This week’s Riverdale episode steps away from the high school drama and the town murder mystery for a bit, focusing instead on the coming of age aspect of the story. For Veronica, that means learning her mother (and father, to a lesser extent) isn’t quite as perfect as she appears. For Betty, that means reconciling her mother’s genuine desire to protect her with her mother’s constant ability to project. It also means having to learn the difference between when she’s doing something for the right reasons and when she’s doing something because of her feelings for Archie. For Jughead, that means the end of an era, with his “home away from home” (literally) and one of the last pieces of Old Riverdale, the Twilight Drive-In, being closed down. For Kevin, that simply means finding “a nice gay kid”—other than himself—to date in Riverdale, which appears to be a futile effort so far.
Sadly, for Archie, that means his “relationship” with Ms. Grundy (well, “Jennifer Gibson”) has to come to a head. “Sadly” is a term that barely scratches the surface, though, because in an episode that could work on so many levels—due in large part to this cast’s instant chemistry and just how much can be milked out of the Riverdale setting—its weakest plot takes center stage. And to make matters worse, the lack of true resolution in the Archie/Grundy storyline bogs everything down as they circle around it, even more than usual. This is an episode of television where a character’s specific life lesson involves learning that her parents are working backdoor deals with small-town gang members who hiss at people who call them out at drive-in theaters... and yet the Archie/Grundy story is the focus.
A really frustrating part of it all is that Riverdale has arguably done really well in terms of telling this Archie/Grundy storyline, as the show’s subtly painted it as a predator situation without having the mustache-twirling villainy on full display. Plus, K. J. Apa and Sarah Habel don’t even have that much chemistry with each other either, though it’s questionable how intentional that part of it all is. For all the teen dramas in the world, it’s absolutely rare to see the situation depicted like this; in fact, the predatory aspect of it all tends to be mightily overlooked in these scenarios. But on a show where part of the appeal is how over-the-top it can be, that type of subtlety doesn’t really have a place here, especially as the actual build up to the reveal of Grundy’s treachery is far better executed than the reveal and end result. Surely there are plenty of episodes left for Archie to really unpack what’s been going on in his life with this woman—but the fact that he doesn’t even once consider at any point in this episode that he was taken advantage of is mighty troubling.
Keep in mind, “Chapter Four: The last Picture Show” is almost Lifetime-mosque in how it approaches the red flags in the Archie/Grundy dynamic. In fact, it’s to a point where you can barely argue that Riverdale is trying to say anything positive about Archie/Grundy, no matter how much Archie protests in defense of the coupling. Archie first defends the relationship by saying that Grundy “believed in [him] when no one else did, ” which feels like a gross misinterpretation of the text when it comes to Archie and his 11 years too late, Ryan Cabrera style of music. He’s then afraid Betty will write an exposé on his situation with Grundy like she did about Chuck Clayton, so he at least subconsciously understands the wrongdoing here. But even after some “simple Googling, ” Archie still refuses to believe he’s in a bad situation because he’s “with her” and “know[s] what [they] have. ” Riverdale makes it absolutely clear that Archie can’t even describe his relationship with Grundy in terms other than the fact that they’re “with” each other because all Archie knows that he’s “all she has right now. ” So in case it’s still not clear enough that this is a bad situation, Archie also drops the ultimate Lifetime movie warning sign of a line to Betty: “If you’re really my friend, you’ll let this go. ” Eventually Betty brings the realness when tells Archie: “You’re in this relationship with this person who’s cutting you off from everyone else in your life. ” The signs are all there.
But where Riverdale fails is in the eventual confrontation scene. Oh, how it botches the finish here. Because Alice Cooper is so gung-ho about destroying Archie—and unfortunately, Ms. Grundy is really only collateral damage in this situation—what should be a valiant slaying of the dragon ends up only being this Alice’s vendetta against this dumb, oversexed red-haired boy who reminds her of the dead, oversexed (with her daughter) red-haired boy. The last episode, Alice quipped about how “slut shaming” is when “sluts get shamed, ” and her oversimplification in terms of blaming the victim rears its ugly head again here, at the worst possible time. So instead of Grundy getting put away for statutory rape—and an actual investigation into what her true backstory is—she simply gets to leave town, scot-free… as Alice somehow ends up becoming the bad guy in this situation. And once he realizes this is another ploy for Alice to tear down his son, Fred Andrews ends up sleepwalking his way through this bombshell about his teenage son and son’s teacher. (And oh boy, Fred doesn’t even know about the loaded backstory Grundy told Archie, which might have actually woken the guy up and gotten him angry about her using his son as her savior. ) Then there’s Betty’s undying love for Archie, which has her threaten to tell people she “snapped” and lied about Archie/Grundy, which is simply the worst act of defiance against your mom when there’s a statutory rapist in town.
Of course, this all leads to Grundy proclaiming she’ll skip town to avoid any drama, and in case there was still any question of whether or not Archie was a one-time student fling, her ogling more teenage boys before she leaves answers that one. Riverdale has been upfront so far about its darkness and how it’s not a happy ending type of show, but the end of this storyline isn’t bad because it’s not a neat little ending. It’s bad because it’s most likely not an ending. If this is the last we see of Ms. Grundy, then that would honestly just make this a true waste of a storyline, even as a subversion of the teacher-student trope. Because while Grundy certainly doesn’t deserve a redemption, the character definitely deserves some punishment. Until then, however, she won’t be missed. Especially not when it comes to the dramatic shots of her playing the cello, alone in her music room.
The good news is that Archie comics purists can rejoice: The real Ms. Grundy was neither CW-field nor sexed up. She did die seven years ago, though the obituary does have her in the comic character’s signature polka dots.
And all of this is front and center in an episode of television where Skeet Ulrich plays a snake-worshipping gang leader in fricken Riverdale. That’s just poor decision-making. Riverdale does make up for it by having the introductory episode for the South Side Serpents also be Veronica Mars director Mark Piznarski’s first go at directing the show. (That makes this the first episode of the series not to be directed by Lee Toland Krieger. ) But for a town that supposedly came across as completely wholesome prior to Jason Blossom’s death, the fact that there’s a thriving biker gang wreaking havoc does come across as somewhat unbelievable. After all, Veronica Mars made sure to introduce that type of concept in its pilot, not four episodes in. Plus, every mention of the Serpents and the South Side of Riverdale in this episode only causes me to think of this exchange from the Buffy The Vampire Slayer pilot:
Cordelia: “About a half a block from the good part of town. We don’t have a whole lot of town here. ”
But in a town like Riverdale, people have to get their drugs from somewhere, don’t they? And you can’t truly have a compelling neo-noir teen drama without a compelling criminal element.
However, what really makes this criminal element compelling in “Chapter Four” is how it affects multiple storylines. Like I mentioned last week, Archie/Grundy is so detached from the rest of the story that even the revelation that Grundy did an independent study with Jason last year turns into a dead end (for now, at least). Here, the South Side Serpents situation affects Hermione, Veronica, Jughead, and eventually, the town as a whole.
It’s in this storyline that we see a version of Hermione Lodge that’s not exactly the warm, put together character we’ve seen in the first three episodes. Yes, she’s still very much put together, but warm is no longer part of the equation. So is this an inconsistency in the character or is this another instance of Riverdale pulling back the shadows? The way that Hermione first lies to Veronica about her interaction with the South Side Serpent (Ulrich) certainly points to the latter. (At first she tries to play it off as an old high school acquaintance tossing a lewd comment her way, and it’s actually believable, given the source. ) As does Hermione’s later interaction with Smithers, where she discusses her plans (she can plot with the best of them, apparently) with him, makes a self-deprecating comment about being an “old crone, ” then surprisingly snarks back at Smithers’ insistence she’s not an “old crone. ” It’s very much different from Alice Cooper, who has essentially been a cartoon villain in these episodes (and manages to amazingly use the phrase “the wheels of justice”) and ends up showing signs of genuine humanity at the end of the episode when she tells Betty that she’s just trying to keep her safe. So is this the “real” Hermione Lodge?
What makes this even harder to swallow is that, while Betty/Veronica have been quickly achieving teen girl BFF status from day one, it’s still been quite clear that Veronica’s true best friend is her mother. This changes things a bit, as Veronica basically looked to her mother as the moral compass of the family, and now that’s turning out not to be the case. Her father she claimed to stand with really is every bit the criminal people say he is, and her mother (and unbeknownst to her, Mayor McCoy) isn’t exactly above that type of trouble either. Hermione is understandably doing what she needs to do to keep her family afloat, but at the same time, this is a woman who’s been romanticizing this town to her daughter, only to try to rationalize her criminal husband’s plans to speed up the process of the death of Old Riverdale. It’s unfortunate because, with Fred’s laissez-faire attitude about the Archie/Grundy situation and Jughead’s dad being a gang leader, Hermione was basically the last line of defense in terms of “hero” parents. (Alice Cooper was never in the conversation. )
Meanwhile, the actual closing of the Twilight Drive-In is easily the most organic and original CW event of the week Riverdale’s had so far (and that the CW has possibly ever had), as Jughead’s passion for the place makes so much sense even before the final reveal that he’s been living there. It reminds him of simpler, happier times with his family and his younger sister Jellybean, and as a brooding artist, it’s the perfect oasis for him. (Though Kevin is 100% in the right when he stops Jughead from quoting Quentin Tarantino. ) Jughead’s passion for this theater and what it means to Riverdale and life as he knows it is palpable—it’s the exact opposite of Archie and his music or his relationship with Grundy or whatever it is he truly claims to want in life. The same goes for Betty’s passion for the truth, even if it is mostly fueled by her feelings for Archie. And the same goes for Cheryl’s weird passion for her dead brother, honestly. These characters who feel fully-realized so far are the heart and soul of Riverdale. Unfortunately, they’re all secondary here to a passionless tale of a predator and her victim. At least we can say good riddance to that storyline. For now, at least.