-Wow. I'm not sure where to start. Spoiler warning I guess if you're one of those people who read reviews before watching the episode because some major stuff goes down that you'll want to see with your own eyes before you read about it.
-OK, let's get to the big, shocking reveal of the episode. The one that had me shouting at my television. You know what I'm talking about. The reveal that Grandfather Blossom and Great-Grandfather Cooper weren't just business partners, they were brothers, making Jason and Polly related, making the baby (or babies) that Polly is having a product of incest ("Pure Blossom" as Penelope puts it). Yes, turns out there was actually a good reason for Jason and Polly's romance to be forbidden and for Hal to be so vehemently opposed to the whole thing. It's the best kind of twist, one that seems to come completely out of nowhere but makes total sense in retrospect, providing new context to certain key moments throughout the season. It's also one hell of a crazy reveal and I'm impressed with the Riverdale creative team for being willing actually have their characters commit that societal taboo. Yes, neither party knew they were committing incest, and yes people on TV (mainly sitcoms) have accidentally dated their cousins before but those stories don't typically end in a pregnancy. It'll be interesting to see how the show deals with this storyline going forward into the second season as a baby/babies will make this plot point impossible to sweep under the rug Ms. Grundy-style.
-OK, I've gotten the incest talk out of my system. For now. Let's get to what everyone else wants to talk about: what the Andrews family was up to in this episode. OK, no one wants to talk about this but we're doing it anyways. Some of it will tie into the Killer reveal eventually, I swear. It's been a running joke all season how Archie never has anything to do with solving the murder mystery but with Anatomy of a Murder focused squarely on answering the question of who killed Jason Blossom, it really shines a spotlight on just how disconnected Archie and his family are from the mystery. Jughead, Betty, Veronica, and Cheryl are all tied up in the mystery with the fates of their families on the line and everything they do is clearly motivated and understandable. Archie is just along for the ride really, wanting to help out his friends like he's been trying all season. And I'll give him this, Archie is at his best when he's allowed to be part of the ensemble and he had a couple smart moments last night, but it's telling that if you remove the top-billed main character from the action entirely last night, nothing about the plot changes. Archie's not a bad character, he just doesn't have any stakes in the action beyond his good Samaritan nature. I would like to see this change in season 2, as long as music and football are barely involved in whatever the big genre plot is.
-Even if there was no plot value to anything Archie did last night and Molly Ringwald was only there to say lawyer things and wrap up the "Will Archie move to Chicago" question (He won't.), there was thematic value to Fred and Archie this episode as Fred grows increasingly frustrated with Archie looking into the murder. Fred loves his son and wants to protect him. That's his priority, just like protecting Jughead is F.P.'s priority, protecting Veronica is Hermione's priority, and protecting Betty and Polly is Alice and Hal's priority (To an extent in the case of Hal). A major theme of Riverdale is how the kids relate to their parents and how for all their flaws and poor parenting decisions, those parents will always look out for their kids. It was true in the comics and it's still true here. We can see these protective instincts on display all over Anatomy of a Murder and it makes it all the more powerful when that notion of parents protecting their children is shattered by the bullet Cliff Blossom puts in the head of his son, the ultimate subversion of the Archie mythos.
-OK, we can talk about the killer now. So when it came to setting up the murder mystery, Riverdale had two choices: 1. Do an overly convoluted mystery with all kinds of crazy twists and turns and red herrings until we got to a conclusion that came out of left field and probably doesn't hold up under scrutiny but would fit with the generally campy tone of the show. 2. Do a more straight-forward murder mystery with a smaller suspect pool that is pretty easy to piece together and has less chances for cheap thrills (Give or take an incest reveal), but allows for more introspection and character moments. To Riverdale's credit, they picked the second choice, which led to a mystery that wasn't as thrilling or wild as it initially seemed it could be but will probably make for a more satisfying viewing experience when seen as a whole (Unless the "Why?" of it all totally falls apart). Is it disappointing when obvious villain Clifford Blossom turns out to be the killer instead of someone totally unexpected like Mayor McCoy, Principal Weatherbee or Dilton Doiley? Yes, but it's also more compelling to have a father kill his son in cold blood because of how personal that is. The emotional impact more than overshadows the lack of surprise in the solution.
-So the misdirect with showing us the reactions to the murder video before letting us watch the video is a cheap move designed to stretch things out to their breaking point and make us think the killer is someone the characters are attached to. But the reactions themselves still make sense when you know who the killer is because tears and looks of horror are exactly the appropriate reaction to watching a video of someone being murdered, especially when you know both the victim and the killer (I assume Veronica who never met Jason was also crying tears of relief about her father not being involved). Strong acting all around from everyone "watching" that tape.
-Credit where credits due. The Riverdale creative team could've easily made random thug Mustang the actual killer of Jason, acting on Clifford's orders but they chose to have Clifford pull the trigger himself which is a much more powerful creative choice.
-I was also satisfied by the way all the pieces of the mystery, from Hal stealing the sheriff's files to F.P. keeping the jacket around as "insurance" to why the body was frozen at all paid off in ways that made sense and enriched the story (Like how we can figure out that F.P. didn't kill Jason beyond the planted gun because we know he didn't steal the murder board from Sheriff Keller's house). That's good storytelling.
-Anatomy of a Murder devotes pretty much all of it's run-time to solving the mystery that's been taking up so much of the season but it also finds time to pay off some character storylines that have been building throughout the season. Most satisfying is watching Betty finally complete her transformation from the repressed and barely holding it together girl that we met at the start of the series to the crime-solving badass she officially became tonight. From not backing down when Penelope threatens her to figuring out where to find the flash drive that has the footage of Jason's murder, Lili Reinhart plays Betty with more confidence and power then she's had all season and it's a great look on her. I'm excited to see where the character goes from here.
-Veronica's growing distrust of her father has been fascinating to watch play out over the past few episodes and it comes to a head here as she becomes convinced that he's responsible for Jason's murder and becomes obsessed with trying to prove it. Veronica is basically a force of nature this episode and the moment when she learns that her father was not responsible for Jason's death is incredibly powerful. Veronica had built her father up as a monster when he wasn't one and now she has to figure out how to process this going forward, especially because Hiram is coming home. Man, I'm excited to finally have Hiram Lodge on this show.
-Kevin's usually pretty savvy about things but his romance with Joaquin has turned him into Archie apparently because he spends this week shocked to discover that his gang member boyfriend has been involved in illegal activity. He doesn't even find out that Joaquin was dating him to keep tabs on the investigation. Kevin, I love you but clueless is not a good look on you. Here's hoping that with Joaquin put on a bus, you'll get more compelling material next season.
-The stuff with F.P and Jughead is also excellent, as it typically is. Skeet Ulrich has done a terrific job with F.P., taking what could've been a one-note thug and imbuing him with a genuine love for his son and desire to be a better person that makes you understand why Jughead refuses to give up on his dad, even after all the ways F.P. has let him down.
-Acting highlights this week include Cole Sprouse's defeated reaction after his mother rejects his plans to go to Toledo, his even more defeated reaction after his dad pushes him away at the police station, Lili Reinhart's WTF face when Archie suggests bringing in the parents, Madchen Amick's take-down of the Blossoms, Madelaine Petsch's dead inside near-catatonic state after she learns what her father has done and Camila Mendes conflicted reaction to learning her father is coming home, even though she knows he didn't have Jason killed.
-I'll tell you, that ending with the police discovering Cliff dead of an apparent suicide was a real "Cliff hanger".
-Based on the contents of those Maple Syrup barrels at Cliff's feet and the fact that it's yet to be explained how Cliff is connected to the Serpents, it looks like Jason's murder may have been due to drugs after all. I guess we'll find out next week but I had predicted this weeks ago so I'm calling this a win (Though to be honest the prediction was fairly vague.).
-So I get why Jughead is yelling at Sheriff Keller at the end for not letting his father go on an emotional level, but it still seems weird that Jughead doesn't understand why his father who helped cover up a murder and did a lot of illegal things in the process has to stay in jail. Did Jughead honestly not see that coming?
-With all that happened this episode, all that tension from the gang breaking Jughead's trust last episode gets pretty speedily resolved. Which is fine, but if you're going to end an episode with the characters at odds only to smooth it all over within the first ten minutes of the next episode, did you really need to end the episode with everyone at odds in the first place? Probably not.
-Joaquin gets on a bus heading to San Junipero in a really cool Easter egg for fans of Black Mirror. If you've never seen Black Mirror, I recommend hopping on Netflix and watching San Junipero (You'll find it in Season 3) immediately because it's an amazing episode of Television. Also Black Mirror is an Episodic Anthology show so you don't have to watch any other episode of the show to get what's going on.
-Murder Theory Corner: Call me crazy, but I'm starting to think that Cliff Blossom might have something to do with this. On a real note, what are the odds that Cheryl (with an assist from Penelope) killed Cliff out of revenge for what he did to Jason?
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