Betty and Veronica take down a group of slut shaming football players in episode three of Riverdale, entitled “Chapter Three: Body Double”. Archie looks elsewhere for musical guidance when Grundy finds out he came forward about what he heard on the Fourth. Betty and Jughead team up to restart the school paper and provide a real investigation into Jason’s death and the mysteries surrounding that summer. Here is what happened in episode three, written by Yolanda E. Lawrence and directed by Lee Toland Krieger.
“DR JEKYLL, MISTRESS HYDE” | After going on a fairly uneventful and uninspiring date with captain of the football team, Chuck (guest star Jordan Calloway), Veronica (Camila Mendes) finds herself being slut shamed by the entire school. Even though nothing actually happened, Chuck’s claim that he gave Veronica a ‘sticky maple” (please no one ever explain it to me – I don’t want to know) is enough proof for the rest of the school. Betty (Lili Reinhart) wants to go to the principal or expose Chuck in the school paper she is trying to revive but Veronica isn’t about following the rules on this one. Veronica (with a confused and nervous but has her back, Betty, trailing behind) marches into the boys’ locker room to confront Chuck and make him take down the abysmally photoshopped picture of Veronica. He has been doing this far too long and to far too many girls to blink when she gets in his face, even with Betty backing her up. He has a whole crew of cronies and society’s pattern of believing the guy on his side and he knows it. Betty manages to gather a whole group of girls together who have all been victims of Chuck’s (or one of his cronies’) slut shaming. One of the girls, Ethel (guest star Shannon Purser), tells them about a secret playbook that the guys keep score of their ‘conquests’ in. Cheryl (Madelaine Petsch) shows up to rub salt in their wounds but Veronica has had enough of it and dares Cheryl to get in her way or call those girls sluts ever again. With the help of a former football player, they get the location of the book and Betty, Veronica, Kevin (Casey Cott), and Ethel break into the school after hours to find it. They are surprised when Cheryl of all people also joins to hunting party. They find they book and look through it until Betty notices her sister Polly’s name in there, right next to Jason Blossom’s name. Cheryl is genuinely shocked that her brother would be a part of this. Veronica is happy to just take a picture of the book and present it as proof to the principal but Betty wants “full dark, no stars” justice and she’s got a plan.
She finds Chuck at Pop’s and convinces him that she wants to be a bad girl and that he should be the one to show her how. Using the lure of her in an empty house with a hot tub, she convinces Chuck to meet her at Ethel’s house the next night, where instead of Betty, he is greeted by Veronica at the door. She tells him she and Betty have decided to share and any warning flares his brain is sending up are drowned out by his hormones because he follows her inside. They both turn to see Betty walk in, wearing lingerie and a wig and acting as un-Betty-like imaginable. It is hard to say whose jaw hit the ground faster or harder, Chuck’s or Veronica’s. Betty makes Chuck a drink with a muscle relaxant in it while Veronica tries not to be freaked out by how far Betty is going. Chuck, now drugged and handcuffed to the side of the hot tub, has started to figure out something is wrong. Betty makes Chuck confess that he lied about him and Veronica while Veronica films it on her phone. Satisfied, Veronica is ready to let him go but Betty isn’t done. She shoves his head underwater and yells at him to apologize for shaming all those girls. She takes out a bottle of maple syrup and pours it over his head, screaming at him to apologize for Polly, going so far as to actually call him Jason. Veronica manages to snap her out of it but is thoroughly freaked out now. The next morning, Veronica tries to talk to Betty about what happened but Betty claims she can’t remember going as far as she did. The exposé on it all that Betty wrote results in Chuck and his entire squad being cut from the team and Cheryl apologizing to her for whatever Jason did to Polly.
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MUSIC LESSONS | Cheryl tells Sheriff Keller and Principal Weatherbee the truth about what happened on July Fourth; that Jason had planned to fake his own death in order to escape Riverdale and their parents and enlisted Cheryl to help him. He was supposed to contact her once he got far enough away but never did. The Sheriff isn’t buying it so she tells him that they heard a gunshot that morning too. The next day, Archie (K.J. Apa) comes in and tells them that he too heard a gunshot at the river that morning. He lies about why he was there and who he was with in an attempt to keep his relationship with Ms. Grundy (Sarah Habel) a secret. They call his father (Luke Perry) though, who thought Archie was on a road trip with Jughead (Cole Sprouse) that weekend and grounds him for lying. Grundy, upset Archie came forward about that morning, suspends their music lessons.
Grateful to Archie for corroborating her story about the gunshot, Cheryl promises him one favor of his choosing. He cashes in his favor by having Cheryl convince Josie (Ashleigh Murray) to let him sit in on The Pussycat’s rehearsals that week so he can better his song writing. Only problem is, he’s still grounded so he sneaks out at night to make it to rehearsals. Josie asks him what it is he wants to gain from sitting in and he tells her he wants to hear them play his songs and help him make them better. Josie puts him in his place about how he doesn’t get to pretend that he understands their experience being women of color in a way that makes him worthy of writing for them. She reminds him that they have to fight their way into every room that he gets to just walk into being a white male. He thankfully doesn’t argue with her point in the slightest. Later, when they are struggling with a lyric, he chimes in with a suggestion for the line and it ends up working well. Josie is impressed and lets him help with some other sections of the song.
His dad catches him sneaking back in and is furious at him, refusing to let him go to The Taste of Riverdale where the song he helped with is going to be performed (but of course he sneaks in anyway). His dad goes to the event however and pulls Grundy aside to talk to her about Archie. She tells him that Archie has talent and that it would be a shame if he didn’t at least try to pursue his passion. The next morning, Archie finds his dad sound proofing their garage so that Archie has a space to practice and tells him that he talked to Grundy about him. Archie finds Grundy at school and thanks her for what she said and wants to resume their ‘music lessons’.
DOILY SHAKEDOWN | Betty wants to revive the school paper and enlists Jughead as her first reporter. She wants him to cover Jason’s death, the real story, which is what the book he’s writing is about anyway. He agrees and she gives him his first assignment – track down Dilton Doily (Daniel Yang) and find out exactly what he saw that morning. Jughead pays Dilton and his scouts a visit but Dilton denies hearing any gunshot or seeing anything strange. Jughead notices one of the scouts listening in and looking nervous so he tracks him to Pop’s to find out what Dilton is hiding. The scout fesses up that it was Dilton who fired the gun while teaching the scouts target practice. Jughead goes to Dilton with what he knows but Dilton begs him and Betty to keep it quiet if he gives them a better angle. They agree and Dilton spills that he saw Ms Grundy’s car parked by the river that morning. Jughead knows the truth about why Grundy was there but says nothing.
OTHER THOUGHTS:
• If there is a single episode where The Pussycat’s don’t sing I will feel immensely cheated.
• Alice Cooper (Mädchen Amick) is a horrible human being. It needed to be said.
• I see what they did there with #JusticeForEthel and I love it. Just enough Stranger Things meta while also being subtle enough to slide by.
So what did you think? Has Betty stepped too far into the deep end of the pool? How long until Archie’s secret fling with his teacher comes out? Let us know your theories in the comments below!
Riverdale airs Thursdays at 9/8c on The CW!