Riverdale: Faster Pussycats! Kill! Kill!

-Man, I love Riverdale. It has a myriad of flaws and plot holes and I'm not sure I would call it "quality" television by any means, but it is very fun, very entertaining television and I'm not sure how I ever managed without it. At many times in this week's episode, my jaw dropped in and my eyes went wide delight at the ridiculous twists and turns. During all three of the big kisses this week, I think I shouted "Whoa!" at my TV screen. Riverdale is a deeply silly show, but it's aware that it's silly and owns it with impressive confidence that keeps the show from being an overly serious, morose wreck. Riverdale may be a darker take on the Archie mythos, but there's an unmistakable joy to it that comes through in every episode and that's what keeps me watching every week. There are plenty of better shows on TV but few of them are as fun as the one that can have both a big high school variety show and a visit to an asylum in the same episode without losing a step.

-Once again, Archie finds himself in high school drama land, completely disconnected from the murder plot at large, save for a funny moment where he offers to help Betty and Jughead but gets shut out. This time though, the grounded high school stuff works as well as the heightened stuff, because Archie isn't shut off from all the more interesting characters as he prepares for the big Variety Show. Veronica and Josie and Val and Kevin are there too to elevate the material enough that Archie was actually kind of interesting this week.

-As the title of the episode implies, "Faster Pussycats! Kill! Kill!" gives us our biggest look yet at Josie and the Pussycats. For a credited main character, we haven't actually spent that much time with Josie yet and don't have much of a sense of who she is as a character beyond "Proud Woman of Colour" "Lead Singer of Josie and the Pussycats" "The Mayor's Abrasive Daughter" and "Apparently Close With Cheryl". This changes tonight as we get a much better sense of why Josie is the way she is and get to see her vulnerable for the very first time. Ashleigh Murray does terrific in her first major spotlight, especially in her crushed reaction when her dad walks out before the end of her performance, which is just heart-breaking.

-Impossible to please parents are a common occurrence on television. Hell, Riverdale already has multiple sets of them. The McCoy's offer a less crazy, more grounded version of the trope though and it works well. We see Sierra McCoy has demanding with her daughter at first as she puts a lot of pressure on her not to disappoint her father at the variety show and exert control over her daughter's brand. This would be enough to explain why Josie seems so harsh in every episode we've seen her in so far but it turns out that Josie's demanding mother is nothing compared to her father Miles, an accomplished Jazz musician who would be right at home in a Damien Chazelle movie. Harsh and pretentious and dismissive of basically every kind of music that isn't Jazz, particularly Pop, Miles is a broadly-drawn caricature, but an effective one. Josie's mom is very invested in the success of her daughter, but she also cares about Josie, where Miles is content to just leave if he doesn't feel Josie is living up to her potential. It makes for a fascinating family dynamic that brings some extra emotional weight to the episode.

-The falling-out between Josie and Val isn't as effective as it could have been because we've been given almost no context for their friendship or dynamic prior to this episode and no reason to invest in the fate of their friendship beyond any nostalgia we have for the old Josie cartoon/movie. Since we've seen nothing of the softer side of Josie prior to this episode, it's hard to understand why Val and Mel are friends with her at all. Everything else is much better though, particularly their reconciliation scene at the end when we get to see actual warmth between the two. We also get a better sense of who Val is after this episode. She's not just back-up for Josie, she's talented in her own right and she appreciates working with Archie, where she actually gets more of a chance to shine. The moment she finds out Miles is in town though, she drops the fight with Josie and makes nice because Val is a great person and cares about her friends well-being. I'm a little nervous for her being in a relationship with Archie because there's no way that ends well, but I'll have to trust the writers know where they're going with this.

-So after getting him into the variety show in the first place, Veronica offers to sing with Archie so he won't have to deal with his stage fright, and then he kicks her out the second Val is available? Not cool! Veronica's anger may have been mostly related to her mom and Fred kissing but this alone is enough to justify her rage. At least Archie apologizes later.

-Archie is basically there this week to suffer stage fright, briefly Yoko the Pussycats, piss off Veronica and overcome his stage fright. He's still the least interesting character in the narrative but I liked him a lot more this week as a character and found the big moment where he performs in front of people for the very first time was emotionally earned very effective. The nicest touch was where after Veronica's advice to focus on someone who makes him feel safe, the show feints with him looking at Veronica before settling on his dad, which was much more realistic.

-As for the song itself? It was alright. Nothing to write home about or give a standing ovation to, but not terrible either. The music element of this show is always going to be tricky because there's a difference between the show telling us something is good and something actually being good, particularly something as subjective as music. But while I didn't find "Only You" particularly memorable, the scene worked in the context of Archie's narrative up to this point. The top performance of the night was easily the Pussycat's cover of "I Feel Love" though.

-Veronica has been presented as worldly and wise beyond her years for the most part so far on Riverdale, but tonight we get to see her act mostly as a hurt, 16-Year-Old and it's refreshing. Veronica knows that her dad did bad things and probably isn't the best person, but there's a part of her that's still loyal to her dad and the life she had with both her parents before this all happened. So when she sees Hermione and Fred kissing, of course she's going to feel threatened about the situation. It doesn't help that Hermione has a tendency to keep acting shady, first continuing to not tell Fred about who owns the land he's bidding on, then trying to get Veronica to sign off on awarding him the bid while still keeping this all quiet, and then forging Veronica's signature anyways. Veronica has every right to be hurt and angry at her mother, even as she tries to take Josie's advice and see her mom's side of the situation. This growing rift between the two is also very effective because we've been given time to see their relationship and bond so we care now that it's threatened.

-So Veronica is a legal officer of Lodge Industries? That's definitely not going to come into play down the road.

-Meanwhile Betty and Jughead finally figure out where Polly is and go to see her only to discover... she's pregnant with Jason's baby! This is a terrific twist because it's really obvious in retrospect, but I was still blown away when they revealed her expecting belly. Suddenly the reason she was sent away makes a whole lot more sense and Alice and Hal become that much more despicable.

-Polly is played by Tiera Skovbye, who besides looking very much like Lili Reinhart's sister, does a really good job at portraying Polly as someone who doesn't seem like a nutjob, but is just ever so slightly off that you find yourself doubting her story just a bit. There's also strong chemistry between her and Reinhart, so you understand why Betty is so determined to get to the bottom of what happened to her sister. And with Polly escaping through the window of the asylum at the end of the episode, the landscape of Riverdale has just gotten an enticing new wildcard thrown into the mix, which should spice things up as we start moving into the second half of the season.

-Riverdale is on a role, when it comes to introducing interesting new locations. Last week, we got Thornhill Manor, this week we get the Our Sisters of Silent Mercy Home For Troubled Youth, the asylum (With the stern-faced nuns and the men in white coats, it's definitely an asylum) that Hal and Alice had Polly sent to. With the muted colours, and creepy lighting, it sets the imagination ablaze as much as Thornhill does and offers another possible reason for Polly seeming unstable. Who wouldn't go crazy in a place like this?

-So Jughead kissed Betty. That's new. The comics version of Jughead of course historically has shown no interest in either sex, and the recent reboot of the character has him as asexual. And while it's disappointing that Riverdale isn't going down that road with the character (at least for now), I have no problems with the kiss itself, which jives with this version of Jughead and the bond they've established between him and Betty. Of course we have no idea how Betty feels about the kiss because she immediately gets distracted by plot stuff, so the whole thing feels more out-of-the-blue and random, but I am interested to see how they explore this possible love connection down the road.

-The number one rule for being in a TV mystery show? If you stumble upon a key piece of evidence, like say a car that has the victim's belongings in it and corroborates someone's story, the moment you leave it alone, it's going to be destroyed or compromised. Seriously why did Betty and Jughead leave the scene instead of getting the sheriff to come to them? Yes, they needed to show him the pictures, but they also apparently texted him to meet them at the school. If they can text the sheriff, why not text him the pictures with your location and guard the car?! Because people in TV mystery shows never think when it's be crucial.

-This Week in "Conspicuous Covergirl Product Placement": A distracting close-up on Josie's bottle of eyeshadow during her reconciliation scene with Val.

-The Best of Dumb Archie: Archie said and did a lot of dumb things in this episode but the best one is probably how surprised he is to learn that "Josie" is short for "Josephine". Really Archie?

-The dinner scene with Archie, Fred, Hermione, and the McCoy's was deliciously awkward, but the breakfast scene between Betty, Alice, and Jughead takes the cake as far as uncomfortable dinners go. Alice's obvious disdain for Jughead is incredible.

-So now that Josie and Val are actual characters, can we get some development for Mel now please? Or is she doomed to just be behind those drums forever?

-Why are Reggie and the other football players just hanging out at the variety show auditions randomly heckling people? Do they have nothing better to do with their time? Why were they even allowed in at all? Shouldn't they be closed auditions?

-So is Veronica just going to be in Josie and the Pussycats now? Is that a thing? Is that how we get more screentime for Josie and Mel (Val has Archie for now so she's good for being assured screentime.)? I'm fine with that.

-Also can we talk about how easily Veronica managed to join the band in the first place? She basically barged in, announced that she could sing and had aggression that needed releasing and suddenly she's slow-walking down the hallway in cat ears. Was there an audition at least that we didn't see? A spirited debate between Josie and Mel? Had Tina, the other established teenage Woman of Colour character burst in first with the same argument, would she have joined the Pussycats instead? OK, the answer to the last question is no, because Tina's still a background character with no personality and Veronica's a lead, but still.

-Murder Theory Corner: So now that Betty has confronted her dad about maybe being the killer, it's clear that he isn't the killer. The Polly angle to the case is really heating up which means it's about time to unveil a different motivation for the murder of Jason Blossom. My faith in it being Mayor McCoy is shaken a bit by there still being no real connection between the McCoy's and the Blossom's. Cheryl wasn't even in this episode to hang with her apparent good friend Josie. Meanwhile, I'm going to go out on a limb and predict the destruction of Jason's getaway car was mainly about those drugs stashed away in there. Drugs mean Southside Serpents. Southside Serpents means maybe Papa Jones is involved in this?

-Bonus Theory Corner: If Jason and Polly were running away together, why did Jason go the extra step of faking his death? It could be because he knew his parents were crazy and would come after him with a vengeance but my hunch is that he wasn't as in love with Polly as Polly thought and he had no intention of running away with her to start a family. So he told Alice and Hal about the July 4th plan so they'd intervene and then faked drowning in the river as a fail-safe in case Polly escaped. Then he tried to leave on his own. Maybe I'm off but I think there's more to Polly's story than she's telling and this is the most logical fit.