Riverdale Recap: ‘Chapter Seventeen: The Town That Dreaded Sundown’

Another Riverdale Wednesday is in the books and we’ve got your post-show Riverdale recap. “Chapter Seventeen: The Town That Dreaded Sundown” finds Archie attempting to take matters into his own hands only for everything to spiral out of control, Betty dives deeper into the mystery and tensions between the North and Southside come to a head.

Riverdale Recap: Chapter Seventeen: The Town That Dreaded Sundown
Airdate: November 1, 2017

Ok let’s talk about Season 2 episode 4. I’m going to start with the ill-advised decision to refer to The Black Hood as a serial killer… He has killed 1 person. One. Uno. Un. Eins. Odin. Unus. Yksi. (Bonus points if you can identify all of those languages). Murdering 1 person, maiming another, and frightening the crap out of 2 teenagers does not qualify you as a serial killer. So while I can get on board with almost everything else in this episode, Jughead and Betty have proven themselves far too intelligent to call this person a serial killer and it annoys me. If the writers want me to believe this person is a serial killer, KILL SOMEBODY ELSE OFF!!!!!!!!!!

Moving on. Archie. Archie, Archie, Archie, Archie. Sigh. I was super excited for Archie after episode 1, he seemed to be evolving as a human being, maturing and making better life choices… and then… So I enjoyed the idea of Archie having PTSD and dealing with the trauma of watching his father get shot, waiting while his father’s life hung in the balance, fearing the man would return, losing sleep, worrying… all of it. I was here for it. I was not here for gun-toting, “I want to kill him”, Archie Andrews. What in the actual fuck, guys. “I want my face to be the last thing he sees.” You took Archie from 0 to 100 real quick and it’s… yeah. There was a confrontation in the rain with the Serpents, Veronica firing off a gun, Dilton getting stabbed… I mean it was all a little much for me.

I’m hoping that with Veronica’s guidance this episode and a good ole ass beating from the Serpents, Archie has abandoned The Red Circle and his vigilante crusade to take down The Black Hood. Let’s leave those storylines over in the Berlantiverse of DC Superheroes please and thank you. I’m vexed as to why these season opening Archie stories are so dumb… twice now. Let’s at least hope he doesn’t go back to whining about his music while everyone else deals with real life trauma.

Riverdale — “Chapter Seventeen: The Town that Dreaded Sundown” — Image Number: RVD204b_0270.jpg — Pictured (L-R): Cole Sprouse as Jughead Jones, Lili Reinhart as Betty Cooper, and Casey Cott as Kevin Keller — Photo: Bettina Strauss/The CW — © 2017 The CW Network. All Rights Reserved

Let’s move on to things I enjoyed about this episode. Bughead. They’re so cute. I’m biased. There was a little Bughead angst this episode; what with Jughead still lying about his involvement with the Serpents and Betty’s decision to keep the letter from The Black Hood from Jug. But in the end, regardless of Toni Topaz and her ponytail remarks, Bughead came together to crack the code and figure out the cipher. The Black Hood intended on hitting the Town Hall meeting and off they went to alert the group, pull a fire alarm, and confess to the parents. The meeting where Alice was doing her best to point fingers at the Southside and Fred was doing his best to tell everyone to calm the hell down.

So what is it The Black Hood wants? Betty. According to his letter, he’s gone on this not so successful killing adventure for her, because of the speech she gave in Chapter 13: The Sweet Hereafter. In case you forgot, Betty urges the town to face who they are, stop lying and keeping secrets, and to do better. So this dude thinks he’s fleshing out all the “bad” folks in town and as per next week’s trailer, looks like he’s a tad bit obsessed with Betty. The jump to conclusion is that The Black Hood is Chic Cooper, Betty’s long lost brother. I mean, who else would be obsessed with her like that? Remember Peyton’s crazy brother, Psycho Derek, from One Tree Hill? Same idea.

Other things I appreciated:

Betty & Jughead going to the library, kids still know what the library is? Awesome. Reggie. NuReggie is awesome showing up at Archie’s door with the football team and pizza. My pizza delivery guy DOES NOT look like Charles Melton and this makes me sad.

Hiram being all “I don’t know her” when Veronica asks if he encouraged Archie to make his soft core porn video with the football team.

Alice Cooper being Alice Cooper.

Bughead falling adorably asleep on the couch.

Kevin Keller.

Quoteables:

• Veronica to Archie: “He didn’t say to line up a bunch of semi-naked boys straight out of The Lord of the Flies, put them in red ski masks and deliver some Unabomber-like manifesto”
• Kevin to Toni: “Betty’s ponytail is iconic and above reproach.”
• Jughead to Betty: “Nancy Drew meets the Girl with the Dragon Tattoo.”