S06.E02: Chapter Ninety-Seven: Ghost Stories

[Artsda]

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"Chapter Ninety-Seven: Ghost Stories" - (9:00-10:00 p.m. ET) Original airdate 11/23/2021.

THE HAUNTING OF RIVERVALE - A vengeful spirit from folklore, La Llorona arrives in Rivervale to terrorize the rainy town. Betty (Lili Reinhart) and Toni (Vanessa Morgan) find themselves in the specter's path and must seek Cheryl's (Madelaine Petsch) help to protect the children in Rivervale, including Baby Anthony. Meanwhile, Jughead (Cole Sprouse) and Tabitha (Erinn Westbrook), along with Veronica (Camila Mendes) and Reggie (Charles Melton), experience their own hauntings that begin to put a strain on their respective relationships.

 

[jewel21]

I enjoyed this episode and liked the extra creepiness. So far these RiverVale episodes have been proven to be quite fun. 

[nilyank]

I think all these Rivervale stories are actuall Jughead finally breaking his writer's block and this is the result. It's why he is narrating in each episdoe.

[ruby24]

I have to assume some of this stuff actually is happening, right? Like the Reggie stuff with his dad dying- that must have happened for real, I don't see why that kind of character development stuff would happen in an alternate reality.

This show is too dark. I mean that literally. I can't see what's happening on the screen half the time.

The two Betty/Jughead references in this episode makes me more convinced the show intends to end with them eventually- why bring up that only Betty read his vomit drafts and him being upset about his typewriter because it was a present from Betty, and then not have Tabitha mention either thing even though it bothered her? I know they had those two say I love you in this episode, but eh...that's the kind of quick mentions that usually mean the show doesn't want you to forget about the other couple, in spite of the current ones going on.

I just wish people would be honest about weird stuff- like in the last episode when Tabitha was asking if it was weird for Betty to be helping her move in with Jughead, I would have liked it if she'd said, "yeah it's weird. It's VERY weird." Because there is no way that's not weird in real life, and it annoys me when shows pretend everybody's totally cool with switching partners with their close pals (not that this show has anything to do with real life, but you know). And there's just no way that Jughead would be totally fine with Betty/Archie happening.

As for Reggie/Veronica, I'm enjoying them because I like seeing her with someone besides Archie, but she was pretty insensitive in this episode imo. She should have been way more tuned in to the fact that his problem was very obviously with his father being in the hospital (though they never said what exactly he died of). I mean, totaling his car is pretty excessive and then implying it was because she really was jealous of it? Come on, man. One thing I like with those two is the comics references, because in those Reggie really did only ever call her Roni and the fact that they have show Reggie do the same thing makes me think someone actually remembers/read that? Or it could be a coincidence but that's a nice touch. Veronica with Reggie reminds me more of her actual comics self, more materialistic and self-obsessed. 

Edited November 25, 2021 by ruby24

[thuganomics85]

I guess Betty hasn't kept up with recent horror pop culture, because La Llorona seems to be quite popular lately.  I've seen her in quite a few genre shows recently (and there was that film a few years ago.)  This version was creepy enough, but I suspected there would end up being more to it.  And now Toni will apparently "assume the mantle" to protect Baby Anthony?  I wonder if each episode for this arc is going to end with the "death" of one of the main characters.

Not sure if I was suppose to believe Reggie when he claimed nothing happened with that teacher years ago, but either way, Veronica approaching it by smashing his car is not the healthiest way to address this issue...

With the way things are going, I still won't be surprised if Tabitha kills Jughead.  Or maybe the twist will be that it will go the opposite way.

Won't lie: I kind of wanted to see more of the whole "Serpents and Gholies star in their own version of Romeo & Juliet."

Cole Sprouse seems to really be having fun doing the whole Twilight Zone-style narration thing.

If nothing else, I'm still finding this concept to be intriguing.

[rmontro]

On 11/24/2021 at 4:49 PM, nilyank said:

I think all these Rivervale stories are actuall Jughead finally breaking his writer's block and this is the result. It's why he is narrating in each episdoe.

Really, you could say that about the entire series, Jughead narrates the whole thing.  It seems to suggest it all comes from his writings, whether it's a novel or a journal.

 

On 11/24/2021 at 10:29 PM, ruby24 said:

I have to assume some of this stuff actually is happening, right? Like the Reggie stuff with his dad dying- that must have happened for real, I don't see why that kind of character development stuff would happen in an alternate reality.

I've been wondering about that.  Why push Cheryl into an interest in witchcraft if all this is just off-canon nonsense?  Guess we'll see when the regular episodes resume.

Nice of Betty to consider naming her unborn son after Archie, considering she was instrumental in killing him.

There was a ton of irony in that scene where Veronica was lecturing Reggie about toxic relationships, when she had just destroyed his car.

[the-grey-lady]

On 11/24/2021 at 7:29 PM, ruby24 said:

The two Betty/Jughead references in this episode makes me more convinced the show intends to end with them eventually- why bring up that only Betty read his vomit drafts and him being upset about his typewriter because it was a present from Betty, and then not have Tabitha mention either thing even though it bothered her? I know they had those two say I love you in this episode, but eh...that's the kind of quick mentions that usually mean the show doesn't want you to forget about the other couple, in spite of the current ones going on.

This.

I don't think the Betty mentions were casual. I think it's fairly clear that all the current couples are placeholders until the writers reunite the OG ships; they need some drama before they do it. 

Probably doesn't hurt that the current ships are sorely lacking in chemistry. Jughead/Tabitha's ILY sounded like they were reciting a grocery list and they look uncomfortable every time they touch. Veronica and Reggie used to have some romantic chemistry, but I haven't seen it lately, and Veronica doesn't seem to have any respect for Reggie at all.

When Veronica mentioned in the first episode that Reggie felt second to Archie (at the Maple Festival) that struck me as the kind of quick mention you were talking about, like the show didn't want us to forget about Veronica/Archie because they'll eventually be reuniting.

The current couples are all terrible. It's obvious to me that the writers shoved them together at the last second without much care of development. 

[ruby24]

It's almost impossible to forget about Archie/Veronica though because I think those two have been together the longest total amount of time since the show started. They've never gone a full season with them apart, have they? Maybe this will be the first one. That's why I think they could go ahead and not have them be together for at least a whole season- or at least when Reggie/Veronica inevitably break up have it not have anything to do with Archie. That'd be nice.

I'm not sure why they created Tabitha as an original character. There's more than enough Archie characters to choose from and they've always used the Archie names before, right? She could have been Nancy Woods, instead of having her be a throwaway character who only showed up in that one Pussycats episode last season.

Edited November 27, 2021 by ruby24

[the-grey-lady]

8 minutes ago, ruby24 said:

It's almost impossible to forget about Archie/Veronica though because I think those two have been together the longest total amount of time since the show started. They've never gone a full season with them apart, have they? Maybe this will be the first one. That's why I think they could go ahead and not have them be together for at least a whole season- or at least when Reggie/Veronica inevitably break up have it not have anything to do with Archie. That'd be nice.

I'm not sure why they created Tabitha as an original character. There's more than enough Archie characters to choose from and they've always used the Archie names before, right? She could have been Nancy Woods, instead of having her be a throwaway character who only showed up in that one Pussycats episode last season.

I mean, Betty and Jughead were together for four years, and the show keeps hitting us over the head with them, too. I think this show's writers just don't do subtlety. 

And I can't understand why they brought in Tabitha, either, especially when they did it so lazily. They haven't bothered to develop her a character at all. It's really noticeable given how much we've learned about all the other characters over the years.

[ruby24]

1 minute ago, the-grey-lady said:

I mean, Betty and Jughead were together for four years, and the show keeps hitting us over the head with them, too. I think this show's writers just don't do subtlety. 

And I can't understand why they brought in Tabitha, either, especially when they did it so lazily. They haven't bothered to develop her a character at all. It's really noticeable given how much we've learned about all the other characters over the years.

I mean, I think they brought her in as a love interest for Jughead, since they were planning for him and Betty to not be together for a while. But I just don't understand why she's an original character rather than someone who actually existed in the comics. There are tons of Archie characters already, and we hadn't even met Nancy yet, despite her being created in the mid 70's. Tabitha could have easily been her.

[SourK]

You know, this was still very silly, but I can kind of roll with it more when it's a supernatural show. I think I like these Rivervale episodes.

The thing where Jughead keeps saying he's going to write and then he just spends all day decorating his haunted writing nook is both realistic and funny. I like the low-key humor of discovering a cursed room behind your wall and having your deadbeat boyfriend who never does anything immediately perk up and go, "I can use that as my nook!"

Meanwhile, I know Toni eventually took responsibility for the murder by becoming a drowned ghost, but, prior to that she was an active gang leader who killed people and she was a) not in jail and b) successfully employed as a social worker. What.

On 11/24/2021 at 4:49 PM, nilyank said:

I think all these Rivervale stories are actuall Jughead finally breaking his writer's block and this is the result. It's why he is narrating in each episdoe.

Or else he just fell on some rats again.

On 11/25/2021 at 2:32 AM, thuganomics85 said:

Not sure if I was suppose to believe Reggie when he claimed nothing happened with that teacher years ago, but either way, Veronica approaching it by smashing his car is not the healthiest way to address this issue...

I laughed so hard during that scene. Veronica's progression is "OMG I think my boyfriend was assaulted by his teacher when he was in school" > "I'll destroy something he loves" > "Forget I did that. You know I'm always here 4 u."

And then she just creepily tries to fix it by buying him a new car.

Everyone on this show needs to break up.

[Lady Calypso]

5 hours ago, the-grey-lady said:

And I can't understand why they brought in Tabitha, either, especially when they did it so lazily. They haven't bothered to develop her a character at all. It's really noticeable given how much we've learned about all the other characters over the years.

I feel like they do this a lot with main characters not part of the Core Four, though, and especially with their non-white characters. They won't really bother to develop them. Now, recurring characters, sure, they'll throw together some half-assed backstory for them and call it a day. But they really stopped developing their other main characters since season 2. Just because they show up onscreen and occasionally get a subplot, it doesn't mean they're properly developed. Or maybe they're getting development, just poor development.

It's a shame, because Erinn Westbrook is a great actress and Tabitha could be a great character, but Riverdale and character development don't really go together. We got lucky with Toni getting development this season, but that's only because of Vanessa Morgan fighting for it. And Tabitha/Jughead could be a more interesting couple if they bothered to develop it. But that's the other issue with this show; can anyone name a couple that got proper development? Because I genuinely don't know if I can. They slapped together Archie/Veronica and Betty/Jughead in season 1, but after that, what development did these couples get? Archie/Veronica just had sex whenever they were together with very little development. See how quickly Veronica was able to ignore Archie's cheating and how it didn't impact their relationship in the slightest. They just picked right back up where they left off several years later, as if no time had passed. 

And Betty/Jughead? They got a little more development than Veronica/Archie, but we hadn't really seen true genuine development of them as a couple. They pretty much solved crimes together over the series and that's about it. The most development they got was when Jughead broke up with Betty over the cheating, and that was offscreen during the time jump. 

I just think that this show doesn't know to write genuine relationships between characters. They seemed to have given up and expect the audience to fill in the blanks. 

I know this whole Rivervale thing is an AU of some sort (I still think coma dream, but I also know actual stupid-ass witchcraft isn't off the table) and we're supposed to just accept that information shared in this event (Frank's family, Reggie's relationship with Miss Grundy 2.0) will carry over into canon somehow but man, the way they're handling things is stupid. So everyone is ok with being responsible for Archie's death and move on as if they just saw him off to college. 

Speaking of Reggie and Miss Grundy 2.0, it definitely felt like the show was trying to correct the shoddy ass Grundy/Archie stuff from season 1 (you know, when the show took the stance that barely 15 year old Archie was equally to blame for the relationship as 30-35 year old Grundy?) but I still don't think they did that good of a job. Ok, so Reggie talked to this woman about his problems and she was a support system. But she also took advantage of other boys so....

Plus, Veronica's whole attitude this episode was pretty bad. I'm sure that part of it is the show's way of saying "hey, look, Veronica/Reggie aren't good for each other, not like Veronica/Archie are!" but it also made Veronica look bad as a girlfriend and as a friend.

Toni's plot WAS good, as she actually got development (to get back on the development issue with this show) but even with the witchcraft stuff, saying for a moment that this will be reversed through magic, can they walk back Toni's realization that she needs to take responsibility for her killing that kid, even if killing the kid was in Rivervale? I also don't know why they went this route of Toni becoming the new La Llorona. Just because it would be different from Archie's heart getting ripped out of his chest? 

Again, I know it's Rivervale and not Riverdale but making Betty seem completely heartless over her actions (but also killing her unborn fetus for some reason???), having Jughead act like an irresponsible boyfriend and homeowner, and having characters make weird ass choices is an odd way to handle the five episode event, especially when they're going to have to go into episode six either pretending nothing ever happened or acknowledging that Rivervale stuff carried over into Riverdale stuff but also having to acknowledge characters being completely out of character.

I mean, I like this event so far, don't get me wrong, but I don't see how they can ignore some stuff they're making these characters do while also making it have an impact on the rest of the season. 

[the-grey-lady]

3 hours ago, Lady Calypso said:

I feel like they do this a lot with main characters not part of the Core Four, though, and especially with their non-white characters. They won't really bother to develop them. Now, recurring characters, sure, they'll throw together some half-assed backstory for them and call it a day.

This. 100%

I feel like Betty/Jughead and Veronica/Archie got a decent amount of development over the years (at least for this show), but almost no one else has, and what we've learned about other characters (Toni, Kevin, and Reggie in particular) has been half-assed.

But lately I've found the lack of...anything for Tabitha to be really off-putting. Her paper-thin characterization takes me out of the show.

I wonder if the actress dislikes what the show has given her. I would.

[Dobian]

On 11/24/2021 at 11:32 PM, thuganomics85 said:

Won't lie: I kind of wanted to see more of the whole "Serpents and Gholies star in their own version of Romeo & Juliet."

Eh, already been done. West Side Story.  Now Spielberg is remaking it.  But Serpents and Ghoulies would probably be better than this season’s bizarre mess.

 

[tennisgurl]

I admit that I am actually liking this whole Rivervale gimmick, the show has always been better when it leans into horror and crazy, it actually seems like the show is having fun. Cole Sprouse certainly hasn't felt this alive since season two, getting to do this Twilight Zone bit must be an absolute blast. On another show it would feel weird to add the supernatural to a show after five seasons might seem like a bizarre turn, but this show has been skating on the edge of the supernatural for so long it actually makes sense. La Llorona certainly does make more sense then a lot of what has happened on this show, despite being a ghost. This could still be a coma dream but now I think it could also be Jughead's story and his narration is him writing chapters of his book. His last book was about everyone he knows in Riverdale, I can totally see him writing a bunch of spooky stories with his friends as the main characters. Or with magic being introduced this could be set in the Sabrina universe or be a pocket dimension created by magic, I totally buy any of that.

I guess the show is excited for the chance to actually kill off some major characters in this AU, I wonder if Toni becoming La Llorona will be as little of a big deal as Archie being murdered by the entire town. Everyone is remarkably chill about Archie having his heart ripped out by everyone, especially Betty, who was so kindly going to name her baby after its father, who she helped to murder. Its shockingly cold blooded even by this shows standards where characters do pretty horrible things on a regular basis that everyone just takes in stride. I guess that's just how people roll in Rivervale, the only place crazier then Riverdale. 

All of the references to Betty/Jughead just confirms what we all know, that Betty/Jughead will be back together at some point and that poor Tabitha is just a placeholder, in this universe or in the regular one. I am curious if anything happening here is actually going to end up being relevant to the regular universe or will information we get mean anything. I like having this weird dark universe to play around in, but I worry that its all going to end up feeling pointless if everything that happens is just happening to alternate universe/dream/fictional versions of everyone. 

I am glad that Reggie got a decently interesting story, a sort of riff on Christine but with less murder and more possible statutory rape. The show is clearly trying to make up a little bit for the terrible and cringy Miss Grundy story, where they tried to pass off clear abuse as "sexy" and then tried to blame the whole mess on the then 15/16 year old Archie until the backlash was so strong they hustled her offscreen so fast she about got whiplash, so now its like "we learned our lesson guys" even though its been years and if they wanted to deal with this I would have wanted them to actually explore how this clearly affected Archie's later relationships instead of just pretending it never happened, but whatever. I don't know if I totally buy that nothing ever happened between the teacher and Reggie, but I do think that Veronica handled that situation horribly. She came off as extremely self centered and uncaring about her boyfriend who's dad is dying and even made him possibly being sexually abused as a teenager be all about her and her hate on for his car. 

Edited November 29, 2021 by tennisgurl