be involved.
Archie becomes more worried about not coming forward and runs to Grundy once again. He wants to know if their relationship is real and worth protecting, and she assures him it is, even though she is most definitely being manipulative to cover her own ass. The two hold hands, which Jughead sees as he walks past. Jughead confronts Archie at his house about Grundy, which causes Archie to tell him about the gunshot he heard. Jughead attempts to knock some sense into him instead of worrying about some cougar who is worrying about herself.
Veronica and Betty have a heated argument which causes Betty to turn to Cheryl for a girl’s night.. Cheryl then becomes weirdly nice to Betty and it turns out she is trying to get information on Betty’s sister who dated Jason. Later on, Betty’s mother, played by the brilliant Mädchen Amick, cleanses her room with sage to rid the evil the Blossom family carries. Betty wants to know why her mother was so against Polly and Jason dating and also wants to go see Polly, but Alice conveniently changes the subject. How suspicious.
While in the student’s lounge, a jock speculates on who killed Jason. He suggests it’s some moody fanboy freak, like Jughead. Naturally he comes up with a smart comment which causes the jock to react but Archie steps in and receives a black eye.
Prior to the big football game, Archie tells Grundy he is definitely coming forward and then tells Jughead that he is doing the right thing. The two share a cute little moment and plan to work towards becoming friends once again.
Josie and the Pussycats perform an awesome rendition of ‘Sugar, Sugar’. Perhaps by having them in each episode the network is attempting to gauge reactions to the trio for the potential spin-off series?
When the football team come out with Archie at the front, Cheryl sees her brother and panics. She runs off with Veronica running after her to console her. Betty sees the two and forgives Veronica once again. The two head to Pop’s to share a milkshake, which just happen to be the opposite flavours to represent their differing personalities. They make a vow to not let another boy come between them again, and of course Archie has to walk through the door but the girls let Archie and Jughead join them.
The following day, Archie heads to the principal’s office to come forward when he exits with the Sheriff. They head to class to make the first arrest, which turns out to be Cheryl. Jughead tells us that during the autopsy, they discovered that Jason didn’t die on July 4th, but it was actually an entire week later!
Riverdale returns next week with ‘Chapter Three: Body Double’.
What did you think of the latest episode? Let us know in the comments below!
