Riverdale season 4 episode 4 review: A very Riverdale Halloween
This week’s first ever Halloween episode of Riverdale hints at a new mystery, as well as the fate of a favorite main character.
Last week’s episode of Riverdale finally saw the end of Edgar Evernever and the Farm, only for Jughead and Betty to find a mysterious VHS tape on their doorstep.
It turns out everyone in Riverdale received a similar tape, which simply contains hours of surveillance footage of the outside of the recipient’s house (Archie, Veronica, Cheryl, and even Pop), with no note included, causing everyone to have to dig out their VCR for nothing.
Now that the Farm case is closed, the tapes must be the next big mystery in Riverdale, but for now, everyone is still happy, including the incestuous Cooper-Jones clan.
Alice is back, and she and FP are as happy as can be living with their kids all under one roof. This show really has me under its spell because I’m simultaneously rooting for the parents of a couple who I am also rooting for (who also share a half-brother), and the whole thing is just so weird.
Alice suggests Betty invites Charles over to hang out with her and Jughead while they pass out candy, but Betty doesn’t know why he’s even still in town (which lends credence to my whole Worst FBI Agent Ever Theory).
Over at Thistlehouse, Toni, who found out about the Jason corpse in last week’s episode, has a lot more patience than anyone else on Planet Earth as she and Cheryl carve pumpkins — with Jason’s corpse — when she pleads with Cheryl to let her brother go.
Madelaine Petsch plays the moment well, tears in her eyes, as you can see how hard it is to let Jason go (even though it’s not Jason at all). Warning Toni that Jason’s ghost won’t be happy, Toni forges on and grabs the shovels.
Concerned about the safety of the youth of Riverdale on Halloween night, Munroe (née Mad Dog) and Archie decide to keep the Community Center open late and throw a party. With the help of Veronica’s friend, Katy Keene, they get costumes and dress up as The Shield, and Captain Pureheart, respectively.
(In one line of the Archie Comics-verse, Captain Pureheart was Archie’s superhero identity.)
Meanwhile, over at Stonewall Prep, Bret and Jughead still can’t get along. After a heated debate over horror stories, Bret goes to extreme lengths and has Donna roofie Jug so they can bury him in a coffin, all to prove Edgar Allan Poe is better than H.P. Lovecraft (ugh).
This all goes to show that they really should be passing out therapy like candy in Riverdale. A thoroughly traumatized Betty is freaked out by everyone dressing up as the Gargoyle King and the Black Hood for Halloween (a nice touch), not yet realizing the real terror lies in the fact that Jughead hasn’t made it home yet.
To make matters worse, some jerk keeps prank-calling the house pretending to be the Black Hood. When Charles finally shows up with a pizza, Betty answers the door, fire poker in hand and pushed to the brink. However, Charles finally offers to be of use and trace the call.
After burying her brother, again, Cheryl and Toni return to find a creepy sailor doll in the Thistlehouse parlor. Toni immediately throws it away while Cheryl insists that Jason is unhappy and is haunting them.
Of course, over at Archie’s Halloween party, it’s not long before the thugs who Archie beat up show up at the Community Center, looking for one of the kids, Eddie, who is supposed to be selling for them.
Archie and Munroe refuse to stand down and chase the crew outside, but ultimately, they’ve brought a knife to a gun fight (literally). Archie calls FP but it’s too late–Eddie gets shot in the leg.
That night, a very foxy Cheryl as Poison Ivy and Toni as Harley Quinn are gearing up for Halloween when they hear the twins cry–except they’re sound asleep. Toni is disturbed to discover the sailor doll has returned in the chapel and Cheryl suggests a Halloween seance to communicate with Jason.
Bringing Nana Rose into the mix (because why not?), Toni insists the board is not communicating with them and that Cheryl must be trying to scare her into bringing Jason’s corpse back into the house. However, Nana Rose insists that it’s the presence of Julian, Cheryl’s heretofore unknown other twin that she ate in utero. Happy Halloween!
After burying the doll–so much burying this episode!–and digging up Jason again, Toni finds the doll once again where it doesn’t belong, this time in their bed and confronts Cheryl. A contrite Cheryl admits to gaslighting Toni, but swears that this time, it isn’t her, but that they’re being haunted.
Back at the Cooper-Jones house, there’s one more prank call and Charles traces it to Shady Grove Treatment Center where Polly is undergoing deprogramming. It seems that though Edgar is gone, his legacy remains.
The next morning, Jughead hears a door creak and bangs on the lid of the coffin until Mr. Chipping lets him out. Mr. Chipping seems weirdly unconcerned by the whole thing, telling Jughead not to take it personally but also that he didn’t know anything about it.
Meanwhile, Archie lays in bed with Veronica (who, oh no big deal, just lit a serial killer on fire the night before) and bemoans the fact that he can’t keep kids like Eddie safe when the streets are so dangerous.
In a moment of inspiration, Archie looks at his Halloween costume and says, “I’m going to need a mask.” If this Captain Pureheart thing really happens, I am here for it! It’ll be like the Red Circle taken to a whole new level.
Charles tells Betty she handled herself well at the Farm and would make a good candidate for the Junior FBI Academy, suggesting they work together to figure out who’s sending the tapes, and okay, now I’m starting to warm up to the guy.
That is, until Jughead and Betty are talking on the phone and Charles has tapped the call… But, of course, all the danger with Jughead reminds us that something will happen to him this season.
“I know that if anything ever really did happen to me, you’d find me,” he tells Betty. And then we see a smash cut to the Riverdale Coroner’s Office where FP and Betty are identifying Jughead’s body.
Do you think they’ll really kill off Jughead? Or is there perhaps something much more Riverdale is occurring…
Next. Riverdale season 4 episode 3 review: Betty saves the day. dark