Riverdale knows how to give us a crazy mid-season finale. “The Pincushion Man” is probably the craziest yet.
Riverdale is also once again not telling us Jughead’s (Cole Sprouse) fate. Time and time again, the writers like to pull at our Jughead heartstrings. They make it look like he’s dead or make it unclear. Then leave us hanging.
This time, Jug is missing from the bunker with blood all over the place. It doesn’t appear like he opened the handcuff, but he definitely got his hand out of it.
Tabitha (Erinn Westbrook) was supposed to be watching Jug when he was on shrooms to write a chapter that channeled Steven King. She visited him once, and when he was flirty and not writing, she decided to handcuff him, only to find him gone in the morning.
What was that light that came down through the bunker? Clearly, the moth men are not real, but someone certainly is making a show for some reason.
And Riverdale is making us wait three months to find out if Jug is okay this time. The writers sure love their cliffhangers.
The Jug story is interesting. I still want to know why he owes the loan sharks so much money. I’m still waiting for that flashback episode to fill in key details. Could it be the loan sharks that found him?
Veronica (Camila Mendes), on the other hand, we know a lot more about what happened in New York, and it’s biting her in the ass now. We thought we had our Varchie back, but the writers know how to keep ships apart. This time with Chad (Chris Mason) using V’s new jewelry company in a Ponzi scheme to get himself out of the mess he created.
For the most part, she escaped her father, but she also basically married her father, so she’s in an even bigger mess now. I was excited to be rid of Chad, but I like a real-world problem in the mix of all the surreal ones.
Veronica was always good at getting back at Hiram (Mark Consuelos). I’m looking forward to seeing how she claps back at Chad. She has a history of rising above and coming out better. But legally, this is going to be a twisty storyline.
The most shocking storyline was probably when Charles (Wyatt Nash) and Chic (Hart Denton) came to the twin’s birthday after Reggie (Charles Melton) broke them out of jail. We also found out that Glen (Greyston Holt) is writing his dissertation on Betty’s (Lili Reinhart) family. So, Charles decided to teach Glen about serial killers by getting Juniper (Alix West Lefler) to stab Glen.
Betty has been in these situations way too much. She shouldn’t have even gotten back together with Glen, but she’s using sex to avoid dealing with her trauma that’s just being added to.
She wouldn’t let her little niece be traumatized, so Charles made her do the stabbing. And she managed to give Glen a flesh wound and takedown Charles. It’s scary how normal these scenes are getting. The shock was Charles and Chic walking in. Nothing was shocking after that.
Riverdale is in a worse state than when the time jump-started. Hiram’s prisoners wrecked the school, so it will be closed for weeks if it opens at all. They also burned down the Blossom groves forcing Cheryl (Madelaine Petsch) to sell them to Hiram.
The saving Riverdale story has been a little weird, but the storylines around it have all been great. There’s another serial killer on the loose, and the girls on the lonely highway could have been killed by many killers, including Betty’s dad.
And each of the individual storylines has been good. Kevin’s (Casey Cott) storyline came to a head in the mid-season finale. After Cheryl’s party, he broke up with Fangs (Drew Ray Tanner), and we finally understand why.
It all started with a comment his mother made back in high school that led him to the woods, not knowing it was a cruising spot. He got cruised and then never stopped because it took away the shame. Sadly, he’s never been able to get rid of that shame, making it impossible for him to be in a relationship.
It was such an emotional scene with his father. It’s a powerful story that will touch others. Kevin always seemed so sure of himself. The time jump is giving the writers a chance to write an amazing storyline for him.
What did you think of Riverdale‘s mid-season finale? Tweet me @MandyTTCarr or comment below.
