Riverdale - My take Part 2

Jughead, a brooding loaner, is narrating Riverdale’s story to us and writing everything down in a journal. Hopefully it is not a blog because if it is then Riverdale and all its secrets will one day be exposed to the world.  

The story opens with a restless Archie tossing around in bed because his best friend Betty refuses talk to him. Last week she expressed her feelings to him but he doesn’t see her more than just a friend. Plus, Betty knows that in a game of Truth or Dare he was locked in a closet with the new girl at school, Veronica Lodge. Okay, so what exactly did he do wrong again? Anyway, after Betty rebuffs his texts, he goes jogging in the middle of the night to Ms. Grundy’s place. Against her wishes, she’s forced to open the door or his banging will wake up that one neighbor that never seems to ever really sleep. Archie tries to convince her to go to the police but Ms Grundy is too worried about what could happen to them, especially her, if the police knew of their fling. I’m betting this summer’s romps don't seem so hot now huh, Ms. Grundy.

Betty’s mom is at it again with her neurotic, controlling ways. But she cracks me up because she's nuts.  After Betty gets hurt from both Veronica and Archie, her mom expects her never to speak to them again. How does she expect Betty to survive in the world if she doesn’t allow her to have a mind of her own or makes mistakes? Jeez! If a person makes one mistake are they not worthy of a second or even third chance? I say stop telling your mom everything which is exactly what she wants. No matter, Betty chooses to speak to Archie anyway, but her mom cannot know anything about it. Not cool. It seems like the only friend she can have is Kevin, the sheriff’s son.

The sheriff comes to the school and asks that if anyone knows anything about Jason’s murder to please come forward, but that only fuels Archie’s guilt. Students start to become suspicious of each other. Even Jughead starts to become apprehensive of Archie who just so happened to have ditched him July 4^th weekend, but Archie cannot tell him why. It’s clear they once had a close friendship but for some unexplained reason they are no longer close. Adding to Jughead’s suspicion he watches Archie more closely and discovers just how close he is to Ms. Grundy. During school, Ms. Grundy riskily snuggles up to Archie in her classroom in an attempt to convince him that her feeling are real only to get busted but they don’t know it yet. That is until Jughead meets up with Archie later that night and tells him what he saw. Archie confesses to him about their affair and about hearing the gunshot that weekend. Jughead flat out tells him that Ms. Grundy is messing with his mind, which is true.

It does appear to be that this snotty, self-aware Cheryl Blossom has no friends. Archie is befriending her in Biology class, clearly out of guilt, but it’s obvious dissecting a frog does not even bother Cheryl even knowing that her twin is being autopsied that very day. She definitely adds to the creep factor. And so does Betty’s mom, Mrs. Cooper who pays the mortician big bucks to know all the morbid details about Jason Blossom’s autopsy. It appears that Mrs. Cooper has deep dark secrets of her own like why does she not want her daughter, Polly, to date Jason Blossom and why does she call the Blossoms evil?

Veronica tries her best to buddy up to Betty, who is okay with their friendship one minute then gives her the cold shoulder the next. All because Veronica in Archie are attracted to each other, but Betty cannot handle it. Once Veronica has enough of the flakiness, she pretty much tells Betty to stop pining after guy who does not want her. To me that’s a true friend, one who tell you the truth and not what you want to hear.

After that, Betty completely snubs Veronica and befriends Cheryl Blossom. Big mistake. All Cheryl wants to know is if Betty’s sister, Polly, who used to date her twin Jason, killed her brother. Polly is supposed to be locked up from having a some breakdown, possibly after breaking up with Jason Blossom. Cheryl is on a mission to find out her killed her twin but when she questions Betty about Polly, the sweet girl is no more. Betty’s horns grow, her hues all but turn black and says “Cheryl get the hell out of my house before I kill you.” You can only imagine Cheryl took two seconds to dash out of that house and I’m sure Betty’s threat will be all over school soon. 

The next day Betty confesses to Veronica that she was right about how she's been acting toward Archie. Veronica tells her like her mom has told her “…Sometimes a friend is better than a boyfriend.” So true. And in this case Archie’s plate is so full, Betty he does not need a woman. Trust me.

In the student lounge, Reggie, the typical football jock harasses Moose by wanting to know why he was with Keven, who is gay, the night Jason’s body was found. Then he moves onto Jughead by calling him the “the spooky scrawny, pathetic, internet troll” and the “serial killer, fan boy freak”. Archie defends Jughead and he and Reggie get into a fist-fight most likely because Archie is angry and is torn over keeping Ms. Grundy a secret and doing the right thing.  After long contemplation he talks to his father which helped finalize his decision. During the football game, Archie finally tells Ms. Grundy that he is going to the police. Afterwards Archie tells Jughead that he is going to do the right thing, but their friendship is still to be continued.

The episodes winds down with Veronica and Betty at Pop’s burger joint where they make a pact never to let a guy come between them again. I’m pretty sure that pact with break more than once. Archie and Jughead show up at the shop and they all seem to have a great time allowing this night to let their hair down and permit all the drama to fly away.

But the episodes ends with the Sherriff entering Chemistry class where Cheryl stands up, tell him it’s okay, places her writs together and says “I’m guilty”. And I’m so sure Cheryl is loving all this sick and twisted attention.

Read more about Archie comic here. 

Overall: It's dramatic, tragic and did not disappoint. 

Stay tuned, I will give weekly updates on this one.
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