OK, you know what? This episode was fabulous. Is it possible all we were missing this season was a really fun villain? Because holy crap, this week’s villain–who is, by extension, revealed to be this entire season’s superbaddie–is getting a kick out of her evil role. And in turn, I am getting a real kick out of the episode.
It’s prom night in Riverdale! Could I BE more excited?
Actually, this may sound a little unbefitting the supposedly intellectual, supposedly adult recapper who stands before you, but I was hoping for this episode to be MORE cliched. More fretting about who goes to prom with who. More meaningful dance scenes. There were some good scares and some great dresses, but all in all, I wanted it to be more Pretty in Pink, less Carrie. Alas, this is Riverdale. You don’t get to have this many plot twists if you waste too much time on prom antics.
I quite liked this episode! Highlights include badass women fighting, another badass woman pursuing her dream, and a twist in the Edgar Evernever saga that I totally didn’t foresee but which makes the casting of Chad Michael Murray even more inspired. Also there’s a Henry James reference that I’m rather embarrassed to report I don’t really get–and that would be the one reference this show would make that I’m qualified to comment on.
This episode is somewhat of an homage to Silence of the Lambs, as we’ll see later, so you can expect a lot of half-baked theorizing about criminal psychology. It’s going to be sort of like if a twelve-year-old had smoked crack and then attempted to write a smart psychological thriller about serial killers.
Conflict heats up between Betty and the Farm, which gives Chad Michael Murray as Edgar Evernever a chance to strut his creepiest stuff! I had a lot of fun watching this episode, when I wasn’t busy raging over all of the illogical choices that Jughead and Archie were making.
The episode delivers on the title — I mean, when does a musical episode ever NOT? It’s still insane, but on the other hand, there’s singing, and a Very Special Guest Star from the classic years of the WB shows up at the end, in a deliciously dramatic fashion. A+ from Adversion.
It’s Riverdale’s fiftieth episode, and in honor of that, they spend the episode celebrating FP’s fiftieth birthday.
This episode continues to exhibit the same qualities as a bowl of plot spaghetti BUT, at least we get to hear Gladys Jones sing!
Previously on Riverdale: Veronica owed Hiram $75K for burning his equipment but also owed Gladys about the same amount for burning the equipment Gladys had prepaid for; Cheryl started a gang for Toni called the Pretty Poisons; Gladys told Jughead to quit the speakeasy and incorporate the Gargoyles for numbers, but Kurtz, the King of the Gargoyles (not to be confused with the actual Gargoyle king), was totes creepy, but then Gladys got him anyway; Archie’s life was under threat; Evelyn recruited Kevin to the farm and then also drowned Alice in a baptism.
So I’m really sad for Luke Perry and his family, and the cast and crew of the show. I think he did a great job playing Fred Andrews and seemed like a really good guy in general. Just wanted to start with that!
Other than the fact that Jughead says “Bizarrotown” somewhere in the episode, I actually couldn’t figure out why this episode in particular got that moniker. I mean, no one even gets attacked by a bear or adopts approximately a thousand troubled youths or attends a fight club in a drained-out gym pool, so… not that bizarre, actually. In fact the real bizarre thing about this episode is that poor forgotten Kevin gets a plotline, so, maybe that explains the name.
Adversion 