-One of the smartest decisions Riverdale ever made was making the principle industry of their town and the source of the Blossom's wealth and power maple syrup. If Riverdale was built on, say, oil or lumber, the Blossoms would still be interesting characters because of how ridiculous and over-the-top they are but they would feel slightly more generic, more run-of-the-mill evil rich people. Maple syrup though, is such an unlikely source of power that it gives the Blossoms a much needed specificity and adds some extra quirkiness to their sinister vibe. The idea that this dark and twisted family's claim to fame is a substance that's so sweet and overpowering just fits as does the increasingly growing possibility that all the murder and forbidden love and craziness on this show can be traced back to one man killing another over syrup.
-Archie lucks out this week and gets to be the star of the episode again. He even gets to learn some relevant plot information, lucky guy. It looks like the writers were challenging themselves to find a way to work Archie's desire to be a musician into a story that actually tied into the important plots of the show and their best solution was to put him in his own version of Indecent Proposal where instead of a million dollars, he gets help with his music. It's a story that's been told so many times that you probably guessed how it would play out right away, but it works because it allows us for another deep dive into the world of the Blossoms, which always works well for the show and it takes Cheryl's arc in a promising new direction.
-Cheryl Blossom was introduced to us as a simple chaos-driven antagonist, but the show and Madelaine Petsch quickly fleshed her out into more than that, created a fascinating, complex, tragic character trying to figure out how to cope with the loss of the only person who ever truly cared about her. La Grande Illusion doesn't show us anything really that we didn't already see in Heart of Darkness, but it does reinforce just how hard Cheryl really has it without Jason. Whether because of her gender, her tendency for drama, or her inability to be liked, no one on the Blossom Syrup board views her as stable or suitable enough to be heir for the Blossom Syrup company, not even her parents. She and her parents are all trying to turn Archie into Jason, but she's doing it because she genuinely likes Archie and her parents are doing it because they'd rather have him run the company than Cheryl. It's a hard truth for her to face but she tries to ignore it and push it away until Archie rejects her after they kiss. It's this rejection that puts her back on the path to being a chaos-driven antagonist as the season enters it's 3rd act, but the difference is now we can more fully identify with her and understand where her anger is coming from.
-La Grande Illusion is actually pretty smart in how it gets us so focused on Archie's moral dilemma about how far in bed to get with the Blossoms, we forget about the fact that Cheryl isn't part of her parents game until she blows up on him for using her to get what he wants. Archie's dilemma was never a dilemma. There's a difference between making a connection and having someone let you in before you earned your place (If the uptight New York guy doesn't like your music, the elite Music School People probably won't either, Archie!). He was always doing the wrong thing, even when he tried to get altruistic about it and help his dad out and Riverdale isn't afraid to call him on it. It's a good move that makes Archie more flawed and therefore, more interesting.
-Valerie breaking up with Archie for always ignoring her and never spending enough time with her felt like the writers coping to the fact that they didn't actually have space in the season to explore Archie dating Val outside of the episode where they got together. Which is a shame because Hayley Law is a delight in the role and hopefully we'll get to see more of her outside of the Josie scenes (Speaking of which, where has Josie disappeared to?). I am glad they didn't try to use that Archie/Cheryl kiss to motivate the Archie/Val break-up. Val had enough reason to break up with him when he downplayed her genuine concerns about him going to the dinner. She didn't need another reason.
-Archie accidentally stumbling on Penelope and Clifford talking about how Clifford should've sent Hermione to jail instead of Hiram was one of the most delightfully soap opera-ish moments on this show to date and I loved it so much.
-So Polly's dramatic decision to join the Blossom household last week turns out to be part of her plan to go undercover and figure out what really happened to Jason. It's a reveal that undercuts the tragedy of last week's ending somewhat but also makes a lot of sense with what we know of Polly. My question? If Polly didn't want Betty to worry about her, wouldn't it make more sense to just tell her her plan before she went to Thornhill? Yes, Betty might have tried to talk her out of it but she probably would come around to the idea quicker than she'd accept that her sister had abruptly abandoned her. It just feels like a silly way to create more drama for the show.
-Shannon Purser returns this week as Ethel Muggs and there's no wink-y Stranger Things joke this time, but we do get more of a character exploration for her. Ethel reads a pretty personal, dark poem in school and Veronica becomes concerned about her, deciding to befriend her to make amends for her bullying ways back when she lived in New York. It's a story that seems ripped out of a Very Special Archie at first, but it takes an intriguing turn when we find out that Ethel's family is having financial troubles because her dad invested with Hiram. Veronica has always had a loyalty to her father that's felt kind of naive, so it's interesting to watch the show dive into it and pull it apart until it finally breaks as she realizes that her dad has hurt people. Camila Mendes turns in a terrific performance as Veronica struggles to find some way to make amends for what Hiram has done only to realize she can't. Purser for her part mostly has to look sad and grieve, but she's able to put a lot of nuance and humanity into it, and the final passages of the plot where she's able to overlook Veronica's name and remain friends with her is both powerful and unexpectedly sweet for Riverdale.
-Apparently Hermione had forgotten that Fred could actually lose a lot being in business with the Lodges as once Veronica points out he could ends up with Ethel's dad, she finally decides to tell him that she's the mystery buyer he's working for (She tells him about Hiram hiring the thugs too for good measure). Fred reacts as one would when they find out their girlfriend has involved them in a criminal enterprise without telling them. The end sets up an interesting status quo going forward though as Fred breaks up with Hermione, but agrees to stay on the project for a 20% stake in it. After weeks of basically reacting to things, it's nice to see Fred finally take charge on something.
-So here's where the Ethel/Veronica plot confused me. Was Ethel unaware that Veronica was Veronica Lodge or was she just unaware of the specifics of what her father did? I was under the impression that everyone was aware of who Veronica was so I was confused why Ethel was so surprised at Veronica's confession.
-Betty, Alice, and Jughead are mostly on the side of the action this week, getting information about Polly and the Blossoms from Archie so Alice can write an expose and Betty can find out if her sister is OK. Alice gets a really effective arc though as her initial reversion to her old behaviour and her indifference towards Polly is quickly revealed to be a front for the amount of pain she feels from her daughter's rejection. Alice also began this season as a simple antagonist, but she finally comes over to the protagonist side tonight (for now at least) as mother, daughter, and daughter's aloof boyfriend start working in tandem to take down the Blossoms. It's a big leap from where she was even a few episodes ago but it feels earned and natural because the show has been quietly building towards it for weeks.
-I don't understand why Hal doesn't want to print the expose about the Blossoms. Yes, he's mad at his wife and has somehow fired her from the newspaper, even though she always seemed like she was the one running the show there. But why is he pretending he doesn't care about the Blossom family at all and this whole thing has been Alice's obsession? Did he forget about how just last week he was screaming about refusing to raise a child with Blossom blood? Or the family blood feud? Running this piece helps his agenda and it seems like a false note that he's not interested. I can forgive it though because the scene where Alice dramatically tosses a rock through the Register's window was easily the best part of the episode.
-So Alice is going to work for the high school newspaper now? Wasn't the reason Betty started the newspaper up again in the first place to get away from her mother's sensationalism? I know Betty has become more sympathetic to her mother's cause but does she really think that's going to change? Also how is the school OK with letting a non-faculty adult just work on a school newspaper? And does that newspaper even get put out? I was just under the impression that they used the office to stash their murder board. And don't even get me started on what Jughead implied about the paper having a large overhead budget (I'm really hoping that was supposed to be a joke).
-This Week in Dapper Archie: Nice suit Archiekins. It'd look even better with some dignity.
-If Archie was smart, he'd hang onto that guitar the Blossoms gave him but he's probably going to give it back out of some misplaced sense of nobility.
-The dark poem and fears of suicide in this episode reminded me of Netflix's new drama 13 Reasons why, which I watched this week. It's terrific and it features Riverdale's own Ross Butler (Reggie) in a supporting role that gives him a chance to actually show off his acting chops a bit. Hopefully the Riverdale writers also watched this, took note, and are beefing up Reggie's part for next season.
-Murder Theory Corner: It's getting pretty late in the season for someone not connected to the Coopers/Blossoms feud to be involved in killing Jason (Unless they're planning on dragging this out for season 2, which I really hope is not the case). Hiram probably didn't kill Jason, but could Hermione have? It's possible. Alice continues to look like a better and better suspect as well the less suspicious she becomes. It's even possible that Cheryl could've done it without realizing it. After all we know everyone thinks she's unstable. Maybe the one person she trusted to protect her let her down and she went to far? It's hard to say for sure at this point who the killer is, which makes for good TV.
-Next Week: Molly Ringwald!
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