Riverdale Season 3 Episode 22 Review - Chapter 57: Survive the Night

| May xvi, 2019 |

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This Riverdale review contains spoilers.

Riverdale Season 3 Episode 22

"May the final quest begin."

With three seasons now come up and gone, Riverdale remains an anomaly in this age of prestige television. A series packed with the sort of authentic military camp that last calendar week's Met Gala could only dream of, this remains a unique show where with parents lament about whether or not their kid'southward relationships is "endgame" at the same time their town is being overrun with murderous LARPers. There are often so many tonal shifts per episode that information technology's hard non to get narrative whiplash. It is, as they say, a scene.

But isn't that likewise the charm of Riverdale ? For this is a show that has, and always will, be a ridiculous creation. A dark re-envisioning of a comic book franchise that was long ago (and wrongly) dismissed as being lightweight and forgettable seems like such a goofy idea that a parody of this very concept existed earlier the series even did. Any such creative try was bound to be marred by plot developments that were contrived at best, non-sensical at worst.

Yet the central to getting on board with this serial was hiding in manifestly sight all along. Dorsum in the movie-noir inspired "The Red Dahlia" episode, Veronica summed upward perfectly why information technology'south all-time for viewers to just continue with the logistical leaps in logic needed to enjoy the series by saying "forget it Jug, information technology's Riverdale." Bear in listen that a huge portion of the CW's demographic probably never saw Chinatown, but this is another moot point. You see, this wasn't a clever reference, but a mission argument. Riverdale is a evidence that will e'er be critic-proof as it'southward audience is now so deeply invested in the characters (uneven though they may exist, sometimes scene to scene) that it ultimately doesn't thing to the hardcore fans who are more concerned with ships than consistency.

Insert thinkpiece about if shipping trumps story here.

This flavor has been wildly uneven, with the by couple of episodes making some truly welcome course-correcting. First and foremost, Archie, ever the cipher, has finally been folded into the main action of the serial in a way that almost feels organic. (Even if it did require some plotting acrobatics to exercise then). If the wink forrard is any indication, he volition finally be deep in the shit alongside Betty, Jughead, and Veronica in next season'due south principal storyline.

I'll exist the kickoff to admit that the Gryphons & Gargoyles plotline has dragged out far too long, but this is more of an issue with Riverdale having 22 episodes to fill with story when a shorter season would exist more satisfying. Only the big conclusion that Penelope Flower was pulling the Gargoyle Male monarch's strings fabricated narrative sense and was consistent with what we know about her. Indeed, she has been driven mad by the loss of her son and nevertheless coping with her unresolved childhood trauma.

Penelope tells the core four that her Thousand&Chiliad insanity was caused past a desire to "have my revenge on a boondocks that immune me to exist sold equally a child bride to the Blossoms." Unfortunately, Riverdale isn't nuanced plenty of a serial to adequately explore how small towns turn a blind eye to abuse, and so instead of a thoughtful rumination on this effect we get an elaborate spin on The Most Dangerous Game that comes complete with gunplay and poisoning.

However, with Veronica's aforementioned declaration once more ringing in my ear, this all seems to make weird sense for Penelope's character. She has always been unhinged due to the horrors she suffered equally a child. This combined with the loss of Jason Blossom sent her on a spiral of insanity that causes her to revive a game from her twisted childhood in an try to get revenge aginst those she percieves every bit having wronged her by murdering their children. Information technology'south all very Freddy Krueger by way of One Tree Hill , but damn if the developments hither don't runway with Penelope's story.

Hal and Chic are lost souls themselves, which is why they find themselves spun in her web. The latter is the more pathetic of the two, getting Grand&One thousand iconography tattooed on his back and posing as Jason to recieve the closest approximation of dearest that he has e'er experienced. "Who doesn't desire claret sacrifices made in their proper name?" he asks Jughead, as if it is the well-nigh normal question in the world. Chic was gone earlier we always met him, a vessel just looking to be filled with the crazed acceptance Penelope promised.

The Black Hood is revived because Hal doesn't know how to process anything other than the darkness that has come to define him. His just interest is perserving the Hood'south legacy by encouraging Betty to kill him in order to embrace the serial killer potential that she harbors. (Over again, this is a silly/glorious show). Hal doesn't even meet Betty as his daughter anymore, but as a tool to spread evil and chaos. He is toxic masculinity personified, and is, in Penelope's eyes, even a failure at achieving this. She shoots him in the caput at point bare range, ending both Hal and the Blackness Hood's lives of evil in the process. It's a shocking scene that was shocking in its brutality and heightened by Lili Reinhart's intense portrayal of helplessness. A takeaway: Betty volition never allow herself to go like her father, whom she loves, loathes and at present, mourns, equally.

Much less constructive was the final-infinitesimal revelation that Alice is helping the FBI investigate The Subcontract. (For this is a series in which police enforcement officials would get nothing accomplished without the help of unqualified locals). I desire to get back and rewatch the last couple of episodes to meet if the seeds to this twist were planted previously, because other than Alice's explanation that she's been talking with Charles, it seems like a major contrivance that came out of nowhere. The brilliant side of all of this is that it will give Betty a family member to confide in now that Hal is gone and Alice and Polly accept vanished with The Subcontract.

Then there's the Cheryl trouble. Nosotros alive in a time when mental illness is still extremely stigmatized despite its prevalence in club. Riverdale is hardly an issue-based show like the problematic 13 Reasons Why , yet its treatment of the subject leaves a lot to exist desired given the series' demographic. Last season, Cheryl's obsession with and subsequent stalking of Josie was introduced and resolved without whatever real exploration of this topic. In a prove that regularly features "crazy" (an ho-hum term itself) characters, at that place's an opportunity for the writers and producers to actually explore mental illness in a thoughtful way a la its progressive takes on other contemporary issues. Especially given how popular the Cheryl Blossom character is. She and the viewers deserve better.

As the episode ends, Archie, Betty, Jughead, and Veronica are seen just enjoying teen life at Pop's. They make a vow to have the BEST SENIOR Twelvemonth EVER, with their optimism immediately undercut past a flash forward in which Jughead is missing, they are all coated in blood, and Betty convinces them to all cover up some unnamed but apparently heinous crime. Thus ends another confounding and satisfying flavor of Riverdale . Congratulations, yous have ascended.

Riverdale Roundup

– The Lodges are generally absent from this episode's proceedings except for the tertiary act revelation that Hiram is notwithstanding pulling the strings from prison, getting Hermione arrested for his attempted murder and planning to execute some mysterious plan of vengeance for Veronica that we volition see play out side by side season. Archie's and so right, he does suck.

– What exactly is the "ascension" that The Farm does in this episode. We see Kevin in a room filled with white shrouds and shoes, a visual homage to the notorious Heaven's Gate cult. Charles' tone seems to bespeak that they have just moved on from Riverdale and non this mortal coil a la Jonestown. But why was Kevin chosen to be the one left backside and how will he cope with The Farm equivalent of survivor'south guilt?

– Hasbro recently released a Stranger Things -branded version of Dungeons & Dragons. I say we anarchism if in that location isn't a Riverdale ane on the marketplace by the time the bear witness returns in Oct.

– Timekeepers out at that place, does this episode have the longest pre-credits scene to engagement? Information technology certainly feels that way. Then once again I just might still be giddy from all the exposition thrown out during the opening minutes.

– How much Gargoyle Rex cosplay will there be now that convention season is underway? I'm hoping a lot.

– Hermione now owns the Pembrooke and co-owns the Chok'lit Shoppe and La Bonne Nuit with Veronica. Archie is now legally the possessor of the El Royale gym. Update your Riverdale Monopoly games accordingly.

– Information technology appears that Penelope and Edgar have at least some knowledge of the other, then how involved were they in each other's illicit activities? Was Penelope loaning Chic to The Subcontract then he could pose as Jason during Cheryl'due south treatments? Or was Cheryl just looking at Jason's corpse in the chair and was hypnotized into thinking she was chatting with him?

– The virtually awkward scene of the night goes to Mary Andrews, for her hamfisted style of asking if Archie and Ronnie were back together. Subtle she is not.

– As a general dominion, yous probably should never take Penelope up on her offer of refreshments.

– Archie referring to gargoyles as "gremlins" has to be the writers commenting on how disconnected he is from the main plotlines of this show, correct? Because this is absolutely my head canon.

– "Don't forget, I survived a real bear attack, recall?" Riverdale is the only evidence on television that can get abroad with this kind of dialogue. K.J. Apa's line delivery of "of crap, non again" in this scene shows off some real comedic abilities (equally did the moment when Archie told Veronica that her male parent sucks last week). For the quaternary season, the showrunners should take a page from Chris Hemsworth's book of Thor and allow the graphic symbol to embrace his ridiculous qualities. This is a series based on a humour comic afterward all.

– One of the many bombshells dropped in this packed season finale is that F.P. and Alice's son, Charles, is live and well. More than that, he is an FBI agent who has been utilizing Alice as an informant in the government'south case against Edgar Evernever and The Farm. Charles also appears to be terrible at his job, thus his showing up in Riverdale later on The Subcontract has vanished. And then in that location's the manner of him asking Betty and Jughead for their assist, as if no one in the FBI is every bit competent in their work every bit these two junior detectives.

– Finally, I want to thank you all for reading these reviews for the past season. It has been a wild, fun ride. I can't wait to come across what these crazy kids get mixed up in next…and if Hot Dog is e'er seen again.