S05.E09: Chapter Eighty-Five: Destroyer

[Bort]

After the Bulldogs lose several football games, Archie and Veronica come up with a plan to boost school spirit. Jughead turns his attention to a student who he thinks might need his help. Betty seeks guidance from Cheryl after being faced with a difficult decision to make. Finally, Kevin is forced to face a dark moment from his past.

Airdate: 24 March 2021

[Chaos Theory]

Kinda disappointed that Betty didn’t shoot that dude in the woods.  I have always felt Riverdale was at its best when it leans into the Betty is nearly hanging on to her sanity.   Plus I always did like the family of psychopaths storyline with her.

The football plot was predictable but served its purpose.  Go Bulldogs!!!!  Also the show is kinda fun when it throws half naked girls in front of the tv as entertainment.   I don’t know why I don’t i found Cheryl the cheerleader hilarious but it worked for me.

Edited March 25, 2021 by Chaos Theory

[nilyank]

35 minutes ago, Chaos Theory said:

Kinda disappointed that Betty didn’t shoot that dude in the woods.  I have always felt Riverdale was at its best when it leans into the Betty is nearly hanging on to her sanity.   Plus I always did like the family of psychopaths storyline with her.

 

Jughead pulled away from crossing the line when he called her. It was nice to see them interacting again and of course but their stories finally interact with the dead missing girls and the aliens/Mothman myth.

Of course, Archie's stories always seem to be in a different world than that of Betty and Jughead.

I didn't understand how Kevin's story about his mom and the comment made about buying huskies size clothing have anything to do with how he felt about him being gay.

[SourK]

My favourite part was when Hiram called the Bulldogs garbage. I think there should be a scene in every episode where he just bags on people.

Otherwise, I genuinely felt happy for that one girl when she scored a point, and I liked that the kid who changed schools was still a good person afterward. It feels like the teens in this town are now somewhat normal and rootable, and it's just the adults who are crazy.

Case in point, Archie becoming that one teacher who only cares about the extracurricular he coaches, to the point that he goes on the PA and tells everyone off for not supporting it enough. Or Veronica constantly using money to solve every problem every person has, and micromanaging the team, and then also somehow not knowing the team was part of a league.

6 hours ago, Chaos Theory said:

Kinda disappointed that Betty didn’t shoot that dude in the woods.  I have always felt Riverdale was at its best when it leans into the Betty is nearly hanging on to her sanity.   Plus I always did like the family of psychopaths storyline with her.

Honestly, I was kind of disappointed, too. Partly because I feel like they keep trying to sell us on Betty's darkness, but... then she doesn't do anything.

[thuganomics85]

I know what they were going for her and it was admittedly cynical of me to feel that way, but I still was cracking up how all the football scenes were just about how the Bulldogs were so bad that scoring one mere touchdown was enough to be treated like the end of every inspirational sport film ever, only in those films the team actually wins the game.  But for good old Riverdale High?  Just crossing the end zone once is worthy of theatrics like that.  Hurray for low expectations!  Although it was equally hilarious watching it lead to Hiram snapping a clipboard in half due to losing his "side-bet" with Veronica.  Mark Consuelos is coming close to being my stealth MVP of this season due to how much he's leaning into the campy side of things, when it comes to Hiram.  He sneers so well!

I wonder if they ever considered bringing back Mad Dog to give the team a pep talk, instead of Veronica's former client?  That might have worked better or had more of an impact.  Of course, it might not have worked since Eli Goree is now busy acting in fancy, award nominated films like One Night in Miami now.  Show-off!

So, it looks like both Polly's disappearance and the Mothmen/aliens stuff will end up being connected somehow.  Still think the Trash Bag Killer will also come into play here.  I do think Jughead had a point when he basically responded to Betty's doubts with "Since when was the logical answer ever the right one?"  Really, Betty, you should know by now that logic is never a factor in Riverdale!

Actually thought Betty was going to go through with killing the guy and I kind of wanted it to happen, honestly.  Either embrace the idea of Dark Betty or not.  No half-measures, show!

Cheryl's halftime dance was... well, perfectly Cheryl-like!

After being so significant these past few episodes, I was bummed that Toni wasn't in this one.  Hopefully she'll show up again soon.

Kevin's scenes felt like they came from a different show (and one where we haven't really seen enough of), but I did like his moments with his dad, which once again proves that even if Keller isn't/wasn't the best sheriff out there, he really is a good dad and frankly the best adult here (especially since we no longer have Fred.)

Kind of suspicious about Glen/Betty's FBI squeeze suddenly showing up in person and "taking over" Polly's case.  Don't trust him for some reason. 

[tennisgurl]

That much cheering for one touchdown was hilariously sad, these people really do have the lowest standards for excitement in the sports world. Weirdly though I did actually feel happy when the one girl scored her point and all the kids cheered, probably because the current crop of Riverdale students actually seem to be very nice normal kids, even the kid who defected to Stonewall was still nothing but polite and friendly. No one seems to want to join a gang or a cult or anything. 

Betty really has been gone for too long if she thinks that people getting abducted by alien mothmen is impossible, that's a pretty typical Friday night in Riverdale. So is Polly really most sincerely dead now or will she show up again later? We still don't have a body and its not like this is the first time that Polly has disappeared. Betty lying to her mom was a terrible idea, as was her most recent almost vigilante execution. I do like when they explore Betty's batshit side, but I wish they did more with it. I want to see her dead eyed psycho look focused on some actual threats, not some random skeevy trucker who we know is too boring to be the real killer. It seems like they are tying the disappearances into the possible aliens, but I am also guessing that it will involve TBK. I am curious about what went down with him and Betty, its the only thing that happened during the time skip that really sounds interesting. They also finally had Jughead and Betty in a plot again, and while Archie and Veronica feel like they just slipped right back into their old relationship, they both seem really awkward around each other.  

It must be so weird to be the students at Riverdale High. They not only have to deal with their school being shut down due to the mechanisms of a crime boss who just loves antagonizing teenagers, but now they have all of these new teachers who are too busy having quarter life crisis's to actually teach them anything. Especially the Vixens, who now have to apparently build all their choreography around some random twenty something who is now their new coach. That was so Cheryl though, I had to smile. I prefer this Cheryl to cackling villain Cheryl. Speaking of, where was Toni this week? I have liked having her be so prominent, I was sad to not see her. She seems like one of the only characters who has actually changed in the last five years. 

It was nice to see Kevin getting some follow up from last week, hopefully this has been a bit of a breakthrough on why he dated Fangs for almost a decade then ran scared right before their wedding. The scene in the sauna seemed kind of weird though, I almost thought it was a dream sequence it was so out of nowhere and filmed so weirdly. 

So Hiram's big evil plan now hinges on a high school football team? This is just sad, you can imagine all of the other mob bosses laughing at him behind his back and now even his right hand guy is getting tired of him. I am guessing its only a matter of time before Reggie totally leaves Hiram's organization, he is clearly getting tired of his over the top evil. Well good for him, at least someone around here should get an arc. 

We are now back to Veronica and Archie being on one show that's about sports and mobsters and Betty and Jughead are on a separate show about serial killers and weird conspiracies. So not much has changed. 

[bobbyjoe]

I’m glad to see Kevin and Fangs get an ongoing storyline, and I’m definitely glad to see scenes with Kevin and his dad, since they’re often genuinely moving.

What I’m definitely not liking in what we saw this episode is this sudden “Kevin’s actually secretly ashamed of being gay” thing as a way to explain the drama between him and Fangs.  The great thing about Kevin has always been that he’s unapologetically gay— and unapologetically sexual— which is a rare thing for a gay male character on network tv even still.  To suddenly pathologize him with stuff like “mom tried to buy me husky clothes and that’s why I cruise, boo hoo, and I must secretly hate myself”— yeah, show, could we maybe not go in that direction?  

“Gay guy realizes he’s ashamed of being gay and that made him promiscuous and now he regrets it and what he really needs is to settle down and raise a kid”— is this really the story they want to tell?   There are all sorts of ways they could have fun dramatic conflicts with Kevin and Fangs’ relationship.  But do we have to go with a retro heteronormative one that’s flirting with anti-gay stereotypes?  (tonight alone we got: self-hating, regretfully promiscuous, seduced into homosexuality by shadowy adults, etc.) 

We’ll see, but I hope they do something better with all of this.

[ruby24]

Convinced that Betty's FBI boyfriend is TBK. Seems quite obvious, actually.

So Betty and Jughead are back to having scenes together, which means they'll be back together within...what, three episodes? Four? He hooks up with Tabitha next week but that won't last.

 

[nilyank]

Just now, ruby24 said:

Convinced that Betty's FBI boyfriend is TBK. Seems quite obvious, actually.

 

Not only do I think that he is TBK but I also believe that he kidnapped/caused Jughead to have those blackouts in order to frame him for the murder just so that Betty would believe the boy that she loved in high school is a serial killer of young women.

[rmontro]

On 3/25/2021 at 8:14 AM, Chaos Theory said:

I don’t know why I don’t i found Cheryl the cheerleader hilarious but it worked for me.

Because it was hilarious.  Why would a high school cheerleading team feature the adult coach as the main star and focus of attention?

 

On 3/25/2021 at 8:55 AM, nilyank said:

Of course, Archie's stories always seem to be in a different world than that of Betty and Jughead.

Except when he's having sex with her of course lol.

I didn't understand Kevin's mom's remark about husky clothing either.  It was uncalled for the way the spa guy beat him up, but if this was a #MeToo moment, Kevin putting his hand on the guy's thigh would be inappropriate touching.

Doesn't it seem odd that Riverdale is so hard up for teachers that they had to bring in all these non-teachers to do the job - but Mr. Weatherbee could just assign the Lermer kid to a different English teacher?  How many are there available?

[methodwriter85]

10 hours ago, rmontro said:

Because it was hilarious.  Why would a high school cheerleading team feature the adult coach as the main star and focus of attention?

I'm honestly surprised the show restrained itself enough and conceded enough to reality that they didn't have Archie and Reggie suit up for one more Riverdale football game.

The show really stopped caring about the football team in seasons 3-4 so it was hilarious to act like it was meaningful again. I did like that they were overjoyed about getting one score.

On 3/25/2021 at 8:55 AM, nilyank said:

I didn't understand how Kevin's story about his mom and the comment made about buying huskies size clothing have anything to do with how he felt about him being gay.

If I'm getting this right, Kevin's first sexual encounter was with a man who said that he was cute for a chunker. He felt rejected by his mother because he thought she was ashamed of him for being fat. So when he had sex with a guy who "approved of him" even though he was fat, Kevin was able to bury his self-loathing caused by his mother's disapproval of being fat. However, Kevin became addicted to cruising because he was always trying to chase that feeling of being sexually desirable which blunted his mother's disapproval. Eventually he conflated both being gay and with his mother's disapproval of him being fat, even though he was no longer fat and he had the approval of pretty much everyone for being gay.

Self-loathing, basically. Extreme, extreme self-loathing. 

I did expect Spa Guy to be a cop. In t.v. or movie cruising scenes always either a cop, or it's a gay basher. (Let's just say the Boogie Nights scene with Channon Roe as the homophobic surfer guy kind of did things for me. when I was 12.) 

 

Edited March 27, 2021 by methodwriter85

[rmontro]

The other interesting thing in this episode was Reggie cheering for Riverdale at the football game.  They've shown a few moments that demonstrate that he's not all in on Hiram's plan, so it's clear he's not a full on villain.  Either he's going to play a role in Hiram's eventual downfall, or they want to leave the door open for him in future plots.

[Affogato]

1 hour ago, rmontro said:

The other interesting thing in this episode was Reggie cheering for Riverdale at the football game.  They've shown a few moments that demonstrate that he's not all in on Hiram's plan, so it's clear he's not a full on villain.  Either he's going to play a role in Hiram's eventual downfall, or they want to leave the door open for him in future plots.

Didn’t think of it but that is pretty likely. Good call I think. 

[Bill1978]

So let me get this straight 2 episodes in a row Kevin has had a major plot line? The writers knew that I quit this show when they 'finished' in the third episode and are desperate to get me back into this hot mess aren't they?

[Quark]

Hiram has become more cartoonish than a cartoon.

He was so angry that the Riverdale football team scored once in the entire game that he broke a clipboard.

I mean, talk about priorities.

[The Wild Sow]

On 3/30/2021 at 4:35 PM, Quark said:

Hiram has become more cartoonish than a cartoon.

He was so angry that the Riverdale football team scored once in the entire game that he broke a clipboard.

 

That was his bet with Veronica though.  If the team didn't score, they would voluntarily disband. If they did, Hiram would stop pressuring them to do so (not that he actually would, of course!)

They didn't have to win for Veronica to win the bet - they only had to get on the board, which they did.

[Quark]

13 hours ago, The Wild Sow said:

That was his bet with Veronica though.  If the team didn't score, they would voluntarily disband. If they did, Hiram would stop pressuring them to do so (not that he actually would, of course!)

They didn't have to win for Veronica to win the bet - they only had to get on the board, which they did.

I know, but I still thought it was madness he would react that way. 

[LadyChaos]

I'm really over Alice blaming Betty for everything.....like she hadn't just checked out when Betty needed her....or the twins needed her.