Riverdale

Chapter Six

Faster, Pussycats! Kill! Kill!

Riverdale has produced some honestly truly horrible parents. You could maybe understand one family having some super strict parents, but just about all the parents in Riverdale are strict and verging on crazy. The crazy has now gone so far that it’s not believable that these parents would be allowed to keep their children. Who sends their child to a home for troubled teens because of a little pregnancy in today’s day and age anyhow? Aside from crazy parents this chapter, we finally get to meet Polly Cooper.

The annual Riverdale Talent Show is on and Archie is going to show everyone he’s got what it takes, but sadly his nerves have better ideas for him. He soon realises he just needs a little push or someone to stand by him. Veronica steps up and not only gets Archie into the Talent Show after he ran off stage in a fright, but also volunteered to be his partner. While it’s obvious Veronica still has a soft spot for him, in true Archie fashion he moves on to the next interested girl, Valerie from the Pussycats. Valerie recently quit the Pussycats as lead singer Jose McCoy is on high stress because her musician Father is coming to watch her perform in the talent show. With Valerie now out of the Pussycats, Jose puts out a search only to have Veronica join them to spite Archie and his new partner. Archie soon realises Valerie is a Pussycat and doesn’t want to hold her back so he sends her on her way and attempts to perform solo. The Pussycats reform with Valerie and the addition of Veronica nailing their performance but only disappointing Jose’s Dad who left early. Archie sang his little heart out and everybody loved it, resulted in him locking lips with Valerie.

In other lip locking news, a little romance that was clearly brewing but rather subtly, Betty and Jughead had their first kiss. Inviting him over for breakfast lip locking wasn’t quite on Betty’s list of priorities as she gets him to distract her mother Alice. While rifling through her Mum’s handbag, Betty finds a clue as to where her Sister Polly has been hidden. So the two set on another adventure together to a home for troubled teens. Betty and Polly have a very quick chat about Polly’s plans to run away before Betty had to share the sad news that Jason Blossom, the father of Polly’s child was murdered. And the only clue they had that might help the story and find the killer of Jason is a hidden car. Enter crazy parent number one, Alice. In her true overprotecting and controlling ways she takes Betty away and sends Polly back into her room straddled by two guards. Betty finds the courage to confront her Dad about breaking into the Sheriff’s home and stealing all the leads to Jason’s death, but Alice laughs this off saying he doesn’t have the stomach for that. Betty and Jughead go to share their information about the hidden car with the Sheriff, but by the time they get there the car is on fire. This puts them right back to square one along with all the viewers to finding out who killed Jason Blossom. But now Polly has escaped the home giving Betty and Jughead another adventure to help find her.

In amongst the drama of finding Polly and the Talent Show, Archie’s Dad, Fred has hired Veronica’s Mum, Hermione. In a twist of fates, Hermione can save Fred’s business despite Fred saving Hermione by giving her a job. Hermione has not yet given the contract to develop her newly acquired land where the Drive-In once was. At a dinner with Mayor Sierra McCoy, Fred pitches his plan for the development contract to which Hermione secretly grants. Sounds too easy for a Riverdale plot though right. Right. When Veronica’s Dad went to jail, he and Hermione put Veronica as a Legal Officer of Lodge Industries. This means that Hermione needs Veronica’s signature to grant the contract to Fred. But after Veronica witnessed Hermione and Fred kiss, she wasn’t so happy as technically her parents are still married. So Hermione forges her signature to award the contract to Fred. See, crazy parents.

The plot is starting to quicken now as the chapters open and close. Finally we meet Polly Cooper and get the real story of her relationship with Jason Blossom. Archie is the womaniser as usual putting his character in a further weird position, as he plays no role in solving the murder case. Or is that about to change? And just when you think they are a step closer to solving the murder, they take it right back. A great balance of music in the form of a Talent Show and more investigating of a murder, this is one of the more entertaining episodes of late, building to what should be a very interesting final episode.

Riverdale is streaming every Friday on Netflix

Review by Jay Cook