Riverdale has continuously been referred to as “Twin Peaks meets Gossip Girl”, but this week it went more Crimson Peak as it delved into the dark lives of the Blossom family. Last week on Riverdale we saw Betty and Veronica team up to go against Grundy; Hermione Lodge became involved with a local gang; Jughead attempted to save the local drive-in and revealed his father is part of the Southside Serpents gang; Alice Cooper attempted to bring Archie down which resulted in Grundy leaving town; and lastly, Sheriff Keller’s murder board for Jason Blossom was mysteriously dismantled.
‘Heart of Darkness’ introduces us to Thornhill—the spooky house of the town, which has its own graveyard and just happens to be home to the Blossom family. The episode opens with an eerie Gothic-style sequence where Cheryl Blossom walks through her home. Upon opening Jason’s coffin, she finds it empty with bloody fingernail marks but Jason’s reanimated corpse suddenly appears behind her. Cheryl awakens screaming, which Mama Blossom isn’t too happy about, especially since she’s sleeping in Jason’s bed once again and says Cheryl can no longer deliver the eulogy.
With Jason’s funeral looming, the Riverdale gang take it upon themselves to begin investigating his death by recreating the murder board with the help of Kevin. Betty kicks the investigation up a notch with an “intelligence gathering mission”, which is definitely not a date.
For Archie, he wants the football captain position so he can get a scholarship and study music at college. Valerie helps him by suggesting a new music tutor, Mr Castillo. Archie and Valerie seem to be have some sparks flying in this episode and this causes a little jealousy in Veronica to see Archiekins with her.
Speaking of redheads, Cheryl invites “sad Breakfast Club” to Jason’s funeral and Veronica attempts to end the feud between her and Cheryl, but ends up landing an invite to a sleepover. While at the Blossom house, we learn much about the family, including the Blossom’s only inviting the people on their suspect list to the funeral. The awkward family dinner also reveals the longstanding war between the founding families of Riverdale. Do all small American towns have founding families present still, or does it only happen in TV land?
Betty’s investigation, but not a date, reveals more information on Jason’s life prior to his disappearance and death. Betty’s not-date tells of how he began to change after Polly and Jason got together and then started to sell all his belongings, and possibly drugs too. This leads Betty to talk to her father about what exactly happened to Polly, which according to him, a big fight occurred and led Polly to harm herself.
Archie attempts to please his prospective tutor who calls Archie’s music “juvenile and all break-up songs”. He begins to struggle juggling his music and making football captain which results in him injuring his hand during football practice. In the end, he is offered captain, but declines as he doesn’t believe it’s fair to divide his time between his two loves. Football and music that is, but we’re sure there will be a third soon.
Get ready for a funeral you’ll never forget. The entire Riverdale gang are present, especially since they’re all suspects according to the Blossom’s. Firstly, Mama Blossom gets a bit awkward with Archie when he gifts her with Jason’s jersey and then begins stroking his hair and comparing him to Jason. Talk about weird!
Then there’s Cheryl. After clashing with her parents, Cheryl decides to go against them with the influence of Veronica. Naturally of course, she has to stand out so she dons an all-white outfit, which just happens to be the outfit she wore on the day of Jason’s disappearance. Mrs Blossom is furious over Cheryl disobeying and angrily tells her she will be heading to boarding school ASAP.
Meanwhile, Fred has attempted to ask Hermione on a date, but she claims it to be inappropriate. Later on when she receives a threat from the Southside Serpents, she calls Fred and then explains how her husband owes money to the gang. Obviously he becomes sympathetic as he then offers her the bookkeeping position which he denied to her in the pilot episode as there was a conflict of interest.
After the funeral, Jughead and Betty begin investigating by searching Jason’s room. The two are caught by surprise when Grandma Blossom comes out of the shadows and mistakes Betty for Polly. They run with it and Grandma Blossom asks what happened to her ring, the Blossom family ring as the two were engaged and pregnant.
When Betty confronts her father once again, he admits he knew of the engagement, but was not happy since theirs longstanding bad blood between their families. Jughead and Betty question as to how far Mr Cooper would go to protect his daughter and they end up adding the Cooper’s to their makeshift murder board.
The two then come to the conclusion whoever stole the Sheriff’s murder board wasn’t at the drive-in and it turns out, it indeed was Mr Cooper who stole the evidence, so they need to talk to Polly so they can uncover more of the truth.
Overall, the episode wasn’t bad, but not great either. It seems to follow quite a consistent rhythm so hopefully it receives a good shake-up once in a while to keep it fresh. Surprisingly though, we had no Josie and the Pussycats song, but they do return next week along with Veronica singing with them. Perhaps Veronica is trying to impress Archiekins with her singing and dancing skills? We’ll also see Polly come into play next week after hearing about her every episode so far. With Polly being sent away because she was pregnant, will she still be? Or maybe controlling Mrs Cooper has forced her to end it? There’s something seriously up with those Riverdale parents, they’re all quite controlling.
Riverdale returns next week with ‘Faster, Pussycats! Kill! Kill!’
What did you think of the episode? Let us know in the comments below!
Image Credits: The CW
