Riverdale’s Musical Episode review

Madelaine Petsch attends the 35th Annual Paleyfest Riverdale at the Dolby Theatre on Sunday, March 25, 2018, in Los Angeles. (Photo by Richard Shotwell/Invision/AP)

Richard Shotwell/Invision/AP

Madelaine Petsch attends the 35th Annual Paleyfest “Riverdale” at the Dolby Theatre on Sunday, March 25, 2018, in Los Angeles. (Photo by Richard Shotwell/Invision/AP)

Spoiler warning!

This week, the hit TV show Riverdale came out with their first musical episode. They sang a few songs from the musical Carrie, in which a young woman deals with teenage angst among her peers. The songs were released on Spotify and iTunes.

As said at the end of the previous episode, Cheryl decided to play the main character, Carrie. With the flaming red hair and the real-life issues with herself, she was the perfect candidate. However, very quickly into the episode, it’s clear she can’t sing. She was very clearly autotuned, and it was painful to sit through her solos.

In addition to her, Betty and Archie played the main characters and Veronica played the mean girl. Lili Reinhart (who plays Betty) has a beautiful voice in real life, making her parts great to listen to. Archie’s voice is a little weird, probably because the actor who plays him is Australian and struggles to maintain an American accent throughout the show. It doesn’t sound so good when he sings while trying to maintain the right accent.

Besides the music, there’s a few underlying plot points. Hiram attempts to break up the close bond between Archie and Fred, which was already hanging on by a thread. Luckily, Archie realizes through playing the “hero” role in the musical that he needs to be a hero in real life. He returns the car Hiram bought him in favor of fixing up a car with Fred. And although their relationship needs a lot of work, it’s a good start. The Hiram-Archie bond was really bothering me.

Betty and Veronica end up making up, but only after Betty hits her with some harsh reality. She calls Veronica a “spoiled rich girl with major daddy issues”. I personally don’t like who Veronica has become, so I have to take Betty’s side. Veronica is invested in her sketchy family business and uses her semi-popular standing at Riverdale High to manipulate the students into doing things for her family. But Betty decided to apologize, and now B&V are back.

If this episode wasn’t crammed enough, the Black Hood makes a return. This isn’t a shock, since it was oh-so-obvious that the janitor was not the BH. The storyline is getting old. I miss when Riverdale was about the friendships and relationships, murder didn’t need to get involved. And if it is involved, at least make it a real mystery.

The Hood starts leaving threatening notes around, telling Kevin, the director, to recast Carrie or else Cheryl will be harmed. Why recast Carrie? I don’t know. This guy clearly has issues with the students at Riverdale. He harassed Betty, told her to cut Veronica and Jughead out, tried to kill Archie’s dad, and now is threatening Cheryl.

Cheryl refuses to be recast, but her bubble is burst when Penelope tells her that she doesn’t have permission to perform in the show. Quick question, is Cheryl crashing with Toni or something (because she’s clearly not in her home) but comes to school everyday with these extravagant outfits? To get her stuff, she must have gone to Thornhill at least once? I know these are silly details, but Riverdale is infamous for plot holes and these are just some I noticed.

I’m pretty sure Cheryl has completely fallen off the deep end, because she becomes a real life Carrie to terrorize her mother. She puts on a fancy pink dress, pours blood on her head, and threatens her mom. She basically asks to be emancipated from her mom and to get Thornhill all to herself. Her mom seemed scared, but Cheryl is completely psycho.

The end of the episode totally freaked me out. So far, the music had been good and the dancing was cool. It was a unique episode that even my mom liked, who doesn’t usually like how dark Riverdale can get. And then, the end hits you.

They’re all about to start the show. Jughead is filming excitedly. Everyone is bonding in the dressing room. Alice starts her number (who is somehow allowed to play Carrie’s mom even though she’s a grown adult) and all is going well. Except her voice is terrible and autotuned to death, but still can’t be salvaged. It’s time for Carrie’s entrance, who has been recast to the unimportant character Midge. The BH tried to shoot her and Moose before, but failed.

Instead of coming onto the stage, the set rolls up to reveal her, dead. She has a knife pinning her to the wall and various rude words in red all around her. Clearly, the BH storyline is coming back. The next episode shows a funeral, so that makes Midge the only person the Black Hood killed, making things a lot more real. I think the Hood storyline should be scrapped, enough is enough. I’ve heard rumors that a sort-of main character is killed in the Season 2 finale, (I won’t say who it is) but if it’s true, that means the BH is there until the end of the season.

No offense to Riverdale, but it’s going on a downward spiral. The plot is becoming messy, and it’s getting pretty disturbing and graphic. I wish they would focus more on Betty’s mental health, Cheryl’s healing process, and Jughead’s writing. I guess we’ll see what happens next week, but it doesn’t look too promising.