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riverdale-recap.jpg

Recap: An Eventful 'Riverdale' Spins-Off Josie and Bids Farewell to Luke Perry

By Dustin Rowles | TV | April 25, 2019 |

By Dustin Rowles | TV | April 25, 2019 |


riverdale-recap.jpg

A lot happened in this week’s Riverdale, and that’s saying something for a series that typically eats more plot than a cemetery monster.

Here are the highlights:

— The guy who Archie punched in the ring last week succumbed to his injuries and died, owed to the drugs in his system supplied by the sketchy Elio. Elio tries to frame-up Archie for murder, but with Veronica’s assistance, Archie turns the tables and gives his prize-fight money to his dead opponent’s family. He does not, however, quit boxing over this incident, and instead of letting himself be known as the Riverdale Reaper, Veronica rebrands him as, uh, the Red Hope. In an exchange between Elio and Hiram, however, we do find out that Hiram has called off his truce with Archie. We knew that wouldn’t last.

— The Archie storyline also features the last scene Luke Perry taped for the series, an appropriately low-key talk in which Fred tries to reassure his son. We do not yet know, however, how Riverdale plans to write Perry (RIP) out of the series.

— In the course of the Archie storyline, Josie’s Dad also attends a benefit that Josie provides to raise money for the former boxer’s family. Josie then decides to leave Riverdale and go on tour with her musician father in the big city, which sounds like an entry point for Josie to join the Riverdale spinoff Katy Keene, starring Lucy Hale. It’s about four Archie characters living in New York years in the future, who are pursuing musical/creative careers (please let Kevin leave and join the series, too).

— The Betty storyline is, again, Farmcentric. Betty learns a few things this week, namely that Evelyn Evermore is a 26-year-old high school junior who goes to a new school each year and poses as a junior to recruit more people into the Farm. Also, she’s not Edgar’s daughter; she’s his wife. The kicker? Alice knows that she’s his wife, and Alice still wants to marry Edgar. The brainwashing runs deep, so deep in fact that they now have Toni, too, and they nearly manage to get Betty to buy into the cult. As it is, Polly’s twins, Juniper and Dagwood, are being split apart, and Edgar is adopting one while the other is being taken by Penelope and renamed Jason Jr.

— Finally, in the Jones storyline, Kurtz kidnaps Jellybean and forces FP, Jughead, and Gladys to play a game of Griffins & Gargoyles to get her back. It entails Gladys confessing to FP that she’s selling Fizzle Rock, robbing Pops (which results in FP being shot), and Gladys taking on Penny Peabody in a dagger fight (Gladys wins, though she doesn’t kill Penny). In the end — after Jughead is locked in an abandoned refrigerator — Jellybean is spared, the Gargoyle King kills Kurtz (inexplicably), and Gladys decides to skip town but leave Jellybean behind to be raised by FP and Jughead.

In the meantime, there are still three more episodes of this interminably long season. Twenty-two episodes is entirely too many episodes for a serialized drama.



Header Image Source: The CW