Its been two weeks since we last saw the “Riverdale” residents, but this week, Homecoming looms as everyone searches for secrets to be uncovered. Alice Cooper wants to know the truth about Jason’s death as much as Polly does. Veronica is determined to figure out how her father is involved. Archie just wants Veronica to give him a chance to be boyfriend material, which means he gets pulled back into the investigation.
Alice Cooper hunts for the truth
Since Betty invited her mother to help out at the school paper, Alice has gone full tilt investigative reporter.
Not only does she grill FP over dinner while Jughead and Betty look on uncomfortably, but she trusts Veronica and Archie to dig up whatever they can at FP’s home.
Alice is like a dog with a bone on this investigation, but she doesn’t care who she has to claw or bite to keep gnawing at it. The question is: what’s she motivated by most at this point? Is this a result of the vendetta she has against FP for him knowing her own history? Or is this really because she wants to find out the truth for Polly?
Blossoms can’t be trusted
Polly’s investigation of the Blossom family hasn’t gotten very far. Her biggest finds include the fact that not everyone in the house is actually a redhead and that the Blossom parents had the ring Jason was holding for her.
There’s a convenient explanation for the ring that ends up with Cheryl pocketing it and telling her parents she threw it away, but more worrisome is the fact that Mrs. Blossom doses Polly with some sort of natural sedative to make sure Polly doesn’t get to go to Homecoming with Cheryl. Cheryl had invited Polly to go as her date so they could be crowned co-queens and honor Jason, but even Cheryl skips out during the dance.
I can’t blame Cheryl for bailing on Archie and Veronica’s duet of “Kids in America” since she’s more of a Pussycats fan, but it does make you wonder where exactly she ran off to. Did she just need some time alone? Did the dance make her even more lonely? Or was she out to frame someone for murder?
Can someone throw Josie and the Pussycats some lines?
In 11 episodes, Josie has only had one spotlight her, and the other Pussycats might as well be glorified extras at this point. Val only gets lines when Archie’s trying to date her and Melody barely gets the chance to speak. In “To Riverdale and Back Again,” the trio sing a few bars to lead off the episode, but a voiceover means we don’t even get to hear everything they sing. What gives? Why exactly aren’t these ladies allowed to be part of the story? And why didn’t we see them sing at Homecoming?
FP is being framed
Jughead hoped that he was starting to fit in with Betty’s family, despite always feeling like an outsider. That hope was dashed when he found out that her mother inviting him to dinner was just an excuse to send Veronica and Archie to do a little breaking and entering.
While Jughead runs off in anger, we do get a good bit of information here: FP is arrested based on a gun that wasn’t in his trailer when Archie and Veronica searched it.
We see the police find the hidden lockbox that holds the gun that killed Jason Blossom. Did Archie and Veronica just miss it? I think not. But who put it there? Betty’s father wasn’t at the dance. Cheryl left in the middle of it. Her parents weren’t around either. Who thinks FP makes the best scapegoat? The gun does appear to be the one Betty stole from Ms. Grundy’s car and her mother took for safekeeping.
The verdict and what’s next
While I could do without Archie starting to moon over Veronica so soon after his breakup with Val, “To Riverdale and Back Again” was a fun episode that married the high school drama with the season-long mystery and kept my attention for the full hour.
4 out of 5 stars.
Only two more episodes left in the first season of “Riverdale"!
In next week’s “Anatomy of a Murder,” even more secrets are revealed as Cheryl confronts her mom and Archie and Veronica decide to spill what they know.
