Riverdale: Chapter Twenty – Tales From The Dark Side | Season 2, Episode 7 | Rating: 8/11
In tonight’s episode of Riverdale we get a bit of a “day in the life” kind of vibe as things revolve around the goings on in the paired lives of Archie and Jughead, Josie and Cheryl, and Betty and Veronica. All of them have what amounts to a crazy few days and not in a good way.
First: The Black Hood has issued a warning to Riverdale. Already having cleansed the town of a few sinners, he will be watching them all for 48 hours. If he sees they are pure of heart and sinners no more, he will stop. If they fail, he will kill again. Ominous.
Jughead and Archie
After being rudely disturbed by his phone in the middle of cuddling with Betty, Jughead gets a call from Penny Peabody and she’s collecting on that favor Jughead owes her. It seems that FP (Jughead’s dad) got jumped while in the prison showers by a bunch of Ghoulies who want blood for Jughead (but really Archie) pulling a fast one on them at the drag race and sending their higher ups to jail. So Penny will help out FP in jail if Jughead does this one time delivery thing for her. She needs him to pick up a crate from the Southside, drop it at a warehouse in Greendale and get out before midnight because that’s not someplace you want to be after hours.
Naturally, Jughead recruits Archie to help him out: he needs Archie’s father’s truck and it is Archie’s fault with the whole drag race thing. It’s a rather spooky and all together unsavory mission the two are on; car trouble, a creepy but helpful stranger turned (almost) back stabber, and a creepier duo in a warehouse are what the boys encounter on this trip. If that wasn’t perilous enough, there’s an additional creepy lady with some European accent in the warehouse who says these are to be regular deliveries and to not be late again, or else. Also, she knows Jughead’s name. Creeeeeeeeepy! If that wasn’t enough, when Jughead goes to visit his dad in the morning after the delivery, he finds his dad in perfect health: nothing wrong at all. Penny Peabody lied.
Josie
Josie has a few things on her plate right now. Her mother, Mayor McCoy, moved them to the Five Seasons for safety reasons with the Black Hood being out and about, so she’s not even going “home” at night. Josie has also been busy at school during some late night hours working on solo material. Cheryl sent a producer at Shabbey Roads a video of the Pussycats singing “Milkshake” but said producer was adamant that only Josie get some studio time. No, Josie hasn’t told the rest of the Pussycats about this deal so she’s kind of going behind their backs. On top of this possible big break, she’s got a secret admirer who’s been leaving her notes and stuffed animals in her locker. Busy girl!
Mayor McCoy freaks out when Josie gets home late one night and wants her daughter home before dark, just to be safe. This doesn’t really work out so well for Josie after her ultimate bad day of the other two Pussycats finding out about her solo thing (someone left them a note) and Chuck giving Josie a near heart attack by roaming the school at night. He gives Josie a ride home by way of stopping at Pop’s first. I should mention that, previously, Chuck has also asked Josie out on a date and she said no. We remember Chuck right? He was part of that group of dudes who used and rated women in some book. He also treated Veronica really badly in season 1 and was, ultimately, taken down by Dark Betty. Anyway, Josie is at Pop’s with Chuck when Momma Mayor McCoy comes running in with Sheriff Keller to crash the party. She’s been texting Josie for hours with no reply and was beyond worried. Back at the hotel, her mom reveals that she’s been getting death threats and the last one mentioned Josie. The next day Josie receives more gifts from her admirer. The first is a sketch of Josie saying if they can’t have her, no one can and the second is a box with a pig’s heart in it. Chuck gets blamed for it, but it looks like Cheryl is the one sending notes. She’s the one doing the sketching, anyway…
Betty and Veronica
Betty has this crazy notion that Sheriff Keller is the Black Hood. I mean, how else would the guy have gotten into the prison to kill the Sugar Man? Betty won’t relent on this idea and her suspicions deepen when Kevin reveals that his dad has been sneaking out at night, rummaging around at odd hours, not sleeping, and just acting weird. Veronica thinks he’s having an affair but Betty isn’t convinced. Veronica decides to spend the night at Kevin’s to try and sort this out herself. Betty calls during said sleepover – mainly because she’s not happy that this sleepover didn’t include her and because she wants Veronica to poke around the house. Veronica comes up empty, but finds some locked doors and a rather hot sheriff working out in the basement. She does catch him sneaking out late that night and not returning until about 4am in the morning.
Betty being Betty, she’s sure he’s guilty and just can’t help herself so she breaks into the Keller house by way of the hidden key under the flowerpot. Shouldn’t a sheriff know better than that? I should mention Betty has already interviewed Sheriff Keller about how the Black Hood got into the station to kill the Sugar Man and she got some decent answers. Clearly, that wasn’t enough for her. So having picked the lock on a door with a bobby pin (because that’s a good everyday skill to have), Betty’s in the Keller house and into that secret locked room. It was basically Sheriff Keller’s own murder board in there with all the evidence and sketches and letters and such. Betty gets busted, however, and Keller shows her his logbook just to put her mind at ease. He was occupied during all of the murders with something or another. Still not convinced, Betty decides to follow him the next night with Veronica. As it turns out, Veronica was right: Sheriff Keller is having an affair…with Mayor McCoy!
Bonus Bits
- The Black Hood says Riverdale failed his test and the reckoning is coming. I guess it’s hard to be good when everyone is being bad.
- Jughead seems to be stuck as an errand boy. It turns out Penny has footage of Jughead and Archie making that delivery and if he doesn’t do what she says, she’s turning it over to the Sheriff. Turns out FP made her a promise and didn’t deliver, so his debt is now Jughead’s. What a bummer.
- Archie is really worried that Jughead won’t be able to escape his ultimate fate of jail and wants him to find a way out. Jughead wants that, too, but is living life minute by minute right now. So sad.
- Apparently, there once was a Riverdale Reaper. No one knows what happened to him. Could he be the Black Hood come back again?
- I always knew that Cheryl was crazy, but now she’s crossed into psycho territory. I know Josie helped save her from Nick St. Creature, to use her words, but come on…
- Josie’s new tunes are catchy. I dig. But I don’t dig that she had a nightmare where her throat was slashed by the Black Hood.
Quotes
- “I don’t need a bodyguard. I’m not Whitney. Not yet, anyway.” (Josie)
- “Out of the way Bert and Ernie.” (Cheryl while walking through Jughead and Archie at school)
