S05.E01: Chapter Seventy-Seven: Climax

[Bort]

Betty and Jughead’s investigation into the auteur leads them to the discovery of a secret underground for red-band screenings. Elsewhere, in order to impress the visiting Naval Academy Commandant, Archie agrees to participate in a boxing exhibition against another candidate – KO Kelly. Meanwhile, as Cheryl prepares for prom, she stumbles upon a major secret that Toni’s been keeping from her.

Airdate: 20 January 2021

[HerkyJerky]

Jughead Jones going to my alma mater? Dreams really do come true!

[Artsda]

Archie as Deputy Mayor? Silly.

I liked seeing KO. 

[Bill1978]

Why do I keep thinking this show is going to return to the Season 1 glory? 

13 minutes to go in the episode and they decide to squeeze in the big senior prom. Something US television shows and movies has taught me is the most important event for a high school. Does anybody on this show even care about quality? Although I do admit I got a big chuckle out of them playing Kiss Me (Dawson's Creek/She's All That) and Closer To Free (Party of Five) at the prom. I couldn't work out a teen drama link to The World I Know though.

Regarding the pointless Katy Keene crossover since its been cancelled, KO was visiting before the actual timeline of Katy Keene correct? 

[Chaos Theory]

The last time Archie worked for Hiram bad things happened.  
 

Archie  being an ass.  He thinks he was doing a good thing by firebombing his relationship with Veronica by “letting her move on” but what he really wants is to sit around and sulk about why he can’t have everything he wants.   If the show goes with Betty and Archie especially now I am done.  It may have made sense in season 1 but they haven’t been on the same page in a long time.  But Archie wants what he wants and if he has to go through his best friend to get it so be it.

I do like the Tony/Cheryl story and how it’s not about her being a girl which is a nice change of pace but instead the fact that Cheryl is a Blossom And The Blossoms have been villains in the town periodically through the series and before it.

[HerkyJerky]

It's been a long time since the last season aired so I can't remember.  What happened to Veronica's sister?

[One Imaginary Girl]

Hiram announces that he's recovered from his mystery illness, and Veronica automatically questions it.  The Lodge family is so delightfully dysfunctional.

In fact, Riverdale is the weirdest small town in America, and I love it.  How many cities even have a place for simultaneous raves and underground movie screenings?

[Chaos Theory]

I was genuinely surprised that Riverdale didn’t sell snuff films at the shows version of Blockbuster.   The show is high fantasy and somehow old fashioned at the same time.

Edited January 21, 2021 by Chaos Theory

[lorbeer]

This episode is boring for me. I love Veronica's blue dress from speakeasy, though.

I want this weird murder video thread to end and go straight to their lives after college. I like that they had pretty normal prom (until they didn't) with beautiful dresses and nice decorations with popular theme. 

[Josh371982]

Veronica Betty and Archie the Fuckboy can fuck right off with withholding the gross Barchie smooch and instalove info from Jughead with that "dont want to ruin that" BS. Hope Jughead tells them all off and where they can go. Still won't root for Barchie born from Cheating and its gross seeing Barchie Stans not care what it looks like and make dumb excuses like " Jughead Kissed Toni while still with Betty" when he didn't. I have to agree with @ChaosTheory about him. Well said. 

I did feel for Sorry for Cheryl at the end there and it SUCKS that Bughead is getting ruined right now cause RAS can't avoid the gross Archie must smooch and probably fuck both Betty and Veronica. 

Edited January 21, 2021 by Josh371982

[tennisgurl]

Its shocking to me that Riverdale only has one snuff film video store that also hosts rave/evil film festivals. You would think they would have at least five. Its also rather funny to me that everyone had a very "whatever" reaction to the latest creepy video that got shown at prom. Really, by Riverdale standards, this prom was pretty normal. No one got covered by a bucket of blood or anything. 

Nice seeing KO show up, he is definitely one of the most likable Katy Keene characters, and while he was mostly in the comparatively normal plot, I did love his "wait, what?" reaction to Veronica owning a Speakeasy and everyone acting like that's the most normal thing in the world. It reminds me of the episode of Katy Keene where Kevin comes to visit Josie and they keep casually referencing insane things that happened to them in Riverdale, to everyone else's bafflement. 

Oh right, I forgot that the Serpents are the descendants of a lost Native American tribe that were ruined by the Blossoms or something. We have had so many insane plots, a lot of them kind of blur together. Also, Archie picked probably the worst time ever to tell Veronica about him and Betty, even if he was trying to get her to move on with her life without him. 

[Lady Calypso]

Welcome back, Riverdale! The plots in this episode are pretty much what I expected from this show, such as Hiram's incurable disease becoming cured, or Archie having a boxing match with his opponent to get into a school.

They've done this cheating storyline fairly poorly and I disagree with the decision to not even tell Jughead...BUT the Veronica/Archie fallout was handled better than I thought it would be. I feel sorry for Veronica, who shouldn't be handling this as well as she could be. She deserves to be yelling at Archie for what he did. I am frustrated with Archie and Betty for this...but at least Archie told Veronica (although at prom is such a bad idea...but any time is a bad time once the deed is already done). I expected someone else to reveal it to Veronica. So at least Archie did the right thing to tell her, and they rightfully broke up.

Betty better be telling Jughead, though. It's the least that she could do. So those Bughead scenes weren't great to watch, knowing that the fallout has to be coming at some point for them.

How does Toni's family not know about her and Cheryl? It's not like they've been keeping their relationship private for the last two years. But I guess they've broken up too?

I laughed at KO's reaction to finding out about Veronica's speakeasy.

[thuganomics85]

Riverdale has returned and it is good to know that while things might always be changing in the real world, the batshit insanity is here to stay on this little show/town!

Man, this was not a good episode for Archie, huh?  Pretty much torpedos any shot at the Navy by being a poor sport after his loss, likely lost any shot at being Deputy Mayor (although, really Hiram?  Archie as deputy mayor?  I really question how you run things, buddy), and he pretty much pick the worst, most awkward time to be all "Hey, Veronica?  That love song you thought I had written about you?  Was actually about Betty.  Who I kissed..." about that reveal.  I mean, it's nice that he at least felt guilty enough to not want Veronica to put her life on hold and everything, but maybe wait till after prom?  At least the actual break-up was as good as it could be, but you just know them (and Betty) continuing to keep the secret from Jughead is going to bite all of them on their asses.

Speaking of which, Jughead and Betty get to spend the premiere learning about the underground world of rave/film festivals that show everything from snuff films to porn (and I'm pretty sure I saw some tickle porn as well!  It's the gift that keeps on giving!)  Honestly, none of that is surprising for this show.  Frankly, I would have thought it would be even more popular.

Not overly familiar with KO since I didn't get around to Katy Keene, but he definitely earned points for his baffled reaction about Veronica owning a speakeasy.

Looks like Toni/Cheryl are on their way to having relationship problems.  I just hope this leads to Toni getting more to do besides being Cheryl's girlfriend.

Everyone was looking good for the prom, at least!  Cheryl definitely won when it came to showing the most cleavage, but I thought Betty probably looked the best.  As for the guys, that obviously goes to Fangs rocking that crimson suit!

Hey, Weatherbee is principal again!  And only wakes up screaming some nights...

Saw that Drew Ray Tanner is a regular now, which is cool since he's been here for as long as he has.  Noticed that both Marisol Nichols and Skeet Ulrich are still billed as regulars, even though I remember they were suppose to be leaving last season.  I wonder if that's still on the cards, or if all of the shutdowns and uncertainty made them go "Hey, guys, on second thought..." 

Not surprised that the show is going to be ignoring all the COVID stuff, but I'm disappointed, since I can only imagine what kind of insanity this group of writers would have come up with.  I'm guessing either a) Archie gets it and it causes a side effect where he can no longer wear a shirt ever again, b) Betty gets it and it causes an official split personality thing with her and "Dark Betty" Gollum from Lord of the Rings-style, or c) Hiram somehow weaponizes it and uses it to kill his enemies.  But really, the possibilities would have been endless!

As usual, I can't wait to see where this crazy train goes next!

[rmontro]

1 hour ago, thuganomics85 said:

Man, this was not a good episode for Archie, huh?  Pretty much torpedos any shot at the Navy by being a poor sport after his loss

Why was Archie being such a dick about losing, anyway?

[SourK]

IIRC, Principal Honey's main thing was that he wanted to stop the trend where school dances involve a murder, and then they ran him off, and now the school dance involved a murder.

I enjoyed how a) the shop clerk just casually said he was throwing a rave to watch his illegal movies at, b) there are tons of people in the town who apparently know about and are okay with this, and c) Jellybean claimed that she came there with friends, and Jughead either knew those characters didn't exist, or didn't care, because they left right away.

13 hours ago, One Imaginary Girl said:

Hiram announces that he's recovered from his mystery illness, and Veronica automatically questions it.  The Lodge family is so delightfully dysfunctional.

Last season, I thought Hermione was gaslighting him into thinking he was sick so he would sign his stuff over to his evil daughter (the one that's not Veronica). Now, I sort of believe the writers just got tired of his mystery illness and let him heal himself by punching. I don't know which I prefer.

11 hours ago, tennisgurl said:

Its also rather funny to me that everyone had a very "whatever" reaction to the latest creepy video that got shown at prom.

They all went home and cried, but not because they saw someone get murdered again. 

1 hour ago, thuganomics85 said:

Man, this was not a good episode for Archie, huh?  Pretty much torpedos any shot at the Navy by being a poor sport after his loss, likely lost any shot at being Deputy Mayor (although, really Hiram?  Archie as deputy mayor?  I really question how you run things, buddy), and he pretty much pick the worst, most awkward time to be all "Hey, Veronica?  That love song you thought I had written about you?  Was actually about Betty.  Who I kissed..." about that reveal.  I mean, it's nice that he at least felt guilty enough to not want Veronica to put her life on hold and everything, but maybe wait till after prom? 

Unironically, I really liked the set-up where Veronica sang the song without knowing it was literally about Archie trying to ditch her for someone else, because it was so painful and awkward. I also liked how he kept evading her questions and making noncommittal noises, etc. I think it would have worked better if she'd noticed something was wrong and pressed him about it rather than having him just blurt it out, but this was the one part of the episode I thought was kind of good.

The boxing thing was dumb, but I feel conflicted about it. Archie being a poor sport and burning all his bridges felt like a really realistic thing for a teenager to do -- I'm not sure it felt like a realistic thing for him to do, specifically. I also wish this show would make up its mind about whether he wants to be in the military or not.

And then the best/worst idea would be for him to team up with the villain who wants to destroy him again. I kind of hope he does it, because Archie being stupid is one of the things I like to make fun of the most.

1 hour ago, thuganomics85 said:

Looks like Toni/Cheryl are on their way to having relationship problems.  I just hope this leads to Toni getting more to do besides being Cheryl's girlfriend.

They suddenly gave her an ambition to be the Serpent Queen and re-introduced the story about how the Serpents hate the town or whatever, so maybe they're giving her a plot line? I'm mildly worried that, when we flash forward, she's going to be this series' Weevil, but we'll see.

 

[MaggieG]

Well this crazy show is back. I'm glad we're getting closer to the resolution of the videos because I am tired of that storyline. And how did Jelly Bean and her friends get into that party so easily but Betty and Jug had to make a snuff film just to get an invite?

I thought all the ladies looked beautiful at prom. I also really liked Betty's light blue blouse with the white flowers she was wearing when speaking to Mr Weatherbee.

 

[Quark]

This show is such a hoot. I'm glad it's back.

[ruby24]

I heard Marisol Nichols had changed her mind and decided to stay, but I didn't hear that about Skeet Ulrich, so maybe he's just there until the time jump happens. 

[Dobian]

On 1/21/2021 at 9:22 AM, Chaos Theory said:

I was genuinely surprised that Riverdale didn’t sell snuff films at the shows version of Blockbuster.   The show is high fantasy and somehow old fashioned at the same time.

I still don't know why this show is under the Drama tab here, it should be under Genre.  Soap fantasy based on a comic with plots that aren't even remotely realistic.

[Aryanna]

I don't know why I didn't think to ask this question here earlier.

So on the CW app chapter seventy seven is missing. It starts with s05e02. Because of that I haven't started this season and am way behind. Where can I find this episode so that I can catch up?

Help!

Edited March 30, 2021 by Aryanna

[Affogato]

16 hours ago, Aryanna said:

I don't know why I didn't think to ask this question here earlier.

So on the CW app chapter seventy seven is missing. It starts with s05e02. Because of that I haven't started this season and am way behind. Where can I find this episode so that I can catch up?

Help!

I don’t know. I thnk they only keep 5 episodes up at a time and retire the earlier ones. There may be special promotions like ‘catch up’ on last season type of thng.