In the ‘Riverdale’ recap, Betty finally gets answers from her sister Polly, Archie prepares for his first big solo and Veronica watches as her family starts to fall apart….
By Damon Martin — Editor/Lead Writer
“Fear. It’s the most basic, most human emotion. As kids we’re afraid of everything”
Haunting words from Jughead Jones as the latest episode of ‘Riverdale’ kicks off with a monstrous theme this week yet there were no creatures crawling out from underneath beds or popping out of closet doors.
Instead the monsters this week involved some very treacherous parents — most notably Hermoine Lodge, who set her wedding vows aside to get involved in a tryst with Fred Andrews while Alice Cooper maintained the lead in the ‘worst mother of the year’ category with Miles McCoy — Josie’s father — rocketing to the top for his own award after he is finally introduced this week.
Meanwhile, Archie began preparing for his first solo outing as a singer/songwriter yet his debut performance nearly brought another band tumbling down with him while he simultaneously tried to burn a bridge with a very close friend.
And let’s not forget another surprise kiss that took place this week and it’s not Hermoine and Fred we’re talking about.
With that said, let’s recap the latest episode of ‘Riverdale’ titled ‘Chapter Six: Faster Pussycats! Kill! Kill!’….
Polly Said
All season long on ‘Riverdale’ the one looming specter that has been hanging overhead in discussion but yet to be revealed in the flesh is Polly Cooper.
The older sister of Betty Cooper has been a central figure throughout Jason Blossom’s murder investigation and the ‘Romeo and Juliet’ story only seems to get deeper with each layer peeled back from that onion after it was revealed last week that they were engaged to be married and planning to run away with each other.
Now Betty has suspicions about her father possibly being involved in Jason’s death and she’s tired of getting half truths or no answers from her parents about what happened with Polly. So she decides to get those answers herself and with an assist from Jughead at an awkward morning breakfast — still not quite as bad as the dinner Veronica shared with the Blossom clan a week ago — Betty finally figures out where her parents have Polly stashed after digging through her mother’s checkbook.
The Sister of Quiet Mercy is just as awful as the name probably sounds and when Betty and Jughead do some research on the ‘home for wayward children’, it doesn’t seem to be focused on mental health as much as some kind of psychological reconditioning.
Betty gets into see her sister but she’s shocked to set eyes on Polly for the first time in months but it turns out she’s not alone. As Polly is finally revealed, we discover that she is pregnant with Jason’s child.
Polly unravels the story for Betty about falling in love with Jason and how the Blossoms forced him to break up with her. Rather than be apart any longer, Jason and Polly plotted to run away together and the plan was to meet on the other side of Sweetwater River on the morning of July 4 before retrieving a stashed car on the outskirts of town that would lead them both to a new life together and one far, far away from Riverdale.
Sadly on the morning when Polly was set to meet Jason, she was ambushed by her parents and taken away by men in white coats — similar to those military schools where troubled teens are virtually kidnapped like thieves in the night — and thus she never got away with the man she loved and the father of her unborn child.
To make matters worse, Polly begs Betty to get a message to Jason to let him know that she’s all right and still thinking of him. In other words, Polly has no idea that Jason is dead.
Betty has to break the news to her sister, which clearly sends her reeling as the nuns show up to take her back to her room after they called Alice Cooper to notify her about Polly’s visitor. Alice is enraged that Betty came to see Polly but she ends up in emotional turmoil after her oldest daughter erupts in sadness and anger that she never told her about what happened to Jason.
Back at home with tears in her eyes, Betty tries to reason with her parents about the visit to see Polly and what she just found out about the relationship with Jason. Of course they claim that Polly is mistaken and isn’t telling the truth, but Betty isn’t buying it.
Finally, Betty confronts her father about his possible involvement in Jason’s death considering his motive — the prodigal son of a family the Cooper’s are supposed to hate knocked up his oldest daughter — and the fact that he wasn’t at the closing night at the drive-in theater, which led her to believe he had something to do with the break-in at Sheriff Keller’s house where his ‘murder wall’ was ransacked.
While we know that Hal Cooper was behind the theft, Alice laughs at the idea that he could have actually murdered Jason. Even more, Alice scoffs at Betty’s accusations that either of them were involved despite both of them wishing they had something to do with his death.
The entire ordeal leaves Betty shaken but thankfully Jughead is there to console her — and then he plants a passionate kiss!
While Betty seems taken by the moment, she snaps out of it a second later and remembers something Polly said to her before she was taken away. Jason had stashed a car on the outskirts of town for their getaway — if it’s there then her story must be true. As much as Jughead wants to reflect on that kiss, Betty pulls him away so they can check out this car.
Family Matters
It’s the first day on the job for Hermoine Lodge at Andrews Construction as she catches up on the bookkeeping for her new boss Fred, but there’s one big problem. According to Hermoine, Fred is about three weeks away from going flat broke. Fred insists that he can’t lay anybody off because he’s made promises to the guys on his crew not to mention the disaster that struck the last time he fired somebody. We have to assume he’s talking about firing Jughead’s father when he was busted stealing supplies from a jobsite.
Fred mentions that he’s put in a bid to win the construction on the new site where the drive-in once sat and if he gets that job, the company will be in the black for quite some time. Of course, Fred has no idea that Hermoine and her prison bound husband Hiram actually bought he land in secret and are working on the development while he’s still in jail.
Fred says he’s going to invite the mayor over to dinner to try and convince her that his company would be the best for the job and he asks Hermoine to join them. Instead of having dinner at the Andrews’ house, Hermoine insists that they host the mayor at her apartment instead.
The sweet gesture ends in a moment between Hermoine and Fred and the two of them end up kissing — just as Veronica was about to walk in with a plant as a present for her mother’s first day. Instead, she walks away devastated because she was under the impression that once her father was out of jail, her family would be reunited.
Meanwhile at school, Archie is trying out for his first solo at the big variety show but he clams up and freezes during his audition. Because Kevin is in charge of the talent show and thanks to Veronica calling in a favor, Archie gets a spot on the showcase anyways but now he has to find a way to perform.
Veronica offers to sing a duet with him to help ease his nerves, which reveals that she has quite the voice of her own.
Later that day, Archie’s songwriting pal Valerie has a falling out with Josie over the song they will perform at the show and she quits the band. Valerie then offers to team up with Archie and he gladly accepts while incidentally booting Veronica from the number. When she finds out, Veronica is irate and she teams up with Jose to take Valerie’s place as the third pussycat in the number.
Everybody’s playing musical chairs just days before the big show and to make matters worse, Josie’s father Miles cancelled two dates on the road to come home and see his daughter perform. It seems Miles is a successful jazz musician and he envisioned the same future for Josie so he’s not a big fan of her pop style songs with the Pussycats.
That night brings dinner, which means Fred and Archie are right there alongside Hermoine and Veronica and of course the mayor with her husband and daughter Josie. The entire night is filled with tension, mostly brought on by Miles being a complete asshole but finally Fred gives his presentation on the construction bid to try and sell the mayor on hiring him for the job.
Sadly, the mayor says she would give him the bid but the secret owners of the land have already hired another company and it would take two signatories to offer the job to someone else. It turns out, the three signatories are Hermoine, Hiram and Veronica.
Hermoine tries to convince Veronica to sign the deal to help Fred Andrews out of a jam and she agrees under one condition — that the two of them stop seeing each other. Hermoine refuses and thus Veronica does the same. Two seconds after Veronica leaves the room, Hermoine signs her daughter’s name to the form, which means Fred’s company will get the job whether Veronica likes it or not.
Showtime
As time ticks away until the big performance, Archie and Valerie just aren’t clicking, which forces him to tell her the truth — she needs to be with Josie and the Pussycats and he has to do this all alone.
On the night of the performance, Valerie confronts Josie after finding out that her stress was being caused by her father being back in town. Josie concedes that she was being a control freak and the two of them come to an agreement to get Valerie back in the band.
The group performs the Donna Summer track “I Feel Love” with a Josie and the Pussycats spin on the song and the crowd goes wild — well everybody except for Miles, who gets up in the middle of the performance and leaves the room. Josie is devastated but she still played the song she wanted in her own way.
When Archie finally hits the stage, he sees the same taunts and jeers that scared him away in the first place except this time he sticks around and plays his song. He gets a standing ovation afterwards and as he leaves the stage and makes his way to the back Archie spots Valerie and the two of them end up kissing. Archie certainly moves on quick after saying he was in love with Miss Grundy about two weeks ago.
As for Veronica, she finds her mother cuddling up to Fred Andrews after the show because he’s so incredibly happy. Fred then tells Veronica that the mysterious owners behind the drive-in land have signed off on hiring his construction company to do the work. Veronica tells her mother that she wins again but this family is only getting more dysfunctional by the day.
Escape from Alcatraz
And finally, Betty and Jughead make it out to the edge of town where they find the car that Jason Blossom had hidden for his getaway with Polly. They get inside and find Jason’s letterman’s jacket, which proves he planted the car and that proves Polly’s story was correct. They also find a couple of bricks of what looks like heroin so clearly Jason was into some very dangerous stuff. Jughead takes some photos with his phone and the two of them run back to town to alert Sheriff Keller about what they found.
They don’t happen to spot somebody lurking in the shadows watching when the find the car so when Sheriff Keller returns, the entire thing is on fire and the evidence has been burned to ashes.
Betty and Jughead don’t stick around to see the burning car because they are now on their way back to the care facility to tell Polly that her story checked out as they try to figure a way to get her released. But when they rush into Polly’s room, the find nothing but a shattered window and some blood on the shards of glass still left dangling.
Polly escaped her prison but where is she going next?
‘Riverdale’ returns with a brand new episode next Thursday night at 9pm ET on the CW.
