It is teenagers vs. parents in this week’s episode of Riverdale and the teenagers are the ones coming across as the sane ones. Jughead struggles with his deadbeat dad and the Andrews’ try to keep him from going down with the ship. Betty and Cheryl form an unlikely bond to protect Polly and the unborn child connecting their two families while Veronica and her mother hash it out over last week’s betrayal. “Chapter Seven: In a Lonely Place” was written by Aaron Allen and directed by Allison Anders. Here are the events of this week.
OFF THE WAGON | Jughead (Cole Sprouse) has been sleeping in a janitor’s closet at the high school after the drive-in was torn down and he found himself homeless once again. Archie (K.J. Apa) finds out and tries to get Jughead to stay with him but Jughead is adamant it is only temporary because things are bad at home but asks Archie to keep it to himself all the same. Not about to let his friend continue to sleep at school, Archie asks Fred (Luke Perry) to give Jughead’s dad (guest star Skeet Ulrich) another chance at his job but while Fred agrees, F.P. refuses to go crawling back after being fired. It is only after Jughead goes to his dad and begs him to take the job so maybe their family can be together again that F.P. relents and takes Fred up on his offer. He has a run-in with Hermione (Marisol Nichols) at the construction site but assures her that her family is all squared away with The Serpents and that he won’t tell Fred if she won’t. Delighted that their dads are getting along and back on track, the boys and their dads go to dinner where Fred and F.P. reminisce about their high school days and any ‘Cool Dad’ game Fred had, goes out the window when he cops to having a car named “The Shaggin’ Waggin”. When the bill comes, F.P. insists on paying it even though they all know he is struggling but insists that Fred “owes” him this. When Archie brings up the comment later at the house, F.P. tells the boys that he and Fred actually started the company together but that Fred forced him out after he got in some trouble and had to be bailed out. After Jughead and a drunk F.P. leave, Archie gets Fred’s side of the story. He tells Archie how it wasn’t the first time he had to bail F.P. out and that he had his own family to think about. Archie reminds him that while he was protecting his own family, Jughead ended up paying the price. Because Jughead can’t seem to catch a break, he is brought down to the sheriff’s office for questioning after his prints dredge up an old arson charge from when he was in elementary school. The sheriff seems to think that because Jughead was raised by a deadbeat dad on the wrong side of the tracks and had a history of being bullied by guys like Jason, it stands to reason that he would have motive to kill him. Unable to get ahold of Jughead’s dad, Fred steps in and provides an alibi for Jughead’s whereabouts during the time of the murder and later forges a work time card to back it up. It works to get Jughead released just in time for his father to show up and try to march into the station to start something with the sheriff. He fights Fred off when he tries to block him and only stops when Jughead pleads with him not to make it worse. He tells Jughead that maybe it is a good idea for him to stay with the Andrews’ while he is getting his life back together and promises that they’ll all be together again soon. Jughead moves into Archie’s room on an air mattress and seems to hold out hope that his father was being sincere in his efforts but a once again drunk F.P. stumbles through his trailer past a closet where Jason’s letterman jacket hangs IN PLAIN SIGHT.
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HIDE-AND-SEEK | Betty (Lili Reinhart) tells the gang that her parents don’t want the police notified of Polly’s (guest star Tiera Skovbye) disappearance, worried that it will cast suspicion on Polly for the fire and subsequently for Jason’s death itself. They know that if the Blossoms find out, they will blow it out of proportion but while they are having this very secretive conversation in a completely public place where literally anyone can overhear them, one of Cheryl’s (Madelaine Petsch) cronies does just that and informs her via text. Cheryl immediately takes this news to her mother and the sheriff and just like that, the cat’s out of the bag. No longer worried about secrets, the entire town takes to the woods to look for Polly. In a play to get the town on her side, Alice Cooper (Mädchen Amick) makes a public statement to the town announcing that Polly is pregnant with Jason’s baby and would never want to hurt him. This is news to the Blossoms, especially Cheryl. Betty still blames herself for Polly running away but Jughead assures her that she did the right thing telling Polly about Jason. Betty remembers that Polly ran away once before when they were kids and takes off home to check the attic of suburban horrors, complete with an old wedding dress and creepy dolls. Sure enough, it is where Polly has been holed up but she refuses to tell their parents because they have insisted she but the baby up for adoption. Cheryl, determined to help her unborn niece or nephew, goes to Betty to offer her and her family’s help to provide for Polly even though Cheryl still thinks Polly is, “crazier than a serial killer on bath salts.” Her desire to help is sincere though, so Betty agrees to sit down with the Blossoms to gauge whether or not they can really help. They put on a good show of support to Betty and she is all ready to believe them but Cheryl realizes that her parents are really just fishing for a reason to declare Polly an unfit mother and take the baby away from her at the first possible moment. She gets to Polly and Betty before her parents and warns them so instead Polly turns to the Lodges where Hermione takes her in with open arms.
LODGE VS. LODGE | Veronica (Camila Mendes) is determined to punish her mother for her betrayal of forging her signature and does so the only way she knows how. The Lodge women have a routine to their arguments and Veronica is ready to introduce Riverdale to it. She goes clubbing with Josie (Ashleigh Murray), Kevin (Casey Cott), and Reggie (Ross Butler) when her mother refuses to commit to coming clean to her father. While out, she confides in the other three that what her mother did made her feel like her name, the one thing not taken from her upon her father’s arrest, meant nothing. To the others’ surprise, she is delighted when the waiter informs her that her card has been declined, paying with a wad of cash instead and telling them that this is the equivalent of her mother blinking. Sure enough, when she gets home, her mother is ready to come to an agreement. She will continue seeing Fred, just not in their home, and will be forthcoming with Veronica about it. In return, she will come clean to Hiram and make sure that he knows that the forgery was all her doing and that Veronica didn’t betray him. Veronica holds her mother’s hand when the call from the prison comes in and she braces herself for what will likely not be a warm and fuzzy conversation.
OTHER THOUGHTS:
• All I want is for Cheryl to team up with Betty and Co. to take down their insane parents and actually feel loved and appreciated.
• Jellybean Jones is the coolest ten-year-old, nay, person in this universe and I hope we get to meet J.B.
• Even with forging her daughter’s signature and dealing with a biker gang, Hermione is still the most sane and supportive parent in this entire town.
• There were no Pussycats performances this week and I for one feel cheated.
So what did you think? How long will the Lodges be able to keep Polly safe from the competing grandparents? Will Jughead’s dad ever get himself back on track? Why does he have Jason’s jacket? Let us know your theories in the comments below!
Riverdale airs Thursdays at 9pm on The CW.