Alternate episode title:
Building sites and baby showers
Riverdale returned to our screens last night and the teen noir examining the intricacies of small town life, some sweet and some disturbing.
The appearance of Polly Cooper changes the dynamics in Riverdale. Now the eldest Cooper is living with the Lodges Veronica decides to fix everything by throwing a baby shower.
Noticeably the family casting for the Coopers is A+ and as a lot of the Cooper family dynamics are explored within the episode I can’t help but feel the show is rolling up to a big reveal where all the small comments and insults thrown around begin to make sense.
Meanwhile, the guys from Fred Andrew’s building site leave as Mr. Blossom offers them a better deal. So the most logical course of action is to hire a bunch of teenagers. I don’t know shit about construction but I’m pretty sure that’s fifty types of illegal.
But Archie is in his fuck-boy redemption arc is helping his dad and when some thugs come to the worksite and beat the shit out of Moose he decides he’s going to get revenge.
The whole thing with the Southside Serpents is just proving to be very confusing at the moment as we don’t really know what is going on with them even as Archie walks into the lion’s den…
In the first half of the episode, we learn that the Southside Serpents were dealing drugs and Jason Blossom was involved in that. In the second half of the episode, we learn that Archie doesn’t know Jughead’s dad is their leader and Jughead didn’t know they were dealing drugs and that Fred might have known Jughead’s dad was the leader… I don’t know.
Andrews and Jones snr. hash it out, it’s a vaguely lovely moment realizing that not all Riverdale parents are trash (for at least a solid five minutes anyway)
Following a particularly dramatic baby shower, the moment between Mr. and Mrs. Cooper is superbly acted and once again leaves us with the impression the Blossoms might be a little more than just kooky.
Mächen Amick is really the standout of the episode as we begin to see the cold visage of type A, Stepford mom that has been crowding the Cooper daughters for the past eight episodes. The scene with just Betty and Mrs Cooper alone in the blue-washed house is especially heartbreaking. Honestly, the way a lot of this episode is shot is really beautiful. it sounds condescending to say ‘for a CW show’ but just the amount of thought put into every shot isn’t typical for this kind of show and is really appreciated.
Polly ends up moving in with the Blossoms in their creepy mansion on the hill. A weird choice for anyone that’s seen any horror movie ever, but you do you girl. If spoilers are to be believed then the cultish aspects surrounding the Blossom family are going to be kicked into high gear next week…
Static screens 