S05.E02: Chapter Seventy-Eight: The Preppy Murders

[Bort]

Betty and Jughead’s investigation into the auteur takes a twisted turn after receiving a call from Bret. Meanwhile, Archie is forced to make an impossible decision when the person responsible for his father’s death needs his help. Elsewhere, Veronica and Hermosa come up with a plan to force Hiram into early retirement, and Cheryl makes a business move.

Airdate: 27 January 2021

[Lady Calypso]

Well, we get out questions answered about the mysteries of season 4. And all of the answers are pretty much what I expected. They finally followed through with the Charles/Chic stuff after 20 episodes, so them killing people wasn't surprising. Jellybean being the Auteur was a weird choice but, again, not unexpected because who else would steal Jughead's laptop? It was somewhat of a cop-out with Jughead's whole "But JB didn't realize the severity of her actions! It was all to keep me in Riverdale!" explanation but...I guess it's better than some of the other solved mysteries, and it fits wholeheartedly with this show.

So, Veronica continues her war with Daddy for the millionth time. But this time, it's with her sister! How much do people want to bet that Hiram not only goes through with his retirement, but it sticks? I'm giving it less than a 1% chance. He'll be back to Hiram-ing in a month, once his disease magically reappears.

Archie's plot this episode might be the best he's had since the therapy episode. Fantastic acting from KJ. Despite the fact that the whole Archie/Veronica stuff is awful (Archie seems to give no shits about Veronica), Archie's solo plots have always been fairly good. Uncle Merc comes back to town just for Archie to beat him up! I mean, this might be the most useful his uncle has been in his four appearances.

So, the Blossom family was all murdered by Penelope. LMAO. 

Overall, I guess it wasn't a bad episode. It was somewhat entertaining at times.

[Chaos Theory]

I guessed the Auter was Jelly Bean about half way through the episode so bully for me.  

 

The Jones/Cooper family are a bunch of crazy murdery psychos. And still more interesting then both The Lodges and the Andrews together.   I mean we have a bunch of serial killers, Auters , former gang members turned police and teenagers with the "serial killer gene who I want very much to kill the whole town dating sexy broody writers solving mysteries which can be there own show on one hand......

 

And on the other hand we have The Lodges who haven't been interesting in years.  I mean Hiram should have been murdered off years ago.  That would have been a fun "The man everyone wanted dead" mystery which is the best kind.    Hermosa is still only sometimes interesting and Veronica hasn't really been part of the show in a long time.

And Archie.......well Uncle Frank ruined everything. Angry Archie was probably the most interesting he has ever been.  The dude is just so damn boring.  Boring Boring Boring.  Once again I reiterate if show even dips its toe in the Archie and Betty pool I am out.    Betty is better off with Veronica then Archie for heaven sake.  

Edited January 28, 2021 by Chaos Theory

[Josh371982]

33 minutes ago, Chaos Theory said:

I guessed the Auter was Jelly Bean about half way through the episode so bully for me.  

 

The Jones/Cooper family are a bunch of crazy murdery psychos. And still more interesting then both The Lodges and the Andrews together.   I mean we have a bunch of serial killers, Auters , former gang members turned police and teenagers with the "serial killer gene who I want very much to kill the whole town dating sexy broody writers solving mysteries which can be there own show on one hand......

 

And on the other hand we have The Lodges who haven't been interesting in years.  I mean Hiram should have been murdered off years ago.  That would have been a fun "The man everyone wanted dead" mystery which is the best kind.    Hermosa is still only sometimes interesting and Veronica hasn't really been part of the show in a long time.

And Archie.......well Uncle Frank ruined everything. Angry Archie was probably the most interesting he has ever been.  The dude is just so damn boring.  Boring Boring Boring.  Once again I reiterate if show even dips its toe in the Archie and Betty pool I am out.    Betty is better off with Veronica then Archie for heaven sake.  

Oh god yes Betty is so much better off With Veronica if not with Jughead 

[SourK]

In my heart, I feel like there could have been a five minute montage where Jughead just explained everything we've seen in these past two episodes to us, and it would be even funnier if he was just describing it.

My favourite part was when Hiram tried to tell Veronica that returning to evil had healed him and my second favourite part was when Archie destroyed the video tape and then also, for no reason, destroyed the TV. And then my third favourite part is that they're still determined to be arch enemies even though that plot line's tired and played out. That's the real star-crossed romance of this series -- Archie and Veronica's dad trying to hate each other, no matter the circumstances.

[ruby24]

So, obviously Marisol Nichols was not happy about Hermione being forced to get back together with Hiram and now in a complete retcon, they're splitting again, even though she was sobbing about his impending death just episodes ago. And yet, why do I feel like they'll ultimately be back together yet again by the end of the series anyway? The show doesn't see Hiram as the ultimate villain, they see him as a bad guy/not bad guy and prefer to always have Veronica be a Lodge deep down.

I still think it's nuts that Betty and Jughead sleep in the same bed across the hall from their own parents. It's so weird that I think the show makes that explicit and refuses to comment on the insane living arrangements of that family, because they think it's amusing.

Also, does the serial killer gene come from Alice then? Charles is her and FP's kid, right? Why is Betty connecting it to her dad when Charles isn't even his kid, and why did Jughead also act like it was poor Betty's fate to be related to serial killers when he was his brother too? 

[tennisgurl]

People on this show are getting way too chill about the terrible crimes their relatives commit. I guess its understandable, considering every family in Riverdale has at least a few serial killers in it and probably a moonshine business going back several generations, you kind of get used to it, but still. It really takes away from some of the drama when everyone is just like "oh you killed our whole family? Oh Mummsy you silly" "Oh, you terrorized me and my friends because you didn't want me to go to boarding school by reenacting horrible violent crimes? Well you didn't know any better." "Oh, your a serial killer? Yeah, that sounds right." Its like no one can even pretend to be surprised anymore that they're families are seventeen kinds of crazy. Of course the murderer and the Auteur are both totally independent people both screwing with Betty and Jughead, but are both also relatives. 

So many times when the show gives Archie a story about Fred, it almost leads to tonal whiplash, because its so often a really good and emotional story that is actually pretty down to Earth by this shows standards, right next to whatever insane things are going on with Veronicas family mob wars or Blossom gothic horror or whatever crazy mystery Betty and Jughead are solving. Its like its from a totally different show. I really don't like this story with Archie/Betty and I think he is treating Veronica really poorly, but this was probably the best story Archie has gotten in quite awhile and KJ did a great job with it. I am glad that Archie decided to write a letter asking for leniency for the kid, its what Fred would have wanted. 

You can see the show really wanting to quickly solve all of the mysteries from last season and wrap up all of those lingering plot threads quickly and give us answers before moving on to what the next big plot/mystery of the season is going to be. I suspected something was up with Jellybean when she was at that snuff film/rave last week, and it being her does make sense, she has access to all of Jugheads stuff and would be able to get into the house, obviously as she lives there, so this week it was pretty much what I was expecting when I realized we were finally going to figure out who did it. I think Jughead was really underplaying how fucked up this was, especially dragging people like Archie and Cheryl, who have nothing to do with Jughead leaving, into this by reenacting some really traumatic stuff for them, so I would like to at least hear that she said sorry to everyone who got tapes sent to them, but that probably wont happen. I guess they're happy Jellybean is just making creepy murder videos, and isn't killing small animals or something. I am also not even a little surprised that Charles is the killer, I have been waiting for ages for him to show his psycho side and it coming out that he and Chick are still together. Its been forever since that was revealed, so I am glad that the other shoe finally dropped. 

So Hermione's big play for independence is...becoming a Real Housewife? Really? Veronica's war with her dad continues, and now it looks like he is going to be making a tactical retreat while Veronica starts working with her sister, who we all know will be just as bad if not worse than Hiram. Because, as I just said, everyone's family on this show is NUTS. 

[ruby24]

Oh, Hermosa will definitely be worse than Hiram. Veronica will have to purge her from the business, take over it herself, etc. I wouldn't be surprised if it's revealed that Hermosa isn't Hiram's real daughter and it was a scheme from her and her mother to get in the family or something, leaving Veronica as the one true Lodge heiress after all.

[thuganomics85]

Definitely felt like they were rushing things to wrap up the storylines that were suppose to end last season.  Still, I guess it worked more or less.  Charles being the killer was not surprising, because the Coopers clearly have some kind of genes that make them go cray-cray, but I cracked up that his reasoning was basically because he was Dexter Morgan, only he's actually going to prison instead of pretending to be a lumberjack (although old Dexter is going to be getting a revival soon, from what I heard!)  But Jellybean being the Auteur and the one responsible for the films/tapes?  Now, that's the kind of batshit insanity I love!  Especially how forgiving everyone was over it.  I mean, who hasn't gone through the "scare the crap out of my family by making them think someone is stalking and maybe planning to kill them!" phase!

Meanwhile, we've got some more Lodge family drama that feels like it's come from the lowest of low-rent mafia movies to ever be put on screen, complete with Hiram finding another reason to beat up on a high schooler and ending with Hermione finally divorcing Hiram and deciding to leave and become a "Real Housewife", and letting Veronica and a newly returned Hermosa run the show.  You just know Hermosa is actually going to end up being even worse, because Hiram at least tries to keep Veronica safe, while I suspect Hermosa could care less.  There's a lot more that can probably be unpacked here, but for now, I'm just going to mention that Veronica actually has Hiram listed as "Daddykins" in her contacts.  You silly, Veronica!

Speaking of restructuring Riverdale's nefarious families, the Blossoms got a complete makeover, because of course Penelope just poisons everyone so that Cheryl can now be in charge.  It would have been more shocking if she didn't.  At least Nana Rose is still here...

All the stuff with Archie and moving on/dealing with his grief over Fred's death certainly provided some tonal whiplash, but KJ Apa sold the hell out of it.  They even brought Uncle Frank back to be a literal punching bag!

Bret is dead now, but it looks like Donna managed to escape, so I wonder if she'll pop back up somewhere down the line.

Still waiting for Jughead to find out about Archie and Betty's kiss in the worst way possible. 

[Quark]

This show is so bonkers and I love it.

[jette]

Jughead just looks so tired!

Boy is exhausted dealing with life in Riverdale.

[AnimeMania]

An 18 year old highschool boy can go to a fancy bar/lounge and order a drink with the ex-sheriff.

Get out of my gym, your gym, uh, my gym, no takebacksies!

I'm going to be on the "Real Housewives"! I want a divorce! Can I still be on the show if I'm not a wife?

Takes a baseball bat to the TV, "Use some of that lawyer money to get us a 65" flatscreen!"

[Bill1978]

I'll start with the positive, I only fast forwarded through the Lodges storyline.

I actually paid attention to Archie's plot and thought it was quite well done

I was very disappointed in the reveal of Jellybean being behind the videotapes and the lame reason behind them. But then this show has resolved their mysteries satisfactorily since Season 1.

Glad the writers remembered they had Chuck & Chic as lovers but serious question who else did Chuck kill apart from the murders this episode? Cause honestly I cannot remember anything about that plot and why it was given a Murder, She Wrote reveal if it was just Bret and Video Guy!

On 1/29/2021 at 7:29 AM, ruby24 said:

why did Jughead also act like it was poor Betty's fate to be related to serial killers when he was his brother too? 

This was a head scratcher for me as well. That I may have yelled at the TV 'He's your brother as well'

The Blossoms plots still feel like they are a totally different show to Riverdale. Enjoyable crazy but still bizarre it occurs on this show..

[MaggieG]

Of all the ridiculous storylines on this show, Hermione saying she got a call from Andy Cohen and she was becoming a Real Housewife, made me laugh more than anything. How did Marisol get through that scene with a straight face?

Of course Penelope killed the rest of the Blossoms. 

[LadyChaos]

Anyone else think Jellybean is a budding serial killer?