This week’s episode finally brought us back to the Archie storyline because frankly, many people have forgotten he’s been in juvie, including myself.
We start with Jughead who is leading his Serpent friends in a game of G&G. Jughead is honestly becoming so annoying when he’s playing this game because he is starting to believe it’s real and he has some destiny to fill. Meanwhile, Archie and Joaquin attempt to break out of juvie by climbing a fence, while the guards are watching. (But honestly, what did you expect from Archie?) It fails and lands Archie in hot water with the warden.
When Betty walks into Dilton’s bunker, she learns Jughead’s new favourite word is “ascend”. In fact, that’s all he wants to do. Betty starts to tell Jughead about their parents, but the more information he gets, the more annoying he is. Jughead believes that they’ve been playing this game for longer than they know and that the Serpents and the Ghoulies are warring tribes, and their mission to rescue Hot Dog was a quest. Also, he says that the realm in the game is called Eldarvire, which is an anagram of Riverdale. He thinks that the entire game is an analog of Riverdale. (But then, who is the Gargoyle King?)
Betty leaves him to his game in the bunker after hearing about his mission to become a game master and meet the Gargoyle King. She goes to figure out which of their parents is to blame for Principal Featherhead’s death. She thinks that with this information, they can figure out who’s running the game? Betty fills in Reggie, Kevin, and Josie and asks them to talk to their parents.
Meanwhile, Archie finds himself strapped to a bed and his punishment for a failed escape is to be branded, which is just barbaric. Veronica gets word of the failed escape and calls her friend Elio, who gets her an invite to fight night which is a fight club filled with juvenile delinquents currently serving time. But apparently, they have terrible security cause Veronica gets twenty minutes alone with Archie in a locker room. Archie and Veronica immediately decide that this is a good time to get it on, but they do come up with a plan afterwards. He can’t break out of juvie but he can break out of this fight club place. He tells Veronica that there’s a drain under the fighting ring, so they make a plan for Archie to crawl through the drain at his next fight, which is super soon.
We then cut to Jughead in his trailer when Toni and Cheryl ask for his help. Apparently, Sweet Pea and Fangs have stolen Cheryl’s bow and arrow because they want to train for quests in the real world. But, Jughead says it’s his decision when they go off-board and he asks Dead-Eye (aka Cheryl) to shoot a can off his head. Of course she does it without much question. Jughead then tells Sweet Pea that it’s his turn, and when he doesn’t want to risk it, Jughead yells at him saying, “I’m the game master. Don’t defy me again.” Honestly, he’s so annoying.
FP tries to talk some sense into his son, but when Jughead makes it known that Alice told Betty all about the Midnight Club, FP doesn’t have much ground to stand on. And as for the other parents, Reggie’s father punched his son in the face when he asked about the game. (Why are we accepting this abuse? Help Reggie!) Kevin and Josie’s parents lie to their kids before changing the conversation by announcing their engagement.
Just as Betty is trying to figure out what to do next, everything get paused as Veronica needs their help breaking Archie out of juvie. Betty tries to get Jughead involved but he starts saying it’s the perfect addition to the next ‘quest’ that he’s planning, she leaves him and the other Serpents in the bunker.
Archie is having dinner with the warden, who informs him that his next fight will be his last. Archie attempts to get some answers, and apparently the warden is fine with giving them. Archie asks how Hiram framed him for murder, and the warden informs him that Hiram paid each of Cassidy Bullock’s friends $10,000 to lie under oath and say they saw Archie pull the trigger. Those friends are now in hiding. Archie asks the warden if Hiram owns him too, but the warden claims that his soul belongs to no mere mortal. The warden believes that the judgement of men is the job of ‘he who resides in the kingdom alone,’ which is a hint that he could be playing G&G.
Then, things get interesting because as Jughead and the Serpents play a game of G&G about rescuing the Red Paladi, and his voiceover perfectly matches the rescue mission of Archie. This makes us think that everyone could be playing G&G without realizing it.
The rescue mission gets off to a bumpy start when Joaquin does what the warden tells him to do in order to ‘ascend’, which is kiss Archie and then stab him. Archie is wounded and he then realizes that he’s going to be fighting Mad Dog. While Archie fights Mad Dog, Veronica comes face-to-face with her father on the way to execute her plan and when he doesn’t let her go, she stomps on him with her stiletto. She, Josie and Reggie get into place and drop soda cans that are homemade gas bombs, into the pool. Mad Dog promises to hold off the guards while Archie goes for the drain, despite Archie wanting Mad Dog to come with him.
At the other end of the drain, Kevin finds Joaquin in the woods (how did he escape) and he goes after him, leaving Betty to unlock the grate and help Archie out. The Betty and Archie reunion is the cutest scene ever. Kevin, isn’t able to track down Joaquin, so he returns for the final part of the plan. Betty and Kevin (posing as Archie) lead the cops on a motorcycle chase through the woods, giving Veronica, Reggie and Josie time to get Archie to Dilton’s bunker, where Toni patches him up.
There, Veronica makes everyone in the bunker swear to keep the secret of the bunker’s location and the breakout that just happened. Suddenly, they’re all their parents (remember The Midnight Club?). However, I don’t know why they think Archie can just live in the bunker forever, as usually when someone breaks out of prison, they have to go on the run. Veronica, then returns home and Jughead and Betty agree to stay with Archie and keep watch. They discuss the fact that the warden called Archie the ‘Red Paladin’ and branded Archie with a runic symbol from the game, before Betty tells Jughead he should go home and sleep.
Meanwhile, the warden is in his office holding two cards: One that says Red Paladin and another that says ‘Kill the Red Paladin.’ He failed on his mission, so he puts cyanide in a blue drink and drinks it, killing himself.
Then there’s Reggie, Kevin, and Josie who decide to play the game too as they want to know what their parents did. And we end on Jughead who is on his way home through the woods. He spots the Gargoyle King and instead of leaving, he kneels.
Final Thoughts?
I find everyone who plays G&G terribly annoying so this episode wasn’t the greatest. However, I did like the rescue mission of Archie (especially Kevin posing as Archie on the motorcycle).
