Riverdale: Chapter Twenty-Eight: There Will Be Blood

March 17, 2018 10:29 AM - Season 2, Episode 15

Fred considers running for Mayor, and Archie picks sides; Betty becomes increasingly suspicious of Chic; Jughead makes a major discovery in his quest to take down Hiram, while there are more Blossom bombshells dropped.

Riverdale Season 2 Episode 15 Review - Chapter 28: There Will Be Blood -- Cheryl isn't the only Blossom bombshell in Riverdale's most soap operatic episode so far. (Chris Cummins for Den of Geek)

I've spent enough of the past year watching/obsessing over this show to say with confidence that Blossom-heavy episodes always make for the best Riverdale installments. With scenes often removed from the main action, tucked away in the V.C. Andrews hellscape that is Thistlehouse, the Blossom family exists in a heightened reality where sentences like "oh Mumsy, I had the most frightful daymare" flow like maple syrup at an IHOP. (Delivered sincerely I might add!) In short, the Blossoms are the campiest characters on TV at the moment, so full of D-R-A-M-A that they elevate this show to another level of delicious ridiculousness. And tonight, oh man, did these great gingers deliver.

As it turns out, there's still some fun left in Riverdale (LaToya Ferguson for A.V. Club)

Relatively speaking, “Chapter Twenty-Eight: There Will Be Blood” is a fun episode of Riverdale. That “relatively speaking” is very much key at this point in season two, since Riverdale currently isn’t just compared to its inspirations in the teen genre and beyond: It’s instead compared to its superior first season and how cohesive that was. More importantly, it was cohesive while also being off-the-wall. The Blossom family antics were a Gothic nightmare, while the Cooper family—especially before we knew the two were technically one family—were a Pleasantville nightmare. Then you had the wrong-side-of-the-track Joneses, while both the Andrews (salt of the Earth, boring heartthrobs) and the Lodges (ripped-from-the-headlines “victims” of patriarchal white collar crime) were more grounded in realism. Josie and the Pussycats were there too, and there was the small chance a zombie apocalypse would break out. Those were literally the good old days.

Now a “fun” episode of Riverdale is really grasping at straws, considering the circumstances....

The curse of the Blossom twins: Dial M For Maple chats last night's Riverdale (Marah Eakin and Cameron Scheetz for A.V. Club with a Riverdale podcast!)

On this week’s Riverdale, there will be blood! Or will there? There will, it turns out, even if Marah needs to remind Cameron that he saw it. And that’s why Dial M For Maple is here: To help you keep track of every drop. It’s an episode full of table-turning and double-crossing, and that’s before the arrival of some long-lost relatives (and the return of a beloved butler)! Will the mayoral campaign tear Varchie apart? Are there more Blossoms out there in the world? Is that really all that Hiram’s planning? We’ve got a lot to discuss!

"Riverdale" Recap Season 2, Episode 15: Archie Proves His Loyalty -- Things get political, and messy, this week on Riverdale (Teen Vogue)

This week’s episode of Riverdale is all about uncovering some very big secrets — be it Hiram Lodge's, Chic Cooper's, or Clifford Blossom’s (who, we learn early on, left a secret will that is to be read publicly ASAP). Jughead sets the tone right off the bat, ranting to his dad about how he has no proof of Hiram’s criminal behavior and no real sense of what his big plan could be, despite the fact that he’s fashioned a nifty clue board à la his and Betty’s season one Jason murder board. Meanwhile, over at the Pembrooke, the Andrewses and Lodges dine together, telling fun stories about the glory days of high school, until the parents excuse themselves to chat in the study…about Fred running for mayor. Archie’s not super thrilled about the idea, but apparently Fred has dreamed of being mayor of Riverdale since he was a kid (who knew?), so he’s seriously considering it (though he says he knows that if he does it, he’ll do it for him, not Hiram and his financial backing/puppet strings).

posted by filthy light thief (2 comments total)

I don't understand Archie's flip flop at the end. He's totally against his dad being used as a patsy...but is fine now because it's a prison? What???
posted by divabat at 2:18 AM on March 20, 2018 [1 favorite]

I’m assuming it’s a fake thing? But maybe not. Archie being okay when a teen burglar was shot in the woods seemed weird too.

I am excited because this episode is more evidence for my current crack theory, that Chic isn’t actually Charles AND that the guy that he killed earlier was the real Charles, thus forcing Betty and Alice to clean up, destroy, and hide the body of their actual son/brother.
posted by corb at 9:17 AM on December 12, 2018