Riverdale Chapter/Episode 8: My Thoughts.
(Blog has moved to river0vixens)
Note: I’ll be completely honest, I only discovered Riverdale about a week into the hiatus, so I have been frantically watching and re-watching everything to get up to date and develop my own theories. So this is the first time I have watched a new episode as it aired (in Australia).
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First thought is pretty simple:
I do not trust anyone on this show. The writers have done an amazing job of keeping everything very vague and open-ended. Almost too good though. It has very much left me a little jaded about the motives of every single character.
I don’t trust Polly. She has been presented as the innocent girl who got pregnant and sent away. The problem is, she has so heavily been represented as a victim in all of this, that I don’t believe her to be one. At least, not to the extent that she has been made out to be. She was given a choice between Thorn Hill and home, and in my mind, regardless of anything I don’t think her choice was for the better of her baby. I feel like she has an ulterior motive.
Alice Cooper on the other hand has definitely started to win my favour. Based on my own distrust for what we’re being shown, I had suspected for a while that she was less a matriarch and more a figurehead for a much greater darkness, and Chapter 8 really cemented that for me. Seeing her defend her daughter and herself, and kick out Hal was a big deal. I don’t like that she got physical though. I don’t want to be a social justice warrior, but I really can’t stand representations of domestic violence where there don’t need to be any. It’s good to see her getting some character development, and being humanised, but not at the expense of straight up assault.
I have no sympathy left for F.P. I could write a novel on the reasons why, but I feel like this episode explains it well enough for me. I’m especially not okay with what he’s doing with Joaquin and Kevin. Again, not wanting to come across as an SJW, but honestly being gay is hard enough. Being manipulated by it is just straight up shitty. I doubt that Joaquin’s hesitation is sincere though. I don’t trust them at all.
I don’t think for one second that I could ever believe the motives of the Blossom clan to be anything less than self-serving. They’ve done nothing to make me believe that they could be anything more than plain old evil. There’s not a shred of heart or soul in that family and I don’t think I could possibly be convinced otherwise.
Hiram, my god. Allegedly he has sabotaged his own build for the fact that he learned of Fred and Hermione’s infidelity. F.P. Asked the question “Who ratted you out.” The obvious answer is of course, Veronica. She knew, and Hermione betrayed her. Which of course means it wasn’t her. We’re not looking at a case of Occam’s razor, that’s not how the show works, and they know that we’re not going to suspect Veronica for a second. My bet is either on Hermione herself coming clean, or the Blossoms operating a takedown, but both options seem a little too much of a stretch, even by Riverdale standards.
The episode alluded to two possible culprits, potentially a third, as far as Jason Blossom’s killer is concerned.
F.P. Be it the trigger man, or at the very least responsible for someone from the serpents, or Alice Cooper with her claim that she and Hal both know what she’s capable of by now. The third being Hal himself due to his incendiary reaction to Polly getting pregnant. Again though, by Riverdale standards, they seem TOO obvious. Even a tenuous link is starting to be too obvious now though. I think they have done such an incredible job of writing a genuine mystery that it’s impossible to trust your own theories as well as those that they are spoon feeding you.
I want for the killer to come out of the subtleties of the show, that seems to be out of left field, but after they’re revealed, it’s actually reasonable to assume, and almost like a massive “oh shit, duh”. I doubt that’s how it would go down though.
For me, they’re relying a little too heavy on a false narrative and red herrings. They’ve become too good at slight of hand and it’s beginning to get a little bit exhausting. I’d like to see the characters actually get some real answers, because if the season finale doesn’t reveal the truth about Jason Blossom’s murder I think it’s going to grow tired and boring very quickly. There’s only so far you can take the suspense of this particular storyline before it loses too much touch with reality.
Archie still hasn’t redeemed himself in my mind, either. I feel like a single heart-to-heart with his dad and offering to help out on the job, or going to the bar to get answers isn’t going to redeem how much of a complete pubic hair he has been so far, between being so self-involved he managed to be completely oblivious to Betty’s issues, making out with Veronica the night Betty told him about her feelings, the Grundy thing, the taking Betty for granted things and the general Archiness of himself, I’m really struggling to have any kind of faith in the character at all.
I’m assuming that Jason’s killer’s identity is going to generate a whole new mystery to solve for the next season, but at the same time I think the characters need an episode or two next season where they don’t face drama to this scale. I would like to see them just living their lives before shit inevitably hits the fan.
I saw a post recently that I agree with whole-heartedly and I’ll retroactively link it here if I can find it, but it basically said that they want Bughead to be the anchor couple and I agree with that. We need an anchor couple, otherwise Archie’s drama is going to lose its value fast.
I have high hopes for this show going forward, and I REALLY don’t want to be let down.
