The CW’s new, subversive take on the classic Archie comic series comes at a time when comic-to-television adaptions are all too common. Like Degrassi (and more like Gossip Girl) before it, Riverdale packs on the melodrama and pop culture-isms in ways that make it an easy guilty pleasure. That being said, there needs to be a serious discussion about tone deaf choices made by the writers behind the scenes.
Episode three, entitled “Body Double,” centered around Veronica Lodge’s (Camila Mendes) experience with slut shaming. After going out on a date with Riverdale High’s resident football star Chuck Clayton (guest star, Jordan Calloway), rumors spread around the school that Veronica allowed Chuck to indulge in a sexual act known as a “Sticky Maple” (don’t look it up, trust me). Furious, Veronica and Betty Cooper (Lili Reinhart) corner him in the boys’ locker room demanding that he take the post down from Facebook and apologize. Instead of doing that, Chuck laughs it off and threatens that he has the power to do whatever he wants without consequence. Unshaken, Veronica attempts to devise a plot to make Chuck take down his post. She learns that she is not the only victim of Chuck’s; Ethel Muggs (guest star, Shannon Purser a.k.a Barb from Stranger Things) comes forward with a similar story, stating that Chuck spread a rumor about her after a ten-minute conversation in the school library. Many other girls come forward with similar stories about other members of the football team, and Ethel reveals that they own a book in which they rate their conquests.
After the Book’s discovery, Veronica and Betty learn that nearly every boy on the football team has written about their conquests, including the recently deceased Jason Blossom. Sadly, Betty learns that Jason wrote about her sister, Polly, who is currently living in a group home due to her presumably abusive relationship with him. In the past, Polly has been a touchy subject for Betty. And it’s clear that this situation is no different. With this new information, Betty chooses to participate in the revenge plot against Chuck. It is then that we see a noticeable shift in Betty as a character. During a scene in her bedroom, we see her applying her older sister’s red lipstick. When her (admittedly nutty) mother questions her about diverting from her good girl ways, Betty indirectly claims that she wants to be like Polly for the night.
After meeting him at Pop’s Diner, and convincing Chuck to meet her and Veronica at Ethel’s house to spend some time in her hot tub, Betty arrives on the scene in black lingerie, a black skirt, a black wig, high heels, scarlet red lipstick, and a very odd look in her eyes. She states that Betty couldn’t make it, and that she sent this person instead.
It is here that the show takes a sudden left towards Crazytown, crossing the border into Nopesville. Fake Sasha Fierce—Betty—creates a plan that involves drugging Chuck with muscle-relaxers,
handcuffing him to the jacuzzi, and turning up the heat as he sat in it. Veronica makes a point to question whether drugging him was necessary, but she eventually goes along with it. As Chuck is simmering in the Jacuzzi, Veronica is filming him with her phone, telling him to admit that he lied about her. While this is happening, Betty is threatening to boil Chuck alive. Eventually Chuck apologizes for his actions, and promises to take it down. You would think that this would be the end of the scene.
It’s not.
The show makes a point to focus on the jacuzzi’s thermometer, which is quickly approaching dangerous levels. It’s at this point that Betty keeps pushing Chuck to apologize for what he did to Polly. Reasonably confused, Chuck questions what she’s talking about. She then steps on the top of his head to drown him, and then proceeds to pour maple syrup over his head. During all of this, she’s calling him Jason and telling him to apologize for what he did to Polly. Then she says:
Freaked out, Veronica tells Betty to back off. As if pulled out of a stupor, Betty goes into droid mode and acts as if nothing happened. This continues the next day when Betty claims that she doesn’t remember going full Mr. Hyde the night before. The girls don’t get punished for what they did, but Chuck gets removed from school for the book and the online posts. The girls pose in the hallway. Something, something, #Feminism.
This was praised for being a feminist episode for many reasons. In some cases, it was. However, the true message of the episode (and any potential positive points) get undercut by the cheap attempt at a “Girl Power” moment that involves the torture and drugging of a teenage boy by teenage girl. While the perpetrator was indeed skeevy, this episode had a lot of problems for reasons I’ll discuss in a bit. The writing for this episode was incredibly messy, and involved plot points and characters that seemed to come from out of the blue. Suddenly Betty as a personality disorder? Where did Chuck come from? How long as Ethel been here? What? Huh?
Within the Archie Comic Universe, Chuck Clayton is a decent person. Being the first black male character introduced in the comics, Chuck not only played football, he also had an interest in comic books and was in a long-term relationship. He’s depicted as being quite friendly, with a passion for drawing. Thus, it’s highly problematic that he was introduced as the only black male character, only to be portrayed as a sexual predator as a plot point for no real reason. Furthermore, it was irresponsible for this character to become a prop for a main character’s story arc.
While Chuck’s actions were skeevy and incredibly gross, there was no reason his actions warranted the threat of being drowned and burned alive, or drugged. In the context of the show, the equivalent action would’ve been handcuffing him to a pole, half-naked, and filming him until he confessed. Not attempted murder.
As someone who fully acknowledges what it means to be a victim of sexual violence (and slut shaming is a form of it), it seemed that the hot tub scene was very much what certain people think
Feminism is: women being able to hurt and abuse men who hurt them first. For whatever reason, people tend to believe that feminism means women having the power to behave violently towards men without consequence. It was a hot mess, and I hope the writers don’t genuinely try to push that this is what feminism is. Doing so would be dangerous.