After three long weeks, Riverdale is back! Last time we visited the small town of Riverdale, we learned more about Jughead and his family as well as seeing the gang search for Polly so a good ol’ tug-o-war could begin between the Blossoms and Coopers. In this week’s episode titled ‘The Outsiders’, we saw most of the story divided into the boys and then the girls. Let’s dive in shall we?
So the episode opens with flashbacks of Jason and Polly fighting, discovering she is pregnant, getting engaged and then also planning to run away. We then shift to the present time where Polly is talking to Sheriff Keller at the Lodge household about everything that led up to Jason’s death. According to Polly, Jason went to the Southside Serpents who gave him drugs to transport in exchange for money to make their grand escape.
The gang are then at school talking about the latest goss when Veronica announces she wants to host a baby shower for Polly in an attempt to cheer her up and hopefully unite the families. Mrs Cooper turns up at the school and demands to talk to both Betty and Veronica as they’ve known where Polly has been the whole time, uh oh.
Meanwhile, Fred Andrews is having trouble with his development as the Blossom family offered his crew a better job and so nothing is happening and even more money is going down the drain, money that he just can’t afford to lose. Hermione is worried about her new man and when Veronica tells her mother about the baby shower, she’s not so sure as she doesn’t think it’s a good time to try to get the Blossoms and Coopers together, especially under her roof. Veronica then asks her to at least speak to Mrs Cooper to try to get her to come to Polly’s baby shower. The two mothers talk and Hermione tells her she should go or she’ll regret it (in a non-threatening way, of course).
Archiekins sees his father is struggling and so he rallies his high school friends to help out at the construction site. After they finish sweating for the afternoon, the begin to head out when two men destroy the generator and also bash one of Archie’s high school friends when he gets in the way. Naturally this isn’t cool with Archie and he begins to get riled up about the situation. He vents to Valerie (who is back again after being forgotten last week) and then comes up with a plan to see if the vandals are part of the Southside Serpents. He asks Jughead to join him, but he doesn’t want to go and thinks Archie shouldn’t either, especially since Jughead’s dad would most likely be there.
Their plan involves using Kevin’s boyfriend Joaquin (remember the one he shared some steamy kisses with at the drive-in?) to get into the gang’s local hangout to see if they can recognise the vandals. Archie then almost gets the snot punched out of him, but Jughead’s father tells them to stop and now Archie knows he is a Serpent.
While the guys are trying to be all ‘manly’, the girls (and Jughead, bless him carrying that cake stand) are at Polly’s baby shower, which receives a few surprise guests. First to show up is Mrs Cooper and then Cheryl with a brand new pram and Mrs Blossom and Grandma Blossom in tow. Cheryl being Cheryl says she wants to be the godmother (but is kidding, but is totally not) except Betty has already been asked, although there can always be two? They would certainly be polar opposite godparents! It may even work as Grandma Blossom uses a crystal to determine the gender of the baby, and according to her gypsy blood, Polly is having twins! My issue with this is, surely Polly would know!? She may have been on the run for a day, but while at the home for troubled teens, they would have given her check-ups? She can not have seen a doctor that whole time?
Anyway, the drama begins when Archie turns up and announces to the whole gang that Jughead’s dad is a Serpent. But the real good stuff starts when Mrs Cooper goes on the attack during gift time and a catfight between the mommas begins! Unfortunately though, the teenagers are no fun and they stop their parents from fighting.
Later on, Mrs Cooper apologises to Polly and asks her to come home, but Polly is uncertain as she knows how her father feels, especially since he booked her in to get an abortion. This is news to Mrs Cooper’s ears and you can just see how the information cracks her and you just know a storm is about to wreak havoc!
The Riverdale crew are full of apologies as Jughead apologises to Betty since he didn’t tell her that his father is a Serpent. The two then head out to see Jughead’s dad to discuss the drugs which the Serpents gave Jason and while he mostly dismisses it all, it seems ‘Bughead’ lives on as they share a sweet kiss when they leave. Jughead also apologises to Archie about not sharing that tidbit with him either, and the two boys let their bromance live to fight another day.
Mrs Cooper then confronts her husband about Polly’s allegation and I can’t help but say again, I freaking love this character. She goes from 0 to 100 in a millisecond and when Mr Cooper says Polly won’t be moving back in because he won’t allow Blossom blood in the fam, she loses her shit and tells him to get out. “And I think by now you know what I’m capable of.”—Mrs Cooper is unleashing the crazy, but this little piece of juicy dialogue seems as though it’s a ploy to look at her as Jason’s killer again. I don’t think she is, but I definitely want to know what she’s capable of, please.
Now, for the exciting part which leaves us hanging at the end of each episode. We’re back at Jughead’s dad who gives Jason’s jacket to Kevin’s boyfriend Joaquin to hide, who then says he thinks Kevin is really into him. I hope to The CW gods that Joaquin develops feelings for Kevin and betrays the Serpents instead of seeing Kevin hurt.
Jughead’s dad then turns up at Fred’s construction site to offer himself and his crew to work for Fred. He then talks to Hermione saying the vandals are most likely Hyriam’s men because he knows something is going on between Fred and her. But I don’t trust Jughead’s dad, obviously.
After many discussions and much pondering, Polly decides to leave the Lodge household but she doesn’t head home. Instead Polly is seen walking into Thorn Hill, a.k.a the gothic Blossom household and they are beyond chuffed to have her. #BlossomsForTheWin
Overall, this episode was decent but not great. I’m liking the reduction in pop-culture references, but I have a feeling were getting ready for an onslaught any episode now. I also wish there was a way for the show to be consistent, such as how Valerie wasn’t in last week’s episode and then pops up again this week. The same can be said for Cheryl’s absence after the funeral which nobody really referred to at all. Obviously this would be a huge issue if they tried to give every character screen time in each episode, but a simple mention or clarification when they return would be great as I just don’t like how characters are used to get one of the main characters from Point A to B. Although that’s typically their purpose it just becomes a little frustrating when the show makes their absence quite obvious.
Anyway, it’ll be interesting to see what fun Polly gets up to at the Blossom house next week! Riverdale returns next week with ‘La Grande Illusion’.
What were your thoughts on the episode? Let us know in the comments below!
