Jason was finally laid to rest in this week’s episode of Riverdale. The same cannot be said for the investigation into his death nor any of the other drama steering the lives of kids and parents alike. Cheryl finds a friend in Veronica when no one else is there for her while Betty and Jughead team up to uncover more clues about what Jason was running from (or to). Archie’s ongoing tug-of-war between music and football comes to a head when he has to decide where to dedicate his time and Hermione leans on an old friend and flame when things with The Southside Serpents escalate. “Heart of Darkness” was written by Ross Maxwell and directed by Jesse Warn. Here is what happened.
IN MEMORIAM | With Jason’s memorial on the horizon, Cheryl (Madelaine Petsch) finds herself more and more on edge. Her mother (Nathalie Boltt) refuses to let her speak at the memorial, convinced that she will do or say something to shame the family. She takes out her frustration on Veronica (Camila Mendes) at school, making a point to tell her that even though she is invited to the memorial, Cheryl certainly doesn’t want her there. Veronica recognizes the front Cheryl is putting on and tries to take the high road, proposing they be at least civil lest their catfight lead to mutually assured destruction. Cheryl concedes as long as Veronica agrees to spend the night before the memorial at the Blossom’s so that Cheryl isn’t alone the night before she buries her brother. Mrs. Blossom is less than welcoming to her and Mr. Blossom (Barclay Hope) uses the time honored tradition of fake politeness to take a shot at Veronica’s father over dinner. Later, in Cheryl’s room, Veronica asks her why she picked her of all people to have around tonight. Cheryl, for all her surface-level popularity, has no true friends and it was Veronica who was there for her when she had the panic attack at the pep rally, even after how horrible Cheryl behaved towards her. Cheryl just wants to get up at the memorial and tell everyone how sorry she is and that Jason deserved a better family than he got but knows that her parents will kill her if she tries – and the way she says it doesn’t feel like a figure of speech. The next morning as the town is arriving for the memorial, Veronica checks on Cheryl (in all black) before heading downstairs. Everyone takes their seats, the music begins, and up to the podium walks Cheryl in the all-white outfit she was wearing the day she last saw Jason. Everyone is floored, no one as much as Mrs. Blossom who moves to grab her but her husband and a whispered threat from Veronica keep her in her seat. Cheryl addresses the town and tells them all how Jason had always protected her even when she didn’t know it and that she just wishes she could have protected him the same. She breaks down and Veronica is by her side in an instant while her mother directs everyone else to the salon “for a light supper”. As soon as they masses are moving, she drags Cheryl up to her room and practically throws her down, exclaiming that after what she just did, there will be no more River Vixens and if she could, she would be shipping Cheryl off to boarding school before the day was out.
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BUGHEAD INVESTIGATIONS | Kevin (Casey Cott) helps Betty (Lili Reinhart) and Jughead (Cole Sprouse) recreate his father’s stolen murder board at their school paper office. There are still no leads as to who it was who trashed it but whoever it was has heaps of evidence and clues the sheriff was using to connect the dots about Jason’s murder. The guys find out that Betty is planning on going on a date with Jason’s old friend Trev (guest star Adain Bradley) and ‘ooh and aah’ even when she tries to tell them it is only “an intelligence gathering mission”. On her not-date with Trev, Betty asks him about Jason and he confides in her (off the record) that Jason started behaving strangely after he and Betty’s sister Polly started dating. He got distant and started pawning off all of his things for easy cash and Trev even heard a rumor that he was selling drugs. Betty, shocked that Polly keeps coming up as a connection in all of this, goes to her father (Lochlyn Munro) to find out once and for all what it was that Jason did to Polly to make her family despise him. Polly and Jason had a big fight about something and Mr. Cooper came home to find Polly trying to kill herself so they sent her away to keep her from trying again. Betty brings everything she learned to Jughead and he decides they need to figure out what it was Jason was running from but since they can’t just ask Jason, they will have to snoop in his room during the memorial. At the memorial, Betty spots her dad and Jason’s having a tense discussion but can’t get any closer. Using Cheryl’s breakdown as a chance to sneak away, she and Jughead make their way to Jason’s room to see what they can find. They aren’t there long before they realize they are not alone. Cheryl’s Nana Rose (the hero we all needed) moves out of the shadows and calls Betty closer in full on “all the better to see you my dear” mode. Betty realizes that Nana Rose thinks Betty is actually Polly and plays along but gets more than she bargained for when Nana Rose reveals that she had given the family ring to Polly without the knowledge of Jason’s parents and that she and Jason were engaged. That night, Betty confronts her father about it all and discovers that he was aware of the engagement but would rather die than lose his daughter to a Blossom. He reveals that the Blossoms and the Coopers have a feud spanning generations after Great Grandpappy Blossom supposedly killed Great Grandpappy Cooper over stakes in their maple syrup business. He tells her that Jason made Polly sick and, “she’s not coming home until she isn’t sick anymore.” Between the wording, Jason’s behavior, the engagement, and the timeline, I feel very confident in my ‘Polly is pregnant with Jason’s child’ theory. Nevertheless, Betty and Jughead talk it over and realize that if her parents were lying about this, there is probably even more that they’re hiding. Betty realizes that because the break in at the sheriff’s happened during the drive-in, whoever was missing from that night is a suspect. Wouldn’t you know, her father was one such missing townsperson and sure enough, he has folders of the evidence from the board hidden at the house.
THE SONG OR THE GAME | Archie (K.J. Apa) is still trying to balance school, music, and football and is struggling. Because of Grundy’s encouragement, he believes he is on the right track with his music and therefore throws himself into football to try and make captain. Coach Clayton (Colin Lawrence) tells him it will come down to him and Reggie (Ross Butler) and that they have the week to show him who deserves it. He spends all his time trying to memorize plays but when one of the Pussycats, Val (Hayley Law), approaches him with the number of a talented songwriter she knows, he decides to meet with him. The songwriter, Oscar (guest star Raúl Castillo), is not impressed with Archie’s current time management nor with the fact that he only has audio files, no sheet music, to show him. He gives him the night to come back with the sheet music so Archie and Val stay up late working on it (and flirting?). Because he spent the night working on music and not learning football plays, the next day at practice Archie gets beat down again and again and ends up busting his playing hand. That late night working on the sheet music doesn’t pay off however, because Oscar finds his songs juvenile and repetitive and his sheet music sloppily made. He tells Archie that he doesn’t think he has what he is looking for in a student and sends him on his way. Archie sulks at Pop’s with Val who isn’t having his pity party. She reminds him that music is hard work and that if he if affected by what each and every person says, he isn’t going to make it. She tells him that the only person standing in his way that matters, is himself and to stop using his dad, his coach, or Oscar as an excuse. He takes what she says to heart and when the coach offers him the captains position, he turns it down. He doesn’t want to quit the team but knows the team deserves a captain who can give 110% and his extra effort needs to go to his music.
THREATS OF THE SERPENT NATURE | Fred Andrews (Luke Perry), feeling confident after their sort-of-date to the drive-in, asks Hermione (Marisol Nichols) on a real date but she reminds him that they are both technically still married. She doesn’t say she doesn’t want to, just that they can’t. Later, when she is closing up the diner alone, she hears the door chime and comes out to find the diner empty save a large box sitting in the middle of the floor. Because she’s never watched CSI or Criminal Minds or really any cop procedural, she opens the box to find a giant live snake hissing at her. She calls Fred instead of the cops and when he asks her why, she tells him the snake is a message for her husband from The Southside Serpents who he still owes money to. She won’t give him any more details for fear he will try and get involved. He won’t let it go entirely however, because at the memorial he officially offers her the book keeping job he originally turned her down for when she first came back to town.
OTHER THOUGHTS:
• I prefer this PG (Post Grundy) world the kids are living in and they are all healthier without her in their lives.
• Nana Rose is the hero Riverdale deserves. She and her streak of crimson hair couldn’t care less what kerfuffle Mr. and Mrs. Blossom have in store just that she is going to defy them at every turn.
• Hermione is so far in the lead for best parent of the series that she has actually lapped almost all the other parents several times over – and just last week she paid off a biker gang. Fred, you were hanging in there until you were not nearly furious enough about the teacher having an affair with your teenage son.
So what did you think? The weekly question of who killed Jason is getting closer to being answered. Who is this week’s prime suspect? What is the real deal with Polly? Am I the only one convinced she is pregnant? Let us know your theories in the comments below!
Riverdale airs Thursdays at 9pm on The CW.