Riverdale Season 2 Episode 5 Review: Chapter 18 - When a Stranger Calls

This Riverdale review contains spoilers.

Riverdale Season two Episode five

"I told you we were the same."

Okay, pick your jaw off of the flooring and breathe, because that was 1 exhilarating, eventful hour of television.

We are only five episodes in to this 22-episode season and the glacial pace that marked Riverdale 's first flavor is but a retentiveness at this betoken, because in that location's a lot that went downward tonight. Before we get into the meat and potatoes of this night's installment, a brief recap: The Black Hood tortures Betty past making her cut her friends out of her life unless he will murder them (she subsquently breaks upwards with Jughead and BFF Veronica in the harshest manner possible), Alice Cooper is revealed to be what she hates the about — a Southsider, Jughead officially joins the Serpents AND gets a tattoo AND goes all Fight Lodge AND makes out with Toni, most of our main characters get high on Jingle Jangle, Nick St. Clair drugs and attempts to rape Cheryl so rightfully and gloriously gets the shit kicked out of him past Veronica and Josie and the Pussycats, and Betty basically signs Nick'southward expiry warrant by giving his proper name to the Hood. Throw in a fantastic performance of "Out Tonight" from Rent , and y'all've got an episode that could exist the series' best to date.

Let's start things off by once again praising Riverdale MVP Lili Reinhart. Forced to protect the lives of her sister and her friends by giving in to the Hood's demands, Betty is put through the emotional ringer tonight. The character is, after all, such a beacon of purity and sweetness on this show that she has The Chordettes' 1958 hitting "Lollipop" as her ringtone. Here Reinhart portrays Betty as despairing yet still finding the strength she needs to practice the Hood'due south behest in order to keep her loved ones alive.

I of Riverdale 'due south greatest artistic choices is how it didn't take the expected road of having a dearest triangle between Archie and the two female leads. As portrayed on the show, Betty and Veronica are the ideal of strong female friendship, something that the television mural tin can use so much more of. Then information technology specially stings when Betty'southward fires off a ferocious takedown of Veronica, describing her equally piddling more than "recycled banter and plunging necklines." Worse still is the fact that her declaration that Veronica is only friends with anybody because of circumstance seems at the very least to be plausible. We know very little about her pre-Riverdale by, other than she was a rich party girl who felt remorse for how she used to behave. Ronnie is quick to not restart her newly revealed coke habit when offered a bump by the wretched Nick St. Clair (Graham Phillips), but would she have been so quick to partake of the Jingle Jangle had he not been effectually? And then when Betty calls Veronica out at this moment in the friendship, her claims don't feel entirely baseless. Indeed, subtextually Betty had to really sell her disgust with Veronica in order to convince the Hood that they were no longer BFFs — and Reinhart delivers this powerfully. It's obvious that B&5 won't exist frenemies for long, but for at present it feels like something deep and lasting has fractured between them.

Speaking of relationships gone kaput, I can only imagine how upset the Archie Twitterverse is that Bughead is no more (again, for the time being). The stength of Riverdale 's writing immune Jughead's storyline to subtly mirror Betty's, proving nevertheless once again how similiar they both are and therefore, OMG, so perfect together you guys. After learning that Fangs Fogarty and Sweet Pea — the names on this show go along to be a concerto of inspired lunacy — are planning on destroying the Riverdale Register with a pipe bomb, Jug realizes that he, similar his father before him, must become a Serpent to keep the peace. But as Betty is severing her ties for the greater good, so must Jughead join the gang of thugs in order to protect his loved ones and avoid "all out state of war" betwixt the boondocks'due south North and South sides.

In their scene together at Popular'southward, Bughead muses that they wish they could exist like Romeo and Juliet, but with a happy catastrophe. Good luck with that. Of class this wouldn't make for smashing drama, so these young lovers must remain star-crossed, lest their world of milkshakes and biker gangs straight out of this David Lynch PSA would burn around them. Further complicating matters is Jughead and Toni locking lips at the stop of the episode. Damn, Betty is actually having a day.

Finally, let's address Nick St. Clair's attempted rape of Cheryl. Terminal calendar week, our Kayti Burt wrote about how Riverdale is one of Television set's about topical shows, a point furthered past tonight's episode. In a time when men in power finally being called to the carpet for harassment is part of the ongoing newscycle (although still non nearly enough), along comes Nick with his psuedocharm and attempts to threaten the Lodges' SoDale bargain unless Veronica sleeps with him. Later her rejection literally slaps him across the face, he turns his attending to Cheryl Blossom, whom he drugs and then attempts to rape. Fortunately, Josie and the Pussycats and Veronica arrive in time to prevent a further assault upon Cheryl, and their subsequent kicking the living shit out of him is the most cathartic moment this show has ever had. I'm not trying to be glib comparing the fiction of what happened in tonight'due south episode to real events and the horrific trauma that and then many victims out there have had to deal with, but rather speaking of how, planned or non, Riverdale is mirroring our society. Nosotros alive in a era when likewise frequently men yield their sexuality, wealth and power like a weapon, so to encounter such injustice shut down immediately by stiff female characters on a progressive and forward-thinking show similar this one is something truly inspirational.

The backwash of this evening'due south events and, given the final scene, the fate of Nick will probable boss the next couple of episodes. I'm hopeful that Riverdale will hash out the issue of sexual assault with the grace and sensitivity that it deserves.

Riverdale Roundup

– Every bit function of his initiation into the Serpents, Jughead must have guardianship of "The Animal" otherwise known equally Hot Dog. This adorable pooch (just look at him stealing the scene in the however above) first appeared in last season's finale. The graphic symbol debuted in 1968's The Archie Testify , then fabricated his kickoff comic appearance in Pep #224 later that year — equally Archie's dog. Shortly thereafter he became Jug'southward dog and the two have been faithful friends ever since. Hot Canis familiaris besides starred in an eponymous comic in the 90s, and the graphic symbol's decease is the impetus for the start of the zombie apocalypse in Afterlife with Archie. Toni remarks that this is actually the third Hot Domestic dog, which might explain why he looks a bit different than the one that appeared previously.

– This week's best line? "Hi there, I'thou Riverdale's resident It girl Cheryl Bloom."

– The grapheme of Nick St. Clair debuted in the sick-blighted "Archie New Look Series" storyline "Bad Boy Trouble" back in 2007. There he was portrayed more every bit an unintentionally hilarious grunge dude and wasn't nearly every bit malevolent as his TV'southward analogue. Still, what an asshole.

– Side by side week's episode is chosen "Expiry Proof," which just so happens to be a Quentin Tarantino moving picture in which several female person characters kicking the living shit out of their abuser a la the Nick St. Clair beatdown showcased this evening.

– Did anyone else immediately think of Flash Gordon' southward wood brute segment when Jughead had to reach into the aquarium with the snake? But me? Okay, moving on.

– One of the questions that Betty got to ask the Black Hood was whether she would recognize his confront if it wasn't covered. He said yes, furthering my suspicions that the Hood is someone she knows very well. Like her father. Think about it. At that place is mounting bear witness that the Hood could in fact be Hal Cooper. Hal has been bellyaching with Alice for awhile now, maybe even since they had to send Betty's hush-hush brother abroad. Therefore it makes sense that he would want to embarass Alice by revealing her Southside past. He likewise seems to accept disdain for some of Riverdale's other residents. Take a await at this screengrab of Hal at the SoDale event this night:

Truthful, the Hood has said that he was watching Alice and Hal during one of his calls with Betty, but this could very easily be a lie. And who would know more nigh a library book that Betty rented repeatedly than Hal? He used the code from the Nancy Drew book specifically because information technology was something from Betty'southward babyhood, which he could meet as a purer fourth dimension before Riverdale was corrupted by darkness. With Polly pregnant with a dead distant relative'southward kids and his marriage in turmoil, Hal could take been inspired by Betty'due south speech last season to purify the town and "set Riverdale on the righteous path again." And allow's peek at her notes well-nigh what she knows about the Hood:

All those seem to fit, except for maybe the house by Trick Woods — which he could secretly ain. Facially, he looks similar enough. Just throw in some jealousy-colored green contacts and voila, instant Black Hood. Will this theory pan out? Let'southward look and see.