**Spoiler Alert!!
For those who haven’t watched the show in a while or maybe not at all, here’s a quick recap:
- Archie, Betty, Jughead, and Veronica are four high school students who live in the weird, mysterious town of Riverdale.
- Cheryl Blossom’s brother Jason was killed and season 1 is spent trying to figure out who did it. We find out eventually that it was his own father, because Jason knew too much.
- Betty and Jughead finally started a real relationship, but it might be in question now that he’s accepted “protection” from his father’s gang members.
- The finale ended with Archie’s dad, Fred, getting shot in Pop’s diner by an unknown gunman.
- Veronica’s mother revealed that her father, who was in jail for embezzlement throughout the duration of season 1, will be returning. This could be troublesome because he clearly is not a very good person – he was responsible for ruining Fred’s construction business while behind bars (maybe he was the shooter??)
- Also part of the finale, Cheryl Blossom torched the massive Thornhill mansion after finding out her father killed her brother Jason after he discovered his dad’s involvement in drug dealing. She tried to commit suicide first, but of course Archie saved her *swoon*
Season 2 picks up right where the first one left off, with Archie racing to get his dad to the hospital in time. Not too long after that, Sheriff Keller arrives and questions Archie about what happened at the diner, and speculates that there may have been an ulterior motive other than the robbery – someone may have had it out for Fred all along.
Betty is dishing about what happened the night before with Jughead to Kevin when in walks Cheryl, in her amazing shoes that I would literally kill for. Cheryl explains that there was a terrible fire at Thornhill mansion last night, and she would’ve died if it weren’t for her mother, who is lying unconscious on a hospital bed wrapped head to toe in bandages. Leave it to Cheryl to manipulate her way out of any situation, and seem unsettlingly at ease while doing it.
Of course I have to address the tension between Veronica and her mom. Since there’s a new theory that what happened to Fred was a hit, Veronica has formulated in her head that its her mother who is calling the shots for her dad, not vice versa. They have plenty of motive to want Fred Andrews gone, so it does make a lot of sense. And Veronica is not one to hold her tongue on calling someone out, even if it is her own mother. Admirable, right? Later at the diner, even Pop seems to think it was an intentional act. He reveals that the shooter was not, in fact, a thief – he didn’t take any money at all.
Speaking of mother-daughter tension, can we just talk about the interaction between Cheryl and her mother in the hospital room?? She threatened her mom with letting everyone know what really happened in the barn with her dad, (did her mom actually kill him and stage it to look like a suicide?) while basically attempting to scare her into submission, which seems to work for her quite often. Cheryl must have been really feeling herself that day because she then proceeded to go to Fred Andrew’s room and give him the “kiss of life”, leaving a bright red lipstick stain on his forehead, and of course Archie walks in while this is happening (AWK).
My very favorite scene of the whole show happened between my very favorite couple, Betty and Jughead. She basically told him that she supports whatever decisions he makes and whatever he needs to do blah blah whatever. But the way he looks at her!?! Never thought I’d like a boy named Jughead, but I absolutely LOVE them together. And I’m secretly rooting for them to date in real life too. #bughead
I think its important to note how interesting the Lodge family dynamic is. Veronica goes home to find her father has arrived home from jail early, and she is less than thrilled, needless to say. The whole scene is filled with awkward tension and you can tell that this man has serious control over his family. But, you can also tell by the glance exchange between Veronica’s parents that they might be a little concerned with the fact that she now has the nerve to stand up to them and that she doesn’t seem to fear them anymore.
The end of the episode was by far the most surprising. It showed Ms. Grundy, Archie’s old music teacher/secret lover giving piano lessons to another young teenager and then sticking to her old ways by passionately kissing him goodbye. When he leaves however, the shooter from the diner sneaks in her house and kills her. Good luck figuring out the link between Fred getting shot and Ms. Grundy getting killed by the same person.
Watch Riverdale on Wednesday nights at 8 on The CW!