maxineofarc

EVERY TIME I think we've finally hit Peak Baby Voice, Kelly proves me wrong.

They're so ridiculously sweet together, and I never ship anything. I do think they're using each other as emotional backup, and that he's way more into her than she is into him (when they had their "moment" I never really thought Betty was having a Moment but Juggie definitely was). I LOVED Kafka in the closet. Jughead is a type, but he's a type I really like. He can say his name is Jughead all he wants. We know the truth. (FP is Forsythe Pendleton.) I actually caught myself wondering if I could get a freeze frame on the files on Keller's desk to see if they gave his full name... I did get a glimpse of Jughead's extremely mediocre grades, so he's lying to people about that at least. I wonder if anything he said about Jellybean was true either. Why didn't his mother take both of them? Keller is really grasping at straws. The Blossoms must be breathing down his neck, but they don't have a vendetta against Jughead or his family like they do against some of the others, so it's hard for me to see a push coming from them. I was proud of Juggie for being smart enough to know he needs a lawyer. He probably also knows that as a minor, anything he says without parents or counsel present is going to get thrown out the window anyway. Speaking of minors, is Veronica not one? She should never have been placed on the trust in the first place, as a minor cannot sign legally binding contracts, so that whole forgery subplot confuses me. Yes! What an idiotic and yet totally realistic thing for them to be doing. He has worn his S before! I maybe noticed. Oh god, I'm an Archie comics fan and I never even knew it.

I am so impressed by what he's brought to the show this season. He owns the screen every time he's on it. I'd love to see a scene with just him and Cavanagh sometime; most of the rest of the younger cast seemed to be phoning this episode in, but that kid commits. His Savitar was chilling. He even almost sold me on the "you don't really like me, wah" dialogue with Caitlin. I guess all those Harry Potter movies could be a pretty impressive master class for a kid who was paying attention. The wardrobe department may also be factoring into my love for Julian. Kid is dap as hell. Caitlin keeping the stone didn't seem like a "betrayal" to me so much as "just some dumb thing anybody on this show might do." Man, I hate her sad face, though. She looks like a pouty toddler when she starts screwing up her forehead. I so want Caitlin to work for me as a character, and she just doesn't have a strong idiosyncratic personality like Cisco or HR or even Barry; unless she's Killer Frosting it up, she just sort of fades into the background. I'm not thrilled about her having yet another spin around a more interesting male character.

Archie was supposed to go on a road trip with Jughead over July 4th, and bailed so he could bang Ms. Grundy (although Jughead didn't know why at the time and it didn't sound like Archie offered any explanation at all), and this apparently was the cause of the fight. I'm thinking he's just been called "Jughead" for so long he sort of owns it now. I'm guessing his real name might come up next week when he's dealing with Skeet, but if they go with comics continuity, he's always hated it. You would have to, to prefer "Jughead."

It's taking up space in my brain that could be used for something useful, but someday I'm going to go on Jeopardy! and I'm going to KILL IT.

Due to the comprehensive knowledge of Archie comics that until this show came on I had NO IDEA I HAD, I can tell you his name is not Jughead.

Not really IMO. They've given each other a few "heyyyy" looks, notably last episode when Betty openly checked out Jughead in his suit that all homeless teenagers obviously are known to own, but that's about it. Jughead seems to have a romantic streak, though, wouldn't surprise me if he's just seen too many movies.

I am mostly into this show for the Betty/Jughead Mystery Hour. I think the actors have great chemistry with each other (Cole Sprouse is really good with the ensemble as a whole) but I'm not really invested in a romance between them. I think the kiss was a fail- with any luck they both recognized that and maybe that Betty's still hung up on Archie, so Jughead won't go all Nice Guy and Betty won't keep him hanging while she makes up her mind. I think- hope- Betty and Juggie are too smart for that. So much for the asexual Jughead question, I guess? He could be a romantic asexual but I don't think this show wants to get that complex. I did suspect Polly was pregnant and that Jason was running away to be with her, and that's why she got packed off to the Magdalen Sisters. I like it that the show answers some questions and then adds new ones; it's just enough information to keep me interested. I'm guessing the Snakes or somebody was using the car as a pickup location, but I'd think even they would have been aware of the significance of Jason's varsity jacket in there and maybe not used an obvious piece of evidence for their drug deals. I thought when Betty and Jughead got back to the Home for Waywarde Girls Polly would have been moved to another location, but I didn't call her escaping on her own. Maybe she'll make it back to the Blossoms' house? Grandma Blossom might be able to hide her. Oh, Archie. It never once crossed your mind that "Josie" was short for Josephine? Archie and Val are cute together. Those wolf masks look SO FAMILIAR to me, like it's something I saw in the comics once maybe, but I can't quite drag it out of my brain. If I do, I'll let you know. I'm looking forward to next week's episode because I have really just so many questions about Jughead's situation. And what happened to Jellybean? Foster care?

Absolutely, it's a YMMV, but a pretty divisive one. For me, I don't feel enough chemistry between the actors to make it work, but many do. And I will take any further thoughts on that to whatever board they belong on! :) I almost forgot: Cisco can vibe people now? He can see through time, portal across dimensions, and now he's also an empath. He's quietly become one of the most powerful metas on the show and it doesn't seem like he or anybody else has really paid much attention to that.

They still grew up together as children with the same parental figure in the same home. There are people who are going to find this icky, and I confess I am one of them.

Who watches "Casablanca" and turns it off five minutes before the end?

HARRY DON'T GO! Still loving the multiple Wellses, but Harry's easy chemistry with Cisco brought out the best in both of them, and given that I've (um, maybe repeatedly) expressed my dissatisfaction with the dialing back of Cisco this season, that was really fun to see. Speaking of Cisco and his sad love donut, either get this guy a real love interest or don't. Having somebody mack on him and then run off a couple of times a season is getting as old for me as it is for him. Continuity nitpick: I thought Julian was estranged from his family, what with changing his name and fleeing the country to avoid questioning on the mass death he indirectly caused, so what "family business" could he possibly have in England? I will keep my mouth shut on my feelings about Barry and Iris: A Love For All Time.

They're "sophomores."

My favorite part of this show is rapidly becoming the Nancy Drew snooping of Betty and Jughead. (ps. That was "the best [Jughead] could do?" Is he living in the basement of the Men's Wearhouse now?) I'm more convinced than ever that Polly got packed off because she was pregnant, but now I also think Jason was running away to be with her. Here's hoping we finally see the elusive sister next week. I actually don't think the relationship between Veronica and Cheryl is that unusual for a couple of high school mean and formerly-mean-trying-to-be-less-mean girls. I wasn't even in a fancy clique and I had several relationships where we'd be emotional support one minute and backstabbing the next. Teenage girls are awful, is what I'm trying to say.

I honestly think the reason I don't hate Steve, who has many hateful qualities, is because Ziering spends a whole lot of time making his own fun.

As usual, WHY IS VALERIE INVOLVING HERSELF WITH THESE IDIOTS?? Because the writers needed to keep her in the rotation, I know, but there is zero motivation for this character to invite herself on a road trip with a couple of girls she knows hate her. Val, you can do better. Go find D'Shawn. Be on a better show.

I did think of that initially, but it seems that there's a lot of third parties corroborating Polly's existence (up to the notes in the football book, where I believe Jason was marked off points for her because of "feelings")- and if Archie has known her since they were children, that would make this twist tough to pull off. I'm wondering, though, if maybe Polly didn't have a breakdown; she got pregnant. I can't see Alice letting her stay in the house if that happened.

But that wasn't murder day. We know that the gunshot they heard was Dilton terrifying his scouts, and Jason wasn't killed until a week or so later.

They gave her the Lolita sunglasses! (Which was strange because Lolita was the victim, not the predator, but... never mind, it was a nice little nod.) Not sure why Betty kept the gun.

Oh, I disagree about that! The picture he was looking at of himself and his sister at the drive-in suggested to me that his story about sneaking in, at least, was true, and I've definitely known more than one teenager who thought they knew everything in the world about movies, except they always called them films. If we loosely accept that Jug is 16 then his Tarantino thing also makes perfect sense and is also completely insufferable. I am still waiting for Kevin to get a personality other than "gay," which is not really a personality. His conversation with his dad made me cringe! Yes, okay, Sheriff Keller is kind and understanding and supportive, but I couldn't help thinking of the Cool Mom from Mean Girls. Maybe this Joaquin thing at least will turn into an actual West Side Story romance. That'd be nice.

It's not THAT crazy. Archie Comics has been willing to experiment lately, notably with the very successful "Afterlife With Archie," which was a pretty straight-up zombie horror series, and its spinoffs. The current "Archie" series has been an attempt to bring the characters into a contemporary teen soap- cleaner than the show for sure, but still an attempt at appealing to teen+ readers which seems to be working. Of course they're still doing the old Dan Dicarlo-style digests that I had as a kid as well, but the company is definitely interested in exploring and expanding the property. How I ended up knowing this much about Archie comics, I don't know.

I'm sort of treating this as a Pretty Little Liars replacement and not thinking too much about how old these clearly twentyish people are supposed to be for story purposes. It helps.

I have two takeaways from that: 1) I now feel all weird for even looking at him and 2) huh, he seems to have escaped the Disney Channel Horrible Acting Curse. I mean, clearly YMMV on his acting but at least he's definitely shaken that weird shouty thing they all do that makes me think of the Disney Channel Acting School SNL skit every time.

He was on Suite Life???! Oh, man. The vibe I got from that was that she was pretending not to remember, not that she actually didn't, but that remains to be seen I guess. I see the Cabaret Wig of Doom has migrated to her locker.

Co-signed. He seems to me to be the standout actor in the ensemble so far and I hope he continues to good things. (I also co-sign the low-key sexy and was even kind of eyeballing his grunge wardrobe in a positive way.)