This was the craziest episode of Riverdale yet, with so many twists and turns, it was hard to keep track. The characters we love are going to extremes to save the ones they love and to get answers.
Alice (Mädchen Amick) was right about one thing, and I don’t agree with her often. The game does mess with your head. It’s completely sucked Jughead (Cole Sprouse) in. He’s made himself the game master, and he’s scaring me.
Carrie, on Homeland, was always at her best solving a case when she was manic. Jug is going a little nuts with Griffons and Gargoyles. Sometimes he seems completely crazy, and other times he actually seems like he’s making sense.
I couldn’t believe he wanted to turn Archie’s (K.J. Apa) rescue into a quest. As Betty (Lili Reinhart) said, this is not a game. I’m thankful he wasn’t physically involved in the rescue but still couldn’t believe that his quest mirrored Archie’s escape.
That’s where I got a little confused. Were the Warden and Jug playing the same quest, just one different sides? Isn’t he a little old to be playing this game, too? After hearing Alice’s story, there’s no way I would play. I also didn’t want to play just because people were already dying playing the game.
This show has shown that the parents can be more naive than the kids at times. They think that not telling their children what happened 25 years ago is going to protect them. They’re wrong. They are just trying to find answers themselves and mostly by playing the game.
Alice was the only one that broke the pack, and Betty is the only one of their kids that doesn’t want to play the game. I realize if all the parents came clean, there would be no story but clearly, Alice made the right choice.
While I don’t like that Jug made Archie’s rescue into a quest, I did like the two parallel storylines. It made for a very exciting rescue. Most plans in shows like these don’t go according to plan, but this one almost played out perfectly. Hiram (Mark Consuelos) tried to interfere for a brief moment, but Veronica (Camila Mendes) stopped him from ruining the plan. And he can’t tell anyone he knows his daughter was involved because then he would have to say he knew about the underground fight club.
I sometimes want to sympathize with Hermione (Marisol Nichols), but she’s missing the point. Her husband framed an innocent kid for murder. How is that not worse than anything else going on right now? How is she worried about her husband and daughter destroying them when Hiram lit the first match? I’m not sure I can ever find sympathy for her character after how she reacted to these latest events.
The writers definitely know what the fans want, and they can’t give it to them every episode, but they did this week. Fans finally got a great Varchie scene. It was brief, but it was great.
Fans also got a great Barchie scene. Betty was there to receive Archie when he finally got out. It was a great moment, whether you ship these two or just love their friendship.
This episode had just about everything you could ask for, and we’ve barely started this season.
