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orangenfrottee · 4 years

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Hey ho there, feel free to ignore this and I hope I'm not bugging you as I awkwardly slide in here, but I must ask: if you had full creative control of the show, how would you run season 5? You can pick and choose whatever leaks you want to include.

Ah!!! Thank you for your ask <3 I might have spent a couple nights typing out my answer, but in short: I'd cherry pick old story arcs, bring back everyone I like and who doesn't run when they hear Riverdale's calling.

I'd definitely get some decent writers (I'm partial to Jane Espenson, but no idea if she'd be a good fit) and definitely some diversity. I might accidentally fire all men and then play up all their shitty recurring themes for fun as a weird inside joke between me and the show.

I think if they ever gave me creative control of the show it would swerf hard to the crazy and not leave that lane because honestly, i think that's what Riverdale does best.

So, where would I start...

Instead of giving season four a decent ending, I would start with an extra long pilot with the title 'previously on' where the best and most important bits of the teens' school lives is shown with a heavy focus on Jason and the Farm. Parallely, we get to see the lovestory of Chic and Charles. The episode ends with a few very short scenes of the prom where everyone's happy and pretty.

Then we'd start on the real season five. It's been seven years and our characters are older and more grown up.

The show would at first only present the present lifesbof our characters and the barest bones structure to keep as much a little mysterious as possible (but here I tell you what happened during timeskip, too).

Archie is often considered the main character, so let's start with him:

Archie went to the Army after school (though he didn't actually pass his exams and thus didn't graduate, Mr Honey was quite amused). On his most recent tour he met someone special: Eric, his new friend.

Archie was wounded in battle with a... giant mutated elephant with sharp teeth and hallucinogenic venom. Or something. He isn't really sure what happened, but he's got a huge new scar all over his torso. The abs stayed in tact, but oh his pride. During recovery he met new wheelchair user (and on occasion crutches) Eric who has trouble walking since his legs are misshapen/he only has one. Archie thinks Eric got maimed by the same elephant he was, but thinks it rude to ask.

For Eric I'm picturing Sabrina's Ambrose.

With his hurt pride, Archie can't stay with the military and decides to go back to Riverdale.

Eric doesn't have a place to go, so Archie invites him along.

They need a job and since Eric has a calendar full of sexy half naked firefighters AND since they both have abs, Archie decides that type of uniform is the perfect fit for them and trades his newly renovated and well running boxing gym against the old fire station Penelope Blossom owns. (Literally, they even meet at Pop's to exchange keys and sign papers Penelope brought that Archie doesn't even skim.)

The fire station is quite out of everything, but it has a huge pool Eric likes to swim in and a fire truck. To make ends meet Archie sells his sperm to the Greendale sperm bank.

Archie is of course in love with Eric but unfamiliar with the concept of bisexuality and struggles to identify his attraction for what it is. Eric is a foreigner to Riverdale (or is he?) and unfamiliar with the town's culture and quirks. Still, something going on in Sweetwater River seems to be related to him.

Archie and Eric share the Andrews' House - and in the house next door... live Gladys Jones and Polly Cooper!

After Jughead and Betty left for College Alice' horrid mom impulses settled on Jellybean who didn't stand back, grind her teeth and took it but instead broke Alice' teeth. Her and FP were not amused (though FP was also angry at Alice for being too strict). Alice moves out but stays as a journalist in town.

FP gets in trouble for being a brutal gang leader without a gang beating up criminals behind the boxing gym on tape. Not wanting to go to an illegal fighting club prison, he hides with Canadian Serpents behind the border. (Joaquin's identical twin brother and Ricky live there, too. They're happy there.)

Maybe he'd call once or twice with misleading wrong snake facts that have nothing to do with the current mystery of the episode but fit into perfectly by chance.

Jellybean was invited along, but she chose to stay because she thinks Riverdale is rad and the old Cooper House is luxurious as hell. Also, her mom came back to become the new Sheriff!

Nearly seven years in, Gladys still holds the position because no one legally qualified wants it and she manages to keep gang violence at an all time low for Riverdale. Plus, she and Mary Andrews are not exactly friends but able to work well together. When there's another serial killer running wild in town she has no problem with having another girlfriend of Mary who happens to be a skilled professional in the most relevant field take over for a bit. If needed, the Riverdale gangs are usually willing to add muscle to good causes, too.

Jellybean has left Riverdale for university and will only be present for holidays and breaks. She'd still be played by Trinity because I love her and honestly, real nineteen year olds look like fourteen year olds everywhere in the world. Also this gives the viewers 'Archie vision': he will always see his best friend's toddling baby sister in the young woman which makes her the only undatable (legal) female on this planet for him.

While attending Riverdale High she lead the Andrews Boxing Gym and made it the most successful gym in the area. It won't be a plot point in the show (apart from her being angry at Archie for just trading it against trash) but there will be framed newspaper articlesband the like in Gladys' house.

Around the time everyone graduated, Polly was released from Shady Grooves and is back to her old smart self - and really missing her babies! As Choni leave for whatever private college Blossom women have always gone to, Polly takes them and goes home - just to learn on the porch that not only did her mother sell her childhood home more than a year ago without anyone ever telling her, the college fund she never had gotten legal access to and planned to use for the twins is gone too and her sister left town without saying goodbye.

Gladys has always taken care of all the stray kids she found no matter how tight the budget was and now there's this young desolate mother with twin toddlers in front of her posh murder house she'd gotten for cheap and she has this new gig as sheriff. Of course, she takes them in.

They stay in Betty's old room at first, but they soon get to remodel the attic to give Polly her own room. At present, Dagwood has Polly/Chic/JB's old room and Juniper the one facing Archie's. (When Archie sees her in the room, he actually has a flashback once to when he and Betty used to be so young, but then Juniper turns her gead, stares at him really creepily and smiles weirdly. Archie will be somewhat scared from then onwards and be reminded of when everyone thought Polly might gave killed Jason. Juniper would murder.)

At first, Polly's a full time, stay at home mom, but once the kids are older, she starts working part-time: for Gladys.

It turns out they work amazing together. Gladys tends to jump to convenient conclusions and threatens violence way to freely. Also, she is intimidating as fuck.

Polly is everything she isn't: level headed (to a point, in comparison at least), brilliant at combining clues and steering people (remember how she infiltrated Thornhill and made Cheryl unknowingly assist in her snooping plans?). On top of that, she has these stepford smiles and all the ways to appear unthreatening drillend into her head. Honestly, she and Betty are quite alike. While Betty has the lockpicking skills and knows her way around cars, Polly used to be really into fashion (or something) and, with all her experiences at the Sisters, the Farm and Shady Groves, Polly knows psychology.

She started solving some of Gladys' cases at the breakfast table, but now she's officially a deputy or an advisor or something. They're essentially like FP and Jughead, just that Polly is an adult (and that she wouldn't be in a gang beating suspects up regularly).

(These characters would all be mostly in the background though.)

Veronica finally gained perspective on her relationship to her father and grew up. Hiram's cut out of her life for good. They won't ever interact. (In fact, Hiram either moved to New York or he had a minor traffic accident where he lost all of his memory for good and now lives as Ram Rod and works as a trainer at Penelope's newly acquired boxing gym. Everyone is confused about it but doesn't care to ask.)

Veronica is successful at whatever she's doing and doesn't plan on ever moving back to Riverdale, but maybe something is up at Pop's that requires her checking up on in person and she just happens to cross paths with Betty who is also just there for the weekend. And they haven't had quality time together for years, because it's so hard to stay in contact sometimes even with people you love so much you'd die to keep them safe.

If I could come up with something meaningful for them to catch up on emotionally, I'd have them sitting together in a booth at Pop's for a whole episode just talking (but I'm not that deep).

Veronica might be engaged, but we see it fall through without really getting to meet the guy. She mostly just talks to Betty about him on occasion but in a somewhat messed up way. Ultimately, she realises how she treats him in some regards like Hiram treated her and her mother. She wants to grow up further and not be like her father anymore. Since the fiance was only a trophy pawn, she breaks it off and concentrates on introspection/ maybe therapy for a bit.

Later that season her sister comes back and surprise: Hermosa embraced becoming Daddy.

(These would have to be restricted to two half episodes only, she definitely deserves story arcs that aren't about her dad.)

Careerwise: she has a couple businesses, maybe a restaurant chain or a franchise and she seems to collect startups. She reinvests a lot and has to travel quite a bit but can work remotely too.

Everyone seems to want FBI agent Betty and if I'd go that route I'd have her demask Charles as the fraude fake FBI who hires guns for hire and fake emergency teams while making up fantasy horror stories about serial killer genes to scare his biological family into killing each other that I wholeheartedly believe he is. But I also like Betty's interest in mechanics and would love for her to have a career in mechanical engineering. Maybe she switched majors at uni and now works for a company developing prosthetics. Maybe she tries to get Eric into joining a study. (I mean, prosthetic legs would help his work as a fire fighter...).

She's in town to visit Polly and the twins but after talking to Veronica she spontaneously stays in town. She can do her work remotely, really. The two of them move into a two bedroom 'shared bnb' (or whatever it was called in season two) and we finally get to see their friendship on screen.

Betty isn't in a relationship at the moment abd she's so into her work, she isn't looking for one either.

Jughead had broken up with Betty seven years ago and never really had a well working relationship after. He's grown obsessed with finding a way to recreate what he had with Betty.

Not in a totally creepy psycho way, he's simply not understanding that he might be sex positive and he had been in love with Betty, but he is ace and quite aro, too. It doesn't help, that he finds people sexually attractive on their online profiles just to be repulsed by the tought of even kissing them goodbye in person.

(I don't think tv is generally a fitting medium for this, but I guess he can narrate for himself and make it work.)

I guess he has to be an author. Obsessed as he is about finding love again (he wouldn't call it like that) he figures it had either been the location or the constant fear for his life. He chooses to return to Riverdale. He probably instantly moves with everything he owns to Riverdale (not that it's much beside a modern laptop, the typewriter and his camera).

Archie gives the great advice how Jughead is obviously still innlove with Betty, duh.

He of course runs into Betty some day, they end up investigating some random murder together and find themselves in familiar positions and kiss - but it just isn't there anymore. Jughead feels nothing and Betty isn't really into it either.

Veronica later points him in the direction of maybe not being allo (because she used to question herself as aro).

Funfact: Jughead would have failed graduation with Archie if Mr Honey didn't forge some records that weren't actually submitted from Stonewall (they claim all records were deleted during a power outage). Jughead knows and is deeply shamed.

Thornhill has been renovated! Toni is pregnant! Choni will be raising their kids (surprise, it's going to be twins!) in Cheryl's ancestral home. Choni are married and happy.

Toni has reopened the White Worm with Fangs somewhere at the Southside and yes, let's make her the official Serpent Queen. Let her work lots of social causes (remember toys for tots?), grey area rule bending for good and of course she works well with Gladys. I've seen talk about her being a social worker floating around and honestly, I think that works amazing. She's working the local cases (and a few unofficial ones) and I think she and Cheryl are registered foster parents. On occasion (like once) they'd be shown taking care of a random kid.

Cheryl used her College time to study two things: business and Riverdale town history. Remember how in season two she took so much pride in her ancestors because she believed them to be good people? She might be disillusioned but she is the Blossom heiress and her and Toni's as well as Jason's kids will one day inherit a better family legacy. She'll invest in Southside rebuilding projects, advocate for new town memorials, maybe rebrand some of the Blossom product lines. Something like that

She won't run for mayor yet, but she's definitely invested in (local) politics.

Of course the pregnancy was with artificial insemination, the donor was either an unsuspecting red head from the Greendale Sperm Bank or they use some of Jason's that has surly been saved to guarantee the Blossom line when everywhere was scary talk about sperm counts going down due to mobile phones.

In addition: the maple factories need worker bees! Cheryl has a few programs with Toni to get Serpents/random Riverdalians newly released from prison or just with bad luck into a steady job and a cushy appartement overlooking the ex prison on the Southside. Pop's is also participating. Ethel works as a landlady for said appartement complex.

Also, why not add a second Blossom-Topaz lovestory to underline this incest-adjacent show and bring back Toni's grandpa and set him up with Nana Blossom. XD

Then during this season's arc, the Blossom uncle's corpse will be found in the river and the mistery is whether the FBI will figure out who the corpse us and what happened or not.

I love Reggie. Since Varchie is unlikely thanks to Eric, him and Veronica rekindling their relationship would definitely be a possibility I'm into, but he also seems to have an interesting connection with Kevin and Fangs that could be built on.

He would definitely have a car he'd love very much and I think it would still be Bella.

I'm not sure about his career, but it wouldn't include his father's car dealership. Maybe he'd be a successful movie star just in town between movie shootings.

Kevin was doing something with musicals on Katy Keene, I think? Writing or directing? He was trying to nake it big, but some plans fell through. Now he's back in Riverdale. Luckily, they are just about to open Riverdale's first theater in the relatively newly built but forever closed prison. Next to the Southside Theater the complex holds a mall and the White Worm.

Fangs works full time as the manager of the WW that he co-owns with Toni. He meets Kevin again once he's back in town.

Sweet-Pea somehow ended up as a junior doctor at the Riverdale hospital. He spends all of his scarce free time at the WW.

Some of the background Pretty Poisons officially work for the police now. Different than Gladys, they are actually ccccc for the positions they hold.

Peaches works as a manager for one of Cheryl's companies. She's happily married and has a kid (or something).

How long in prison do you get in the US for standing in as the head figure of a crazy pen and paper cult that has literal murders committed in his name? As a blond white dude probably just parole? So honestly, once they actually bring his case to court (and they have nothing against him because anyone could have been under the mask at any one time and people know of different gargoyle kings) he's released of all charges. No one in Riverdale actually knows though since his case took forever, Bughead had already left Riverdale and Alice didn't step up to follow the case. No one wrote about it, so no one knows. They just assume that of course the guy will be locked away forever, he's guilty.

In reality, he and Charles have bought a house somewhere in a different street of Riverdale where they aren't quite known and have adopted a couple kids.

Charles meets Alice regularly for lunch and she thinks he's this workaholic FBI agent only living for solving crime. They play a long con game I don't know the goal of.

(They have been behind the tapes even if that storyline gets totally ignored. They pretend FP being in exile is their doing, but the tape responsible was just a random security camera in the area.)

Josie's plans in New York sadly fell through (I haven't seen any Katy Keene but I want her back)

Lot's of bonding scenes with her brother Kevin who's also back in town. The two share a flat and on occasion burst into song together. Since I've already invented the Southside Theater, maybe she'd find a job there, too.

Val and Melody stayed in Riverdale aftee highschool and made careers in town for themselves. Maybe Melody at city hall and Val as a marketing specialist at the farm, Riverdale's most outstanding new grocery mart. Half of all Riverdalians don't get the controversy of the name, the others either think it's brilliant or tasteless. (Kevin for example has repressed the nemories so gard, he doesn't get it. Josie is very protective and angry at Val for working there.) The store belongs to the eccentric redhaired Eva Everafter or whatever pseudonym Evelyn can come up with to thinly hide her identity behind.

Somewhere in it I'd throw in a few lines vaguely referencing older happenings like "I still can't drink tap water" and the very first time Veronica sees Archie again after seven years she identifies him through his ab muscles.

So in short: Archie would be very dumb, everyone else is just there.

Also: Pop's would serve 50% vegan burgers and milkshakes so I could dig in with gusto.

#riverdale speculation #riverdale fanfiction #riverdale #asks #arsenicpanda #fun #my writing #i guess

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cartoonfangirl1218 · 4 years

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Riverdale should have been a Disney show

Riverdale should have been a Disney show. There I said it. I'll admit the first season was fine Great even. Self-contained with an intriguing mystery and you waited at the edge of your seat for what will happen next. But then... Part of the problem for me is because I've read the original comics since I was a girl. I still do get some from my mom, and the way they have changed the characters just bug me.Betty used to be the girl next door, always hopeful, smart, trying to figure out the mystery. And it was perfect that she was a reporter because Betty was always someone who valued honesty so her being the roving reporter was perfect. And her taking pills for anxiety or some sort of disorder was also a nice take because she does take on so much, and tries so hard to help and be good and nice and perfect. All the stress. Archie was also great in the first season. A bit horny, but he means well, and he truly is an average American boy so his big trouble of choosing between music and football. He's a klutz and sometimes his plans go sideways but he means well, he's all for family and Riverdale and school spirit. None of this whole Red Hood/semi mafia/wrestling nonsense. I actually really liked their take on Veronica, she still a bit materialistic and thinks she can depend on her wealth to get her out of trouble but I do like their take on trying to be enterneauripal and working to act less high class society girl as she was used to.

Jughead, I'm conflicted with. Because he's good I guess as a brooding, investigative journalist he's good. It fits the setting of the show. But I do have a soft spot for him as the sane man to Archie. Going about his business, surprisingly philosophical. And you can't forget the most important attribute to him. His love of food! I miss that. Like the one scene in season 1, I forget what exactly but basically he ordered burgers and when Cole Sprouse just protectively held the burger to him...such a nice touch. That sort of guy I can see as a DCOM. The genius ditz I guess it's called. But he's not dumb. He just prefers napping to being awake.

Now the others...omg.I have a bone to pick when it comes to the other characters in Riverdale. Josie and the Pussycats-- they are such lively musicians who solve crimes, sometimes in space. ABsolutely wasted here. Melody barely had any lines. And they didn't have Alex or Alexandra Cabot which was such a shame. I know, I know they're in the new Katy Keene show but having them be step-siblings who used to date is wrong and weird and bad and no! Stop having the twins in these shows with vaguly incesteous feelings. It's weird!

Kevin Keller, all his storylines revolve around his bfs or lack of bfs or how much he wants a bf. The Kevin of Archie comics was so much more well-rounded. He was head of ROTC, he was class president, he ran marathons, he was Veronica's bff, he was a reporter. He had an appetite to match Jughead's. He even had a brief crush on Jughead! He was so much better than this sham. He was confident in who he was and did his best to help others feel good about themselves too because he knows not everyone is lucky to come out as LGTBQ in a supportive environment.

Reggie. I think not giving him enough of an arc in season 1 really backfired because if he appears, it's only as Veronica's arm candy. Which is a shame because he is a good contrast to Archie. A bit richer yet a cheapskate. Thinks he's a casanova, loves being the class prankster. A modern day politician with his sweet words when all he cares about himself. Basically like

Yet he has his hidden depths with his neglectful workaholic parents and jealousy of Archie's popularity. Cheryl. Omg Cheryl. They have ruined you here. I'm sorry, I do NOT find any of her lines iconic. It's like she swallowed urban dictionary and a gothic novel and came out all jumbled in a google translate. She may be abused but the way she still treats others like shit and gaslights her gf and makes everything about her is just...ugh!!! OMg, comics Cheryl is actually fun and iconic. She's as rich and pretty as Veronica and unafraid to use it. She wants to be a star like a modern day influencer. She's a red-haired Sharpay Evans basically.

Also Jason, her twin whom they sadly killed off. He was also fun like a meaner, snobbier version of Reggie. But with a huge crush on Betty which I think could have been used to milk such drama.

Polly also got hit badly. She was a good older sister. She was a reporter, and inspired Betty's enviormental-feminist activities. A sane person. Not a cult worshipping cuckoo. Toni Topaz, ah she was so good in season 2 and then they made her Cheryl's arm candy. Alas. I liked her as a friend to Jughead. In the comics, she was his equal in food contests. That's no small feat. She was cool, and joined Betty's band and... she was her own person. Remember when Toni used to be a photographer for the South Side paper. Yeah. Basically Toni as a 3d character with personality. Please return.

Dilton. Oh Dilton. Once the smartest person in the Archie universe and they turned you into a survival freak to get killed by the gargoyle king. Or whomever. I just remember he got killed somehow. Honestly, they should have stuck to smart Dilton. They need a smart scientist there, cuz no one is using their brains in Riverdale.

Chuck. They have done you SUCH A DISSERVICE! So so bad. Chuck was a good person! He was a cartoonist, and a basketball player and Archie's friend. (Yeah, that's right Archie has friends in the comics. Even though Riverdale makes some effort to show Archie and Jug's bond, they're mainly consorting with their gfs. In the comics, they had guy nights. Reggie, Chuck, Kevin, Dilton, Moose. Come on show. Friendships are just as important.) And what did they do, make him a lying scumbag, turn him good and then have him arrested because of what Cheryl did! No, no no. Bad writers. Just no. Ethel Muggs. You have also been wronged in season 3. Making her a crazy freak. Ethel in season 1 was nice. Ethel in the comics is nice. Plain but with a good heart even though she had a slightly obsessive crush on Jughead. Here, making her cult worshipper.... smdh. Okay at this point I know I sound like a bitter, bitter person complaining how it'S nOt liKE tHe cOmICs. But hey, I admit season 1 was good even if they changed the characters a bit. It’s just that I watched Riverdale because of the property it derived from. Because of the comics. At the least I expected some faithfulness to the characters. Not make them all so inconsistent and crazy.

It's just the writing is so inconsistent! The plots hop around and so do their moods. Bughead and Choni broke up for one episode and then they got right back together. Even though they had VALID reasons to break up. Nope. That made fans mad. So they had to get back together. Ugh. And Archie got attacked by a bear and was so traumatized that he broke up with Veronica because "he's changed" for like two episodes before forgetting about it and going back to Veronica. Oh which brings me to the ridiculous "love triangle" of Archie/Reggie/Veronica where she couldn't choose. Please, Archie and Veronica were reuniting and planning to go run away for a weekend together. Reggie was completely forgotten until he walked in on them. And Veronica couldn't decide because she loves them both? No, she didn't. She may have felt bad to tell Reggie but it's not because she loved him. Forgetting a guy so quickly...yeah great proof of love. Horniness maybe. But her indecisiveness makes her look bad. Don’t tease a will they, won’t they when the answer is so obvious. If you're going to do something like that, you should have there be something called CONSEQUENCES! They can get back together but at least wait. Wait 8 episodes at least so they can have character development. But who am I kidding. Character development is not the goal of this show. The character's just move because the writer's want them too not because it fits their personalities. Such as Archie's grieved reaction for baby Teeth in season 3.

Not only do I have no idea when (the ridiculously named) Baby Teeth appeared, much less why Archie or I should care about his death. But sometimes the show juggles too much. Too many characters. Too many plots. It's all so ugh!!! So my final thought on this is... Riverdale should have been a disney channel sitcom. Archie comics are about family friendly entertainment and sometimes imparted lessons... well so does Disney. I get the appeal of having Riverdale reach a new teen generation, but from what I can see the only big thing Riverdale on CW is that it allows alcohol and gartituous sex scenes.

Which is another small gripe of mine. I can handle sex scenes (hello Magic Mike XXL) but so many at such inappropriate moments too It's like that scene in an action movie where they suddenly kiss when they should be running for their lives. No teen is that horny all the time. Plus there's always less is more. If one kisses so much it loses the meaning. If you think your shirtless Archie is going to distract me from lack of plot haha. No. Plot and consistency still sucks and shirtless Archie does not make it better.

But Riverdale as a Disney show can work. After all the comic stories are a bit formulaic. It's all high school hijinks. And all the characters fit an archetype. Archie, the protagonist. Veronica, the fashionista. Betty, the reporter. Jughead, the slacker. Reggie, the class clown/bad friend. Cheryl, the Sharpay, Kevin, the sane one. And if people want a season long story arc with dramatics, Disney can actually handle it too. After all they had the mysterious "threat' lurking in the background of My babysitter's a vampire season 2. Or the Juliet and Mason saga of Wizards of Waverly Place. And if people want adult situations, look on to Jessie. Rewatching an episode now, there were so many adult jokes and references that flew over my head so they could sneak those in. Heck, Disney channel is infamous for all the innuendos they manage. And they handle consistency. Cody and Bailey broke up in Suite life on deck, they actually stayed broken up for a good half season. Gabe matured from a prankster tween to teen in love in Good Luck Charlie. Actions have consequences, characters grow. Storytelling 101

And the best part is they don't even have to think too hard for the plots of the week. They literally can build on stories from the comics. All 80 years of it. And I have put some examples right here from my own Archie comics. Like Veronica literally being the fashion police.

Veronica and Cheryl teaming up + rolling around in their money.

Cheryl changing the Cherry Blossom Festival to the Cheryl Blossom Festival

Archie doing his classic Valentine's Day mix up

Veronica and Betty buy Cheryl’s maid service when her father forces her to get a job.

Jughead and Trula (Jughead's nemesis & psychoanalyst in training) get amnesia and become friends.

A boy dares to change Veronica

Jughead falls in love with the lunch-lady

Betty and Veronica pretending to be distressed damsels to get Archie's attention (it backfires)

Toni and Jughead foil each other in a food eating contest.

Betty's cast causes more pain to other students

Reggie dates Cheryl (for real)

Reggie helps Kevin dress for the dance and his mystery date

Riverdale Shore.

Cabot vs Lodge

I think all this pretty much illustrates my point. Archie comics equals Disney sitcom all by itself.

#Anti Riverdale #my opinions #random musings #salty rant #archie comics

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where-theres-smoak-2 · 4 years

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Riverdale 5x03 Review

Wow I’ve got to say I’m actually impressed with Riverdale this episode, I really enjoyed it and I got emotional soo many times. I think it was well written for the most part and a really good send off for the characters as teenagers. I think it would have hit even harder if it had aired as a season finale like it was meant to but overall I really liked this episode which I’m glad because I was a little wary going into it after 5x02 which I didn’t really enjoy that much. Anyway we’ve got lots to talk about so lets jump in. As always these are just my own views and opinions and naturally there are spoilers.

Jelly Bean and FP.

So first I figured we can talk about the fallout from last episode and the reveal that Jelly Bean was behind the tapes. One little thing that did make me laugh a was when Jughead is narrating over the opening and he talks about the darkness in the people of the town and he lists Cliff Blossom, The Black Hood, The Gargoyle King and The Stonies you know all these murders and attempted murders and then he adds Jelly Bean to the list. I mean Jughead sweetie I get that you are upset about your sister making those tapes and that’s completely understandable I’m just not sure its quite on the same level as all the other people in the list in the grand scheme of things. I mean I get what the writers were trying to get at with that statement but it just tickled me a little is all, don’t think it was supposed to but well I’m weird, I’m a weirdo so I found it funny and kinda overdramatic. But onto more serious things I actually loved the way Alice and FP handled the situation I mean kudos to Alice for doing the right thing and suggesting not just therapy but a therapist that specialises in child therapy. I think that is exactly what Jelly Bean needs (and all of the characters really) so I’m really glad that Alice suggested that. At the same time I do think FP was right in deciding to take Jelly Bean back to her mum and stay so that Jelly bean has the support of both of her parents there. I do think that alot of Jelly Bean’s anxiety about Jughead leaving comes from her abandonment issues. If you think about it first her family is split in two with her being in Toledo with her mum and her brother and dad being in Riverdale, then her family comes back together again and she’s then abandoned by her mother. Then her brother leaves to go to school and is nearly killed. All of this was probably really traumatic for her and obviously had a huge effect on her. I think having a stable support system away from Riverdale and its influences for a little while will be good for her and help her recover with some help from therapy, lots of therapy.

One thing I didn’t really understand and think could have been better explained is what happened with Jelly Bean’s friends. I mean for one thing we are never told why they are hiding out in Archie’s gym like don’t they have homes? Also they had Tom Keller reinstated as Sheriff and they took him with them to find the kids so does that mean they were arrested? And if they were arrested then why did Jelly Bean get off scott free? I have so many questions about that scene.

FP’s send off was really well done in my opinion. I had a lot of respect for him putting his foot down and telling Jughead no he was going to Iowa when Jug said he wanted to go to Toledo with his dad and Jelly Bean. Also that speech about how Jug going to College and being successful will be good for the Joneses is so true. I mean seeing Jughead go to college and making something of himself will give Jelly Bean something to look up to and for her to know that just because she comes from a family that is underpriveledge doesn’t mean that she can’t strive for success and chase her dreams and I think that is an amazing message to send. That being said seeing FP and Jughead say good bye was really sad and you could feel the emotion in that scene of a father having to let go of his son and let him make his own way now and also Jughead’s worry about going out on his own again and being without his family. It was just a touching scene and one that I relate to so much because it reminded me of when I said goodbye to my mum when I went to Uni and that mix of excitement and terror at having to be on my own, I left home at 16 but I had never been that far away from my family before so despite knowing that I could take care of myself (I had already taken care of myself for 3 years at this point) I was still really anxious at being away from my mum so I could really relate to Jughead in that moment. He knows he can take care of himself he’s done it before but that doesn’t mean that he isn’t anxious about not being in the same town as his dad anymore.

Speaking of heartbreaking scenes Alice saying goodbye to FP. It was beautiful, sad and yet hopeful at the same time. I mean when she asked if this was the end of their story and he replied ‘god, I hope not’ it really made me tear up. Also I love that Alice understood why he needed to do this and even says she loves him for it. FP has grown so much over the last 4 seasons and now he’s become a man who will do anything for his kids and I think Alice really does love that about him. Also I’m going to be honest I felt so bad for Alice this episode especially when she was talking about how she had imagined Thanksgiving and having her whole family there Betty and Polly and the twins, Jughead, Jelly Bean, FP and Charles and now she’s going to be alone that is just so sad and feel really bad for Alice despite mistakes she may have made in the past she doesn’t deserve the deal she’s been dealt. Also as a side note I’m glad they at least made a small mention of Charles and how Alice is sad about that situation, I actually wasn’t expecting his name to be dropped at all this episode so it was better than nothing.

The last thing I will say about this plotline is that I loved the shot of FP and Jelly Bean riding away in their Serpent jackets and being escorted by the Serpents. It gave a feel of royalty on the move like a motorcade or something which I thought was a nice touch and a little reminder of how Serpents stick by each other.

The Graduation

Obviously the big theme of this episode was the teens graduating and those scenes were really touching. First there was the whole debate about whether Jug and Arch would be graduating. I was happy for Jug but felt so bad for Archie when he find out that not only was he not graduating but he would have to repeat his whole senior year. I do like that Mr Weatherby reassured him that nobody would hold the year against Archie because Archie really did have a crappy year so it’s not really surprising he isn’t able to graduate. I’m also glad that Weatherby said he could walk with his friends and wanted to make him feel included by asking him to write and record a song for the ceremony. I’m also really glad that they got to have their year books.

But what I think made these moments so much more emotional were all the little nods to both Jason and Fred. I got the feels so much when Archie was standing in the hall looking around at all the other teens with their parents and fathers and you could just see that in that moment he was really missing his dad. Another moment that was really sad for me was a little earlier in the episode when Archie has the same dream his dad had when he had been shot and its fred taking pictures for Graduation and says he never thought he’d live to see this day. It is so heartbreaking because he really didn’t and its not fair. Also Cheryl was in her feels about her brother. I mean it must make her really miss Jason when you think he should have been graduating alongside her.

Betty’s speech at the ceremony was good too. There were so many moments in there that punched you right to the gut. When she talked about how it wasn’t fair that so many of their classmates weren’t there to walk with them, I couldn’t help but think of Jason, Midge, Ben, Dilton Doiley and even characters who didn’t die but left riverdale just to escape like Moose and Josie. Then she gives another punch to the heart when she talks about how its not fair that some of their parents aren’t there to see them and I’m back in my Fred feels. I also liked how she said she hoped the Riverdale they all remembered was the sleepy quiet town that existed before all the violence and how she wishes that town for the next generation. But my favourite part of her speech was when she said to stay young to stay innocent even if it was just for a moment.

Another scene I really liked was when they buried the time capsule. I liked all the items they placed in there, I don’t think that they would be much help to teens opening it in the future to see what it was like back then but each item was personal to each character and I really liked that.

Cheryl, Toni and the Blossom Legacy.

First off can I just talk about Penelope for a moment and how funny that scene at graduation was. She literally just popped out of the bushes and was kinda sweet in a very weird way I mean it was nice that she wanted to see Cheryl graduate but at the same time she still called her a nightmare child which I don’t know maybe it’s a term of endearment. Also I love how she’s decided to turn herself in but has done it in a way that best suits her, like she’s spoken to Hiram to make sure she is comfortable and protected in his jail and also she’s only planning to be in there a few years. Lets be real I think mostly the only reason she is doing this is because she’s tired of hiding in the walls so she figures a few years behind bars won’t be so bad if it means she can walk around freely afterwards.

Now onto Cheryl I was surprised that she decided not to go to College and instead she wants to rebuild Thorn Hill and the Blossom name. Also as sad as the scene where they kind of break up is I do think it will better for Toni now that Cheryl has let her go. I do think they will come back together again but I think they need a little distance from each other as Toni has become too wrapped up in all the Blossom drama. I think Toni needs to focus on herself for a while and Cheryl knows this. I also love that Cheryl is doing all of this so that she can be a person worthy of Toni and escape the curse of her family’s name. It is interesting to me that Cheryl is choosing to kind of return to her roots and regrow and I am excited to see how they have both grown come the timejump.

The Core Four

So alot happened with the core four this episode and you know I actually kinda liked what they did with them. As a Barchie shipper at first I was upset that Archie and Betty didn’t get a one on one scene like the others did. At first it made no sense to me I mean Veronica and Archie got one, Archie and Jughead got one, Veronica and Betty got one so it seemed really odd to me that Betty and Archie who have been childhood friends didn’t get a big goodbye scene or an emotional talk about the kiss like the others did. But then I figured that actually it bodes really well for Barchie that they didn’t get that emotional scene. Why you might ask? Well I’m sure B*ghead and V*rchie shippers will disagree with me and that’s fine this is just my interpretation of it but I do feel like they closed the book on the original couples this episode. To me it did kinda feel like a goodbye to V*rchie and B*ghead. Now I’m not saying that they’ll never reopen those books, I don’t know what the future will hold but for now it definitely feels like those couples have come to an end and gotten closure. However Betty and Archie never got that and I think the reason for that is because their story isn’t done yet. There are a couple of other reasons why I think that they are deliberately leaving the Barchie storyline open and that’s the shot at the end of the episode when Jug a year later is at Pop’s and when the door opens and he looks over its Barchie look a likes. I thought this was really interesting. Like why choose to have two people who look like Betty and Archie come through that door. Was it because they are the two who Jughead misses the most? I mean lets be honest he wasn’t that close to Veronica (which was criminal in my opinion but I digress). What I find most interesting is that these two look a likes are clearly a couple. One theory could be that this is suppose to show that Jughead is still hurt by Betty and Archie’s kiss. But I think it could also be a little nod of what’s to come I mean this scene is shot with Jughead narrating about the future over the top and how they would all be different people. Of course it could be wishful thinking on my part. Another reason I think they might still have the book open for Barchie is because of something RAS said a while back, I can’t find it now but it was something along the lines of how we still hadn’t heard all of Archie’s song and that Betty had kept one of her diary’s and so the door was still open for Barchie. He specifically mentioned these two things. Well since then we have now heard the whole song but the diary still hasn’t come back into play yet which makes me wonder if it will after the timejump. Of course it could just be that the writers forgot about it or changed it but I’m choosing to cling to that little bit of hope. Also there is the fact that KJ talked about how he’s been working alot with Lili so I do still think we should be getting plenty of Barchie content in the next coming episodes.

So now I want to talk about Veronica and Archie. When I saw the promo and realised that they were probably going to have another love scene I was a bit wary about it as I wasn’t sure it was at all necessary. But surprisingly I actually didn’t mind it. I could understand the feelings behind it. They both knew that their relationship is over but that doesn’t mean that the love they have for each other has just disappeared it doesn’t work that way. So I can understand why they wanted one more night together, to live in a moment and not worry about anything else. I actually thought it was really sweet. I also think Veronica’s reaction to Archie joining the Army was understandable. I mean she already feels like she is losing him, she’s going away to college and their relationship has come to an end and then on top of all that she finds out that he is joining the army and will likely end up in a warzone where he could be hurt or even killed that must be terrifying for her. On top of that whilst I think she suspected that he was thinking about it his decision is sudden and so she might feel like he hasn’t thought it through properly. I really felt it when she was talking to Betty and said that the thing that was eating her up was the way it was ending, that it was unresolved and that she had wished she had said goodbye and hugged him on more time. Which brings me to one of my favourite scenes of the episode. I loved when Archie is looking at the photo of his dad and he has the flashbacks of all the things he’s leaving behind in Riverdale, all the things he’s saying goodbye to then he looks out his window and sees Veronica, Betty and Jughead in the Jalopy. I don’t know why but something about this scene made me feel a little choked up and the soundtrack that went along with it was chilling. I think the goodbye scene between Archie and Veronica was again really sweet and I think it was a nice end to their romantic relationship.

Ok Betty and Jughead next. Now I might not have been a B*ghead shipper but I didn’t hate them as a couple and I like and care about their characters so seeing their break up was so painful. My heart really did break for them. I mean the moment Betty says that she has to tell him something and you see his eyes well up and him whisper ‘oh no’ our boy knew what was coming and I think it was something he dreaded but also always believed would happen eventually. Just like the V*rchie love scene I really did think I would hate the B*ghead love scene but again I think it made sense for the characters in that moment. They were both in pain and looking for comfort and were just clinging to that moment because deep down they both knew what was coming but wanted to hold it off as long as possible. It wasn’t at all the healthiest way of dealing with it but it was a very young teenage response. I do want to just say that Cole’s acting in that moment when he finds out the truth was on point he did an amazing job. I mean you can literally see him go through so many emotions in those few seconds, first the dread and realisation, then the shock and pain, then anger, then heartbreak and then desperation. I was surprised that the reason why they break up is ultimately because of the kiss it seemed like from RAS’s interviews that it was going to be the distance that broke them up and whilst it played a part ultimately I do think that it was the kiss that was the main reason. I think alot of what causes that distance between them in those final weeks before Betty leaves is that Jughead knows that its not just a kiss that there are real feelings behind it. I think this is a big reason why they don’t talk about it because I don’t think Jug was ready to actually hear her say it and I don’t think Betty was ready to confront that she does have feelings for Archie. I do feel like Betty and Jughead’s goodbye was sadder because of that distance that grew between them. Whilst I think Archie and Veronica had already excepted that it was over for them Betty and Jughead held on longer and were more in denial in my opinion. But that’s just my interpretation of it.

Another thing I want to touch on real quick is that I know alot of people didn’t like the reactions Veronica and Jughead had to the whole cheating storyline and thought that they weren’t angry enough but I didn’t mind their reactions. I think they were obviously upset its just that there were bigger things going on in their lives. I mean Veronica says she can’t be angry at Betty right now because of everything that is going on with Archie. That doesn’t mean she won’t go through those stages of anger later, we just either won’t see them or will see them in flashbacks. It’s the same with Jughead he clearly isn’t uneffected, he tells Archie its fine but then we see him and Betty drifting apart because of it so to me their reactions made sense within the context of what was going on at the time. I do think those feelings of anger will come through and that could be why only Jughead shows up a year later. I did think that end scene of seeing Juggie on his own was so heartbreaking. I do wonder why none of them show up. I mean if I was going to guess then I’m assuming Archie was deployed and couldn’t. I’m not sure about Betty and Veronica though unless like I said that anger does eventually come through and her and Betty have a falling out and so its too awkard for them to come but I’m just guessing with that one.

Now I want to talk a little more about Barchie, I know I touched on it a little before but I want to talk about a couple of other things. The first is Betty’s reaction to hearing Archie was joining the Army. I know alot of people felt like it came across as Betty not caring that Archie had joined especially when you compare her reaction to Veronica’s but I didn’t see it that way at all. Sometimes the best way you can love a person is by accepting and supporting their decisions even if you yourself have doubts about it or fears about it. I think this is what Betty does. If you look at her facial expression in that moment you can see that she’s not happy about the news and that she is concerned but she also knows Archie and she trusts him to make his own decisions and to trust his own judgement so she chooses to support him. Right before she says that she supports him he says that for the first time he doesn’t feel scared or uncertain about the future and I think Betty trusts in his certainty. Also I loved their hug goodbye. It might only have been short but it was adorable I especially liked how Betty buried her nose in his shoulder so she could smell his jacket one last time. I also thought it was cute how he said see you in a year to her even if that didn’t end up happening. Another thing that I thought was interesting is going back to those flashbacks I mentioned earlier, it was odd and interesting that none of those flashbacks had any one on one scenes of Betty, she was included in some of the group shots but no Barchie moments not even just friendship moments. Again I said I did feel like this moment was Archie saying goodbye to those things he was leaving behind, this episode as a whole felt like a goodbye or a closing of a chapter but at no point in the episode did I feel like he was saying goodbye to Betty. Even when they hug it ends with him saying see you in a year which to me is interesting and again really does make me think that they are leaving that door open for Barchie. Of course it could just me but I do feel like the writers made a consious decision to make sure that it didn’t feel like Barchie were getting closure.

Time jump/ 5x04 Theories.

To finish off I just want to throw out some theories of what I think is going to happen in the next episode and maybe a little further into the time jump and I am basing these off some spoilers we got but largely the two promos that have been released. So if you are trying to stay completely spoiler free about the time jump then stop reading now.

So I am going to start with the first promo that was released and go through it sort of shot by shot and talk about any notes I have if that makes sense.

1) We know that Archie went to war and I’ve already made a post about this but the first few shots was scenes of war on a football pitch which I did sadly see quite a few people laughing about. The reason why that saddens me and I’m trying not to judge anyone here because I know people sometimes use humor to deal with dark subjects but this is obviously a flashback Archie is having from his time at war not actual scenes of the war if that makes sense. I think the scene will be Archie coaching the boys and maybe he sees one of the boys get tackled to the ground and that triggers a flashback which is why in those scenes you can see football players laying on the ground as well as soldiers. Personally this isn’t something I can laugh about just because of the serious nature of the topic but then people might not have realised what those scenes were showing so like I said trying not to judge.

2) This is kinda linked to the one above but I made a theory post way back when season 4 had just finished up and we had just got that casting of Archie’s friend Eric who lost his leg and I said I reckoned the show was going to use Eric to show the physical trauma war can have on a person and that I thought whatever event caused Eric to lose his leg would also injure Archie and that’s why he would return home and that they would use Archie to show the mental trauma that war can have and how Archie was going to be struggling with PTSD and survivor’s guilt. Judging from the scenes in the promo where we see Archie surrounded by explosions and then him in a hospital bed with a officer asking if he was ready to go home I’m sticking with this theory.

3) It looks like Jughead successfully managed to publish one book but is now struggling to write another it gives me a lot of Lucas vibes from OTH. I reckon once he is back in Riverdale and he finds a new mystery he’ll get past that writers block and I reckon Tabitha will be a help with that as I heard some spoilers that her and Jughead become friends which I am excited to see.

4) It looks like Betty who is now an FBI agent is going to go through something tramatic as hell in the shots it looks like she is stuck down a well in a barn or something like that and there is a masked figure looking down at her, the whole scene looks terrifying and I’m going to guess that she was working on a case and got captured.

Ok now I’m going to move on to the next promo.

5) I’m going to start with this one because it kinda links back to the one above but it looks like Betty is having flashbacks to her captors. There’s a shot of her screaming and a masked man that looks similar to the one in the first promo coming at her with a chainsaw. Now this could be real and there could really be someone invading her home but something makes me feel like she is hallucinating. Also theres a shot that looks like its Archie breaking down Betty’s door and knocking out a guy in a leather coat so maybe this guy breaks in and Betty hallucinates that its the guy who captured her, Archie hears her scream and comes to her rescue.

6) My eyes could be decieving me on this one but it looks like Barchie are going to get a shower scene. Which as a Barchie shipper obviously I’m excited about that. But I do think the fact that they both seem to be suffering from PTSD and flashbacks is what’s going to bring Barchie back together and they’ll help each other through that. I could see this scene happening right after the invader scene where Archie is trying to comfort Betty.

7) Toni is an absolute queen. This isn’t really a theory I just wanted to say that I mean did you see those shots of her pregnant on stage all decked out and dancing with the serpents.

8) This is a theory though Toni as we know is pregnant and my theory for this is either one she had a one night stand with some stranger and that’s whose baby it is or two which I like better she is acting as a kind of surrogate for Kangs but the baby is also hers and Cheryls and the four of them are going to raise it together. Think Silver and Teddy and Shane from 90210.

9) It’s possible that Cheryl and Toni are married. There’s a shot of Cheryl sitting at a desk and the name plate says Ms Topaz. However it could also just be that Cheryl is sitting at Toni’s desk so I don’t want to get my hopes up too high. Also if they are married it doesn’t explain why Toni is living with Kangs and Cheryl isn’t unless part of the surrogacy deal (if there is one of course) is that Toni has to live with them during the pregnancy.

10) It looks like the whole gang are going to band together against Hiram who has been wrecking Riverdale I mean there was that shot of Toni and Archie and it looks like the homeless population has gotten out of control so most likely Hiram has been buying then pulling down homes so now alot of people have no where to go. Also it looks like Hiram is trying to shut down Riverdale High so the gang all become teachers to try and keep it open. I don’t think this is going to lead anywhere good and will probably lead to an all out war between the gang and Hiram.

This isn’t really a theory just a thought I had on a theory but I’ve seen one going around that they think Archie is going to be the dad of Toni’s baby. I don’t think this is likely I just think they might have some friendship building which will be nice to see as I’ve said soo many times now one thing I want from Riverdale is to see different characters interacting so it looks like we are going to get that. Also one of the biggest reasons I don’t think Archie is the baby’s dad is because we see him arriving back in Riverdale so its likely he hasn’t seen Toni to impregnate her but this is Riverdale so who the hell knows pretty much anything is possible.

Anyway I am going to wrap it up here. I am very excited to see where the season goes so I’ll catch you all on the flip side.

#riverdale #riverdale spoilers #riverdale review #riverdale 5x03

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beesmygod · 5 years

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this is what riverdale is about (part 3)

part 1

part 2

first, i have to start this description of the first season by begging you to stay with me for all 3 seasons; the first season is hilariously quaint in hindsight to whatever the fuck i just watched in season 3. the first season does deal with some weirdly heavy subjects for a comic that was at one point about getting a malt down at the shop with your best girl (for example, a plot point in season 1 is a predatory teacher/student relationship) but the third season is freaked out on pcp comparatively. the descent into madness this show demonstrates as time goes on should act as a warning to all who desire to write fanfiction: there but for the grace of god goes YOU.

anyway, my approach to doing this is that i will describe each episode of the season briefly. in some episodes, nothing of major consequence happens. in some, i will describe interactions i found especially bizarre or accidentally funny or iconic. you may want to keep the list of characters handy but i will try to explain the new, incidental ones as they pop up.

an odd side note: you will notice many of the episode titles are taken from movie titles. “riverdale” LOVES making references to movies. i mean hell, so do i, but you will notice some of the references are............on the nose.

images are from the riverdale wiki

SEASON ONE (PART 1):

the river’s edge: jughead, as the series narrator, describes a july 4th boating incident that led to the death of jason blossom, cheryl’s twin brother. cheryl is found by some off-brand boy scouts on the riverbank looking like a fabulous drowned rat. when the town comes to gawk at the spectacle, betty’s mother is hella pumped at the idea of jason being dead because he broke up with betty’s sister, polly (betty’s mom is later revealed to be prejudiced against all redheads, including archie). jason’s body is not recovered.

veronica and her mother arrive at riverdale to stay in a 5 star hotel that inexplicably exists in this podunk little shithole of a town. they discuss her father’s recent arrest for various financial crimes and decide to get a burger. betty, across town, is thinking the same thing...but love is on her mind...

betty wants to confess her feelings to archie, who she watches dress from the house next door. he is huge and beefy, having worked on his dad’s construction site during the summer. betty on the other hand, organized a toni morrison release party (?!), which she describes to archie as they catch up over a burger. archie wants to make music now. music is the ONLY thing that gives his life meaning (spoilers: he only feels this way for about half a season), except for football. betty is about to confess her feelings but veronica busts the door open and ruins everything.

there is an insane scene here where veronica meets kevin at school the next day and “concludes” he’s gay using her powers of deduction and also the fact that he talked to her about a gay bar in town (i cannot believe the riverdale gay bar has never come up again wtf). based on this information alone, she wants to be best friends. great stuff.

archie tries to join the pussycats and they tell him to fuck right off. josie gets a weird monologue about her cat ears. archie makes weird eye contact with the music teacher at riverdale high, ms. grundy (who is like 22 years old and hot now, instead of ancient and withered), who is revealed to have had a VERY uncomfortable sexual relationship with him. the visual coding of the flashback scene is bananas; she’s wearing the heart-shaped pink “lolita” glasses from the kubrick movie.

through a flashback scene, it is revealed that one of archie and grundy’s sexual trysts that took place on the date and location jason died was interrupted by a gunshot. meanwhile, betty and veronica gay kiss to try to get on the cheerleading team but cheryl is unimpressed, commenting that it is SO 1990s. nevertheless, they make the team.

at the semi-formal, betty confesses to archie, who reacts like she handed him a dead fish wrapped in newspaper. cheryl thinks this is hella funny and sets up a scenario at her after party that gets veronica and archie together for a round of “7 minutes in heaven”. betty flees. jughead writes his novel in pop tate’s chocklit shoppe. kevin and moose (a closeted football player) try to fuck down by the murder river but the mood is ruined by jason’s body floating to the shore.

OKAY that’s the longest one. we had to establish a bunch of shit. stick with me now.

a touch of evil: archie confronts grundy about the gunshot they heard, now that it is certain that jason was killed by a gunshot to the head. betty and archie make up and become friends again, beginning the cycle of riverdale drama that wraps itself up in less than 12 hours. cheryl uses the school p.a. system to demand the killer reveal himself so they can put him in the chair. alice cooper pays off the mortician for information about jason’s corpse so she can run an expose about the murder in the front page of the local newspaper. jughead witnesses archie sharing a way too intimate hug with grundy. veronica’s mom works at pop tate’s and meets archie for the first time at work, commenting on how handsome he is, like his father. archie andrews is certified milf-bait for whatever reason.

betty invites cheryl to her house for mani-pedis to spite veronica. cheryl uses the opportunity to accuse betty’s sister of killing jason. betty responds by telling cheryl to get out or she’ll fucking kill her. normal stuff. meanwhile, jughead confronts archie about grundy and finds out pretty much everything, from the inappropriate relationship to the gunshot. he urges archie to go to the cops but archie won’t do it because *~what he and grundy has is sPeCiAl~*. jughead tells archie he’s a fucking idiot and brushes off archie’s attempts to threaten him.

betty asks about her sister, who is revealed to be in a mental hospital in a catatonic state as a result of the relationship breakdown between her and jason.

jughead gets brutally owned by jocks who call him “donnie darko” and “suicide squad” while implying he fucked jason’s corpse. archie defends jughead and they make up right before the pep rally. the heartless bastards at riverdale high inexplicably gave archie jason’s football jersey instead of retiring it and cheryl has a real meltdown about her brother’s death, fleeing into the girl’s locker room to sob her heart out. she confesses to veronica, the only person who goes to comfort her, that jason was supposed to come back.

the next day, the cops arrest cheryl in the middle of class and handcuff her. it turns out jason didn’t die july 4th, but a week after.

body double: despite confessing to being guilty at the end of the last ep, cheryl starts this ep by saying “let me clarify what i meant by guilty” which is the first of many times riverdale immediately recons its own writing for no apparent reason. cheryl confesses she lied about what happened the day of his disappearance; they weren’t simply having a little boat ride, but trying to facilitate jason’s escape to a farm away from the clutches of his family. he was supposed to contact cheryl once he got somewhere safe, but he didn’t. meanwhile, betty’s mom apparently didn’t get the “not guilty” memo and publishes a sensational article about jason accusing cheryl of being the murderer. through this, it is revealed to the audience that betty’s mom and dad own and operate the local newspaper. just them. no one else. cool.

archie finally tells the sheriff about the gunshot but lies about grundy’s existence. kevin comments offhandedly that everyone should re-watch “making a murderer” on netflix, making this what i think is the first plug of an irl property/brand in the show. from here on out they get more brazen and batshit. veronica reveals she has a date with the football coach’s son, chuck clayton, but everyone warns her he’s a player. betty re-opens the school newspaper to compete with her parents and get the REAL story out. she hires jughead to interview the kids who found cheryl the day jason disappeared.

okay, dear readers, please listen to me attempt to explain the next part of this episode. veronica goes on a chaste date with chuck which ends in some light making out. the next day, it is all over social media that chuck gave her a “sticky maple” which is, as far as i can tell, some maple syrup photoshopped onto a photo of her to replicate cum. this is impossible to explain via text, so please look at this helpful screencap.

the theme of this episode suddenly sidewinds from “we must solve jasons murder” to “we must avenge veronica being slut-shamed”. they consider going to the authorities briefly but decide to storm into the boys locker room which accomplishes nothing. this story line is briefly put on hold so jughead can unsuccessfully interview some not-boy scouts and cheryl can repay archie’s attempt to clear her name by setting him up with music lessons from josie and the pussycats.

ethel muggs, a slightly more unpopular and more dowdy girl who pops up from time to time in the plot over the course of the three seasons, reveals that she is one of chuck’s victims too. she tells of a “playbook” kept by chuck that details sex acts the football team engages in (presumably with girls and not each other).

jughead successfully squeezes a not-boy scout into revealing that the scoutmaster (who is like a 15 year old boy) fired the shot everyone heard at the river, but he was just practicing on targets he set up. the scoutmaster is a hardcore survivalist (a fact that becomes vital in later seasons). so ultimately the gunshot meant nothing.

archie offers to write songs for the pussycats and josie tells him to shut the fuck up, white boy.

kevin, betty, veronica and ethel break into the school after hours to find the playbook. cheryl inexplicably shows up wearing red thigh high boots to help them. no one except for me, the audience, is excited about this development. the book they find reveals that jason had a sexual relationship with betty’s sister, implying a sort of pump and dump situation between the two. betty goes apeshit and pledges revenge against chuck.

okay. just. stay with me now.

betty puts on red lipstick and somehow successfully convinces chuck to have sex with her at ethel’s house while ethel and her parents are out of town. when chuck arrives, veronica is there, claiming that she and betty want to “share” chuck. i cannot believe he falls for this for real. betty then comes out wearing a uma thurman “pulp fiction” wig and lingerie.

betty then roofies chuck, who wakes up handcuffed to the hot tub. while veronica records the scene, betty threatens to boil him alive in the hot tub and waterboards him with maple syrup unless he confesses to his crimes, the crimes of jason and for “destroying her”. after torturing him for an uncomfortable amount of time, they take their evidence to the principal. why they didn’t just do this in the first place i’ll never know. anyway chuck leaves the school and cheryl says, out loud, “#justiceforethel”.

meanwhile, archie gets a soundproof place in the garage to practice his music after spending the episode arguing with his dad. dilton doiley, the scoutmaster, tells jughead and betty he saw grundy’s car at the river the day of jason disappearance. episode END.

this turned out to be so much longer than i thought it would be, so i’m splitting it here. these are so long im sorry. god bless you and im sorry you had to read this. we still have like 10 eps left. i didnt know it would be like this but i need you to understand and believe how insane this series is.

thanks for readin

#riverdale

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ronniesqueen · 5 years

Text

A Journey To Find True Love

We start off with Archie as the bachelor, Ronnie is in his season. The story progresses, and she becomes the next bachelorette after he finishes his season. Both of them go on their journey to find true love.

I will be writing this AU in the form of a tv show. Since, we all know that “The Bachelor” and “The Bachelorette” are reality tv shows.

Previously on “The Bachelor”

Archie and Cheryl had their first one-on-one date

He took her shopping and bought her everything she wanted

And the rest of the girls DEFINITELY had an opinion about it.

Especially Valerie, who grew frustrated with Archie for showing the other girls more attention than her

Betty and Archie have an intimate conversation where she opens up about her home life

Cheryl and Archie have an intimate conversation too, where Cheryl opened up about Jason’s death

Cheryl and Valerie have some animosity between them after Valerie discovers Cheryl getting more time with Archie

Archie sends Ethel and Valerie home at the rose ceremony, knowing he has deeper feelings for the other women.

Ethel had no hard feelings whatsoever, and she wished Archie the best as they parted ways

Valerie, on the other hand, called him out on making “easier choices” with the other women.

She also told him to not get distracted by the “shiny objects”

Leaving everyone shook.

Ronnie, Josie, Betty, and Cheryl remain.

Archie is meeting their families this week!!!!

Who will win Archie’s final rose?

Okay. Without further ado,

Buckle up, buckaroos!!!

Week Four.

Barchie’s Hometown Date

(setting: Confessional Booth)

Archie grinned as he buttoned up his shirt. “Tonight, I’m over the moon excited to see Betty. I’m meeting her family, this is huge! And I’m extremely nervous. But all I can hope for, is for her family to see how happy we are together, and see how we make each other feel.”

He stood up. “Oh, and I plan on asking her mom for her blessing on me proposing to Betty at the end of this. I plan to do that for the other women too. Keep things fair. But I also really want to do this right. And if any of the parents don’t give me their approval...well, that’s going to feel very discouraging.”

(setting: Betty’s bedroom.)

“How do you feel?” Kevin asked, lying down on Betty’s bed as she was doing her makeup.

“I’m excited,” Betty said, applying her mascara. “But I’m also nervous. My mom still doesn’t really understand this whole process.”

“Aww. How do you think your relationship with Archie is right now?”

“I think we definitely have a strong connection. And it just gets better and better every time we’re together,” she said. She turned around to face Kevin. “Last night, he told me I reminded him of home.”

Kevin gasped. “Okay Archie is completely head over heels for you,” he said. “When someone thinks of home, they think of their safe place. You’re probably Archie’s safe place, Betty. That’s a good thing! It means he probably really trusts you.”

Betty blushed. “I do trust him. And...I do see a future.”

(setting: The rooftop of Riverdale High.)

Betty was standing on top of the roof at Riverdale, as requested from Archie, via text message.

All of a sudden, there was a abrupt gust of wind.

Betty looked up, to see a helicopter coming towards her. As the helicopter landed on the rooftop beside her, the door opened. Archie got out of the helicopter, and she immediately ran to him.

“What the heck?” she laughed as she hugged him.

“I told some of the producers that I wanted to make this date really special. So, Chris hooked me up,” Archie explained, beaming at her.

“This is insane,” she continued laughing.

He took her hand. “Let’s get out of here.”

(setting: Confessional Booth)

“Archie blew me away. Literally,” Betty laughed. “I can’t get over it. I can’t stop smiling! Oh my gosh.”

She put her hands on her cheeks. “The fact that he went out of his way to make this big romantic gesture for me. I’m completely in awe.”

(setting: Inside the Helicopter)

Archie and Betty spent the last thirty minutes flying around Riverdale, viewing the city from the sky.

She leaned her head on his shoulder. “This is amazing.”

“The date’s not over,” he grinned.

“Nothing can top this,” she giggled.

He landed the helicopter at the beach, a little further out from Riverdale.

“Arch, it’s completely empty.”

“I know,” he said with a wink.

“You did this?” she asked, completely shook.

“I told the producers I wanted us to have this moment to ourselves.”

They exited the helicopter and made their way to the beach.

(setting: Beach at sunset)

After playing in the water together for quite a while, Archie and Betty sat down for a glass of wine where Archie had set up for them.

“Today has been an absolute dream,” Archie said.

“It really has. Thank you,” she said, smiling.

“No, thank you” he said. He paused. “So, I have to ask. Are there any tips you could give me for how to impress your family?”

She laughed. “Just be yourself. My mom is pretty good at spotting someone for bad intentions, and she’s done that in the past. So, I’m not worried about what she’ll think of you,” Betty said, taking his hand.

“I love that you have faith in me,” Archie said. “It really means a lot. Especially now, that I’m nervous as hell,” he laughed.

She smiled, and looked down.

“Something on your mind?” he asked.

“I want to ask you this. And I’m really scared to know the answer. But,” she began. “Where do you this relationship going?”

He smiled, and kissed her. “I can see myself with you at the end of this. I can see this being, a regular Friday night. Relaxing from a crazy week at work, sending our kids to my dad’s for the night so we can have time to ourselves. I see a future with us.”

She blushed. “I know you want an engagement at the end of this, that’s why you chose to be the bachelor and to find true love. And Archie, I want you to know that I’m absolutely ready for that. I see a future with us. I want to get married, start a family.”

Archie’s smile grew wider as she spoke.

“And I-” she continued, then stopped herself.

“What is it?”

“I don’t know,” she said bashfully.

He took her hand. “You can say anything you feel right now, Betty. You remind me of home because you just always give a comfort in knowing that I can trust you. You’re my safe place. And I want to be yours too, if you let me.”

She took a deep breath. “What I was going to say, was...”

She paused. “Well, what I WANT to say is..”

“I’m falling in love with you,” she finished.

He kissed her passionately. “I know that I’m falling in love with you, Betty.”

(setting: Cooper Household)

Archie and Betty stood on the front lawn.

“You ready?” she playfully asked him.

“I was born ready,” he laughed.

He took a deep breath, feeling the nerves hitting him.

She took his hand, and looked in his eyes. “I’m here.”

He kissed her. “That means more to me than you’ll ever know.”

She giggled. “Okay. Here goes nothing.”

She used her keys to open the door.

“Betty!” Alice cheered, running towards her and hugging her. “I’ve missed you so much!”

“I missed you too mom.”

“Polly! They’re here!” Alice called out.

Polly entered the room, with the stroller, with her twins.

“Oh my goodness!” Betty squealed. “They’ve gotten so big!”

Polly hugged her. “Missed you so much.”

“Missed you too Polly.”

Betty smiled. “Mom, Polly, this is Archie.”

“Hello Mrs. Cooper, hey Polly,” he said, shaking their hands.

“Hey Archie! So great to finally meet you,” Polly said.

“Hello Archie,” Alice began. “I assume you’ve been treating my Betty with the utmost respect.”

Archie grinned at Betty. “I like to think I have.”

Betty blushed. “He’s been absolute gem through all of this, Mom.”

“Are you still dating the other women?” Alice abruptly asked.

“Uhh…” Archie stuttered, taken aback.

“Mom!” Betty began.

“Well I’m sorry Elizabeth but this process is very new to me. And very strange, if I might add,” Alice continued.

“Archie do you mind giving us a minute?” Poly asked politely.

“Of course, take all the time you need,” Archie said.

The three Cooper women left the room to go talk in the backyard.

They sat down on the grass.

“So, now that it’s just us. What’s really been going on?” Polly asked.

“Honestly,” Betty began. “It’s been amazing. Archie and I have been connecting, and-” she paused. “I really see a lot of potential there.”

“You don’t actually see a FUTURE with this boy do you?” Alice asked.

“Do you?” Polly asked.

Betty took a deep breath. “You two are the most important people in my life. Do you really think I’d be bringing someone home to meet you, if I didn’t feel confident in my feelings for him?”

Polly smiled. “So, I guess that means...”

“You want to be engaged,” Alice stated.

“I do,” Betty said with confidence.

“Elizabeth,” Alice began, softening her expression. “You need to be realistic. I’m not saying this to hurt you or rain on your love parade. You’ve known each other for 4 weeks. And he’s still seeing other women. Relationships don’t work like that. An engagement doesn’t work like that. A marriage isn’t something you just microwave into.”

Polly chuckled. “Microwave?”

Alice ignored her. “Do you understand what I’m trying to say?” she asked Betty.

Betty smiled. “I do, mom. I completely understand where you’re coming from. And I’ve taken that into account before even coming on this show. I knew he was going to be weighing his options, because he is at a point in his life where he wants to settle down and start a family. He is. And I know this isn't...a normal way to do it. But, I feel really good about this. And I would really appreciate your support if he does choose me at the end of this.”

Alice smiled back. “You definitely have seen this from all angles, I admire that. I respect that. I just really don’t want to see you hurt if he chooses someone else.”

“It’ll hurt for a while but in the long run, I’ll be happy. Cause I do care for him enough to wish that for him, even if it means he’s not with me.”

“I’ve raised such a strong, smart, kind girl.”

The three women hugged.

(setting: Living room)

“Hello Archie, want to chat with me for a bit?” Alice asked, sitting down beside him.

“Of course, Mrs. Cooper.”

She folded her hands. “So, what exactly are your intentions with my Betty?”

Archie’s eyes lit up as soon as he heard her name. “I intend to make her happy as long as I can.”

“She has expressed to me that she feels confident in your relationship with her. Do you feel the same way?”

“I do,” Archie said. “I told Betty that she reminds me of home. She gives me a comfort, a reassurance that everything is going to be fine. She’s my safe place. I trust her more than I knew I could trust anyone.”

Alice narrowed her eyes. “How do you feel about the chemistry?”

“The chemistry has been there since night one, since she stepped out of the limo with her little box of butterflies,” Archie blushed at the memory. “Every moment with her leaves me wanting to know more about her. She is someone that...really puts a light in my heart that I just don’t want it to fade out.”

Alice smiled.

“Mrs. Cooper,” he continued. “If I would be so lucky...would you do me the honor of-”

“My blessing?” she interrupted.

Archie nodded.

She rubbed his shoulder. “I saw the way you looked at her. And right now, listening to you talk about her... it doesn’t feel like you’re just trying to suck up to me. No. This feels genuine. You’re a good man, Archie. And with that,” she said, smiling. “You have my blessing to propose to my Elizabeth.”

(setting: Outside the front porch)

The limo arrived, ready to pick up Archie for his next hometown date. He and Betty kissed for a while, enjoying the moment.

“I didn’t mean to eavesdrop,” Betty began.

Archie raised one eyebrow.

“Okay, I did try to. But anyway. I’m so happy my mom actually gave you her blessing. Did you mean all those things you said?”

“I absolutely did. I wouldn’t have asked her if I didn’t see myself getting down on one knee and asking you to be my wife.”

She giggled.

He turned around. “There’s my ride.”

“I’ll see you soon.”

“I’ll find you.”

Archie got inside the limo, and Betty watched as the limo drove away.

--------------------END CREDITS--------------

#barchie

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chantillystained · 8 years

Text

sometimes i sit here & think about all of the headcanons i have regarding carter & polly cooper & sob .

#( i don't really have anyone to share them with so i just???#but seriously - in my own lil backstory for this kid wherein he's just as much a part of canon as any of the actual characters on the show #polly & jason are a huge part of his story #& i have loads of hc's some a little 'dark' & twisted so to speak like of how jason was probs all too aware of how #carter felt about polly etc. & idk what to do with myself #i'm trash )#//ᴏᴜᴛ ᴏғ ᴄʜᴀɴᴛɪʟʟʏ #;;tbd

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nanyoky · 7 years

Text

HAD ONE ON AN EMPTY STOMACH AND NOW TIME FOR THE BIG SHOW

OH god it’s a CHRISTMAS EPISODE. our core four pairs have broken up, fp is about to die and it’s a CHRISTMAS EPISODE

mary booked a singles cruise so i guess they couldn’t get molly ringwald for more eps this season

yay my girl polly’s back for a presumably horrifying dream sequence

That Kubrick-esque centered shot of Hood!santa climbing over the couch back????? *kisses fingers like cartoon italian chef*

Cheryl still EXPECTS her mother to put out jason’s stocking and demands to know what such a tiny candycane is doing in their home because she is still GRIEVING but still SO MUCH . this is what the death of a twin looks like take fuckin note marvel

Also nana rose didn’t die in the fire? so that’s nice.

“86,000″ “what- dollars?” like the hospital in smalltown usa might charge people in pesos or forint- godbless you archie

“Kevin’s secret santa has a 20$ limit” “Kevin needs to chill” no, v, YOU need to chill. or rather don’t. because we love you so much.

“Havent you heard? we’re still friends!” “oh yeah. isnl’t everyone?” i love these girls almost as much as the lund and byerly’s checkout lady who never judges my wednesday night sale sushi runs

fp looks so thin without his jacket and warm vestiges i’m worried about him is he taking his vitamins eating his spinach if he has been surviving on hot pockets and beer since he got out i will be so cross with him

“BOY.” i’m DISTRAUGHT. fp and jughead are living together again and we’re finally getting to see what that looks like and it’s exactly as heartbreaking as we knew it would be

also fp wears his wallet with a stylish chain that goes from his pocket to his beltloop because it’s apparently 2008 in that trailer

“Couples massage.... thanks” “You can go with betty!” audience: YES PLEASE.

also who the fuck would do a couples massage with their highschool boyfriend- veronica lodge that’s who, but who ELSE.

archie didn’t spend any money on his gift and it is obviously the ebst one int he exchange and we love him

MOOSE AND MIDGE ARE HERE TO MAKE THINGS WEIRD FOR KEVIN (HOPEFULLY)

REGGIE *SPRINTS* TO HUG MOOSE AND THE SHIP I DIDN’T KNOW I NEEDED EMERGES

oh dear. mr. svenson. of course i love that betty and co. know the janitor at their school’s name. is that normal? i went to an enormous highschool- i barely knew my teacher’s names half the time. but i imagine it’s very sweet and very betty of her.

oh god jughead came to riverdale high for the gift exchange because he’s a good dude. a good dude.

his little SMILE when he feels how heavy it is is the most boyish he’s looked since the scene where we find out fp is his dad in the drive in episode and I’M NOT OKAY

veronica giving archie an expensive engraved watch is CLASS COMMENTARY and it is very good of archie to try to explain that to her calmly and without accusation or bitterness i don’t know if i would handle it that well cuz fun fact i once accused a guy of making me into Pygmalion because he tried to take me to a restaurant with multiple spoons

jughead wants to help but now sweetpea has replaced joaquin as the unreasonably beautiful surrogate son fp feels more comfortable putting in danger than his own kid help

what is the point of showing cheryl is interested in buying a tree? other than maybe she’s going to spend more than her mom can afford now??? or that she’s back at archie now that josie is weirded out by her possessive obsessive tendencies? not sure what the point of that was

nice reverse zoom/dolly into a dutch angle on this modest janitor house

the parole officer calls him “jughead” that is all

hermione and hiram being deliberately flirty in front of veronica after she and hermione had that talk about loving one’s partner

“Since when are you a communist *deliberate eyeroll at hiram*” i still can’t tell whether season 1!hermione or season 2!hermione is the act and i’m still RIVETED

okay it was to show she’s just spending a bunch of money to piss off penelope who coincidentally, is wearing a WINNER of an outfit rn damn son i have that but like- not as good cuz my black lace sheath is from target

not to take credit away from cheryl’s high quality cherry sweater

“you should have drowned them at birth like a basket of kittens” NANA ROSE. NANA FUCKIN ROSE. COMIN IN HOT FOR THE HOLIDAYS.

i honestly don’t know if it’s ever stated if nana rose is penelope’s mom or clifford’s but judging purely on penelope’s eyeroll and non-verbal expression of “UGG. MOTHERRRRR” i’mma say her’s.

betty pulls her sweater over her hands when approaching her mother because how often did alice tug roughly at young!betty’s clothes to make sure she was PICTURE PERFECT at all times

we all knew that it was going to be a finger right we all knew

and of course she only tells archie because this is betty cooper we’re talking about

“would the sisters talk to us?” “pft- they better” betty’s gunna beat up a nun

also my first assumption is that the janitor’s sin is pointing out the wrong guy to the lynch mob??? could be wrong but it seems kinda odd that archie isn’t bringing up that part of the story

the lodges have the same “christmas classics” cd as my mom because of course they do

the fact that veronica finds the deed to pop’s and doesn’t react in shock or anger but sits back in her dad’s leather office chair and crosses her legs to think things over is CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT

jughead knows fp too well to apologize for thinking badly of him and the duffles and IT HURTS SO GOOD

“maybe this isn’t gunna work- us living together” FP ISN’T A DAD HE’S A BIG BROTHER AND I KEEP SAYING IT BUT IT KEEPS HURTING EVERY TIME IT’S PROVEN TRUE

oh god jughead is calling on the next gen serpents for help this isn’t going to end well, son

“take out penny” take out? TAKE OUT???? TAKE OUT?!?!?! JUGGIE. take a nap.

sweet pea and fangs are either the bestest of bros or engaged to be wedded i can’t decipher their eye communication exactly

the serpents are FACTIONING and this CANNOT end well

“it was a group of men... and one woman” FOUNDING FAMILIES FOUNDING FAMILIES FOUNDING FAMILIES

next gen serpents are going to fuck everything up and i can’t take jughead trying to do an intimidating under the brows stare seriously

we all think that nun is the drug dealer lady in the wheelchair right?

“white with a cherry red stripe” THAT’S MY GIRL. THAT’S MY NANA ROSE. BACK WITH PLOT AND BACKSTORY. BATTING FOR THE TEAM. NANA ROSE BLOSSOM.

“the truth” THE LODGE TRUTH. HOOO BOY. *pours another drink*

OH MY GOD IS HE CUTTING IT OFF JUGHEAD. JUGHEAD. BETTY HAS BEEN A BAD INFLUENCE ON YOU.

i just pictured fp’s face if he saw this and did the most ridiculous puppy whine

“oh noooo. no girls allowed” NANA ROSE BLOSSOM. MY MAIN GIRL.

founding families. what did i say.

hefty sigh at barchie kiss. like- i’d be more into this if they actually built it and didn’t keep breaking up and putting everyone back together back and forth

oh cheryl saw- THAT i’m interested in

they’re not going to tell us the lodge truth because they’re bastards

penny didn’t show up for your pickup, did she?” “no.... no she didn’t.” JUGHEAD IS THE PARENT AND FP IS THE KID AND IT IS HORRIBLE AND PERVERSE AND I LOVE IT SO MUCH

“this life you tried to protect me from? i’m proud of it!” *WHALE NOISES* FP’S FACE. FP’S *FACE*. THIS IS THE LOOSE HENRIAD CRIME FAMILY AU I’VE BEEN HURTING FOR.

oh god there’s one black guy in the picture please don’t tell me our sweet angel pop was involved in this how old is pop he’s not old enough right tell me he had no part in this

*DISTRESS SCREEEEE*

UNMASK HIM BETTY UNMASK HIM ARCHIE IS FINE HE’S A BIG STRONG BOY WHO CAN TAKE A LITTLE DIRT IN HIS FACE

oh god oh god oh god did sheriff keller shoot bh so he can’t talk oh god oh god oh god

this is too easy and we all know it i’m still pulling my multiple killers theory and i haven’t given up on shady!keller yet

weird sound editing trying to give studio quality to josie and kevin just jammin acapella outside a diner

WHO THE FUCK IS PENELOPE SNOGGIN ON XMAS MORN?!?!?!

YASSS JUGHEAD GETS HER A SIGNED FIRST EDITION OF BELOVED WHICH I HAVE BASICALLY BEEN WAITING FOR SINCE BETTY SAID SHE LOVES TONI MORRISON IN EPISODE ONE. well- not exactly this. but that IS one of my alltime favorite books and a huge influence on my own gothic writing so to see it referenced on this show is just GRAND

we all know it’s not over juggie, we all know.

Episode Scorecard:

Number of sick beat drop rhythmic editing moments: none

Episode hair MVP: Nana rose’s stripe was featured as a plot point and is always of the highest quality

Do I still miss Joaquin: yes

Episode outfit MVP: Penelope’s black lace sheath

Cast/Crew shoutout: There were some really solid cinematography moments, but I would have liked to see better editing? pacing was a bit rough.

#Riverdale spoilers #riverdale season 2 #nell liveblogs #nell drinks #unsubtle highschool suburban gothic of my dreams #i can't believe fp is still alive?#a whole episode after quoting the most famous eulogy poem in the english language???#i'm in shock honestly

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zigackly · 7 years

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TumblrFrostbite's Public Message: If Jason Blossom hadn't known about the Secret Blossom Family Business from the start (and he was still alive and well), how different would the town of Riverdale be had Jason still lived?

There’d have been a wedding and the twins wouldn’t be fatherless for sure lol.

Okay, now serious talk. Depending upon the catalysts this time around, the lives of the main characters would’ve been more or less the same as how it was before the first episode.

Now obviously this is a rough outline of but one possibility. With a change in even one variable, there are multiple tangents the story can take. I’ve thought of at least five distinct directions this thing can go while writing this post, so it’s safe to say they’re are numerous ways everything could change. Even the smallest and most inconsequential of differences would weave another story.

(Also it’s been a while and I haven’t really rewatched Riverdale S1 so I might forget stuff but I’ll do my best!)

- Archie would’ve still been with Grundy Jennifer Gibson and been unwitting about it, till maybe she wanted to move or something. His head would still be filled with music and football, so unless he really got involved with the plot, like the gunshot in the original, I doubt he’d have much or any impact at all.

- Betty would still be under immense pressure from her mother because of Polly like she was, nothing would change the situation even with a JasonPolly marriage. I’d reckon Alice would still be as controlling as she was portrayed, if not more.

- Jughead would still be estranged from his father and far away from the Serpent life. Maybe still at the theatre too.

- There is a possibility Bughead wouldn’t have happened. Or if it did, the situations and catalysts would be different.

- That being said, Archie would’ve have still probably rejected Betty because he had Grundy Gibson.

- Cheryl would start hating Polly more and more because Jason would now obviously spend lesser and lesser time with her. So the red Blossom incest display would reduce considerably.

- If Veronica moved to R, then there’d be even more changes because I believe she was effectively a huge catalyst in the shift of life of the characters herself. For starters, it would still be Kevin and Betty as best friends, not B&V. Now unlike Archie for majority of the original storyline, Veronica actually had an impact on the lives of the Riverdale residents. She gave Betty the push to stand up to her controlling mother, she was a support system of sorts to Cheryl, so while I’d like to think that Veronica wouldn’t have changed much of the scene, she did have enough impact most importantly on Betty’s life to change up stuff.

Another set of potential variables from the top of my head include but are not limited to:- that notebook in the boy’s locker: if it had been found and Jason was alive, you can’t disagree it would’ve been a messy affair.- Grundy Gibson and her being found out: it would leave Archie free to actually be part of the plot lol- Veronica never moving to Riverdale: arguably the second biggest game changer after the obvious one of the murder/drug business. Oh I can write a paragraph on this and the sub changes it would cause.- Clifford actually listening to Penelope and the heir business not even happening: would’ve at most delayed the whole thing by a decade maybe?- Jason not having to run away in the first place: pretty self explanatory lol

Now, let’s come to the interesting bit though.

What if Jason found out about the drug business during the course of the story. Though if he decided to spill his guts, I doubt he’d be spared. So the real decider would be if he kept quiet or came clean.

(If Clifford saw him, it’d be the end of him so let us assume he wasn’t seen.)

I like to think that Jason wouldn’t just let this go on. And if he confided in Polly, maybe Polly would tell Betty and if Betty brought the Blue&Gold up and recruited Jughead again, then they’d still be on the same case and might write a breaking news report on it. There’d be a lot of snooping around too because proof.

(Okay wait so this might be the Bughead catalyst again. My bad for what I said above.)

All in all, everything boils down to Jason and whether he’d rat his father out or not.

Life has a way of staying on a single course even with multiple detours, so even if Jason hadn’t found out/known, Clifford would’ve still needed to groom an heir someday so it could’ve been anyone in his place to make the story go on as it did. Maybe Cheryl, maybe another unwitting Blossom cousin, maybe even Archie, who knows. Maybe they’d be down with it and the drug business would prosper for another generation. But if they’d rebelled? Even if the BlossomCooper twins had a father this time around and the family moved out, the drug business wouldn’t.We’d still have a mysterious death/kidnapping if the potential heir rebelled. The town with pep would still have to wake up to it and go downhill from that.

#riverdale #jason blossom #polly cooper #cheryl blossom #betty cooper #archie andrews #jughead jones #bughead #clifford blossom #penelope blossom #i might have gone a bit off tangent lol #but still #thanks for the ask #shut up aki #frostbite883 #reply

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cooperjones2020 · 7 years

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Second City, chp. 4

Summary: Sometimes she worries she’s settling — for a smaller job, a smaller city, a smaller life than she’d promised herself — but that was before she found out Jughead Jones lives in Chicago. That was before she found out the final secret of Jason Blossom’s murder.

A/N: In my brain, they have three drinks over a period of 4-5 hours, so Jughead is fine to ride the mile or so from the bar to his house. I even calculated it and his peak BAC without food is .046.

A/N 2: This chapter is just a continuation of the previous scene because it got too long, so I reprinted the end of it if you don’t remember :)

ao3–>http://archiveofourown.org/works/11409360/chapters/25805820

Second City one / two / three

Nobodies Nobody Knows one / two (ao3)

In which Jughead Jones turns the tables

(Previously on Second City:

“Did your routine change? Anything in the physical process of how you wrote?”

“Definitely. Being an established author has conveyed a huge privilege on me. The Final Fissure was written in spare time at school or late nights at the diner. I’m still a nighttime writer. I still can’t write at home, I need people around me to observe. But writing gets to be the focus of my day now. I’ve also gotten better at letting other people see my writing. As a teenager, I was obsessive about making it perfect first.”

“Oh I remember.” They’re both facing ahead, so the recorder has a better angle, but she can see him smiling at her out of the corners of her eyes.

“But now, sometimes it’s just get it on the page and send it off, especially if I’m under a deadline. Still, though, I like some feedback if only to reaffirm my own conviction that I’m headed in the right direction. Actually, Archie looked at a few chapters of Sweetwater Subtext pretty early on.”

“Really? I can’t see him as a particularly dedicated editor.”

Jughead’s laugh is big, his head is thrown back and his shoulders shake. “No, definitely not. But it was more feedback on the content I was looking for, than the style. Whether I was crossing a line with anything.”

“Well, color me intrigued.”

“Good.”

She takes a risk. “I’m surprised Archie didn’t tell you I was moving here.”

“Yeah, well, we don’t exactly talk about you.” It hurts. She knows it shouldn’t. She knows it makes sense. But it does. Because it sounds like ‘I don’t think about you.’

“Right, obviously. That was stupid of me.” Way to ruin it, Betty. “On a related note, what do you owe to the real people upon whom you base your characters?”

“That’s a question I’ve been wrestling with. The best answer I’ve been able to come up with, insufficient as it is, is honesty.”)

She manages to recover, even somewhat gracefully. They speed through the rest of her questions. She barely has to look at her notes, except as an excuse to break eye contact when the butterflies get too intense. She realizes, wounded pride aside, that she’s actually having fun.

“Okay, let’s get back to Sweetwater Subtext for a second. As we’ve said, The Final Fissure had an obvious ending point with the reveal of the murderer. I know you can’t give me any spoilers, but what’s next for these characters? Will there be a third entry in this series?”

“Unclear.” She lifts her eyes to his and they seem to burn into her, like he’s trying to tell her something she’s afraid to translate.

“Oh. Um, okay. Any idea what does come next then?”

“Well, The Final Fissure is gonna be a TV show. We’re still working out if I’m going to be involved, though right now I’m leaning no.”

She pulls the hair tie off her wrist and moves to put her hair up, then lets it slide out of her hands when it’s shorter than she expects. She knows she has enough material, knows this is going to be good, but she doesn’t want to stop. She feels drunk off Jughead’s words, like she’s a teenager sneaking champagne at a cousin’s wedding.

He interrupts her while she’s still formulating her next question. “Would you mind if we took a break? I could use some food.”

“Oh of course, I’m sorry.”

“No need to apologize, I was just on a roll earlier and skipped dinner.”

“Jughead Jones voluntarily skipped a meal?”

“I wouldn’t call it voluntary. Sometimes the muse is actually a slave driver.”

It’s now closing in on 11, which means the dinner menu has been replaced by the late night menu, so they order baskets of a variety of fried things.

“I didn’t mean it like that earlier. It’s just, I don’t know, I think it would be kind of weird if me and Archie talked about you. That whole same-ex-girlfriend thing.”

Betty lets out a soft sigh. “Sometimes I even forget we dated. It was such a weird, hazy time in my life. I fought so hard for so long to be my own person, not Polly’s sister or Alice’s daughter. By the time senior year came around, I was tired of fighting everyone’s expectations. Veronica was back in New York, you were on the south side. We were the only two left, of the core four, and it just made sense, you know? So we went to the back to school dance together, and then homecoming, and then winter formal. And before you know it was prom and we’d been dating for eight months.”

“I always thought you two would get married and have the 2.5 kids and white picket fence thing. You know, even when we were dating, I think I thought that in the back of my mind.”

She rolls her eyes. “I know. It wasn’t in the back of your mind. I seem to recall a certain speech in a certain red-headed person’s garage at a certain other person’s birthday party.”

“God, I’m never going to live that one down. Once I managed to go an entire eleven months without thinking about it, and then the memory just crept back in. Here, Jughead, you think you’re making progress on your social skills, well remember this?”

Betty laughs. “Well that was never in the cards for me and Archie, and I didn’t want it to be. Dating him was just…comforting you know? Comfortable. And I could really use that then.”

“Do me a favor and promise me that you will never tell Archie that. You guys may be best friends and he may be ass over elbows for Veronica now, but no guy wants to know that sex with him was just comfortable.”

She holds up a pinkie and waits for Jughead to take it. “I promise.”

“I was surprised, when I walked into Mary’s and found you.”

“I had gathered that. Though you were probably no more surprised than I was.”

“What made you decide to move?”

Betty exhales, nervous about answering truthfully but wanting to nonetheless. “I was just so sick of New York, sick of my job. I was running on a cycle of adrenaline—benzodiazepines—caffeine—melatonin that was unsustainable. I got home from a stakeout one morning at 5 am and I realized I was doing important things for other people, breaking big stories, but as a result I missed out on doing important things for myself. I was making decisions I otherwise wouldn’t have made.

“Then I got a call from Cynthia—my editor—offering me the job here. It was a deus ex machina, just what I needed at just the right time dropped out of the sky. It felt like a good time to pull the rug out from under myself. To look for a new dream.”

She’d worked so hard to get to a place where could break those big stories, doing the investigative journalism she’d always wanted. But it wasn’t what she’d imagined it would be.

“And that’s okay, you know? I feel like the hardest part is telling other people, people who knew me then. Like I’m afraid they’re going to think I’ve compromised, but I’m happy. Dreams change. Well, at least for most of us,” she ends by nudging him with her elbow.

Jughead looks at her like he believes her, like he doesn’t pity her.

“I think you probably filled your quota of breaking big stories before you even left high school. I’m glad you realized you weren’t happy and did something about it.” He pauses and takes a big breath. “And I’m glad you’re here. Glad we could do this.”

She smiles at him, the corners of her lips curving down. “Me too.”

Time for a change of topic. “Polly said Jellybean works at Pop’s now.”

“Yeah, for about a year.”

“Does that mean you get free burgers?”

“No. Only half-price. But yeah, she mentioned last week that Polly and your mom come in sometimes with the twins.”

Betty can’t help the goofy grin that breaks out at the mention of her niece and nephew. “Yeah. Her and my mom have gotten a lot closer the past couple years. Since my dad died.”

“Oh, Betts, I’m sorry.”

“It’s alright. He’d been sick for a while. We…made our peace with it. With each other. But you know what’s sick? My mom’s been happier since. Like thirty fucking years and I’m pretty sure they were both miserable almost the whole time. How do you get to the point where it’s not even worth trying to go after happiness?”

“Sometimes you fall into a pattern that isn’t worth the effort it would take to break. Not everyone is as brave as you. I’m certainly not. And they had other things they were living for. Polly. You. I think that’s something I’ve learned since FP got out. My mom died, too, before— well, before. I think that’s that one thing that really fucked my dad up. That he didn’t get a chance to make it right with her. I’m sure it’s why he’s been a model citizen ever since.”

“No, Juggie. He was always so proud of you. I’m sure it’s for you. For what you’ve done for him, and for Jellybean.”

“Did Archie ever tell you about Thanksgiving our sophomore year of college?”

“No. That’s the first one he spent here, right?”

“Right. Mary and Mike had just moved in together, in the house they’re in now. I don’t think he was quite ready to see Mommy share a room with someone other than Daddy. Over the course of the morning, his face got redder and redder until it matched his hair. Then, when we were about to sit down for dinner, he flipped out and somehow wound up spraying mashed potatoes all over the table.”

“What! Oh no!” Years later and Betty feels the burgeoning heat of secondary embarrassment for her best friend.

“Yeah, it was great. Mary locked him outside.”

“I would have too.”

“And while all that was going down, I was upstairs, face timing with Jelly, who was still in Ohio then. I came down to Archie outside, Mary crying, and food everywhere.”

“So what happened?”

“Well, after we cleaned up the worst of it, Mike and I ate like nothing was wrong. Archie and Mary made up after a few hours. I never did get any mashed potatoes though.”

“Obviously the worst part. Oh god, the twins had been in their terrible threes that year. I spent the whole day going back and forth referring their screaming and then my parents’.”

“Mine’s worse.”

“It is. Which means I will get us the next round of drinks.”

“That is an offer you will never hear me turn down.” Her heart stops when he smiles at her, one dark curl dropping in front of his face.

She lifts her empty water glass up and twists it back and forth in her fingers, swishing the melting ice cubes around. He looks at her upturned palm for a beat too long, and she realizes he’s looking for her half-moon scars.

“I don’t do that anymore. I…haven’t since college.”

“Can I ask what made you stop?”

“I had to de-escalate. It didn’t work at first. I just switched to picking at my skin—my nails or acne or scabs. I still have pretty bad scars on my shoulders. But when I got to college, I was able to see a therapist who my mom couldn’t interrogate so that helped. She told me to hold an ice cube when I have the urge to do something destructive.” She doesn’t know why she’s telling him all of this, but for the simple fact that he seems to genuinely want to know.

“An ice cube?”

“Yeah, to cup it in the palm of my hand. Anyway, I’m a work in progress.” She’s been looking at her hand, but she switches to his face. “Wait. How did this turn into you interviewing me?”

“Well technically we’re still on our dinner break.”

“Okay, whatever.” She turns the recorder back on and asks him a few more perfunctory questions about release dates and promotional schedules. His answers are just as perfunctory, so his must be too.

“I should probably go home soon.” He just stares at her. When she begins to pack up the recorder and her notes, he snaps out of it and signals to the bartender to bring their check.

When it comes, he moves to take it but she swipes it before he can. “Nope.” She pops the p. “My interview, my expense report.”

Outside, he tries to convince her to let him take her home again, but she refuses. “I can expense the uber too and my house is way out of your way this time.”

He tries to argue with her, but she stands her ground. She believes him when he says he’s fine to ride but that doesn’t mean she wants him on the road any longer than he has to be.

He takes her phone out of her hand and minimizes the uber app. “Fine, then text me so I know you got home safe?”

She agrees and lets him hand her into the car when it comes. Then, as she turns to look at him out of the rear window, she realizes he’s given her his phone number.

When she gets home, she texts him: “home and locked in where the bad guys can’t get me.”

He responds with: “don’t forget to check under the bed. sleep tight, betts.”

She locks the deadbolt, then turns to lean against the door, her phone pressed to chest. Fuck. This isn’t good. She should feel awkward. She should feel the weight of delayed embarrassment at her reckless oversharing of her life. But she doesn’t.

Instead, she listens to the tape while she washes her face, flosses her teeth. She only gets through the first half an hour to forty-five minutes before she’s too tired to pay attention anymore, but she can already tell it’s good. It’ll be the best thing she’s ever written. The last thing she thinks before she falls asleep is that he’s always brought out the best in her.

#bughead fanfiction #riverdale fanfiction #bughead #betty cooper #jughead jones #riverdale #second city #mine

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juggieheadcoopers-blog · 8 years

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Could you maybe write something about betty's parents finding out about her and jughead? Or maybe just her telling them? I kind of feel like drama fanfiction right now. And I love both pieces you wrote about veronica, archie and kevin finding out ❤ Lots of love Obsessed bughead shipper

Hope you like it! I just had her mom find out in this one, hope that’s okay.

Note: This was requested by an anon as well, so this one’s for you too, anon!!

Summary: Alice Cooper finds out about Betty and Jughead’s relationship

Read about Betty’s friends finding out here: 1, 2, 3, 4

–

“Bets, it’s nearly impossible for me to concentrate with you staring at me like that.”

Jughead glanced up from his laptop to meet Betty’s gaze, but before he could hold it, she quickly averted her eyes to the stack of papers laid out on the table in front of her.

“Staring at you like what?” Betty feigned innocence as she turned in her desk chair to point to the wall at the opposite end of the Blue and Gold newsroom. “I’m just gazing out the window. You know, people-watching, admiring nature - I mean look at how cute that squirrel is! See? Nature’s fascinating isn’t it?”

“I’m writing a paper on Chaucer, Bets, ” Jughead explained for the third time since they had been there that afternoon. “That takes every living brain cell I have to work on overdrive and when you’re sitting there looking the way you’re looking right now - it’s kind of hard to focus on anything else.”

“Then take a break and focus on this,” Betty spun his chair around to face hers and quickly pulled him closer to her. Placing her hands on his cheeks, she leaned all the way forward in her chair to place a gentle kiss on his neck.

“Oh what the hell,” Jughead muttered under his breath, slamming his laptop shut and pulling Betty onto his lap. “Screw Chaucer.”

Jughead took Betty’s face in his hands and met his lips to hers. All thoughts of English papers completely forgotten, Jughead’s only focus was Betty’s lips and the smell of her hair and the way her skin felt as he slipped his hand underneath her-

“Elizabeth.”

Betty flung herself off of Jughead’s lap at the sound of her name being called in that bone-chilling voice she knew all too well.

“Please tell me that’s Veronica doing a scarily-accurate impression of my mother,” Betty whispered, her heart pounding so loudly that she could hear it ringing in her ears.

“Not even a pot of gold at the end of a rainbow could bring us such luck,” Jughead muttered, craning his neck to see around Betty and quickly pulling back as Alice Cooper came charging towards them with her fists clenched tightly together as they swung by her side.

“Mom!” Betty exclaimed, spinning around slowly to meet her mother’s loathsome gaze. “We were just-”

“Elizabeth, get over here right now,” Alice demanded, pointing to a corner at the opposite end of the room before turning away from the couple and stomping over there herself.

“It was nice knowing you,” Betty mumbled, reaching out to squeeze Jughead’s hand and smiling weakly. “Write to me when I get shipped off to boarding school?”

Turning towards her mother, Betty took a deep breath, tightened her ponytail, and headed straight for what was surely her impending death.

“This is your way of punishing me, isn’t it?” her mother accused, pointing an angry finger at Betty as she paced back and forth in front of the dusty old chalkboard that no one but Jughead used anymore. “You’re mad about what’s happening with your sister and your lashing out by frolicking about with this Jug Head person who, by the looks of it, seems to only have one hat. And if you ask me, that is just very concerning.”

“Believe it or not, mother, my relationship with Jughead has absolutely nothing to do with you,” Betty informed her, crossing her arms over her chest and narrowing her eyes at her defiantly.

“Relationship?” Alice scoffed, letting the words roll off her tongue like they were filth that was causing her unwanted distress. “Please, I give this little fling a week at best. I know who his father is, Elizabeth and trust me, he’s no good for you.”

“Oh enough,” Betty spat, rolling her eyes and lowering her voice so that Jughead couldn’t hear her. “Jughead and I are happy, Mom, and I would really like it if you could be happy for us.”

“The possibilities of that happening are slim to none,” Alice admitted, her lips puckering as she glanced back at Jughead with a look of disapproval.

“Mom,” Betty breathed, her eyes pleading with her mother to understand. “I’m not going to stop seeing him. You remember what happened with Polly when you forbid her from seeing Jason right?”

As soon as she let the words escape her lips, she immediately wish she could take them back.

“Elizabeth Cooper, how dare you bring that up as some sort of bargaining chip, especially now when you know how much scrutiny we’re under,” Alice snapped, her eyes darting towards the hallway in case anyone was listening, even though she knew that they were the only three left in that part of the school so late in the day.

“You’re right, that wasn’t fair,” Betty admitted. “I’m sorry.”

“I suppose I wasn’t being fair to you either,” Alice muttered, her eyes locked on the textbook thrown carelessly onto the tile floor in front of her.

“Really?”

“I can be reasonable from time to time you know,” Alice reminded her. “But don’t get use to it.”

“So you’re okay with this?” Betty asked, gesturing towards Jughead, who was now tossing back a handful of potato chips into his mouth, and smiling expectantly at her mother.

“He’ll have to come to dinner of course,” Alice explained. “Meet your father, undergo a thorough background check…”

“Mom,” Betty warned, fidgeting impatiently as she waited for her mother’s approval.

“Go on before I change my mind,” Alice nodded towards Jughead, and Betty threw her arms around her mother for a quick hug before running across the room to rejoin him in the same spot as before.

“Thank you,” Betty called to her mother as she exited the classroom, turning towards Jughead with a huge smile as she bounced up and down in her seat excitedly.

“She said-”

“I heard,” Jughead said before she could finish, tossing his bag of chips onto the desk and folding his hands over his stomach.

“If you heard, then why aren’t you bouncing up and down with me?”

“Because this is Alice Cooper we’re talking about,” Jughead reminded her. “You know she has some ulterior motive for inviting me to that dinner.”

“Juggie, come on, let’s give her a little credit,” Betty tried to give her mother the benefit of the doubt, but Jughead leaned forward in his chair to narrow his eyes at her.

“Remember the story you told me about Polly’s boyfriend before Jason?” Jughead asked, and Betty’s eyes immediately went wide as the memory came flooding back to her.

“Oh no,” Betty muttered, as she let the image of the boy - who she realized now hadn’t been back to school since that night - fleeing their house in complete and utter fear, cross her mind.

“Oh yes,” Jughead sighed, grabbing his laptop from the desk and beginning to type furiously on the keyboard. “’As I write, highly civilized human beings are flying overhead, trying to kill me,’ Jughead quoted George Orwell, and Betty raised a confused eyebrow at him as she nervously rubbed the palms of her hands across her jeans. “In other words, we’re toast.”

#bughead fanfiction #bughead #betty and jughead fanfiction #betty and jughead #betty x jughead #betty cooper #jughead jones #riverdale fanfiction #riverdale #juggiecoopfanfic #requests #perfectstormblog

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briannaslist · 7 years

Text

Chapter 12: Anatomy of A Murderer

A Riverdale Recap

The penultimate episode. We get answers, and even more questions. But the biggest mystery is solved – Who killed Jason Blossom? Skip to the end if you’re just curious to know. Stick around for the fun leading up to the trigger being pulled.

The biggest downside to knowing when it’s the episode where you get the answers is that it can feel like it can drag along. It was actually a very good episode.

The episode picks up where the last one left off: Archie and Veronica are at Pop’s, telling Betty that the gun was a plant. Archie has had enough of being treated like the season’s selfish idiot and decides he’s going to take charge and not be an asshole anymore. First he says they need to tell their parents. Because this isn’t Pretty Little Liars and the parents, while at times questionable, are not stupid and oblivious.

They go to the Andrews’ house and tell Mary, Fred, Alice, and Hermione everything they know so far. But the parents are in denial because their perspective says that F.P. has often been in trouble with the law and any statement Archie and Veronica would make would be inadmissible anyway since they trespassed. Archie is like, “Well, we tried to include you, and I can’t speak for anyone else here, but I’m telling the police.” The one downside is that he didn’t go right away.

Let’s check in on Jughead – he’s having a rough night. He’s outside of a bus station, in a phone booth, telling his mom he bought a ticket to Toledo. However, you can tell the conversation isn’t going well because Jughead’s fragile smile falls as his mom keeps talking. Essentially she told him not to come. He hangs up and cries in the phone booth before going back into the station to change his ticket. But the bus doesn’t leave until the next morning and the lobby of the bus station is about to close. More importantly, why wouldn’t his mom want him to come. Maybe things aren’t what they seem in Toledo either; but I suppose that’s a storyline for season 2.

Veronica finds her mom searching for passports and she tells Veronica that there’s no telling what F.P. will say. The association with him is worrying for Hermione and she says that Veronica needs to pack a bag, just in case. Veronica says that they’ll look guilty if they run and Hermione says that she is guilty, using bribing the mayor for the land and paying the Serpents off as examples.

Archie and Betty are searching for Jughead and Archie figured Jughead would be at the bus station. They arrive too late and the station is closed; Archie keeps coming up with the right answer or move, but he’s just always a few moments off. Archie gets a phone call from Veronica, who needs someone to talk to.. Archie tells her that he and Betty are searching for Jughead and Veronica says she’ll meet them. Veronica thinks Jughead would be at Pop’s since it’s the only place in town open 24/7.

Sure enough, when Betty, Veronica, and Archie go to Pop’s, they find Jughead. Veronica tells Jughead that the gun that was found was a plant and that they know his dad is innocent. Kind of makes this next part awkward: F.P. confesses to everything. I mean everything. Kidnapping Jason; attempting to hold him for ransom; killing him; putting him in the cooler; dumping the body; even stealing the investigation photos from Sheriff Keller’s house and setting Jason’s getaway car on fire. So, when the core group shows up to the station and tells the sheriff that F.P. is being framed, it’s really awkward when he responds that F.P. just confessed.

The following morning, Polly joins the Blossoms for breakfast. Penelope shows her the newspaper cover with the headline story of F.P. being arrested for Jason’s murder. Polly is surprised to see that it was him and not one of the Blossoms.

In the school cafeteria, Archie, Betty, and Veronica are talking about their disbelief of the entire situation. Veronica wonders if her father paid someone to plant the gun and Archie holds her hand under the table to comfort her. Kevin comes in and asks how Jughead is doing. It’s a bit uncomfortable because Jughead is obviously not doing well and is being questioned by Kevin’s dad. Kevin tries to defend his dad and says that he’s just doing his job. And that is true; everything they found pointed to F.P. and then he confessed. The Sheriff is in the right, logistically. But Betty says that Sheriff Keller is wasting his time because F.P. didn’t do it. Their awkward conversation is broken by the huge hush that falls over the cafeteria because Jughead just walked in.

Jughead walks right up to Cheryl and tells her that he’s sorry. Cheryl slaps him in the face and starts hitting him and Archie jumps up and pulls her off him. Principal Weatherbee comes in and tells Jughead to come with him. One has to wonder why Jughead even did that; was it some misplaced guilt and he maybe wanted to be punished? Jughead is edgy, that was probably it.

Betty talks to Cheryl and says regardless of what F.P. did, that doesn’t have anything to do with Jughead. Cheryl says things are strange because everyone is coming up to her and saying that she must be relieved that it’s finally all over; she doesn’t feel like it is over. These characters are genre-savvy!

Betty then goes to wait for Jughead outside of the principal’s office. He says Weatherbee questioned him too and he’s not sure if Weatherbee or Sheriff Keller is the bigger jerk. Betty says not to listen to them and starts in again at F.P. being innocent. But Jughead is disillusioned at this point and has given up on F.P. doing right.

Fred hangs up from a phone call with Weatherbee. He tells Archie that Weatherbee is concerned for Jughead’s personal safety and thinks that he should finish out the school year at home. Archie says it’s completely unfair that Jughead is the one who got attacked at school and he’s the one being punished. But I think Weatherbee is right on this; imagine what some of the other kids would say and do to him. He already feels out of place at school and this situation certainly doesn’t help. Fred says that they need to figure out a long term solution for Jughead and Archie says that they are the long term solution. But Fred isn’t Jughead’s legal guardian and doesn’t want to be responsible for Jughead and the trouble that seems to follow his family. Unfortunately, Jughead is hearing all this and he starts to walk out of the house. Archie sees him and stops him, but Jughead tells him that he’ll sleep on the couch in the garage. Archie is pretty pissed at how Jughead is being treated. Finally solidifying that he actually is a good friend who cares.

Hal comes home and shows Betty and Alice the evidence that he stole from Sheriff Keller’s house. Betty points out that it’s strange that F.P. confessed to taking the evidence when he obviously didn’t. Hal says he has no idea why F.P. did that, but when he found out about the confession, he decided to come home to destroy the evidence. He stole it because he was afraid that it would lead back to Polly. Now for an unexpected reveal:

Turns out that Hal’s grandfather that was murdered by a Blossom…was also a Blossom. Clifford’s grandfather and Hal’s grandfather were brothers. When the murder happened, their side of the family split from the Blossoms and took the name Cooper. So…technically Polly and Jason are relatives; this is also the reason why Hal wanted Polly to have an abortion. But you know, had Hal actually said all of this in the very beginning when Polly and Jason started dating, no one would be in this mess. “You two are related,” carries much more weight than, “I don’t like that boy so stop dating him.”

The Coopers rush off to get Polly out of Thornhill. Their arrival wakes up everyone and they have a confrontation in the foyer. Alice says they know all about the incest and the business with the grandfathers being related. They think that’s why the Blossoms had a problem with Polly, much like why Hal didn’t like Jason. But Cliff and Penelope both knew. Penelope says nothing could be more purely Blossom than Polly’s babies and Cliff says to “spare the middle-class morality” and says Jason and Polly were like “third cousins”. All the Coopers are weirded out by the conversation and Hal and Alice take Polly out of the house.

The next morning, Archie and Jughead eat breakfast with Mary at Pop’s. Mary went to see F.P. last night, passing herself off as his lawyer. She says that F.P. never budged from his story. She doesn’t think things will be going well for F.P and suggests that Jughead goes to see him before the arraignment. She does have an interesting question though – she wants to know who Joaquin is. He was F.P.’s only phone call.

Jughead takes Mary’s advice and goes to see F.P. It…does not go well. Or does it? Jughead and F.P. are very emotional and when Jughead is leaving, F.P. tells him not to come back. But there’s something about his expression that tips Jughead off to something being amiss. When Jughead leaves, he calls Betty and tells her that she was right about his dad hiding something.

Archie tells Veronica about F.P.’s phone call to Joaquin. She says Joaquin would know if F.P. was hired by her father. I am so tired of Veronica’s motivation. I can’t even be sympathetic to her issues anymore. It just seems so inconsequential to everything else that’s happening. Who cares about your dad, Veronica?

Veronica, Archie, and Kevin talk to Joaquin about F.P. Kevin says they want the truth and that he’s asking as the sheriff’s son. Which isn’t a powerful title. Literally meaningless in this context. Joaquin tells them that F.P. called him for a late night cleanup job of the body and he just assumed that F.P. is the one that pulled the trigger. Kevin angrily says, “You’re a criminal!” I mean, obviously. He’s in a biker gang. He told you that the same night you met him Kevin, you always knew. Veronica asks if it was Hiram who did it and Joaquin mentions this guy named Mustang who was talking about a rich guy and being the only other person who knew about the murder.

Veronica is insistent on talking to Mustang, so Joaquin takes them to Mustang’s residence. However, they find Mustang dead in the bathtub from what appears to be a drug overdose. Joaquin says he can’t be there and starts leaving with Kevin; Kevin tells Archie and Veronica to call his dad.

The police come to investigate what happened with Mustang; it looks like they also called Hermione and Fred because they’re there too. Under Mustang’s bed, they found a bag full of money with the initials “H.L.”. Sheriff Keller immediately accuses Hermione of being the owner of the bag and Veronica corrects him and says it must be her father’s because he was working with the Serpents. Hermione gets Veronica to shut up after that because it’s not like they actually have to answer the questions right away like that. Couple things though: 1) If you’re conducting illegal activity, why would you ever be stupid enough to give something with your initials; 2) Hermione Lodge is a very feminine woman and that was not a woman’s overnight bag; 3) Those initials could point to anyone; 4) Sheriff Keller seems like a good dad but wow is he shit at being a police officer.

Later, Kevin and Joaquin are at the bus station. Joaquin has a bag and before he leaves he tells Kevin that he should tell his friends to stop what they’re doing before they get hurt. Kevin says, “You don’t know them; just like I don’t know you.” But when Joaquin starts leaving, Kevin calls him back and kisses him. Joaquin says he’s going to miss him and then tells him there’s something else hidden that he didn’t want to mention in front of the others.

Cheryl is still feeling uneasy, so she asks her mom what Jason and Clifford were arguing about the morning that Jason got murdered. Penelope says they’ve been over this and that it was about Jason not being able to stomach the business. Which doesn’t make sense because they sell maple syrup. Cheryl knows there’s more to that and asks what it was that Jason couldn’t handle; then she takes it further and asks if he was afraid of Penelope and Clifford. Penelope is pissed at the allegation of them killing Jason and drags Cheryl out to the barn with maple syrup and says, “There’s the big secret Cheryl! Maple syrup! Drown in it.” Which doesn’t really help her, “I’m not a murderer” case, but what do I know.

Kevin tells Betty about what Joaquin said to him. Those two, along with Jughead, go looking for what Joaquin stashed. Kevin says that the phone call from F.P. was him telling Joaquin not to go with the contingency plan because it was too dangerous. Joaquin heeded the warning, which is why he didn’t mention it at first. The group finds the bag with Jason’s jacket.

Then the group gets together with Archie and Veronica in Archie’s garage. Betty discovers that there’s a hole in the pocket of Jason’s jacket. In the lining of the jacket is a flash drive. And on the flash drive is a video of the murder. After the video concludes, Betty calls Cheryl and tells her that she needs to get out of her house.

Cheryl thanks Betty and goes into the dining room where her parents are having dinner. Cheryl stands by Penelope and says, “You did a bad thing daddy. And now everyone knows.”

Alice brings the flash drive to Sheriff Keller and the mayor. The content of the video consisted of Jason tied up in the basement under the Serpent’s bar, being taunted by Mustang. Mustang leaves when Clifford Blossom comes in. Cliff takes the engagement ring from Jason and then shoots him in the head without even a second thought. Like grandfather, like grandson.

F.P. confessed to the murder because Clifford threatened Jughead’s life if F.P. didn’t confess. However, F.P. is still getting charged with a lot of other things, such as obstruction of justice, mishandling of evidence, and perjury. Though I don’t think that last one should stick because F.P. was under duress when he did that.

Veronica comes home and apologizes to Hermione for ever thinking that Hiram could have been part of a murder. Her mom says it’s okay and tells her that Hiram is coming home. I sincerely hope that that is the last we hear of Veronica’s constant, “My father, my dad,” business. She was starting to sound like Prince Zuko and wasn’t nearly as endearing or sympathetic about it.

The police go to Thornhill to get Clifford. Cheryl and Penelope are outside and they point the police in the direction of the barn. When Sheriff Keller opens the door, we see Cliff, who appeared to have hanged himself and a spilled barrel that reveals drugs. No wonder Jason couldn’t stomach the family business.

Biggest questions now: Why did Cliff kill Jason instead of just letting him leave? Did F.P. set Jason’s getaway car on fire and help with clean up? Is Cliff the person who framed F.P. and tipped the police off? Will Joaquin ever return? Can the friend group actually remain a group of five after all the unpleasantness with Sheriff Keller and F.P. Jones? And what happened in between Cheryl telling her father she knew and him hanging himself?

The season finale will be stacked.

#riverdale #riverdale 1x11 #riverdale recap #tv recaps #riverdale1

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onceuponamirror · 7 years

Text

the winged beast [6/12]

Fandom: Riverdale

Ships: Betty x Jughead, Archie x Veronica (background)

Chapters: 6/12

Summary:

This is how the world ends, she thinks. Not with a bang but with a motorcycle.

[serpent!au] [read on Ao3 from the beginning] [2] [3] [4] [5] [character design]

Betty, at least, was able to rule out Jason on Saturday morning, when she, without much delicacy, had asked Polly if she’d heard from Jason. Polly said she had; apparently he’d been drunk texting her all night and by breakfast, he’d sent an equal amount of flustered apologies. Her sister had said this all with pursed lips, and Betty filed away the reaction for later.

It’d been a huge relief; if it wasn’t Jason, it wasn’t her fault. Still, it was a reassurance she felt at odds with, given that just because Jason was okay, didn’t mean someone else was.

But she doesn’t have to wait long to find out; the news breaks on Saturday night.

When no one had heard from Moose Mason for 24 hours, Reggie Mantle had apparently confirmed it with the football team; he himself had tried resuscitating Moose until the paramedics arrived. Betty found out through Kevin, who already knew, but waited until it was publicly on twitter that Moose had been hurt before passing the news.

“I mean, I saw him like half an hour before,” Kevin says on the phone that night, his voice shaky. “I think he might’ve been trying to get me to have a threesome? Like? He was being so weird and out of it. I should’ve known something was up. I was so shocked that I just walked away but what if that was the last…” Kevin sucks in a gulp of air and trails off.

“It’s definitely not your fault, Kev,” Betty says softly, though she thinks about how stressed she’d been about Jason a few hours before and knows words probably mean nothing to Kevin right now. “There was no way you could’ve known.”

“Speaking of…none of us are supposed to know about this, by the way,” he adds, after a minute. His voice is stiff, and Betty can tell he’s probably still beating himself up. “My dad wants to wait for an official press conference. But he told me this morning. It’s…really bad, Betty.”

“Bad how?” Betty rolls over on her bed to grab her diary. She feels a sting of guilt with herself for jumping into journalist mode, but decides the truth is more important than tact. She raises her pencil to the paper.

Kevin pauses, choosing his words. When he speaks, his voice is very small. “He died, Betty. On the way to the hospital.”

She feels all the air leave her lungs and drops her pencil. “He…what? Died? I thought he was just…sick, or something. What happened? How?”

“My dad wouldn’t tell me, but I don’t think it was…uh, natural causes,” Kevin says. “Crap, I hear him coming. I gotta go, Betty. I’ll see you Monday. And don’t tell anyone,” he adds, and then the line is dead.

He died. Kevin’s words echo, almost mockingly. Moose Mason? Dead? It wasn’t as if she knew Moose particularly well, but she’s also known him her entire life. His entire life, she thinks with a sickening crunch to her stomach.

Betty closes her eyes and tries to retrace the moments at the base of the stairs. Joaquin running down the hall, someone yelling that Moose wasn’t breathing, Veronica and Archie arriving, the paramedics upstairs and shouting symptoms…they’d said something, a word she’d heard before. Some kind of medical term, maybe?

She exhales slowly, and when it finally feels like her lungs have nothing left in them, she blinks up at the ceiling. It doesn’t seem real. She saw him in class yesterday; she’d helped him spell the word scholastic. She feels sick; it’s one thing to abstractly investigate accidents and deaths on the other side of town, and it’s another to know someone taken by it.

Nibbling on her lip, she reaches over for her phone. She pulls Jughead up in her contacts and stares at the last conversation they’d had on Friday before the party.

Alright, I just watched 10 Things I Hate About You. It was so predictable!

That means you liked it :)

Does not

You like predictable

Can we keep the psychoanalysis off the table for once thank you very much

But then, a few minutes later, he’d sent:

I guess I see the appeal though

Betty stares at the exchange. Jughead does like predictability, despite whatever devil-may-care image he’s spent however long finely crafting. He may claim to be a cinema buff and a lover of creative integrity, but almost all of his favorite films have the exact same plot trajectory:

Character enters the mystery, then a reluctant partnership, a death or two halfway through to raise the stakes, followed by a big twist, followed by an ending that is somehow as satisfying as it is bittersweet.

She blinks back to the ceiling. If her life were a film, would last night have been the twist, or was the arc so obvious it couldn’t have been? Was this all foreshadowed by her obsession with finding the truth about the south side? Was this the moment that raised the stakes?

Or was a boy just dead?

The thought brings her soundly back into the moment. Her fingers hover over the keyboard of her phone, reading and rereading Jughead’s last text.

What she really wants to say is Hey, so what the fuck but that feels both too heavy and too joking somehow. Plus she’s not sure he’s ever heard her swear in the first place and the shock alone might distract him from the fact that she’s being serious.

But what would she say? Ask him what the hell Joaquin was doing fleeing the scene of what ended up being a death? That would feel accusatory and she doesn’t want to indict Jughead or even Joaquin of anything. After all Jughead opened up about people from the south side being stereotyped, and she just drops the blame on him or his friends without waiting for the full story?

No, she won’t insult Jughead by insinuating that.

So she settles on I have your leather jacket. She’s never seen him without it; she likes to imagine he has a closet full of them, like some cartoon character with only one outfit, but given the well-loved scuffing on this one, she doubts it. Anyway, she figures it’ll be easier to talk about this in person than try to navigate via text.

Do you want me to bring it to you? Meet at Pop’s?

About an hour later, and she still hadn’t gotten a response.

Or I’ll just bring it to school on Monday, whatever’s easiest.

Still nothing, and reluctantly Betty puts her phone aside to get ready for bed. Is he mad at her? Did she do something wrong? After her panic attack in the bushes of the Mantle mansion, the rest of the night had continued in such a haze that she barely remembers driving everyone home, but she tries to rack her brain for something she might’ve said to Jughead to upset him.

He’d tried to tell her something and she had shut him down, expecting it’d been the long-time-coming talk about boundaries and feelings. But Jughead doesn't seem like a guy who enjoys confrontation, and Betty would think he’d be relieved at dodging the “I have a girlfriend” talk.

Betty wonders if she should just be direct and ask him point blank if he knows anything. She remembers the terror on Joaquin’s face and Sabrina cursing madly down the stairs, but Jughead had seemed just as confused as she had been.

So why was he ignoring her?

She gets under the covers and pulls them tight up against her chin. There’s murmuring downstairs and the creak of her parents moving around, and Betty stares at the stick-on-stars on her ceiling and remembers tracing the constellations in the stars outside the party. She’d felt so happy then, if just for a fleeting moment.

She closes her eyes and thinks about Moose Mason.

Sunday drags on with glacial pace; this means two things. One, that no one else yet knows that Moose Mason, lovable high school linebacker, everyone’s All-American buddy, is dead.

Two, that her mother doesn’t know.

Part of her appreciates the day as the quiet before the storm, because once word reaches her classmates and especially once it reaches her mother and the town paper, it’s going to be hell. The north side of Riverdale has thus far happily kept horse-blinders on, but to lose one of their own is surely going to break the dam, especially if Moose didn't die naturally.

Naloxone.

She sits upright in bed. The word comes to her in a flash, in a blinding memory of chaos and screams. “He’s hypoxic! Pupils dilated! Ready the naloxone!” The paramedic shouted, and Betty blinks. She hasn’t heard that word before, she’s read it.

She picks up her laptop and types it into the search bar. Naloxone, she reads, is the drug administered to people who have overdosed; it’s especially useful for those who OD on fentanyl because it’s so easy to over do.

Moose overdosed, she thinks, her mouth falling open. She clam shells her laptop shut and lets out the breath she didn’t know she was holding. On fentanyl? Moose Mason?

Fentanyl is not a drug typically found at the keggers of rich kids; it’s rough, and gritty. Cocaine, she could see. Prescription drugs, definitely. But her research has taught her fentanyl is typically cut into heroin, if anything, and that gives Betty pause, but she's not sure if it's her own unconscious prejudice about what an overdose should “look like” or if is this genuinely suspicious.

She picks up her pencil and diary, her thoughts swirling. But after about ten minutes, Betty realizes she has just been staring at a blank page the whole time, and decides she’s not going to get anywhere with writing out her thoughts today, so she puts it aside and crawls over to her window perch.

Archie is sitting in his chair at his own window, spinning left and right as he juggles a worn-looking football between his hands. He looks up when Betty settles into her own seat, and moves to open his window. She does the same.

“How are you doing?” He asks, settling on his elbows.

With a pang of guilt, Betty realizes she’s been kind of neglectful of her friendship with Archie lately in lieu of time with the newspaper and, if she’s being honest with herself, with Jughead. But Archie has been equally busy with football and music and neither of them have made much of an effort lately. Betty makes a mental note to set aside some time for him.

“I’m okay,” Betty lies, forcing a light smile. “Thinking about Friday night though.”

“Me too,” Archie says, looking forlorn. “I keep trying to go through the people I saw at the party and the last time I saw them.” He pauses. “Who do you think it was?”

Betty bites her lip. Kevin had told her not to say anything and given the radio silence from Veronica too, she assumes he hasn’t told anyone but her. And she loves Archie, and while he’s decent at keeping secrets on his own, the minute someone presses him on it, he caves. He can’t lie to save his skin and telling him is too risky.

“I don’t know,” she says quietly, deciding not to pass the buck, “but I have a really bad feeling about this, Archie. Like it’s only going to get worse.”

Archie nods. “I feel it too. But I don’t…I don’t know how to explain it. It’s just…this weird heaviness, like it’s in the air or something. Does that make sense?”

It makes more sense than Archie probably realizes. Betty tucks her chin down and nods, glancing across the room to her wardrobe, where Jughead’s jacket is currently hidden, tucked away like some dark, living, breathing secret. She exhales, long and slow, and meets Archie’s gaze one last time.

These violent delights have violent ends, she thinks.

Betty wakes earlier than normal on Monday morning; truthfully, her sleep was fitful and tossing, so it’s not too difficult to roll out of bed at 5 A.M. and dress for an early run. She slips out of the house and heads out into a jog around the block. She’s exhausted, but her heart hasn’t stopped hammering since Friday, and the anxiety masquerading as adrenaline pushes her steps into long, lean strides.

She pounds into the cement, hoping to chase a burn that will soothe her churning thoughts, but after about 40 minutes, she realizes she can’t literally outrun her feelings, and she heads back home.

Her mother is bustling about in the kitchen when she returns. Alice looks up when she hears Betty approaching. “You’re up early,” she says, in the pleased voice she always uses when she’s impressed with Betty pushing herself. “Get a good run in?”

“Yeah,” Betty says, still breathing heavily. “I’m gonna go shower.”

Her mother nods and returns to her morning mantra of preparing pancakes and coffee. Betty watches her mother work for a moment, almost robotically, like some kind of pre-Feminine Mystique housewife going through the motions.

As she's heading up the stairs, Betty hears the phone ring, followed by her mother answering it quietly. It's a little early for a phone call, Betty thinks, but dismisses it once she's out of earshot.

After her shower, Betty forgoes breakfast and heads straight to school; she wants to get there early, before anyone else, to get some work done on the paper, because she has a feeling that the day is going to be nothing short of a tempest once school starts. The police won’t be able to contain this secret much longer.

When she arrives at the Blue & Gold, she checks her phone again, but there’s still nothing from Jughead. Sighing, she hangs his leather jacket on the coat rack. It’d barely fit in her backpack this morning, and practically weighed as much as her old cat, but there was no way she was gonna let her mother see her sneaking out the door with a big black leather jacket in hand.

Betty sighs and settles down in front of her laptop. She doesn’t really know what she’s looking for, and technically this is just her own theory, but something still feels very suspicious about the combination of an all-star football player and a dangerous drug like fentanyl. She spends the next hour or two reading up about rise in overdoses across the country—there apparently is no shortage of small town horror stories much like their own.

Riverdale isn’t special, she realizes, and then feels naïve for not looking at this as indicative of a larger, national problem. Still, there's not much that reassures her about the conflicting depictions of fentanyl use and the image of Moose Mason.

After she’s read so many articles that her eyes start to cross, she slams her laptop shut and puts her forehead in her hands. She hears people mulling about outside the room; students have started arriving like a gathering flock of scavenging birds, circling ominously over a wounded animal.

Betty sighs, and decides to use the remaining minutes before the first bell to get a few things out of her locker. When she returns, there’s someone standing in front of the corkboard, and she has a brief moment of relief where she thinks it might be Jughead.

It’s not.

Agent Drew looks over his shoulder at her, his face serious, before glancing once more to the wall of clippings and index cards with theories. His eyes linger on the center card for FENTANYL.

He traces his eyes around the room, moving slowly, and reaches the collection of Nancy Drew novels stacked on a shelf. He runs his fingers over them contemplatively.

“You like Nancy Drew?” He asks with a small smile. Betty returns it awkwardly and nods, her mind still playing catch up with the fact that there’s an FBI agent in her newspaper office. “Me too. I always used to get teased for reading the Nancy books instead of the Hardy Boys, but, well, I liked her best.”

“Because of your last name?” Betty asks, without really thinking first.

“Sort of the other way around,” he says evasively, clearing his throat and straightening. “Anyway. Miss Cooper, when we last spoke, you mentioned a few things I would like to follow up on. Would you mind answering a few more questions for me? We don’t have to go to the station; we can do this right here.”

The first bell tolls between them, but neither move.

“I know my rights, sir,” she says, raising her chin in the air, in an act that looks more defiant than she feels. “You can’t question me without a parent.”

He smiles, and runs a smoothing hand over his already crisp suit jacket. In the warm yellow light of the Blue & Gold office, Agent Drew looks a lot younger and friendlier than he had on Friday night. “Miss Cooper—may I call you Elizabeth?”

“I go by Betty,” she says, in a shaky exhale.

“Betty, then. You’re not under arrest, or even in any trouble. This isn’t a custodial setting and we can stop at any time. If there were charges being laid, of course we would have a parent or a guardian present, but I just have a few qualifying questions.”

She shifts from one foot to another. He looks at her, eyebrows creasing. “Gauging from the generous collection of mystery novels and the set up on that corkboard, I get the sense that you’re someone looking for the truth. Well, I am too. That’s why I’m here.”

She considers him. She thinks about what Jughead would say if he were here; probably warn her about not trusting authority figures or something with a casual conspiracy theory about capitalist police states.

But Jughead isn’t here, and has been ignoring her for days now. Why should she care what he’d say? She stares at the coat rack where she’d hung his leather jacket this morning, thinking he’d want it back today.

“If you would like anyone here with you, you are more than welcome to it, and I’ll happily wait,” he adds, with a small smile.

“No, it’s okay,” she says hesitantly. Despite a growing wariness of law enforcement ever since Jughead entered her life, there is something trustworthy about Agent Drew. He doesn’t seem any less business-like, but in the light of day, he has almost a paternal air to him, despite the fact that he can’t be more than in his late 20s.

Agent Drew crosses the room to the door, which he closes gently. Betty takes her usual seat, and he slips into the one across from her; the place where Jughead usually sits. She’d been upset that he’d skipped school again today, but now she’s desperately hoping he doesn’t change his mind and stays away.

He hauls a heavy-looking briefcase onto the desk, and begins sorting through it. He pulls out a manila folder and that familiar little black notebook, and aligns them together so that they’re perfectly straight and parallel.

He opens up the folder and clears his throat. “As this information will be released to the public shortly, if not already, I should tell you that Mr. Marmaduke Mason, otherwise known as Moose, passed away in the early hours of Saturday morning.”

He glances up at Betty, watching her carefully for her reaction, so Betty feigns shock, her mouth falling open. She’s not sure she convinces him, because he narrows his eyes before moving on.

“This morning I received the toxicology report from the autopsy of Mr. Mason,” he says, and Betty feels a shiver at the word autopsy. “And, along with a few other things, there was a fair amount of the opioid known as fentanyl in his system. Now that I’m seeing your…er, corkboard, I’m wondering if you have anything you’d like to share with me in that regard. What made you suspect the overdoses on the south side were linked to fentanyl? As far as I know, that wasn’t published anywhere.”

“My friend Jughead suggested it,” Betty says cautiously. “He works with me on the school paper.”

“Ah,” Agent Drew sighs, opening up his little notebook and flipping through it. “Right, right. Mr. Jones. I ran the names that you gave me, and unfortunately, it poses a bit of a dilemma.”

Betty bristles. He reaches back into his briefcase and withdraws an identical envelope. He scans his eyes over the papers briefly and begins to read.

“Joaquin DeSantos, the one who you said placed the first 911 call, has been arrested on multiple accounts of vandalism over the years. Sabrina Spellman has been in so many fights it’s amazing she’s still upright. And your friend Jughead Jones was once held in juvenile court for trying to burn down his elementary school.”

He puts the folder down and crosses his arms over it. “All three are known Southside Serpents. I’m afraid that doesn’t bode well, given I’ve learned they fled the scene shortly after Mr. Mason was found and that Mr. DeSantos was seen leaning over Mr. Mason by a witness.”

He looks up at Betty, and she’s surprised to see he looks more resigned than anything.

Known Serpent, she thinks. All three are known Southside Serpents, she hears Agent Drew’s voice echoing. Trying to burn down his elementary school.

That couldn’t be right. Why hadn’t Jughead told her? How could he have kept that from her? Did he think she’d care? Judge him?

She feels hurt—beyond hurt, maybe—but she doesn't have time to unpack that. She tries to keep her attention on Agent Drew. Her nails breach the skin of her palms in an attempt at focusing.

“That might all be true, sir, but I don’t think it’s them or the Serpents who are selling the fentanyl. I think they’ve been getting targeted for refusing to. There have been a lot of motorcycle accidents and people being run off the road, and bricks going through windows, and—”

“Betty, please,” Agent Drew says calmly. “I’m not accusing the Southside Serpents of anything. To be frank with you, I know that the local police department here would very much like it to be that simple. It’d be a neat little bow to tie everything together and would get the mayor’s office off their backs. I’m a bit of an unpopular guy right now for suggesting otherwise, but I agree with you in that there seems to be a pattern here.”

He sighs, and busies himself with readjusting his files. “But I’ve gotten very off topic. Betty, the reason I actually wanted to speak with you today is because of your friend Veronica Lodge.”

Betty blinks. She pauses, not sure she’s heard him right. “What?”

“Betty, are you aware that Veronica’s father is currently awaiting trial in a federal penitentiary?” He asks, pen poised over the notebook once more.

“I mean…yeah, but for like, tax evasion, right? It’s not like he was arrested for murder.”

Agent Drew smiles, but it’s more of a grimace than anything. “That would be Al Capone. Though that’s not too far off base,” he adds, more to himself. He immediately looks frustrated with himself, and sighs, straightening. “Betty, has Veronica ever mentioned anything about her father to you?”

It’s one thing to help Agent Drew with the investigation into Moose’s death, and it’s another to start pointing fingers at her friends. She opens her mouth to tell him just that, but doesn’t get a chance to, because the door flies open with such a force that both of them jump in their seats.

“Elizabeth, stop talking,” someone says, and Betty looks up to see her mother storming across the room. She throws her purse down on a desk, her face red with rage. “Who the hell do you think you are, questioning my daughter without a parent or a lawyer in the room?”

“Mom, what the hell?”

Agent Drew bolts upright from his chair. “Ma’am, please, I just had a few questions for your daughter regarding my investigation. It’s perfectly within legal realms. I assure you she is in no trouble; I informed her that she had the option of awaiting guardianship—”

“I’d like to see some credentials,” Alice snaps. “And get your name, so that I can report it to your supervisor immediately.”

“Of course,” Agent Drew says, and quickly retrieves his identification badge. “Special Agent Charles Drew with the FBI.”

Alice stares at Agent Drew for a long, hard moment, her expression odd and pinched.

“Mom, how did you even know he was here?” Betty asks, and it’s as if a spell was broken. Alice inhales and turns to her daughter.

“I happened to have a meeting with Principal Weatherbee today regarding Homecoming. He mentioned to me that the FBI were on the grounds conducting interviews and, well, I saw you two through the door window.”

Betty knows her mother well enough to read between the lines; that means her mother pressed Weatherbee into a corner for information and then she immediately went stalking off for a scoop.

Alice turns to Agent Drew with appraising eyes. “What exactly is the nature of your investigation?”

“I’m sorry Mrs. Cooper, I’m afraid I can’t speak to the details of an ongoing case, however, beyond the fact that I’m now the primary investigator into Mr. Mason’s death this weekend.”

The revelation that a student died doesn't seem to shock Alice particularly, which means she must've learned about it this morning.

Betty looks at her. Her mother seems stuck between a rock and a hard place, perhaps warring with her instinct to needle for information and her desire to shelter her daughter from it. “And just how long has the FBI been involved here?” She asks, squinting at him.

“Details of the case will be made public after it’s closed, or until otherwise seen fit,” Agent Drew says, almost robotically. “Mrs. Cooper, I’ve done my research into this town, and I am aware that you and your husband run the town’s local newspaper, so unfortunately, you’ll have to wait for an official press conference to get your questions in.”

His lips twitch, just barely, and Betty realizes that actually might’ve been a joke.

“Fine,” Alice sniffs. “Now, if you have any more questions for my daughter, you can contact our lawyer. You’re done here.”

Agent Drew doesn’t seem particularly surprised that this is the conclusion of a helicopter parent storming into his interview. He gives her one last studying look before packing up his briefcase. “I’ll be in touch,” he says, and slips away.

Alice turns her eyes on Betty. “What was he asking you about?” She asks sharply. “I heard him mention Veronica Lodge’s name. I told you what I think of that girl. She’s not your friend.”

“Stop it!” Betty shouts. “You don’t even know her! Why are you so obsessed with this…witch-hunt with her and her family, when you should be talking about what’s really going on in this town?”

Alice crosses her arms and looks over at the corkboard. “What’s really going on in this town? You mean your flirtation with the high school newspaper? Elizabeth, please. Those gangbangers don’t care about you or any of us; why would you care about them? They made their bed and they’ll sleep in it as far as I’m concerned.”

Betty stares at her mother with horror. “Why are you like this?” She asks after a moment. “I mean, god Mom, what did they ever do to you?”

Alice just presses her lips together and looks back at the corkboard, her eyebrows creasing.

“People like you treat them like second-class citizens but they’re just as much part of Riverdale as we are. Just because they don’t fit into your Stepford fantasy doesn’t mean they aren’t,” Betty says, raising her chin into the air.

Her mother scoffs, though she looks noticeably ruffled. “Betty, this is hardly so Shakespearean. We’re not Capulets and Montagues. I’m perfectly sure there are some good people on the south side, but the fact of the matter is, I can say with certainty that a lot of them are gangbanging drug dealers. You of all people should know that by now, after what happened on Friday night, but you’ll see tomorrow.”

“Tomorrow?” Betty repeats. “What’s happening tomorrow?”

“Your father and I are running a story about this boy’s death and the little Serpent that was seen standing over his body,” Alice says, staring out the window. She glances back at Betty sharply. “Or is that not what happened?”

“That—that’s you twisting it!” Betty sputters. “We don’t have all the facts, we have no idea what happened or how Moose got the drugs. You know, Jughead said—”

“Jug-head? Who is Jug-head?”

Betty realizes her mistake immediately. “He’s…he works with me on the school paper.”

“What an unusual name,” her mother muses suspiciously. “Hard to think there’s more than one Jughead in this town. Would he be the same Jughead Jones of south-side-proper that Reggie Mantle listed as being at the party?”

“He had nothing to do with what happened to Moose,” Betty says quickly. “He was with me all night.”

Alice hums; she has the same expression that Betty makes when she’s filing something away for later. Then she sighs, her whole posture deflating a little.

“Betty, you do remember that Reggie Mantle’s father owns half the share of the Register, correct? And then there’s party thrown by his son, apparently unbeknownst to them, and it ends in a boy’s death. Needless to say, it doesn’t look good for an upstanding family to have an overdose under their roof.”

“But...”

“Do you realize the kind of pressure Mr. Mantle is putting on us to write about the culprits who dealt the drugs or brought them onto his property?” Alice snaps, looking suddenly very tired.

“But that doesn’t mean you should just start scapegoating the easiest target—”

Her mother turns to her, arms crossed. Her icy resolve seems to be melting a bit as she straightens.

“Betty, you wanted us to start talking about overdoses and drugs, and now we are. You wanted us to talk about the south side, and now we are. You don’t always get what you want the way you want it,” she says, and Betty is surprised to find the softness there, nestled in between a thoughtful frown.

Alice turns her attention back to the window. She almost looks sad now. “There are things I never wanted for you, honey, but I had to learn my lesson about Pandora’s box the hard way. And it seems you do too.”

#bughead #bughead fanfiction #betty cooper #jughead jones #riverdale #honestly i've passed 25k words on this and i'm having a hernia #HOW #WHY #WHEN #WHERE #HOW AGAIN #fics

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greygamer · 7 years

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Brain Dump: Riverdale “La Grande Illusion”

1. All right, Riverdale, let's back to it. I understand some crazy stuff has happened, so I need to get caught up even though I'm busy with a Twin Peaks rewatch

2. I can't get over how insane it is that maple syrup is the foundation of the blossom family fortune.

3. Aw, why can't Cheryl get the family business? I'm sure she could learn about the syrup industry.

4. I'm pretty sure Alice Cooper is the worst journalist on the face of the planet.

5. Why would it be bad for Fred to know about who owns the land?

6. I did not even know that maple syrup had a season.

7. Why do I have the feeling that the Maple Topping might be something like a Boho Grove-esque occultic ceremony.

8. Hey, Ethel, your poem was pretty terrifying.

9. Whew, I'm glad that Veronica's story about terrorizing that kid didn't end in suicide, because it sort of felt like that's where it was going.

10. Also, I kind of loved the way Veronica was, like, duh, no.

11. Mrs. Blossom just called him Archibald!

12. Yeah, wait, Archie does look eerily like Jason Blossom, doesn't he? That does make the whole invite from Cheryl kind of weird.

13. Wow, that felt like an exceptionally long cold open.

14. "Tapped my last tree." Why does that sound so dirty?

15. AH THERE'S A SPIDER ON YOUR COAT CHERYL! IT'S HUGE!

16. "Sacred maple grove." Yes, yes. not weird and occulty at all.

17. Now we slaughter the lamb and coat ourselves in its blood.

18. Yay! Syrup!

19. Veronica, I've seen your place. You don't get to talk about being ruined.

20. Uh oh, is something wrong with the Muggs family?

21. Why does everyone have a bug on their jacket? This is creeping me out.

22. Oh shit, Veronica, your dad is responsible for Ethel's problem.

23. I want to be all like, How dare you Mrs. Lodge, but that dress and that cleavage.

24. Hahaha, I loved how Cheryl piped up to brag while Archie was defending her.

25. Oh, I get it. It's Hyram that Fred wouldn't want to be connected with.

26. Uh oh, the Blossoms are getting a bit creepy with Archibald.

27. GODDAMN THAT SPIDER, CHERYL!

28. I am so entertained see Alice Cooper (aka Shelly Johnson of the RR Diner in Twin Peaks) serving pie right here.

29. It's been awhile since I watched an episode of Riverdale, but if I recall correctly, Alice Cooper was kind of terrible to Polly, so it shouldn't be too surprising that she doesn't want to have much to do with her family.

30. Archiekins, you might want to wipe that lipstick off your cheek.

31. How fucking old are the computers used to produce the newspaper in Riverdale?

32. Also, something tells me Alice's story would have libel written all over it.

33. Archie negotiating on his father's behalf with Mr. Blossom probably isn't going to go over well once Fred finds out.

34. Uh oh, Cheryl just went poking at Archie's girlfriend.

35. Oh wow, Veronica's dad is now kind of responsible for Ethel's dad's suicide. That sure got dark.

36. Wait, how can there be slow motion footage of a pearl necklack breaking without it also being Batman's origin?

37. So, if I can unpack this, the Blossoms are trying to hook Archie up with Cheryl so that she'll seem less crazy and can then run the company?

38. Also, Polly is secretly investigating the Blossoms? Remember when she seemed kind of crazy?

39. Oh, whew, Ethel's dad survived.

40. Ethel, I hope you find it in your heart to forgive Veronica, because it's not really her fault, you know. Right?

41. Ugh, everything's so sad. Come on, Archibald! Save the day!

42. Come on, Archikins, you can't blame a girl for trying.

43. Veronica, I have to admit, your dad doesn't sound quite so evil when you call him "Daddy".

44. Well, Cheryl's not wrong, Archikins.

45. No! Don't write the story! It's fucking libel!

46. And why would you write it in the school newspaper? This whole newspaper stuff is the most ridiculous part of this show.

47. WHOA Archie just got super burned by his girlfriend. Uh, well, ex-girlfriend, I guess.

48. Maybe go back to Cheryl?

49. YOU GO, FRED ANDREWS! But, seriously, could have probably kept banging Hermione. Just saying.

50. Yay Ethel!

51. "If Clifford sent Hiram Lodge to jail..." Wait, do people just get "sent" to jail by their business rivals in Riverdale? I honestly don't know how half this shit works. And I don't think the show's writers do either.

52. Oh shit, hell hath no fury like a Cheryl scorned.

#riverdale #archie #the cw #tv #television #review #commentary #brain dump

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thorias · 8 years

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Random thoughts watching Riverdale episode 6

First thing we see is Betty and Polly as kids. There goes the Polly-is-Betty’s-split-personality theory, I guess. It was a long shot anyway.

Alice is the first character to draw attention to how bizarre Jughead’s name is. Nice try, Alice, but I still hate you.

Delivering on all the build up Polly has had is going to be tough. I’m thinking about what Polly could be like and imagining everything from Norma Bates to Patrick Bateman.

I think a big reason why the story about Archie and his music doesn’t feel terribly compelling is because it’s too reminiscent of the comics, whereas everything and everyone else has been so heavily reimagined. We’ve got this Polly story and how it all connects to the murder mystery and it’s pretty fascinating stuff, but then we cut over to Archie having stage fright in a variety show, and it’s not bad, but I just want them to go back to the murder mystery because this part seems so unimportant by comparison. As much as I disliked the Grundy plot, it was the only thing Archie had that was as twisted as the other big plots on the show. Without it, he’s rather boring right now.

Archie hallucinating people wearing wolf masks gets my attention, but Betty’s already got the ‘mentally unbalanced’ storyline wired and he’s got a long way to go to catch up to her.

Reggie heckles Archie after Archie let him have the captain’s job on the football team last week. Because Reggie is a dick.

Archie asking Val to sing with him at the show seems like a reasonable request and her excuse doesn’t really hold water. She “can’t step out on the Pussycats?” He’s not asking you too, sweety. If your band is already performing at the show, fine. Is there any reason you can’t do both? I wouldn’t put it passed Josie to try to put a stop to that, but Josie seemed cool with Archie after he helped them with that song, so where’s the issue here?

Polly’s “group home” sounds less like a hospital for the mentally ill and more like a puritanical reformed school. Yeah, that seems like a place Alice Cooper would send her daughter to.

Veronica ‘ex machina’ Lodge is a thing now. I was trying to come up with a nickname for her, so how nice of her to do the work for me.

Thirty seconds into a Pussycats practice session and it seems that Josie is huge a control freak. Weird that Josie is the one credited as a regular cast member, yet Val is the one emerging as the more likable character and has had more screen time at this point too.

Josie says Val can sing with Pussycats or Archie, but not both. Apparently, Archie helping the band with that song meant nothing to her. First Reggie and now Josie -- the short term memory loss seems to be spreading. I’m dangerously close to feeling bad for Archie here.

The look on Josie’s face has me cheering Val for calling her bluff and walking out.

Veronica stumbling upon her mom making out with Archie’s dad has me torn. On the one hand, it’s so awkward, I can’t look away. On the other, the kid in me who read the comics is fashioning a crude crucifix and waving it around in utter horror that likely mirrors Veronica’s.

Archie is surprisingly cool with his dad potentially dating Hermione. Yeah, Archie is suddenly the well-adjusted one. How did that happen?

Wait a minute. Val writes the Pussycats’ songs? Then maybe it wasn’t such a good idea to practically kick her out of the band, Josie! Dumbass.

So Josie was stressing because her big shot musician dad is taking time out of his busy schedule to come visit and see the show, but if it sucks, her mom will get blamed for it? FFS, that’s ANOTHER kid with insane parents! I’m starting to think the luckiest ones on this show might be the kids being brought up by only one adult. Archie, Veronica and Kevin have no idea how fortunate they are.

Josie certainly makes a lot more sense now that I’ve seen her with her mom. It’s crazy how so many of the problems the kids on this show have can be directly blamed on the people raising them.

“What about dad?” Veronica asks her mom, as if her dad being in prison and causing his wife to become a social pariah didn’t likely cause the end of their marriage already. Ronnie didn’t really think they were going to work things out, did she?

Archie is quick to swap Veronica out for Val as his singing partner, which is kind of a dick move. But then Veronica fires back by being a jerk about his dad and her mom kissing. Archie then stumbles onto the topic of his parents being separated and Hiram’s biggest romantic concern these days being to make sure he doesn’t drop the soap in the shower. So I guess the upshot of this scene is that they’re both being assholes and Val is the only nice one simply because she was the only person smart enough to keep her mouth shut.

“Garden of Deliverance?” Yeah, that doesn’t conjure up any horror imagery at all. Are we adding religious thriller tropes to the mix now?

At least Alice didn’t force an abortion on Polly, but sending your child to mental institution/religious-themed prison seems pretty damn cruel. Then again, having seen what lunatics Cheryl’s parents are, maybe Alice had the right idea by taking steps to make sure they don’t find out that Polly is carrying Jason’s progeny. At this point, I wouldn’t put it passed Mrs. Blossom to try to cut Junior out of Polly’s belly with a spork.

I might believe that Jason only broke up with Polly because his parents forced him too, but the idilic future Polly said they had in store for them sounds downright psychotic. I knew people back in high school who became parents at this age and... let’s just say that it working out as perfectly as Polly describes is pretty freaking unlikely.

Polly not being taken away until July 4th feels a bit awkward. I was under the impression that she’d been gone longer than that. But her being dragged into a van against her will isn’t exactly helping with the allusions to Polly basically being a prisoner here.

In the blink of an eye, Polly turns the crazy up to eleven and it’s a little disturbing. Yeah, she definitely needs to be in a hospital, but I’m not entirely sure that’s what this place is.

First Josie gets pissed at Val for singing (god forbid someone in a band try to do that) and now she’s pissed at Veronica for NOT signing? This girl has no idea what she wants.

Veronica is upset that she hasn’t seen her dad in three months. Man, that really makes you think. So many of the parents on this show are out of their damn minds, but they still get to walk around free, so what exactly did Hiram do that was bad enough to land him in prison? Cannibalism? Murder/suicide cult? I’m guessing it was a wee bit more extreme than embezzlement or whatever the excuse they gave us in the pilot was.

Archie and Val actually sound good together. See, Archie? This is what a healthy relationship with a female looks like.

Alice was definitely being cruel by not telling Polly that Jason was dead, but considering how quickly Polly’s mental stability just shattered like stale potato chips, keeping her in the dark may have been the lesser of two evils.

Fred, Hermione, Archie, Josie, Josie’s control freak mom and her arrogant asshole dad are all having dinner and the tension is thick enough to kill a horse. Should they just call for an ambulance now or wait for someone to draw blood first?

Betty straight up asks her dad if he killed Jason. I’m surprised they’re playing that card this early, but I guess red herrings aren’t meant to last long.

Oh shit! Don’t use the “C” word around Betty! Even at the best of times, she’s one bad day away from breaking out that Darth Betty wig and going to town on this whole cast with a meat cleaver. Why tempt fate?

I wouldn’t put it passed Josie’s parents to not give Archie’s dad the contract simply out of spite for his son luring Val away from Josie’s band. That’s not the reason they give him, but that’s probably what it’s really about. At any rate, those two are world class pricks for coming to dinner with him and letting him go through that whole presentation just to tell him that the contract was already given to someone else.

Hermione is trying to get Fred the contract, which is self-serving, but also a really nice thing to do considering the way Hiram wanted to go was undoubtedly a lot shadier, but Veronica refuses to put her signature on the thing because she doesn’t like her mom dating someone. This is one of those rare occasions in Riverdale when the parent is actually more likable than the kid. I get that Veronica is upset about this, but seeing as her dad has most likely spent the last several months behind bars being someone’s bitch, maybe she should give her mom a break.

Archie tells Val she should perform with the Pussycats. I think he’s trying to do the right thing here, but doesn’t this mean that he just dicked with Veronica a second time since she just replaced Val in the Pussycats and Val coming back will make her a fifth wheel?

“They’re parents. They’re all crazy.” On this show? Yeah. Truer words have never been spoken in Riverdale.

JUGHEAD KISSES BETTY?!?! WTF IS GOING ON?!?! THE ONLY WAY THIS HAPPENS IS IF HE’S IMAGINING A HAMBURGER WHERE HER FACE SHOULD BE!! FUCK THIS!! THESE WRITERS KNOW NOTHING!!

The Pussycats sing a cover of some disco song at the variety show. Wasn’t them not doing other people’s songs a big thing for them? I’m pretty sure there was a line in the pilot about that.

Poor Veronica looks like she feels really out of place onstage with the Pussycats and I feel bad for her. Sure, she’s been a jerk at times in this episode, but she’s been jerked around by other people just as much.

The Pussycats give a great performance which Josie’s musical snob dad leaves in the middle of. Because Josie’s dad is a jackass.

Archie and Veronica apologizing to each other was sweet. Something I’m noticing with Grundy gone now is that, while Archie continues to screw up pretty regularly, his mistakes are becoming less severe and he’s getting quicker at trying to fix them.

Archie has to follow the Pussycats on top of battling stage fright. They really threw this poor schmuck into the deep end head first, didn’t they? Did Reggie choose the order of these acts by any chance?

Awww, Betty feels bad that she’s missing Archie’s song. This girl is so pure that she has me absolutely dreading her inevitable psychotic episode. Crazy does seem to run in her family after all.

Archie does really well and gets a standing ovation. Because no matter how many times he screws up, I guess it wouldn’t be Riverdale if everyone in town wasn’t in love with this guy. But, hey, he had a personal problem that didn’t involve statutory rape and he overcame it. I call that progress.

So what was that stuff with the wolf masks all about?

How long is Veronica going to be passive aggressively giving her mom shit for this thing with Fred Andrews? I’d tell her to be realistic about the chances of her parents getting back together, but this is apparently some wacko, bizarro world, parallel universe where Jughead likes girls, so clearly the writers have checked realism at the door.

Polly escaping the mental hospital (or whatever it is we’re calling that place) seriously plays like the beginning of a slasher flick. But she jumped out of a second or third story window, heavily pregnant. How far could she possibly have gotten?

My newest theory is that Polly killed Jason and then convinced herself that it never happened because, you know, she's fucking nuts.

#archie andrews #betty cooper #polly cooper #josie and the pussycats #1x06 #faster pussycats kill kill #riverdale

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gossipnetwork-blog · 7 years

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The 'Riverdale' Creator on the Black Hood Reveal, Bughead's Future, and Cheryl's New Love Interest

New Post has been published on http://gossip.network/the-riverdale-creator-on-the-black-hood-reveal-bugheads-future-and-cheryls-new-love-interest/

The 'Riverdale' Creator on the Black Hood Reveal, Bughead's Future, and Cheryl's New Love Interest

Tonight’s Riverdale more or less confirmed what Lili Reinhart told us back in December: The Black Hood is still on the loose. But with Chic Cooper’s arrival and all the Southside High drama, who’s got time to worry about that creep? There are plenty of other pressing issues in Riverdale—namely, why in Jason Blossom’s name hasn’t Cheryl been front and center in every episode this season?

Fortunately, creator Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa says we won’t have to wait much longer, as huge developments are about to take place. (Look out for episode 14, specifically.) What’s more, several forgotten characters might be on their way back to town. With so many questions—seriously, what is Chic Cooper doing in Betty’s bedroom?—Aguirre-Sacasa hopped on the phone from the Vancouver set to fill us in.

First, can you confirm the Black Hood is still out there?

Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa: Well, at the very end of tonight’s episode, Archie says to Agent Adams, “Listen, if you’ve been following me, you know that I was involved [in trying to solve the mystery of] the Black Hood, but I gotta tell you, there’s a part of me that doesn’t think we got the right guy.” That is a thread that we will follow in the second half of the season.

Will viewers feel that they know for sure who it is by the end of the season?

RAS: However the Black Hood’s story continues, I believe it will have a definitive ending by the end of the season.

So, basically, whether it’s Svenson or not, we’ll definitely feel confident knowing who it was.

RAS: Exactly. Correct.

In tonight’s episode, Chic enters the picture and he’s…creepy. What can you say about his impending stay in Riverdale?

RAS: We kind of joke in the writer’s room—whenever we introduce someone, they have to be a force of darkness and chaos. On Riverdale, you can’t ever just introduce someone and have it be fine. It always comes with problems. Chic is no exception. We’re pretty cryptic about our plots; the writers know [that] the actors don’t know everything. So two or three episodes in, the fine actor that plays Chic—Hart Denton—calls me and asks, “Now, am I a good guy or a bad guy?” I started laughing and was like, “I think even if you think you’re a bad guy, you never think of yourself as a bad guy.” So I’ll say this: In some ways, Chic is very different than from his sister Betty. I think what we’ll discover in upcoming episodes is that there are more similarities than you might originally think.

PHOTO: Shane Harvey/The CW

Will the Coopers regret letting Chic into their lives?

RAS: That’s a very good question. Like anything in Riverdale, there are going to be good things and bad things. In the end, I’m not sure. But I will say that we’ll find out next week what Chic was doing in Betty’s room, and we’ll start exploring the darker similarities between the two siblings, which I’m excited about.

Speaking of siblings, we find out that Polly gave birth to twins, Juniper and Dagwood, but she leaves town again before we even meet them. This can’t be the last we’ll see of them.

RAS: Right. She did give birth, and you haven’t seen the last of Polly. And we haven’t even met the twins!

And should we assume that Betty, Polly, and Chic, all have the same mother and father in Hal and Alice Cooper?

RAS: I think that’s the assumption, yes.

Is it fact or assumption?

RAS: I think it’s an assumption and stay tuned.

Interesting. Meanwhile, switching topics, a few episodes ago it seemed as if Cheryl was stalking Josie, especially after she became very possessive over her. Madelaine Petsch said Cheryl would be getting an unexpected love interest this season, so it seems like Josie would be that person. But we haven’t had any new developments since. What can you say?

RAS: I promise you that storyline comes back huge. Hugely. That’s not something we’re dropping. It’s something we’re attacking head on. I think you’ve got maybe three or four episodes [until we come back to that].

The Lodge’s butler, Smithers, also seemed to have disappeared early on this season, and it seemed Hiram was behind it.

RAS: I love Smithers, and I wouldn’t be surprised if we saw him again. I remember at first, the network and studio were like, “Really? Smithers?” But I love that guy. We may not have heard the last of Smithers.

Let’s talk about romance on the show, especially as Valentine’s Day approaches. What can you share in terms of what’s to come whether you’re Team Bughead, Barchie, or Varchie?

RAS: All of our characters went through a harrowing ordeal in the first half of the season. Even though Bughead broke up, their feelings for each other are very much there—but they’ve got to sort through a bunch of stuff between them. In a weird way, they have to become friends again to see if it’s even possible to reconnect. The Bughead saga is far from over.

PHOTO: The CW

Meanwhile, I like Archie and Betty together. Don’t kill me, Bughead fans!

RAS: Interesting! Well, get ready and wait until episode 14 [which airs next month]. That’s all I’m saying!

Fair enough. And finally, I love the way Archie is being written this season in relation to Betty, Veronica, and Cheryl. He’s very close to all of the women. In tonight’s episode, for example, he was honest with Veronica about kissing Betty while they were broken up, and he’s extremely protective of the women after learning of Nick St. Clair’s attack. In the wake of the #MeToo movement, are you consciously trying to write Archie as a more feminist character?

RAS: As we were writing these episodes—even the episode that aired tonight—they were written before [the Time’s Up movement] started. It’s a fine line to balance because on the one hand, you don’t want the girls to be rescued by a guy. You want the girls to be able to fend for themselves and be strong. On the other hand, when we talked about Archie finding out that Nick had [tried to sexually assault] Cheryl and Veronica, when we were talking about that scene when Archie confronts Nick, even though his legs were in casts, we were like, “He’s gotta kick the shit out of this guy.” There’s gotta be a visceral response to being in a room with this guy, who is a serial harasser and perhaps even worse. That just felt like the most truthful thing, you know what I mean? The girls had already rallied around Cheryl, and it felt like if Archie just went up there and didn’t do something in response to Nick’s behavior, it would have been false to the character and a bit deflating.

We push the envelope on Riverdale in terms of sexuality and violence and things that are innate to the genre and pulp and noir. Since the last couple of months, we do talk about it more in the room. We’re trying to be a little more careful with what situations we put our characters in. But we are usually pretty aware, and we have been talking about it more. I think a lot of writers rooms have.

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