S06.E15: Chapter One Hundred and Ten: Things That Go Bump in the Night

[AnimeMania]

THE GHOSTS OF RIVERDALE - After failing to get Pop's declared a historical landmark, Tabitha (Erinn Westbrook) enlists Archie's (KJ Apa) help saving the diner from Percival (guest star Chris O'Shea). Betty (Lili Reinhart) opens up to Agent Drake (guest star Sophia Tatum) about her ability to see people's evil auras. Meanwhile, after Reggie (Charles Melton) and the shareholders declare war on Veronica (Camila Mendes), she turns to Jughead (Cole Sprouse) for help maintaining control of the Babylonium. Finally, Cheryl (Madelaine Petsch) reconnects with her childhood crush Heather (guest star Caroline Day), and Toni (Vanessa Morgan) and Fangs (Drew Ray Tanner) continue their fight for custody of Baby Anthony.

Original Airdate: May 22, 2022       8:00-9:00 p.m.      CW

[thuganomics85]

Agent Drake (who I completely forgot about, already): "Hmm... maybe your powers won't let you see the auras of those who don't have the serial killer gene.  Only way to know is to test your nephew and niece for it.  You know anyone who would do that somewhat shady test off the books?"

Dr. Curdle Jr.: "Fear not, Miss Cooper, I have arrived!"

 

I do always enjoy when Jughead/Veronica team up, because it's rare for it to just be those two characters together.  Of course, with this show going as off the rails like it has, their new team up naturally involves Veronica wanting to save the casino by having Jughead use his mind-reading skills as parlor tricks and acts on stage, in order to rake in some dough.  Complete with Veronica dawning the classic "tux and fishnet" getup as his assistant (if nothing else, with the show ending soon, Camila Mendes can use this as a way to pitch the idea of her playing Zatanna in one of the D.C. projects!)  Oh, and they now have expanded Jughead's powers so that he can now erase memories, which they use to make Reggie forget about the whole "Veronica put out a hit on Hiram" thing (which, naturally, Jughead responded to that revelation with "Yeah, that makes sense.  Kind of surprised you didn't try that sooner.")  But, of course, Percival already has an inkling about what went down, so I'm sure that little win won't last for too much longer!

Tabitha's plan to save Pops is to relocate it piece by piece until they find new land to put it on, but they are delayed not by Percival for once, but good old ghosts that are haunting the diner and are required to witness the final battle that is to come.  Not sure what my favorite part about this was.  It was tie between a)Archie's nonplus reaction to all of that and even flat-out saying "I don't care about ghosts, Tabitha!  I have other problems here!", like ghosts are just an everyday nuisance in the world, or  b) Cheryl of all people all "How does this make any sense?!"  Yep, somehow freaking Cheryl's mind has been broken by all of this.  Of course, like with most things with this show, I'm not sure how much of that was the character or Madelaine Petsch herself trying to figure out how to sell all of this.  This cast, man!  They are troopers!

Looks like it's Fangs turn to be an idiot, as he is so freaked out over being "inferior" to Toni, that he decided to work with Percival in order to get more money to be the provider or whatever.  Of course, Toni is now so concern that they could lose Baby Anthony if they don't come off like a strong, unified couple, so she's flat-out proposing marriage right now.  Yeah, that will end well!  Also, while their rep or lawyer (?) is right that their gang ties will probably not go over well with the judge, they have a decent case against Kevin if they just point out that he's been pretty much joining cults every other day, so it's not like he would exactly be a steady influence on the kid.

Certainly looks like both Alice and Frank are pass the point of no return or reason, but I imagine once Percival is defeated, they'll go back to being normal.

Cheryl reunion with Heather is so going to end up backfiring on her, right?

Betty sees a red aura around herself, so she know worries about what that means.  Could we be getting the return of Dark Betty?!

[ruby24]

This was a boring episode.

Reggie just isn't unlikable enough for him to be the villainous jerk from the comics that everyone hates. But Veronica sure is. Damn, whatever they've done to her, she is just wretched now. I find myself always rooting against her no matter what she's doing or what she wants. Were we seriously supposed to be rooting for them to invade somebody's mind and just erase his memory? Really?

And really, Jughead? You just never liked Reggie but have no problem with Veronica casually admitting she murdered her dad?

Edited May 23, 2022 by ruby24

[Daltrey]

Um, sooo...what about Le Bon Nuit, the super secret not so secret night club/speak easy/fund raising hot spot beneath Pop's? Did that get moved too or is it kinda like a Fight Club thing where we're not supposed to talk about it?😆

[Affogato]

14 hours ago, AnimeMania said:

THE GHOSTS OF RIVERDALE - After failing to get Pop's declared a historical landmark, Tabitha (Erinn Westbrook) enlists Archie's (KJ Apa) help saving the diner from Percival (guest star Chris O'Shea). Betty (Lili Reinhart) opens up to Agent Drake (guest star Sophia Tatum) about her ability to see people's evil auras. Meanwhile, after Reggie (Charles Melton) and the shareholders declare war on Veronica (Camila Mendes), she turns to Jughead (Cole Sprouse) for help maintaining control of the Babylonium. Finally, Cheryl (Madelaine Petsch) reconnects with her childhood crush Heather (guest star Caroline Day), and Toni (Vanessa Morgan) and Fangs (Drew Ray Tanner) continue their fight for custody of Baby Anthony.

Original Airdate: May 22, 2022       8:00-9:00 p.m.      CW

I hope Sprouse gets to take that poster home. It is a keeper.

[Chicago Redshirt]

8 hours ago, ruby24 said:

This was a boring episode.

Reggie just isn't unlikable enough for him to be the villainous jerk from the comics that everyone hates. But Veronica sure is. Damn, whatever they've done to her, she is just wretched now. I find myself always rooting against her no matter what she's doing or what she wants. Were we seriously supposed to be rooting for them to invade somebody's mind and just erase his memory? Really?

And really, Jughead? You just never liked Reggie but have no problem with Veronica casually admitting she murdered her dad?

I like how Jughead's like, "I'll only read the minds of people who are willing" at the same time he's willing to invade Reggie's mind and rip pages from it.

To be fair, Hiram almost killed Jughead, Betty and Archie with his latest misdeed and committed various acts of evil. So I don't see Jughead being particularly bothered by Veronica's confession in that sense. 

1 hour ago, Daltrey said:

Um, sooo...what about Le Bon Nuit, the super secret not so secret night club/speak easy/fund raising hot spot beneath Pop's? Did that get moved too or is it kinda like a Fight Club thing where we're not supposed to talk about it?😆

IIRC, La Bonne Nuit was something that had been set up back when the gang was in high school.  It presumably went away when the gang went to college. In the same space is now the White Wyrm. Which raises a point. Toni and Fangs should be upset that the demolition of Pop's means no more White Wyrm, or at least, that it will have to relocate too. 

[SourK]

Man. Veronica and Jughead didn't even do a trick that requires mind-reading powers. They just copied a con from Nightmare Alley and, I guess, had to use mind reading to accomplish it because Jughead can't hear. Why not do something more impressive?

I think they're testing out the chemistry between Betty and the supernatural detective whose name I don't remember, but the costume department is not making any effort for her, so I doubt she'll stick around. Also, I'm so confused by Betty's power. They went out of their way to establish that the serial killer gene blocks it, which would suggest that, when she sees Alice's aura and her own that means they don't have the serial killer gene after all... but I have to believe Betty's looked in a mirror before now. So, is her power changing? Why is it changing? What's going on? I don't know.

[Chicago Redshirt]

11 minutes ago, SourK said:

Man. Veronica and Jughead didn't even do a trick that requires mind-reading powers. They just copied a con from Nightmare Alley and, I guess, had to use mind reading to accomplish it because Jughead can't hear. Why not do something more impressive?

I think they're testing out the chemistry between Betty and the supernatural detective whose name I don't remember, but the costume department is not making any effort for her, so I doubt she'll stick around. Also, I'm so confused by Betty's power. They went out of their way to establish that the serial killer gene blocks it, which would suggest that, when she sees Alice's aura and her own that means they don't have the serial killer gene after all... but I have to believe Betty's looked in a mirror before now. So, is her power changing? Why is it changing? What's going on? I don't know.

Even assuming that Jughead did more impressive mind-reading tricks at various points during the act, how much money is there in that, really? The answer is: not nearly as much as there would be in reading people's minds to win at poker or to get secrets to blackmail them or any number of things. Yes, I suppose that is going to be prevented by Jughead not being willing to read the minds of non-volunteers, but again, we can throw that out when he's willing to not just read Reggie's mind but also erase part of it. 

Also, it seems like there's a real danger of Jughead reacting to things that people thought but didn't say. 

I think what the episode was trying to establish is that the serial killer gene created a blind spot for Betty's power, but that now that she is aware of this possibility and now that she really believes in herself, she can use her power to see into the blind spot (similar to Archie's managing to overcome his palladium weakness, except less painful). Her success with Alice shows that she can now detect evil with people with the serial killer gene. It is only after that success that she could see that she herself gives off evil. (I would much prefer that the explanation is that her power has gone haywire and she is detecting evil where it doesn't exist, but oh well.) I was also expecting that she was going to see Drake as evil.

[the-grey-lady]

13 hours ago, ruby24 said:

This was a boring episode.

After last week's somewhat intriguing outing...the writers stuck us with this dreck. Why not continue with some of the compelling points from last episode? Who on earth finds a possible Tangs engagement interesting? Even Toni and Fangs didn't seem to find it interesting!

[jewel21]

Is the actress who plays Heather the same actress that played Ms. Grundy? There's something about her that is familiar and it's been driving me crazy. 

[Noneofyourbusiness]

As predicted, Heather is a member of Sabrina's coven. Shouldn't be long now!

[secnarf]

21 hours ago, jewel21 said:

Is the actress who plays Heather the same actress that played Ms. Grundy? There's something about her that is familiar and it's been driving me crazy. 

When she first showed up, I thought it was Ms Grundy at the door. Maybe it's the glasses?

[Panda Bear]

On 5/23/2022 at 1:17 AM, ruby24 said:

This was a boring episode.

Both this week's episode and last week's made me nod off. I usually love this insane show, and the bit about the ghost train did make me chuckle, but this Percival arc is just going on too long. He's not an interesting villain and we keep revisiting the same story beats every week. Get rid of him, and let's get back to the Trash Bag Killer or some other wackiness. 

I did like that we got to see Bingo, though. That dog is a star!  

[tennisgurl]

You know things have gotten ridiculous when Cheryl of all people is the one commenting on how ridiculous things are getting." It all makes sense." "Does it?"  Of course Pops is haunted by some 50s ghosts who are also the witnesses to this great battle because Pops is holy ground, that's just how this season roles. With Cheryl's first love being a witch from Greendale, are we finally going to get Sabrina coming by for real? is this when we find out that this actually takes place in the Sabrina universe and this is yet another alternate universe and we have yet to see the main universe yet?

The serial killer gene continues to be one of the silliest things this show is trying to make scary, especially the way everyone talks about it, and that's not even getting into how its affected by Betty's super powers where she sees bad vibes leaking off of people, including herself. Does this mean the return of Bonkers Betty is imminent? 

I like that they gave Veronica and Jughead a rare plot together, but I wish that it was a better one. I know that Reggie is in the wrong for working for Percival and that Veronica has every right to be mad at him, but she's just so nasty and smug towards him, I cant root for her. When they split up it seemed to be pretty amicable, then the next episode happened and they've become mortal enemies and Veronica cant even say his name without calling him stupid and horrible. Why hasn't she tried to talk to him about how obviously he's being manipulated? I am also pretty disturbed that Veronica and Jughead are so cool with removing Reggie's memories, which is a pretty huge violation just to remove some blackmail material. When Percival uses his mental powers to mess with people's minds its super evil, but when our heroes do it, its totally fine. Its a really bad look for both of them, its just making me feel bad for Reggie, who clearly has a ton of issues. 

I guess this week Fangs gets hit by the stupid stick, signing up to work with actual Satan just to make some more cash to feel like he's pulling his weight with Tony and Anthony. What could possibly go wrong with working for a man who probably kidnapped your son and tried to murder you and all of your friends? Frank and Alice are totally drinking the Kool-Aid now, but I am assuming that they, along with Kevin and everyone else, will be back being cool with the good guys again as soon as Percival is defeated because everyone here has the memory of goldfish. 

Edited May 26, 2022 by tennisgurl

[Affogato]

On 5/25/2022 at 5:39 PM, tennisgurl said:

I guess this week Fangs gets hit by the stupid stick, signing up to work with actual Satan just to make some more cash to feel like he's pulling his weight with Tony and Anthony. What could possibly go wrong with working for a man who probably kidnapped your son and tried to murder you and all of your friends? Frank and Alice are totally drinking the Kool-Aid now, but I am assuming that they, along with Kevin and everyone else, will be back being cool with the good guys again as soon as Percival is defeated because everyone here has the memory of goldfish. 

I think they've done some studies that show that goldfish have pretty well developed memories....

Edited May 29, 2022 by Affogato