Each week, Teen Vogue will be taking you on a journey to Riverdale, a quaint little town hiding some very big secrets.
This week’s episode kicks off with Jughead voiceovering about the one creepy house in every town that all kids avoid. In Riverdale, that house is Thornhill, the Blossom mansion. We get a peek inside, and it’s as bad as Jughead seems to think it is: Cheryl, who has just woken up from a nightmare in which #ZombieJason reached out towards her, is told by her mother that she will not be speaking at her twin brother’s upcoming memorial service, for fear that she’ll humiliate the family. Nice.
We move from Jason’s bedroom (yes, Cheryl was working on the eulogy her mother says will never be given in her dead brother’s room) to Archie’s — noteworthy considering the many Archie/Jason parallels that pop up throughout the show — where Archiekins is furiously beating up a punching bag. His dad stops by to casually let the audience know that Archie hasn’t been playing guitar lately, and Archie claims he’s focusing on football because it’ll get him a college scholarship, which he can then use to study music. At least he’s listening to some emo-punk-rock while working out. That kind of counts as “working on his music,” right?
The next day at school, Kevin has recreated his father’s murder board for Jughead and Betty in the Blue & Gold office. Two questions: does Kevin have an eidetic memory and are Jughead and Betty the only two people writing for the school paper? Seems like a lot of work. But if anyone is up for it, it’s these two amateur detectives; Betty won’t even let herself be distracted by Trev, who stops by to confirm their sort-of-date the next night. Betty insists to Kevin and Jug that it’s not a real date, she just wants to use the RHS students who knew Jason — like Trev — as potential sources. Also, she lets the guys know that her mom is out of town, which I think means everyone in Riverdale is sleeping soundly for once.
Over at Pop’s, Archie’s dad stops by to pick up his takeout order — as well as ask Mrs. Lodge out on another date. She shoots him down since they’re both married. He’s confused: what was the drive-in the other night, if not a date? Uh, a cover story. But when Mrs. Lodge doesn’t say anything, Mr. Andrews bails graciously (if not exactly gracefully).
Back at school, the gang’s all there and Veronica is questioning Betty about Trev. Kevin pipes up and says that Trev is just a source, not a real date, to which Veronica says, “Why is everything weird here?” Man, I love her quips.
She immediately switches topics and asks Archie about life “P.G.” (post-Grundy) and Archie mumbles about his newfound intense football drive (he’s battling it out with Reggie for captain). Betty (probably correctly) seems to think that Archie is avoiding his feelings, but we don’t get too deep into it because Valerie drops by to offer to set Archie up with a new music mentor. A few episodes ago, Valerie definitely seemed to be the Pussycat who warmed most to Archie, and they dated in the comics, so…I’m excited to see more of them together here. Then, Cheryl pops up to interrupt the “sad Breakfast Club” and invite the crew to Jason’s memorial. She snarks about Veronica not stealing any silver candlesticks, but Veronica decides to play nice. She wants to clear up the catfight path she and Cheryl are on, a path she’s sure will end in “mutual destruction.” Cheryl agrees and invites Veronica to a sleepover — the night before Jason’s memorial.
Some very Friday Night Lights-esque music plays over a montage of Archie thinking about his time on the football field and his love of guitar. He calls Val’s music man, and meets with him soon after. Oscar is pretty tough and wants more commitment out of Archie — he asks him for sheet music, tomorrow. Gulp. Also, fun fact: Archie was inspired to turn to music after Jason’s death. In fact, the first song he wrote was about Jason. Hmm…
At Thornhill, Mr. and Mrs. Blossom show Sheriff Keller around and let him know that they’ve invited everyone on their own personal suspect list, since they’re sure someone in Riverdale killed Jason. Cheryl is not happy to overhear this — she’s mad that her parents think she’s the heartless one trying to make the memorial all about her when they’re doing the same — and I must add: when it comes to amateur detective duos, I’ll take Betty and Jughead (#Jugby?) over the Blossom parentals any day.
One half of that preferred detective duo is not even being all that subtle in pumping Trev for the deets on Jason on their semi-date. Luckily, Trev’s got plenty to share: a few months ago, right after he and Polly got together, Jason started pulling away from Trev, acting weird and secretive, selling all his stuff, and even maybe dealing drugs. The Jason plot thickens!
Meanwhile, Archie and Val get some more bonding time, since she’s agreed to help him learn how to write his songs on sheet music. While they're working, Mr. Andrews interrupts and gets all flustered when he sees a girl in his son’s room, and it’s all very sweet. Kind of a relief in an episode so full of darkness.
Speaking of darkness, Betty gets home from her source-date and confronts her dad about Polly (since her mom’s away, I guess it’s safe). She begs her dad to talk about what happened between Polly and Jason, and Mr. Cooper must feel safer with his wife out of town, too, because he spills in split second. Polly and Jason had a fight — subject matter unknown — and Mr. Cooper came home one day to find Polly trying to hurt herself. The Coopers sent Polly away so she wouldn’t try to take her own life again. Betty looks crushed, and I’m heartbroken for her that she’s just finding all this out now, after so many months of asking.
The next day, in the swankified student lounge, Betty fills Jughead in and says she wants to call Polly, but her dad doesn’t want to risk another setback like the one Polly had when she found out about Jason’s death. Jughead and Betty have different theories re: Jason selling all his stuff: Betty thinks Jason was running from his parents, Jug thinks he was running from drug dealers. The only way to find out? No, not a séance, but poking through Jason’s bedroom during the memorial service.
Archie’s having a no-good, very-bad day over on the football field. He doesn’t know the plays, can’t read the cheat sheet he wrote on his arm, and clearly hurt his hand. Reggie — being responsible or just trying to swing the captainship pendulum in his direction, who knows? — tries to get him to sit out to rest, but Archie's not having it. Which leads to Veronica helping him wrap his wrist and hand after her Vixen practice, admonishing Archie for not protecting his all-important guitar hand. When she hears that he was up late working with Val, she clearly has some kind of reaction, but when Archie teases her for being jealous, she brushes it off. She endorses Archie and Val, she says, and also reminds him that she had her “7 minutes in heaven” with him already. Hmm, I spy some tension coming down the road with these two. Then, poor Archiekins’s day doesn’t get any better: Oscar isn’t impressed with his sloppy song sheets and his juvenile “break-up” music. He doesn’t think they’ll connect, so turns Archie away as a student.
Veronica’s evening takes a turn for the weird, because she’s stuck at an awkward Blossom family dinner at Thornhill with Cheryl, her parents, and her grandma. Mrs. Blossom snipes that she has no idea why Veronica is there, and Mr. Blossom gives her a brief Riverdale history lesson (it was founded on the maple syrup industry, neat) before bringing up her father, repeatedly. When Veronica mentions that she didn’t even get to say goodbye to her dad, Cheryl brings up the fact that she won’t be able to say goodbye to Jason, either. Mrs. Blossom brings up the fact that Cheryl rowed him across the river to his death, she got her chance to say goodbye then. Veronica is probably sorry she agreed to this sleepover.
In the middle of the night, Mrs. Lodge receives a package at Pop’s, an otherwise empty box with one hissing snake inside of it. She calls Mr. Andrews for help, claiming that she can’t trust the cops or half the people in Riverdale, and tells him that it was a message for her from the Southside Serpents: Mr. Lodge owes them money. She tells her old flame that she doesn’t want him more involved in this, but I doubt he’ll be able to help himself from getting involved. Like son, like father.
Meanwhile, B, V, and C are all taking paths down memory lane, some less willingly than others. Betty wakes up to the sound of her dad watching old home movies of Polly, and Cheryl shows Veronica old photo albums of Jason. Veronica and Cheryl bond, and Veronica vows to help Cheryl speak at the memorial — even when Cheryl says her parents will kill her. Uh, what?
It’s finally memorial time, and when Jughead shows up at Betty’s in a too-large suit, it's a painful reminder that we have no idea where he’s living now. Um, fill us in, Jug! At Thornhill, Mrs. Lodge receives a chilly reception from Mrs. Blossom, who then goes into a trance-like state when Archie arrives to give her Jason’s football jersey. She comments on how much Archie looks like Jason and strokes his hair (in the background, Kevin looks like he wants to puke watching this go down). Betty thinks it was sweet of Archie to give up the jersey, before getting distracted by her father and Mr. Blossom having words by the bar, and Veronica puts everything into perspective for the gang: at least they’re all still alive.
Then: Cheryl enters the room. Everyone’s eyes are on her, and she’s notably wearing the all-white outfit she wore the day Jason disappeared. Cheryl takes over the podium before her parents can even close their gaping mouths, and when she starts to speak and her mom moves to stop her, Veronica shuts it down by telling Mrs. Blossom she’ll just make it worse.
And so Cheryl gets to say her goodbye to her twin brother, and it’s equal parts sad (Jason always protected Cheryl, even insisted they combine their birthday parties because it turns out no one wanted to come to Cheryl’s), chilling (thinking about how Mrs. Blossom will react), and sad all over again (Cheryl wishes she’d been able to protect Jason at the river). When Cheryl breaks down in tears over the coffin and Veronica gets up to hug her, Mrs. Blossom adjourns the crowd into the salon. Whew.
I was right about Mr. Andrews not not getting involved! In the hallway, he offers Mrs. Lodge the bookkeeping job that’s still open at his company. She’s overjoyed and they hug. Aww! What a contrast to the scene Veronica happens to see go down in Cheryl’s room: Mrs. Blossom yelling at Cheryl, banning her from the Vixens, and threatening to ship her off to boarding school. Yikes.
Betty “Nancy Drew” Cooper and Jughead “Hardy Boys” Jones sneak away from the memorial and into Jason’s bedroom, where Jason’s grandmother surprises them from her spot in the corner before they can do any actual digging. She mistakes Betty for Polly, and Betty plays along, only to find out that Jason gave Polly his grandmother’s ring — one that’s been in the Blossom family for generations and one that Mrs. Blossom would snip off Polly’s fingers if she knew she had it. Betty is visibly upset by this revelation, especially when Grandmother Blossom mentions Polly “losing the love of [her] young life,” and runs out of there in a flash.
She confronts her father about it at home, who not only tells Betty that he knew about Jason and Polly’s engagement, but also that Jason and Cheryl’s great-grandfather murdered Betty’s own over a maple syrup business dispute. Betty is grossed out that such an ancient feud could be the reason her parents hated Jason so much, but Mr. Cooper is resolute: the Blossoms stole the Coopers' livelihood and he’d rather die than see them steal his daughter, too. Um, Mr. Cooper? It’s time to let that maple syrup thing go, I think. Betty asks after Polly again and Mr. Cooper says she’s not coming home until she’s better — and he warns Betty to stay out of it.
As the episode winds down, Veronica feels grateful for her own supportive mother after seeing Cheryl’s monster home life, and then learns from her mom about the Serpents’ surprise. Val urges Archie to really consider who the barrier to his music success is (and then they later share a moment when he’s practicing in the music room); Archie turns down the football captain gig and gives it to Reggie. And Cheryl watches her mom and grandma in the Thornhill garden, half-smiling at a vision of Jason standing behind them.
AND THEN: Betty and Jug pin an index card that says “The Coopers” on their murder board! Because Betty’s dad is acting super weird! And he also wasn’t at the drive-in, which means he could’ve broken into the Keller home and stolen the files, background checks, and video/audio interview recordings! As Betty and Jughead theorize, we see that Mr. Cooper is indeed at home, poring over a file that contains Jason Blossom murder-y information. Betty and Jug agree: it’s time to talk to Polly. Yes, please, someone talk to Polly already!
Next week, maybe Polly will provide some much-needed answers…and maybe Cheryl will find some inner peace. See you then, Riverdale fans!
