By 
Well Riverdale fans, the season finale is upon us and now we have a, dare I say, welcome breath of air in between seasons. When Riverdale is great, it’s great. When it’s not, it’s really not. The storytelling hasn’t been as good this season as last and personally I believe having the 22 episode order hurt more than helped. Where the writing team should have used those extra episodes to develop other characters and let some of the storylines really grow, they wrote this season the same way as last season, at a breakneck pace involving 5 or 6 characters and leaving no time for development. Here’s hoping Season 3 will be a better amalgamation of Season’s 1 and 2.
Riverdale Recap: “Chapter Thirty-Five: Brave New World”
Airdate: May 16, 2018
Steven A.Adelson directed the episode written by Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa (#222)
The weakest link this season has arguably been the Mafia storyline; Archie’s involvement with it and it’s all encompassing nature. I was hoping the season finale would find it wrapping up and off into oblivion but alas, it would appear to be leaning even more into it than ever. Hermione has won the election, Hiram has total control of the Southside and has assembled the dregs of Riverdale as his allies. Penelope Blossom, Penny Peabody, and the Ghoulies are all on board with Hiram’s plans for the future.
Photo: Dean Buscher/The CW — é 2018 The CW Network, LLC. All rights reserved.
Jughead is alive and well, duh, and being overly adorable with Betty all episode long. He’s also still all about Serpent preservation. His father says they’re done, but its a lie. FP is really just worried about Jughead and once again is singing about moving to Toledo. Can we just bring Gladys and Jellybean on next season so I can stop hearing about Toledo? Thanks. Cheryl finds out they’re raiding the Whyte Wyrm and they get everyone out of there. FP officially, retires from the Serpents which is probably a good thing considering I don’t believe there are any more adult members anyway. Jug is now the “king” and his first order of business is gifting Cheryl a red leather Serpent jacket! Which is awesome because it’s red and its Cheryl.
Photo: Dean Buscher/The CW — é 2018 The CW Network, LLC. All rights reserved.
Veronica uses Sierra McCoy’s lawyering skills to get her million dollars from her father and purchases the Whyte Wyrm before he can. She then uses it as a bargaining chip to get control of Pop’s away from Hiram. He agrees citing she will no longer receive an allowance, access to the credit cards, or her 3rd of Lodge Industries. She agrees and they make the swap. Veronica learns from Pop that there used to be a speakeasy in the basement back in the day and comes up with a genius idea…. Yes fellow teen drama show lovers, Riverdale is about to have its very own club within the diner, Peach Pit Afterdark or Tric depending on your generation. (That’s from Beverly Hills 90210 and One Tree Hill respectively.)
Betty spends a large amount of time in this episode reeling from the revelation that her father is the Black Hood. Penny is home with the twins talking about forgiveness, Alice is a hot mess, and Betty is desperately clinging to the hope that she isn’t like her father. Something is terribly off about Polly and it wouldn’t surprise me if she’s the Cooper that got Hal’s crazy genes. For all the FP and Alice heavy handedness that’s gone down this season, they haven’t shared a scene in weeks and while I’m not a fan of the pairing that is Falice, it’s weird after everything they went through this season (having a dead kid and all) that they didn’t share not 1 scene this episode.
Photo: Dean Buscher/The CW — é 2018 The CW Network, LLC. All rights reserved.
Archie steps up in the finale to help Jughead rehome the Serpents and help keep the Southside kids at Riverdale High. He even wins the Student Body Presidential Election, yes that’s still a thing. He’s riding pretty high after confronting Hiram and laying out his plan to bring him down, so it doesn’t even occur to him that Hiram can turn the tables and do the very same to him. Which, in the end, results in Hiram having Archie arrested for the murder of that boy from the cabin episode.
Yes, that’s right, Archie Andrews is arrested for murder at the end of the season. Well then.
Happy Summer Hiatus Riverdale fans!
Comments