Bughead Hooks Up Again at Judheads Trailer

May 23, 2022 Post a Comment

Has Riverdale finally reached peak Riverdale ?

After watching Riverdale Season 2 Episode 12, "The Wicked and the Divine," I'm inclined to answer: "Hell yes, and I love every minute of it."

In an hour full of so much shipper-y goodness, two murders, and Veronica singing "'Bittersweet Symphony' from the Cruel Intentions soundtrack" at her own confirmation," there's more campy teen melodrama than you can shake a stick at. All that's missing is Cheryl.

(Seriously, though — where is Cheryl? She's missing entirely from this installment, and no one even mentions her, as far as I recall.)

While "The Wicked and the Divine" isn't perfect, it's a genuinely exciting episode with some enjoyably goofy moments and a whole lot of soapy drama. Which is 9/10 in my book!

Riverdale — "Chapter Twenty-Five: The Wicked and the Divine" — Pictured: KJ Apa as Archie — Photo: Katie Yu/The CW — © 2022 The CW Network, LLC. All rights reserved.

The central event is Veronica's confirmation.

I'm a lapsed Catholic, so I didn't realize that confirmation is a thing that happens for some people when they're 17 years old "just because." If I remember correctly, it's usually around 13 or 14?

Anyway, Veronica sort of glosses over the explanation when she's telling Archie about it. I generally get the sense that the writers wanted an excuse for a big Riverdale set-piece (as you do) and this seemed a convenient enough option as any.

In any case, it's goofy AF, and I love it.

Veronica's white dress is gorgeous, obviously. The entire concept of her duetting with Josie, singing "Bittersweet Symphony"while walking down the church aisle surrounded by family and friends, is so utterly ridiculous. Watching it, I feel a distinct mix of secondhand embarrassment and hilarity. It's odd, but somehow fits perfectly with this damn show.

In the lead-up to Veronica's confirmation and after it, Archie proves where his loyalty truly lies. And spoiler alert: it is not with sketchy virtual stranger Agent Adams.

Continuing off of the bond they formed throughout Archie's eagerness to please Hiram on Riverdale Season 2 Episode 11, our redheaded hero continues his "internship" with Veronica's criminal daddy. As the end of last week implied, Archie's plan to get in with Hiram quickly went beyond a need to do what Agent Adams asked of him. Now, Archie genuinely wants to help Hiram. Uh-oh.

He proves this definitively while he's working the poker game Hiram asks him to help out at.

Clad in a dorky little server outfit — complete with a bowtie! — Archie clips cigars and serves drinks to a group of cartoonish criminals, including one named Poppa Poutine.

Riverdale — "Chapter Twenty-Five: The Wicked and the Divine" — Pictured (L-R): KJ Apa as Archie, Mark Consuelos as Hiram, Alvin Sanders as Pop Tate and MC Gainey as Poppa Poutine/Paul Boucher — Photo: Katie Yu/The CW — © 2022 The CW Network, LLC. All rights reserved.

Only on Riverdale would you ever get a tense stand-off between mobsters over bad cheese curds and disappointing poutine. In fact, if you really think about it, Pop's bad poutine is sort of the straw that breaks the camel's back when it comes to Hiram's associates deciding to turn on him.

It's Archie who overhears their plans, while he's inexplicably unclogging a toilet. He tells Hiram without any hesitation that the other mobsters are plotting to kill him and take over after Vee's confirmation. Naturally, Hiram handles it — with murder.

RIP, Poppa Poutine. We hardly knew ye (and your ridiculous mobster name).

By the end, when Agent Adams confronts him about the murder, Archie denies any knowledge of it. This pretty much cements his status as an accomplice, so things are about to get very tricky for dear Archiekins.

One definitive upside of the entire confirmation murder fiasco is that Archie and Ronnie are now almost entirely on the same page.

While Archie still hasn't owned up to the fact that he's been recruited by an FBI agent to take down Hiram, at least Veronica is aware thatArchie knows her dad is a mobster. This revelation gives us one of the episode's best ship moments, when Archie vows not to let her dad's criminal activities stand in the way of him loving Veronica.

The scene where he confesses this — at Veronica's confirmation, when she's trying to keep him out of the family business so he remains unsullied/pure/innocent — is extremely sweet and easily one of my favorite Varchie moments to date.

Riverdale — "Chapter Twenty-Five: The Wicked and the Divine" — Pictured (L-R): KJ Apa as Archie and Camila Mendes as Veronica — Photo: Katie Yu/The CW — © 2022 The CW Network, LLC. All rights reserved.

Perhaps one of the most interesting aspects of this storyline is how Veronica is grappling with her own involvement in the "family business." She's torn between the darkness and the light. In her mind, Archie is the light — demonstrated not-at-all subtly during the moment in the church when she renounces Satan, inspired by a brilliant and very literal brightness emanating from Archiekins in the pew.

Except now, Archie is a bit less bright white goodness, given the whole "indirect accomplice to murder" thing.

In a lot of ways, Veronica's struggle is similar to Jughead's. Of course, Jug has flown far further off the rails than Ronnie has, what with mutilating Penny and generally being kind of an asshat.

Jughead's reckoning finally arrives this week, when Penny returns and very nearly weasels her way back into the Serpents with the help of a traitorous Tall Boy.

The entire Serpents storyline is a bit convoluted this week, but the gist is: Hiram convinced Tall Boy to decapitate and steal the head of the General Pickens' statue, in an effort to instill a mutiny and cause chaos among the Serpents. Tall Boy, motivated purely by a desire to oust Jughead, goes along with it because… reasons. I don't know.

The silver lining throughout this sorta-silly fiasco is that it forces exes Jughead and Betty to work together. Bughead has been apart for several weeks since that tragic breakup, so it's great to see them back in action — in more ways than one.

Riverdale — "Chapter Twenty-Five: The Wicked and the Divine" — Pictured (L-R): Ashleigh Murray as Josie, Casey Cott as Kevin and Lili Reinhart as Betty — Photo: Daniel Power/The CW — © 2022 The CW Network, LLC. All rights reserved.

After solving the Pickens' Head Mystery, Betty and Jughead manage to get the Serpents to exile Tall Boy. Jug winds up "on probation" from the Serpents, but Bughead finally hooks up, so it's not all bad!

Their reunion scene in Jughead's trailer is wonderfully done. Just everything about it is aesthetically pleasing: the contrast of Betty's prim outfit with Jughead's dingy suspenders, the exact distance between the two on the couch, the way she climbs up on top of him. All in all, a very effective scene. There's no denying the intense chemistry between Lili and Cole. It just is.

Other thoughts:

So… Alice and Chic murder a dude. Or Chic murders him, and Alice helps clean up. Either way, Betty walks in during the clean-up process, so things are about to get wild in the Cooper household!
Hal leaves the house because of Chic's presence and goes to a "Stay B'n'B." Oh, this show.
Again, I love how pop culture reference-heavy this show is.
Jughead figures out that the guy who dropped off Pickens' head in the dump is tall boy with these clues: he was wearing a Serpent jacket and he was tall. Really narrows it down!
The only thing missing from the Bughead reunion is Betty confessing her kiss with Archie. That's a big uh-oh, and I'm sure it's going to be that much worse when Jughead inevitably finds out. Archie came claim to Veronica about it already and Jughead owned up to hooking up with Toni, so this will look really bad for Betty. I'm already nervous!
Speaking of "bad looks for Betty": Betty is a webcam girl now so that's… something, I guess.
I have to give a shout-out to the scene between FP and Jughead in the trailer, when FP confronts his son over his actions with Penny and swears Jughead will be the Serpents' downfall. Stunning work from Skeet and Cole. Those two have a fantastic father-son dynamic, and the scene is really powerful.

What did you think of this episode of Riverdale ? Share your thoughts with us in the comments below!

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Riverdale airs Wednesdays at 8/7c on The CW.

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Caralynn is a freelance writer and editor, but most importantly, she is a diehard TV addict. A few of her current favorites are Mr. Robot, You're the Worst, iZombie, and The Vampire Diaries. She also writes about TV for Romper, The TV Junkies, and TV Fanatic.

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Source: https://telltaletv.com/2018/02/riverdale-review-chapter-twenty-five-the-wicked-and-the-divine-season-2-episode-12/

Doty Wilier

Bughead Hooks Up Again at Judheads Trailer

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