Riverdale season 2 episode 13 review: It’s better when it focuses on its female characters

Riverdale bounced back just a little bit in this week’s episode, “The Tell-Tale Heart,” and it did so by mostly letting its women take the lead.

There’s no denying that Riverdale has had it a little rough lately when it comes to episode quality. But somehow, some way, the show turned its eyes away from Archie and suddenly found it had a lot of other interesting stories to tell: those of women. “The Tell-Tale Heart” might not be the best Riverdale episode ever — but it certainly is the best one we’ve had in a while.

There are some wonderfully shot scenes here, mostly focusing around Betty’s storyline of trying to deal with the fact that there’s a dead body in her house. From the focus on glove-covered hands to the tilted angles the show uses when she calls people on the dead man’s phone, the ultimate image is of a girl back on the edge once again. It’s not surprising that Jughead reminds her twice that they need to dispose of the phone as well.

But, for once, she doesn’t hide (many) secrets from her boyfriend (and boy, is this writer’s heart glad that Bughead is reunited, not that I’m invested in a fictional couple or anything), and Jughead doesn’t hide secrets from his father. Dare we say that F.P. and Alice might finally start something as soon as Alice finds out that Hal has an ongoing thing with Penelope Blossom that goes beyond the recent widow’s new choice in career? Because it certainly looks like it could be heading that way. Hiding a body to the point of making sure there won’t be teeth left certainly looks like something resembling affection. Just saying.

Alice and Betty aren’t the only ladies this episode gives a spotlight to, either. Cheryl Blossom has been mostly absent lately, but she comes back to help amp the pressure up on Betty. After all, she’s the one who tells Betty about the Hal-Penelope connection (and also about the puke on her collar). If only the episode could have explored Cheryl and Penelope a little more, it might have been even better.

Alas, there’s still an entire Veronica and Archie storyline to get through, though I’ll admit it doesn’t feel quite as much of an imitation of The Godfather or Goodfellas as it could have. For one, Veronica just destroys her parents’ plan, and it also turns out that not only is Mrs. Lodge probably the power behind the Lodge throne, she’s also capable of making us think, for a brief moment, that she’s capable of murdering Archie.

Or at least testing him with a fake FBI agent. That’s close enough, right?

Unfortunately, Riverdale, like other TV shows out there, is taking a bit of a break until March 7, but the episode that it’ll return with seems to suggest that Veronica might set her sights on Jughead while they’re all up at a cabin.

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Hopefully, it’s just a fakeout.

And did we spot Dark Betty meeting Jughead?