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where-theres-smoak-2 · 5 years ago

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Riverdale 4x19 Finale Review/Analysis

First off I’d like to apologise for how late this review is I had written all but the last part but then was dealing with some family stuff so its a bit later than usual. But anyway here it is my review/analysis for the season 4 finale. Despite them having to reschedule everything so that this was the season finale when it clearly wasn’t suppose to be I still actually really enjoyed this episode. However that said there were some things that, well I guess you could say they didn’t quite sit right with me but overall I think this was one of the better episodes of the seasons. I don’t have as much to say about this episode as I do feel like it was a bit of a filler episode but I figured we could still go through the episode and talk about the things I liked, the things I didn’t but also what clues might have been left for us. I’m also going to give some theories and predictions for season 5 based on some of the interviews I’ve read since watching the episode. As always these are just my own opinions its fine if you disagree and of course there are spoilers.

No Seriously Though Who Is The Voyeur?

So to kick things off I figured we could talk first about the video tapes and again who I think the voyeur is. Well I’m sticking to my theory that it’s Donna accompanied by a group of lackies. Yeah I know I’ll die on this hill. The episode starts out similar to the one before with Charles, Betty and Jughead watching the re-enactment of Jason Blossoms murder. Just as a quick tangent here but can we have a shout out for the casting team because seeing all three of them side by side really brought out the resemblance between them, like Charles looks so much like both Betty and Jughead like I can fully believe that Charles is brother to them both. Any way back on track, during this scene all three of them ask some very good questions. Charles asks why the escalation now and could it be a warning. Betty suggests that maybe its a pratice run for an actual murder. (This is actually something I suggested myself when the first re enactment was shown and I said that Donna and the stonies might have filmed it as a practice run for Jughead’s actual murder.) Jughead also makes a suggestion saying it seemed like the voyeur was trying to blur the lines between fact and fiction. This I think might be a clue to who the voyeur might be. I also think its more evidence to support my theory. Fiction makes me think of writing and story telling, when we first meet Donna its at Stonewall Prep where she is part of a writing seminar. In my opinon from the way these videos are set up it seems to me that the person sending out the videos isn’t just a voyeur but a storyteller too and Donna fits this bill. We know that she is a writer so thats a check for the storyteller, and by her own admission she watched the tapes Bret was making of the other students at Stonewall so thats the check for a voyeur. Also all of the re-enactments can be linked back to Jughead in some way. Obviously the first one shows Jughead’s would be murder with Betty killing Jughead with a rock, the Jason Blossom one I talked about in my last review and how Jughead had based his first Baxter Brothers draft on his murder, Midge’s death can also be linked to Jughead as he filmed the whole Carrie BTS thing and so was actually the one who (accidently) recorded Midge’s original murder which the voyeur then watched and used for the re-enactment. The latest one depicting Mr Honey’s murder can obviously be linked back to Jughead as its his story. In an interview RAS said that the voyeur had very personal reasons for what they were doing and well we know that Donna is holding a grudge against Jughead. The other thing that is interesting is that there are several references to Stonewall, the Stonies and that plotline throughout the episode. The first is when Jughead says getting into Iowa could be a way to make up for the Stonewall hell, then during his story they all wear Stonewall jackets and the infamous bunny masks, there is another reference when during the story the two boys in the locker room are talking about rumours that Mr Honey had an affair with a student, I mean a false accusation of an affair with a student made against a dead teacher, hmm that sounds familiar. Of course I do think this is a reference to Donna and the story she made up about her and Mr Chippens in an attempt to cover up his murder. Also the story line of a group of teenagers commiting a murder and then murdering one of their friends when they get cold feet is the same as the Stonewall plotline where the others murdered Jonathon because they were afraid he was going to tell. The last reference comes from Mr Honey when he says hes going to be the new principal at Stonewall. I don’t think its a coincidence that just as things a heating up in the storyline with the tapes they are now starting to drop more references to Stonewall and by extention Donna, I think these might be clues left by the writers. Of course I could also be barking up the wrong tree.

So who else are my main suspects for who the voyeur could be? Well RAS said this in an interview about the voyeur.

So we know from this that the voyeur’s primary motive is a personal vendetta but we also know that on some level they are also interested in how trauma has changed the town and the kids in it. So now we just need to figure out who fits this criteria. I do think its going to be a character that we have already met because its too late in the game to introduce a new character or have it be someone we don’t know as it would be very anitclimatic if that did happen.

Ok so unfortunately my boy Charles could fit this description. As much as I love him he does have a very personal reason to have a grudge against the town. It is very possible that he is angry that he was given up for adoption but also that Alice, when he came looking for his family, shut the door in his face. He could also be angry specifically at Betty, Jughead and also even Archie and Veronica as he could consider them responsible for getting Chic (his lover) arrested. It also wouldn’t be a reach for Charles who due to being an FBI agent has a very inquisitive mind and an investigative nature to be interested in how his birth town became corrupt and what trauma can do to kids especially if he on some level is trying to figure out why he was given up for adoption and why he was later turned away by his family. Maybe he wants to know if it was because of the town’s sickness and the darkness of the people in the town. It could also be him looking into whether he too has been twisted, afterall we know that he was raised by the Sisters of Quiet Mercy and who knows what kind of an effect that has had on him, so he could be trying to learn about his own darkness too. I personally, as I’ve said before, don’t want them to go this route. I just, one, feel like it would be way to predictable, it wouldn’t shock me at all. Two, they’ve done the whole evil brother earns the family’s trust then turns out to be a phychotic killer with Chic. I don’t want or need to see that storyline again, like please please Riverdale show me something new. I just think it would be more interesting to go the secret FBI agent route where he is manipulating the villians to take them down than the he’s evil one.

Another of my suspects I’ve also spoken about before is Terry the Ticklemaster. This one I’m less sure on and is based mostly on the fact that I just think he’s really suspicious and we know that he works with cameras. I’m unsure on what his personal vendetta could be as we don’t have enough information about him to know. However I could see how as a film maker he might also be interested in human behaviour so might also be interested in how the trauma effects Riverdale and its kids. To be honest I think its more likely that he is helping the voyeur than him actually being the voyeur.

Suspect number 3 is Evelyn. I know she’s been in prison but she could be using the hypnosis she’s put on some of the farmies like she did with Polly and Alice to get others to do her bidding. Kind of like she’s the puppet master. As for what personal reason she could have well she could blame all those in Riverdale who used to be with the farm and who now aren’t, like Alice, Fangs, Kevin, Toni and Cheryl for abandoning the Farm and also Betty for the fact that she has been arrested and her husband has been killed. Also we know the Farm used people’s darkness to manipulate them into joining the cult so its possible that she would have a dark, twisted interest in how trauma is infecting the town.

Mr Honey could also be another possibilty. I know they kinda painted him as being the good guy at the end of this episode but I still haven’t forgotten about him visiting the red suite or other questionable behaviour such as wrecking Reggie’s car and being manipulative with Kevin and Reggie in the halloween episode. He also seems to have a weird vendetta against the students. Also his whole speech about trying to prepare them for the outside world because Riverdale isn’t normal makes me think that maybe he is sending the tapes to force these kids to look at their past traumas and understand how the town has a darkness and a sickness, a way of forcing them to see how dark they’ve become themselves and how wrong it is. Also weirdly the fact the show is trying to show him as a good guy makes me more suspicious of him. Of course all of this is provided he wasn’t the one being murdered at the end of this episode which I will discuss in a bit.

Another option is Ethel. I mean poor Ethel has been mixed up in some pretty messed up situations. She’s got alot of reasons to be angry at the town. I mean there was the whole thing with Chuck in season 1, then in season 2 she was sending those threatening letters about Cheryl pretending to be the black hood in the Carrie episode, season 3 was the G&G plotline and she ended up with the sisters, now in season 4 we find out she is mixed up in the red suite where they had homemade sex tapes and snuff films. Plus she had that line about making it out of Riverdale in one piece which suggests that she recognises that the town isn’t normal and had a traumatic effect on the kids. Out of all of them though I think she’s the least likely.

Ok this one is a little more out there but when going over the footage of the Honey Murder I did notice that the woman in the Betty mask does look to have blonde hair. It is a little hard to tell though because of the low quality and the lighting. But if they did have blonde hair who do we know who might have an issue with Riverdale. Well I think it could be Polly. We haven’t really heard from her since the beginning of the season so we don’t know for sure if she is still at Shady Grove or not. Also she’s got plenty of personal reasons to be doing this. Her fiance and father of her twins was murdered by his own father, FP hid the body, her own Father tried to force her to have an abortion before with her mother’s agreement she was locked up with the Sisters. Then she is taken in by blossoms only to find out that she was having her cousin’s babies and that the blossoms were only helping her so they could get the babies. Her dad turns out to be a serial killer. Then she ends up joining a cult, gets a bomb strapped to her chest and then ends up locked up in a mental hospital. She’s been deeply affected by the darkness of the town and more specifically Jason’s death. His murder has been brought up alot this season this could be in preparation of revealing the voyeur to be Polly getting revenge for Jason’s murder.

Ok please forgive me for this one, I’m really hoping this one isn’t true but the thought did pop into my mind so. But I realised that the two videos found at the Red Suite, the Jason Blossom murder and Midge’s have something in common. They were both pieces of footage that were handed into the Sheriff’s Department. More specifically they were handed in when Tom Keller was Sheriff. Now I’m not suggesting that its Tom but rather Kevin. We know that Kevin was one of the first people to see the footage of Jason Blossom being murdered. He was also in charge of the Carrie production and I feel like he felt alot of responsibility for what happened to her. It’s also not unreasonable to assume he might have been able to get hold of those two pieces of footage through his Father he could have snuck in and stolen them. We also know he knows how to use a camera as we saw him filming for Alice in episode 15. Also Kevin has gone through alot of crap the last couple of years and I think his speech to Mr Honey in the musical episode is very telling of his mental state right now particularly how he talked about how he felt numb but was screaming on the inside. Also in the beginning of the season when he was talking to Betty and Charles he said he had felt alone all summer after leaving the Farm. Maybe these tapes are his way of getting the anger out. Also he was in prime position to get his hands on Jughead’s story about Mr Honey. It was Kevin who came and told Jughead and Betty that Mr Honey was looking for them. Its during this scene that we see Jughead leave his pages on the desk. Its possible that Kevin then went in there and took the pages. However although I don’t watch Katy Keene I am aware that apparently Kevin was on that show and that its set 5 years in the future I believe. I did see one clip where Kevin is talking about how he is still in Riverdale and that he works at Riverdale high. But if he were involved surely he would be in jail. But its possible that he was either hypnotised by Evelyn, the group find out he’s involved but the authorities don’t, he’s sent to jail but is released by the time he is seen in Katy Keene, he makes a bargain with the authorities where he gets immunity if he turns the ringleader in. I feel something must have happened though because last episode Kev was talking about going to Carniege but after watching that clip I’m not so sure he did go because I feel like if he had he wouldn’t now be back in Riverdale working at the school, he’d be onto bigger better things. Him being involved in the video tapes could explain why he didn’t go to that college if that is the case. But as I sai I don’t watch the show, I haven’t seen the full episode I’ve just seen the one clip so there could be something in the episode that exonerates him of my accusations.

So out of them all who do I think is most likely the voyeur? Well actually pretty much all of them. We know from the Mr Honey tape that the Voyeur is not working alone, there were six people in that video doing the murdering so there must be at least six people involved. There were three females and three males. So I think our ringleader is Donna and that she is accompanied by Polly, Evelyn (who seeing as we haven’t checked in on her in a good few episodes it possible she could have either been released from jail or escaped), Terry, Mr Honey and Kevin. All of these characters have a motive and they can all been linked, Donna knows Evelyn because she went to visit her in jail and they worked together to mess with Betty, Evelyn is connected to Polly and Kevin through the farm, Kevin is connected to Terry and Mr Honey. Several of them can also be linked to the Red suite or to film making in some way.

As for whether it was really Mr Honey being killed in the video I do have some thoughts on that. Firstly the bandage that was on Mr Honey’s hand all episode doesn’t appear to be on the victims hand, of course they could have taken if off. If we go with Mr Honey is one of the killers in the video then we still have the problem that no one in the video had a bandage on their hand. Another thing I thought of is if it is the real Mr Honey why bother putting a mask on him? Is it just for theatrics? In which case surely it would have been much scarier and dramatic if the viewer knew it was Mr Honey. So I’m kinda 50/50 on that one. If it is him then I don’t think that neccessarily means he wasn’t ever involved after all if it is Donna masterminding it all then it wouldn’t be the first time she’s killed someone on her side because they stopped being useful. But if it is him then Jughead could find himself in hot water considering he was the one who wrote the story about Mr Honey being murdered by his group of friends and then that actually happens, that looks very suspicious. But what about you guys do you think it was Mr Honey who was killed or do you think he’s lived to cancel prom another day?

Freaky Friction

Next I want to talk about the storyline of Jughead’s revenge fantasy story. I actually loved these parts of the episode, mostly. There were some things that I wasn’t quite ok with but for the most part it was really entertaining. I loved loved loved seeing the kids work together as a group. Also just them hanging out as a group. Those scenes where they were altogether are the kind of scenes I’ve been looking for all season, these characters are suppose to be friends and it was refreshing to see those interactions, the only thing that could have made it better would have been if Toni, Fangs and Sweet Pea were also included. What I found most interesting about this storyline was firstly, this whole concept of how the kids are really the monsters and how the town has become dark and corrupted. Jughead’s story kind of held a mirror up to both the kids and the town as a whole and showed just how dark they had become. I loved how that was a gradual realisation as well, like as the story went on Jughead is slowly beginning to see that. The other thing I thought was really interesting is the way Jughead depicts the characters in his story. So starting with the way Jughead wrote the charaters. To me they all seemed really ooc like none of them behaved the way I thought they would. For example it was interesting that he depicted Reggie as the one who can’t handle the aftermath of the murder and starts to slip up and cave and tell people about what they had done and that it was Archie who stopped him. The reason why I think this is interesting is because although we don’t know how Reggie would react in that situation, we have some idea of how Archie would because of the whole Jughead attempted murder thing. Now I know they are slightly different scenarios because Jughead didn’t die but we have to remember that in those first couple of days they didn’t know if Jughead was going to die and they also didn’t know if Betty had actually been the one to do it. So essentially they were acting how they would have if they were trying to cover up a murder. In that scenario it was actually Archie who nearly slipped up and told his mum what had happened. The only reason why he didn’t was because Betty saw what was happening and rang him up to warn him to stop talking. Later Archie actually does cave and tells his mum the truth about how Jughead had faked his death. So we know that really if Jughead had written the characters accurately then Archie should have been the one struggling not to tell anyone.

Also its interesting the way he depicts Reggie, as mostly throughout the series he and Reggie have been at odds with each other. In season 1 Reggie straight up bullied Jughead and there has been alot of conflict between Reggie and the Serpents in the rest of the seasons. But there have been moments when its really mattered where they have all come together. Given all the physical altercations he and Reggie have gotten into you’d think Jughead would write him as a violent unremorseful character but he doesn’t while he does have one scene where Reggie loses his temper and beats on Mr Honey for most of the story Reggie is seen being very regretful and guilty of his actions. I think this is because Jughea recognises that alot of Reggie’s anger and outbursts stem from the abuse he has suffered growing up. Reggie says to Archie that his dad has been hitting him for as long as he can remember. That has to have had an effect on him. I think Jughead knows that unltimately Reggie is a good person underneath it all.

Veronica was another one that wasn’t written the way I was expecting her to be. I’ve said this so many times in my other posts that you are probably getting bored of it but we have to remember to look at things from the character’s pov in situations like this. Obviously all of this is told from Jughead’s point of view. This is what makes it so interesting because in the past Jughead has villanized Veronica. In season 3 there was pretty much an all out war between his family and hers and he was fully aware of the fact that she was helping her parents with their schemes. She knew about Southside High being closed down yet acted like she didn’t and even tried to manipulate the situation in her parents favour, as nice as it was for her to greet the serpents and welcome them to the school she wasn’t doing that out of the kindness of her own heart it was because her parents told her to. She also knew about the prison and actively helped her parents bring that about. She got her redemption arc later when she then turned agaisnt her parents. But I feel like Jughead has always seen her as a cold, calculating person who is often influenced by her parents and I wouldn’t say they have been particularly close over the seasons. Also again, as with Archie, we know how she would react in a situation like this due to the whole Jughead is dead thing and in that situation in my opinion she was the calmer more logical thinking one out of the three. So its really interesting to me that in both versions of his story he wrote Veronica as the moral compass. I do have one theory on it though. If we are going on the assumption that Jughead has a negative and biased view of Veronica because of his family’s hardships at the hands of Veronica’s family and that he believes that Veronica is the one who is the most corrupt because of those events then maybe him putting Veronica in the position of being morally correct is his subconcious telling him there is still hope that they could escape the darkness of the town. Like if Veronica can turn things around then there is hope for them all. It’s possible that he has watched her fight her way out from under her parents thumb and escape their dark influence and make her own path and he actually kind of admires her for it. It’s been something he himself has tried to do in respect of getting away from his own family’s dark past and being the first Jones man to go to college. He’s been judged his whole life for where he comes from and who his family is and its something he has fought back against as long as we’ve known him, this whole idea of no you’re wrong I’m so much more than what you think I am. I think he is now starting to recognise that Veronica has been through that same thing too. From day one people have judged her for being Hiram Lodge’s daughter, that her family are criminals and she’ll be just the same. But as I’ve said he’s witnessed her journey and seen how she has fought to prove people wrong and make herself into the person she wants to be. I think this is a character trait that Jughead really respects and admires. This is why he then writes her as almost the heroine of the story.

Cheryl is also another one that behaves differently to how we’ve seen her at in the same situation in the real world. Its really intriguing that Jughead chose to write Cheryl the way he did. Again we know that when confronted with a dead body to get rid of and a murder to cover up, Cheryl will react calmly and in that situation she was the one that came up with the plan to get rid of the body and how to make sure her relatives stayed quiet she also showed little signs that it had effected her much afterwards. Yet in Jughead’s story she’s one of the most emotional. We and also Jughead have seen in the past that Cheryl tends to keep most of her emotions bottled up, she rarely really reacts to trauma. She tends to put on a brave face most of the time but then we’ve seen her show emotion enough to know that she is still capable of feeling emotion and that she is effected by what is happening around her but she tends to keep it all in check until it finally bubbles over. Out of everyone you could argue that Cheryl has had one of the roughest times on the show and I don’t think she is ever really given the time or space to properly process her trauma or grieve her losses. She’s been damaged by the things shes gone through and her parents abuse who I feel like taught her emotion was a weakness. We know that her mother often told her she was a loveless monster and heartless and I think on some level Cheryl believed her, it was something that plagues her as we see from her conversation with Toni at Pop’s after they saw Love, Simon. Her relationship with Toni is helping her realise this isn’t true but I still think those scars from her mother’s phsycological abuse run deep and I think this not being allowed to properly grieve was what led to that really unhealthy situation where she had Jason in her basement. What I think Jughead has done in his story is portrayed Cheryl how she probably should behave and react to this situation given her past traumas. He’s allowing her to let her emotions out and actually grieve. Maybe he recognises that she’s hiding behind a wall and feels some kind of sympathy for her and so in his story where he is the master of what happens he lets her process things in a more healthy way of crying it out to her friends.

Which brings me to the next part because if that is the case and he is trying to write Cheryl as processing things healthily then why does his own character of Jughead behave the way he does towards Cheryl and tell her to get ahold of herself and even potentially plans to kill her for showing emotion? Well I think the most interesting part of Jughead’s story is the way he depicts himself and Betty. Again these are characters where we’ve seen what their natural reaction to getting rid of dead bodies is. With the whole Shady Man plotline we saw both of them have very emotional reactions, Betty is seen throwing up and having flashbacks and Jughead looked visibly shaken when she told him about it. Betty again reacts the same way when she thinks she might have hurt Jughead we again see her throwing up and really struggling with it. Yet in Jughead’s story they are without a doubt the most ruthless and darkest out of all the characters in the story. It almost comes across as them enjoying it, they show no remorse for killing Mr Honey or Reggie and they ridicule the others for showing emotion like they see it as them being weak. They seem straight up psychotic at times. So why has he written them this way? Well some of it I think is his own fears making their way into his writing. I think he has this fear that they’ve all been through so much that by this point they are too damaged and that they will never fully escape the darkness of the town, that no matter where they go that darkness will follow them. I think this particularly hits home when Story Jughead says ‘are we going to be monsters in college or in jail.’ This to me seems like he doesn’t believe that leaving Riverdale will free them from all the pain and horrific events they’ve experienced. That this is something he fears. I feel like its a fear that alot of the other kids feel too. But I think Jughead fears the most that he and Betty are the ones that will struggle the most to leave it all behind. If you think about it he and Betty are the ones who are most often pulled into the murder and mayhem of the town by their investigative adventures. More and more willingly over time they went looking for mysteries to solve. I think it got to the point where they started to enjoy and almost become obsessed with solving these mysteries to the point where they are now almost in too deep. I also think it would be natural for Jughead to worry more about Betty the most as she’s the one he’s closest too. If you think about it the next darkest character in the original story is Archie who is the next closet person to him. The other interesting part though is when he rewrites the story he ‘saves’ Archie from his darkness and makes him a good guy who does the right thing. I think part of this is because he has seen Archie consistently try to do the right thing and so maybe he thinks this will somehow help spare Archie from being stuck in the darkness. But both he and Betty are still the dark characters who get no redemption in the end, I think this is because it is such a deep rooted fear that he believes neither he or Betty will ever be able to walk away from it all, that they will always be sucked back into another murder mystery.

I think another reason why he might have depicted them as the darkest of all the characters is because as Cheryl said they found each other in this town of nightmares. It was the darkness of Riverdale that their relationship was born out of. I made a post about how Archie sees the light in Betty well I feel like its the opposite for Jughead and he sees the darkness in her. Now before some of you start picking up your pitchforks and flaming torches I don’t necessarily mean that’s a bad thing. In fact in some ways its a good thing that Jughead can understand that darker part of her and that he accepts it, I feel like its what Betty needed at times. I also think it was important that Betty was also able to do the same for Jughead. But this only works if they are helping each other work through their darkness, which they used to do in the past.

And this is where we reach the true problem, that epiphany that Jughead reaches. These kids have stopped helping and supporting each other through the darkness, now instead they’ve started to encourage each others inner darkness. As Jughead says after he rewrites his story he realised that he was revelling in the town’s sickness and enjoying the suffering of another. This was true of all the kids. I liked this running theme, that ran simultaneously through both the story Jug was writing and the plotline of the kids going up against Mr Honey over prom, of the real monsters being the kids who have been corrupted by the town and all its happenings. I mean during the whole planning out the revenge fantasy and planning how to overthrow Mr Honey not one of them stopped to question whether what they were doing was right, not one of them called their friends out they all just encouraged each other and threw in their own ideas. I mean when Betty starts talking about how Mr Honey works late on tuesdays so they could sneak into school and kidknap him, Archie doesn’t comeback with wow Betty that’s really dark maybe we shouldn’t be thinking about this, instead he points out that Mr Honey would recognise them. It all just kind of snowballs from there. And yes I get that its all fiction and made up and its played off comically but its different when its set in a town where this sort of thing actually happens on a regular basis and, as Betty says herself, alot of lines in the story they have said in real life, I mean Betty, Jughead and Cheryl have been in the postion where they have had someone tied up, Cheryl has actually mapleboarded her mother which is what gave them that idea for the revenge fantasy. Some of them have legit had to get rid of a body before. Its the fact that while it might be made up they are getting the ideas from real life experiences that makes it seem all the more sinister.

The other disturbing thing to though is throughout most of the episode the kids don’t recognise that they are the bad guys. They see Mr Honey as this enemy because when you think about it every person in town in twisted in some way, that’s what’s normal for riverdale. I think its very telling that the first thing Betty plans to do when thinking of a plan to overthrow Honey and get prom back is look for skeletons. Again she does this because that’s just how Riverdale works, everyone has a secret that they are hiding or some dark past they don’t want anyone to know about and using blackmail to get what you want is just a normal way to deal with things in Riverdale and its been this way for so long now that the kids don’t even see why that’s wrong. I saw alot of comments saying about how they thought the way the kids were behaving with Mr Honey was wrong and that he was in the right most of the time when he was punising the students, like he was right when he punished Cheryl for locking her coach in a room and causing that coach to have a panic attack, the tickle gang were wearing school uniforms in those videos which could give the school a bad rep, he didn’t know that Betty didn’t cheat on the quiz and if as the evidence suggested she had then banning her from prom was the right thing to do. There were some things he did that were very questionable and as I said above I’m not completley sold on him being a good guy. But all these comments are right, for the most part he behaved as a normal strict principal would in most of those situations. But we have to look at it from the kids point of view and remember that the majority of the adults they’ve had in their lives have been abusive or manipulative and done some pretty awful things to them so its not at all surprising that these kids would see Honey’s actions as him being out to get them afterall that’s what a normal adult in riverdale would be doing. I think the most worrying part though is that it almost seemed like on some level the kids didn’t want things to change. For example when Jughead told Honey not to mess with them in their own town or how when Honey pointed out the all the murder, mayhem and depravity in the town was not normal, Betty replied it was normal to them. I feel like the kids are stuck in this limbo where some part of them wants to escape and get out of Riverdale and another part of them is afraid of leaving what is normal to them. Whilst Riverdale and its ways are not normal to the rest of the world its what these kids know and understand. I just thought this idea of holding up a mirrror to the town and showing just how effected the residents of riverdale and the kids in particular was a really interesting one that they explored this episode.

I’m Not So Sure About That

Ok so I do want to quickly talk about the parts that I had a bit of an issue with. Firstly I really didn’t like that Jughead used Reggie’s abuse at the hands of his father as a plotpoint in his story. This story was being sent off to a College where other people, strangers that Reggie doesn’t know will read it. Ok so Jughead was going to change the names but even so something about it seemed wrong to me. I also feel like it is something that happens alot with Jughead’s writing to, he wrote about Jason Blossom without taking into consideration how it might be traumatic for Cheryl to know a book about her brother’s murder at the hands of her father is being read by people worldwide. Especially when she is trying to move on from it. Also he did the same with Betty where he was going to write one about her father which she got understandably upset about. I just feel like we are seeing this pattern of Jughead using his friends’ traumas for his writing without asking them first. Like I understand that he is drawing from his own experiences like he was heavily involved in solving these mysteries but it still didn’t seem right. Like if they had written in a quick scene or line where he talks to those who will be effected and was like hey I want to write this story, I think its important people know this story, I’m going to change the names, is it ok for me to do this, then it might have been a bit better.

The other thing I was conflicted or even confused about was Jughead writing Betty the way he did, as Dark Betty and how ok Betty was with it. Now I did explain above why he might have done this but I’m still somewhat conflicted about it because I feel like this season Betty has really struggled with this whole dark side of herself to the point where she thought she might actually have hurt someone she loved and where she was willing to be hypnotised so she could kill her dark self. It seemed a bit insensitive for Jughead to then write Betty as Dark Betty and I was genuinely confused as to why Betty seemed to like it so much. I feel like she was a bit ooc this episode in that respect and it almost felt to me that she had gone backwards. I mean she had made all this progress before where she had moved on from this darkside of herself she had wanted to move away from the whole murder mysteries and focus more on other things and now its like she is being sucked back in again. I do think some of it is because thats the dynamic of her relationship with Jughead, they go on murder mysteries together and they’re both a little dark and twisted. But I can’t help but wonder if you take that away what’s left? What would their relationship look like without that stuff because I feel like its such a big part of them. I think the other part is as a mentioned above as much as these kids want to escape they also don’t want to leave what’s familiar to them.

The other thing that I found a little odd and this one is minor, but when did Archie tell them about going to the Naval Academy? Because it seemed like a big decision for him but it was kind of just brushed over. I mean Jughead clearly knows about the Naval Academy because he writes into the story and Betty must know to because she didn’t have much of a reaction to reading it. The only thing I could think of is that Archie mentioned he had applied but they don’t know yet if he has got in. I’m pretty sure Jughead in the story said he was going to Iowa but we don’t know if he has got in yet. Obviously in that scene though they had to say they were going for it to fit the scene seeing as they were all listing the colleges they were going to. If that was it though its a bit disappointing as they made a bit of a big deal out of him questioning whether to go and I feel like him telling his friends he’s going would be kind of something we should see. But I guess they still might ave a scene where he confirms he’s going to his friens, we’ll have to wait and see.

The fact that Toni, Fangs and Sweet Pea weren’t included in this episode. I’m assuming that they had some good reason why they weren’t included like scheduling or something but still I would have liked to have seen them in those scenes.

The Bits I liked

Ok so now I want to talk about the bits I liked. I loved the comedy in this episode. Like it was dark humor but it was still good, I laughed alot during this episode at just how ridiculous some of it was and I do think that was the point they weren’t expecting you to take it seriously it was meant to be fun and it was. Some of my favourite moments was Archie suggesting he could sneak up on Honey and knock him out then when it shows the story acting it out Archie just runs straight at him and punches him in the face, no subtlety, no sneaking just pure chaotic energy. Everyone putting up their hands when asked whose got experience dealing with a body before and Reggie commenting on how was he the only one who hadn’t dealt with a dead body before was another golden moment. I also loved the scene when the parents are confronting Honey and FP says he and Tom are just the muscle. I gotta admit as well that as sorry as I felt for him there was something very amusing about seeing Mr Honey being wheeled out of his office while stuck to his chair and with the hand still glued to the phone. There were just so many comedy gold moments throughout the episode.

Reggie. Just Reggie as a person, he was great in this episode I loved every minute he was on screen and I really hope we get to see more of him in season 5.

The scene where the kids recruit the parents and they all come walking slow mo down the hall and then threaten Mr Honey with lawyers and governors and scathing news articles (and of course the muscle) was amazing.

Also the scene with the parents and the kids celebrating at Pop’s was really sweet with everything the parents were saying it did feel a bit like the end of a chapter like the parents are getting ready for their kids to fly the nest.

Season 5 Predictions and Theories.

Ok to finish off I want to talk about what I think might happen next for our Riverdale gang. I’ve based some of this off of the interviews that I have read since watching the episode and on what’s happened in the show already and where I logically think the show can/ will go from here. First I want to address the issue that there’s been some talk that the time jump might not happen. This is based off of an interview RAS gave where the reporter asked if the time jump will still happen and this is what RAS replied:

So obviously this has caused some confusion as to whether the time jump will still happen. I personally feel like even though its going to be more difficult then doing it between seasons it is still something they should do. I feel like it could be a bit of a mess trying to follow them while they are all at colleges miles away from each other. I mean only Toni and Cheryl are going to the same school so they would have to build at least 5 new sets for each of the colleges. I feel like it would be kind of impossible for the group to interact when they are all at different schools. Alternately they do some storyline where none of them go to the colleges they wanted to and they all end up at local colleges which is kinda what they did with Gossip Girl and to be honest it turned into a bit of a mess. By the mid point of the season the audience wasn’t even sure if they were still even in college because they would never go and it just stopped making sense. They could try and draw out a storyline set in the summer right before they go to college up until the midseason finale and then do the 5 year time jump inbetween the mid season break. They did this with Pretty Little Liars and while it was a little jarring it worked slightly better than Gossip Girl trying to follow them through college. My personal preference would be for them to stick with what they planned orignally and finding a way to make that work so still have the time jump after episode 4x22/5x03. It’s not ideal I know but I feel like ultimately it will make more sense from a storytelling point of view. But seeing as it is so uncertain I am going to base my preditions off of the assumption there will be a time jump as planned.

FP and Hermione

So we know that FP and Hermione won’t be in season 5 past episode 3 as the actors are leaving the show. However RAS has confirmed that neither character will die and that he hopes that they may be able to return now and again in the same way that they have Mary Andrews pop in and out when the narrative allows it. So if they aren’t dying how might they be written out of the show. Well this is where the time jump could come in handy. If Veronica goes to Barnard then maybe the Lodges or just Hermione move back to New York to be close to her. When whatever draws them back to Riverdale happens it wouldn’t be unreasonable for Hermione to choose to stay in New York. Maybe Hiram either doesn’t leave Riverdale to start with I mean he is Mayor, or if he did maybe he also comes back to keep an eye on Veronica. As for FP I think with Betty and Jughead going to college maybe FP and Alice decide that they’ve had enough of Riverdale and all the crap they’ve been through and so they decide to move out of town and raise Jelly Bean somewhere a little more kid friendly you know where she might not be murdered or roped into joining a cult or running drugs for a gang. Then when Betty is back in Riverdale maybe Alice comes back to help with whatever is going on.

The Love Square.

So based off the interviews we know that ep 20 was going to be the prom episode, that 21 was one where alot of emotional journeys climaxed and that 22 was graduation. We know that at some point Jughead and Veronica will find out about what happened between Archie and Betty and RAS did confirm two things one was that it won’t be the video tapes that outs them. The second is that they both find out in different ways.

In regards to Veronica and Archie I think Veronica is going to find out in the prom episode. This is what RAS said about it:

From what he is saying here about how we haven’t seen the last of the song Archie wrote for Betty I think it might be the song that gives him away. Now it could be that he sings it at Prom but I’m not sure why he would do that. Realistically you are not going to sing a song that you wrote about your childhood friend who you’ve caught feelings for and who is dating your best guy friend while at prom with your girlfriend. So I feel like someone is either going to find a recording of the song (we know that Archie sometimes records his songs as we’ve seen him play them from a portable recorder and his laptop) or someone will overhear him singing it. This could be Cheryl as she does like to meddle in things and cause some chaos. But maybe whoever hears the song puts Archie on the spot and asks him to sing it at prom leaving him with no other choice. Its possible that Veronica then realises that its not about her and there is some big dramatic blowout between them.A more awkward situation would be if something happens at the prom that prompts Archie’s mum to go on stage and suggest that Archie come up and sing as a way to distract from whatever drama is going down. Trying to be helpful maybe she asks if he can sing that beautiful song he wrote for Veronica. Again this puts Archie right on the spot as now everyone is expecting him to sing and Veronica is there beaming at him thinking he’s written some love song for her only to realise as he sings it that its not actually about her. Maybe this then forces him to come clean to Veronica and then they break up.

Another option is that on Prom day/night Veronica either finds the song, either written in his notebook or a recording of it, or is mother mentions it to her and thats when she realises he’s written a song about someone else. Understandably this puts her in a bit of a bad mood but she doesn’t want to spoil the night so she quietly seeths for a bit until eventually during prom Archie having recognised she’s in a bad mood asks whats wrong and she can’t keep it in anymore and confronts him.

Option 3 is again someone finds the recording and they download it and then play it at prom as oppose to Archie signing it live. I could see a potential scenario like this happening if Cheryl were to find the song and decides she really likes it and wants it to play while she and Toni have their prom queens dance so she just takes it and gives it to the DJ to play. Then we get the same as I’ve said before, Veronica confronts Archie he confesses and they realise their realtionship isn’t going anywhere. I feel like finding out about the kiss will bring up alot of other things they need to talk about too such as where their relationship is going in regards to what happens when they go to college and that kind of thing.

As for Jughead and Betty RAS doesn’t mention anything about them in this interview in regards to prom but in another he does say that when they were looking at the footage of 4x20 to see if they could patch an episode together a big part of the reason why they chose not to was because they hadn’t yet filmed some important character scenes between Archie and Veronica and Betty and Jughead. So we know something important happens between Betty and Jughead during the prom episode but I don’t feel like its actually at prom because RAS said they had already filmed the big event. RAS had also said that after everything happened with Barchie Betty was feeling good about returning to Jughead and that she was trying to reconnect with him. To be honest this makes sense to me and we saw a bit of it in episode 19. I did feel like Betty seemed to be trying a little too hard with Jughead she just seemed more touchy feely with him than she usually is. We all said that we thought she would throw herself back into that relationship and really try to focus on it to distract herself. This is the same behaviour as the last time she and Archie kissed. Just pretend it didn’t happen and put extra attention on her relationship with Jughead. It would also make sense for her to feel good about it as she has convinced herself she made the right choice, Here’s the thing though RAS said trying to reconnect he doesn’t say anything about succeeding in that. Also Betty is being untruthful with Jughead right now by not being honest with him about what happened with Archie. So long as she is being untruthful with him its not going to work between them. Eventually its going to come out and its going to be made worse by the fact that Betty has been lying to him. RAS says this about episode 21:

He also in another interview said this about Betty an Jughead’s relationship:

So I could see a couple of things happening here. One it’s still possible that Jughead finds out about Archie and Betty in the prom episode just maybe not at prom itself. It could be that Veronica finds out earlier in the episode and then Jughead finds out at the very end of the episode and its the cliffhanger for the episode which would leave things unresolved between Betty and Jughead. RAS says that in episode 21 alot of emotional stories climax meaning they come to a head or to the end. He also says before graduation Betty and Jughead have a big, difficult conversation about their future as they are going to different schools. The thing is similar to how I think its going to go with Veronica and Archie I do think that this big, difficult conversation will start off about what happened with Betty and Archie and then evolve from there into a discussion about where there relationship can go from here considering they are going to different schools. I do think it’ll be in episode 21 that Betty and Jughead will break up. As for how I think Jughead might find out we know its different from how Veronica does. Also RAS when asked if Barchie were truly over mentioned how Betty kept her diary which suggests that as we suspected will come back into play. I actually think it’ll be through the diary that Jughead finds out and I think that’s why so much focuss was put on these two items (the song and the diary) in episode 18 because these were the things that were going to reveal the truth about Barchie. I think its possible that at the end of the prom episode they’ve made it home after prom and maybe Betty is grabbing a shower or something and while she’s out the room Jughead knocks the diary off the side or desk and it falls open at the page where Betty wrote about the kiss. As Jughead picks it up off the floor the words catch his eye and he can’t help but read what it says. At that moment is when Betty comes back into the room and Jughead looks up from the diary to her and thats when it cuts to black.

Another option is that Jughead doesn’t find out in ep 20 but in ep 21 they talk about what’s going to happen after graduation and decide they are going to make a long distance thing work. Then either at the end of ep 21 or the beginning of ep 22 he finds out about the kiss through the diary, another way he could see the diary is if someone else finds the diary pages about Barchie and decides to make a photocopy and send it to Jughead, maybe Jellybean is snooping in Betty’s room for some reason and wants to protect her brother but doesn’t want anyone to know she read Betty’s diary so she sends it instead. After a confrontation they then break up.

Then graduation will be this really emotional bittersweet episode where the core four will be broken apart but also coming together to celebrate the end of this stage of their lifes then they will all go their separate ways.

As a quick interjection I have seen some speculation that maybe Jughead and Betty will get engaged. I personally don’t think its likely, I’ve not seen any hints myself that suggest that may happen. I think from the sounds of this difficult conversation they are going to have its more likely they break up and it does seem like the goal was to break up the core four for the time jump. However one scenario where this could happen is if they get engaged before he finds out about Barchie and then they break up after he finds out. While I’ll admit that would bring alot of drama to the show I personally really really don’t want that to happen. The main reason for this is, and I know some might disagree with me here, but one thing I hated, like really hated, last time they kissed in season 2 was how Betty then slept with Jughead before telling him the truth about Archie. Now anyone who has read my barchie analysis for ep 17 will know that I don’t hate characters for making a mistake, so I want to make it clear that I still love Betty and I’m not hating on her when I say this I recognise that she is a young girl who is still making mistakes and growing. But like I said for me I thought it was wrong of Betty to take that next big step with Jughead whilst he was in the dark about the kiss. I feel like he should have been given the option to walk away from her without having taken that next step if he wanted to break up with her because of it. Whilst we know now that Jughead doesn’t break up with her when he finds out there was no way of knowing that at the time. What makes it worse was that Jughead was honest with Betty about how he had done stuff with Toni when they were separated. I just wish Betty had returned the favour and had also been honest. I feel like if she were to get engaged to him without him knowing about what happened with Archie it would be the same situation. I just feel like if you are going to be making these big steps in a relationship then you need to do it with all your cards shown. It kinda reminds me of the situation in this movie I loved growing up called The Wedding Date, if you haven’t seen it then I’m sorry but I’m about to spoil it for you (to be fair it did come out in 2005) so skip this part if you want but its where a bride is revealed to have been sleeping with her sisters ex and cheating on her fiance, the ex also happens to be the grooms best friend, there’s this one scene where the sister confronts the bride when she says she plans to tell her fiance the truth but after the wedding, and the sister sarcastically tells her that she should pick the right time because when he finds out she has been cheating on him ‘he won’t feel like the whole world is collapsing around him and there’s no escape because you tricked him into marrying you.’ I feel like this would be a similar situation if Betty were to accept Jughead’s proposal without telling him that she cheated with Archie. It might make Jughead feel more trapped if they are engaged. With every new step they take together its going to be worse when Jughead does eventually find out. Anyway I feel like I’ve just gone completely off course here. But yeah it could potentially happen, it would definitely be drama filled but while I might be a Barchie shipper I still love Jughead and I would hate to see him crushed like that.

So I’ve spoken about the other two couples so what do I think will happen with Barchie? Well as I said Veronica and Archie will break up in ep 20, Jughead and Betty I reckon will be ep 21 and I think Barchie will come in ep 22. In his interviews RAS said that Betty’s emotional affair with Archie reconfirmed her feelings for Jughead. Again I feel like this makes sense. I said myself that I felt like Betty choosing Jughead had more to do with not wanting to lose Jughead than it did with how she felt about Archie. Thinking back on it, twice now this season Betty has been confronted with this possibilty of losing Jughead, first with his attempted murder and then when she cheated. Jughead isn’t just someone she loves he and their relationship is something familiar to her and so I think she is clinging to that out of fear or not knowing what her life will look like without him in it. She got a small taste of what it was like to be at different schools when he was at Stonewall and it was during these times that she drifted closer to Archie. The thing is she hasn’t yet had to fully comprehend what it’ll be like to lose Archie. I think when she ended it with him at no point did she believe that she could lose Archie by ending it. I think she just knew he would still be there for her even if they weren’t romantically involved. Again this thinking would make sense as the last time they kissed after despite the fact that they didn’t get together he was still there for her. Archie has been this constant in her life and I think in ep 22 there will come a moment maybe at graduation or right after where she will realise this is it, they are going to go their separate ways and that she might not ever see him again. I could see it happen while everyone is sitting around at the graduation after party and they’re all talking about what their plans are next and maybe Archie says something like he’s not sure if he’ll come back to riverdale after he’s done with the navy. I do think they will then have a really emotional goodbye scene where they both admit they have feelings for each other but accept that now just isn’t the right time for them. My ultimate fantasy would be if they then make a pact that in 5 years time they’ll meet back in Riverdale and see where they stand with each other. I do think if they ended the episode there it would be nice follow on for the next episode where it is 5 years in the future.

What Brings Them All Back

So if they do go with the time jump then what is it that could bring them all back to Riverdale 5 years later? The obvious one would be someone is murdered so they all come back for the funeral and end up staying to solve the mystery. I mean its definitely possible but I feel like from some of the interviews and the direction they have taken this season so far that they are setting up the show to have a huge shift in focus. A time jump could be a great way of kind of resetting the show and turning it into something new and well I think they are running out of ideas for the whole murder mystery type genre and I think people are getting a little tired of it too, so they might shift it to focus more on just a drama full of adult life obstacles and problems. No murders or cults or any of that, maybe turn it more into a later seasons gossip girl, One tree hill or 90210 type of show. In that case I can think of three possible reasons why they come back. 1) There is a 5 year high school reunion. 2) At graduation they all made a pact together to all return to riverdale on that exact day 5 years later so they could see where everyone ended up. 3) This ones my favourtie, what if Choni are getting married and they all come back for the wedding. Whatever the reason for them coming back I do feel like something will happen that will keep them all there. It could be like a One Tree Hill type thing where they came back because nathan was injured but found reasons to stay for example Peyton wanted to open her own recording label and said she needed inspiration which One tree hill was giving her (but lets be honest she also stayed for lucas). Brooke stays because she decides to open a store there. I could see something similar happening here. If they do a time jump of five years to skip over their time in college then they still have a problem with one of the characters Archie. When Brooke (the woman from the navy academy) told him about the navy academy she said it was four years at the academy and then five years on active duty in the navy. That means 9 years away so if the time jump is only 5 years then Archie will still be in his first year of active duty in the navy. However it is possible that they will go with a storyline where Archie is injured in his first year of active duty and has to be medically discharged from the navy or at the very least take time off to recover. This could be what brings the rest of them back to riverdale as they all want to help and support Archie in his recovery. It would be a rather tragic stroyline for Archie as he would go through all that training, work on his boxing career only for it to all be torn away from him. If they do it right it could be a very emotional and moving storyline and it would take the show in a different direction but still have storylines that the audience can get invested in. They could make the show more about human emotions and real life struggles and the relationships of the characters as oppose to all the wacky, strange mysterious murder stuff.

So that is where I could see Archie being post time jump, he went the academy things went really well for him, then during his first year of active duty a sustains a life changing injury. He then has to go on this journey of dealing with this traumatic event thats happened to him and recovering from his injury. It would be a story about healing.

As for Veronica I think she would have graduated from Barnard with a business degree and would now be foucced on growing her La Bonne Nuit into a franchise or something similar to that. Or maybe La Bonne Nuit isn’t doing so well so she wants to reinvitalise it and restore it to its former glory. I do think she’ll return to Riverdale engaged though. Likely to a rich and ambitious kind of fellow. I also feel like either she would have already gotten close to Jughead over the break or she will start to get close to Jughead when they are all back. I think this joint betrayal will bring them closer together. I don’t know if it would be a romantic situation but if they did do that I could see them as doing something similar to Spencer and Caleb on PLL in the sense of they have both broken up with their S/O and are feeling lost and end up connecting with each other. Now I don’t think their relationship would neccessarily go the same way as Spaleb went but I could see it starting out the same way in that they connect through the hurt they are feeling about their break ups.

Jughead I could see struggling to get a book published after leaving Barnard or maybe it’ll be the same thing as Lucas on OTH where he’s had one book that’s done really well but now the pressure is on him to give his publishers another one. Maybe this is why he stays in Riverdale as a way of drawing inspiration.

As for Betty again she would have graduated from Yale. I could see her going one of two ways, either shes looking into journalism or I do think she could start training with the FBI. It would be a good way of tying Charles back into the storyline if he doesn’t turn out to be evil and it does seem to me like Betty really enjoys being in the Junior FBI program. We also know how much she loves to solve mysteries so I could definitely see Betty coming back as an FBI agent.

Choni as I mentioned above I feel like they will be getting married. I think they’ll probably still have custody of the twins who will be much older now which could be quite fun to see. As for job wise I’m not sure where they’d be. I’m assuming Cheryl will still be doing the family Maple business. Maybe Toni goes into photography of something like that, I’m sure there was a storyline where she said she liked photography when we first met her, but I could be wrong on that. I feel like Cheryl probably kept in touch with Betty over the years and Toni probably kept in touch with Jughead.

So yeah that’s what my predictions for season 5 are.

Final Thoughts

So overall I thought this last episode was really good. It was a fun episode to end on. A huge well done to Madchen because she did an amazing job directing this episode, not that I’m surprised she is an absolute queen afterall. It would have been nice to see the prom and graduation but I’m happy knowing that we will get to see them in season 5. I think this season as a whole was good. I thought the storyline around Stonewall Prep was really interesting and I am intrigued to know who is behind the video tapes. I loved that we got to see Charles and that he has been interacting with Jughead and Betty, I think seeing that sibling bond grow has been fun, lets just keep our fingers crossed it doesn’t all end in tears. Obviously I loved the Barchie storyline we got and I am glad that they seem to be changing things up in the show. I think it was starting to feel a little stagnant and stale and I do think that by changing up the relationships and having different characters interact with each other like Toni and Reggie, and Veronica and Cheryl, I think we need to see some more variety in the interactions in the show. Also it does seem to me like that might move away from the murder mystery part of it which could be interesting. I do think this whole idea of them forcing the characters to see the darkness of Riverdale is what will ultimately make the characters change their ways and heal Riverdale. I do think season 5 could be a season about healing, the town healing, the people healing and the relationships healing. So thats it for now, we’ve got a bit of a wait but as always thank you so much to everyone who read to the end of this.

#riverdale #riverdale spoilers #riverdale theories #barchie

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