Riverdale season 4 episode 5 review: Jughead digs into his past
In this week’s episode, Jughead learns the truth about his grandfather’s past at Stonewall Prep as the others dig into their own past and present.
Last week’s first-ever Halloween episode of Riverdale asked more questions than it answered with the big mystery of the season (what happens to Jughead?!) churning forward.
At Stonewall Prep, Jughead discovers Mr. Chipping is actually a famous author, Franklin P. Paxton, the latest ghostwriter for Riverdale‘s version of The Hardy Boys. Jughead, of course, geeks out while Bret rolls his eyes. Jug is in luck, though, because Stonewall Prep is throwing him a party to celebrate the release of the latest book, to which all of the kids are invited.
Because Betty can never do anything “normal,” she recruits to attend the FBI Junior Academy with her, where a very desperate Kevin (who, when he’s not with Betty or in a cult, apparently only goes cruising) salivates over Charles.
Betty is able to guess with no information from the lineup photos who the killers are. “You’re like A Beautiful Mind, but for serial killers,” Kevin says. It turns out the only thing the killers have in common is the serial killer gene, which Alice had previously told Betty she shares with her father.
In a very adorable Jughead geekery moment, he digs out all of his old Baxter Brothers books, much to FP’s chagrin. Up late reading, he discovers the front pages have been torn out.
The next day, Francis DuPont, the creator of the Baxter Brothers books, visits Stonewall Prep to choose the next author after Mr. Chipping. Despite his obvious distate of the books, Bret, of course, wants to win the contest, telling Jug to “keep it in his pants.”
Back at FBI Academy, Charles is continuing to teach them about the profile of the serial killer (which seems very intense for the junior FBI! There are a lot of things the FBI does beyond catching serial killers.) including torturing animals as young children.
Betty flashes back to her experience talking to herself at the Farm (which was really her being brainwashed by Polly) that made her think she killed their cat Caramel as a kid. That night, she has a dream about a young, blonde girl killing a cat, and things soon begin to unravel for poor Betty.
Later, Jug looks up the Stonewall Prep yearbooks and discovers Francis and his grandfather were in school at the same time. Francis tells Jughead that his grandfather, Forsythe the first, was an incredible writer (but a bit of a rascal, too) and asks him to invite FP to the reception.
When Jug asks FP about going to the reception, his dad gets naturally defensive and angry. The man he knew was an abusive drunk, and he doesn’t care how good a writer he was. It’s smart writing for the show to use moments like these to show us flashes of the “Old FP” who used to be not so unlike his father.
At the reception, Francis hosts a game of Murder, and Jughead draws the Murderer card. (Everyone has to guess it’s him before he winks at them and dies.)
Of course, when he winks at Bret, Bret yells, “It’s Jughead!” (Bret is seriously the worst!) Thankfully, Francis isn’t impressed by Bret and declares Jughead the winner, fair and square. He tells Jughead he hopes he’ll enter the contest to be the new ghostwriter.
After another day of the FBI Junior Academy of Charles giving disturbing details about serial killers, Betty confesses to Kevin that she does have the genes. She tells him about Caramel, that she got hit by a car and found her outside in pain.
Betty tells Kevin she got her Dad, who then made her kill the cat. Kevin, of course, tells Betty it was her dad who made her do it, not Betty, and insists they take a break from the FBI training.
Meanwhile, Hiram’s and Hermione’s cases reach a fever pitch. In a lot of confusing back and forth, Veronica and Hermione’s decisions have ultimately caught up with them. Pop Tate is served a subpoena, and the prosecution has evidence that Hermione owned the cabin Tall Boy was shot in.
Veronica decides her mother should plead guilty and plans to ask their old pal Governor Dooley for a pardon. She meets with him full of a folder of incriminating evidence, promising it’s the last time she’ll blackmail him if he agrees to grant Hermione the pardon.
Over at the community center, Archie is receiving a number of growing complaints from the shop owners. Now that he’s decided to take on the mask full-time, it seems there’s still little he can do to gain traction in Dodger’s foothold when he learns that the shop owners are paying Dodger a protection fee. If they don’t protest the community center, they’ll see retribution from Dodger.
The next day at Stonewall, Bret is still bitter and tells Jughead he’s only there because some benefactor thought a charity case would make the school look good. Jughead tells him, “I’m here because of my writing. Just get over it.”
But Bret proceeds to cut him down, telling Jughead he’ll end up just like his grandfather. Jughead throws him up against the desk, but stops himself before going any further.
A dejected Jughead decides he’s done with Stonewall Prep when FP finds him reading more Baxter Brothers books at home. FP tells him that he can’t throw away the opportunity, regardless of how he got there. He also tells him that the Baxter Brothers books were from Forsythe the first, his grandfather.
In a parallel moment, Betty tells Charles she’s quitting the FBI Junior Academy. She confesses to Charles that she has the serial killer gene and that’s why she has to quit. But Charles tells her he has the genes, too, and that she should stay in to control her impulses like he did.
Betty, of course, ever the compartmentalizer and detective, decides she has to stay in the class because she knows nothing about Charles. At the very least, maybe she’ll learn something about him. “Again, why is he still in Riverdale?” Good question, Betty!
After a terrible week, Veronica is visited at La Bonne Nuit by a mysterious woman (who had been watching Hermione’s train wreck court proceedings with a gleeful smile). As it turns out, the woman is Hermosa (Mishel Prada, Vida), Hiram’s other daughter, who he hired to help free him and prove that Veronica colluded with the federal prosecutor.
At the very least, Veronica’s plan worked. Hermione is freed on a pardon — just as Hiram is exonerated with Hermosa at his side. It appears the Lodge drama is about to kick back into gear with two factions of the family at war, just in time for Hiram’s mayoral campaign to start!
Back at Stonewall, Jughead notices etchings under the torn page: a sweet, encouraging note from his grandfather. In class, Francis tells them that he and Mr. Chipping have devised a theme for the writing contest and they want to know who’s in.
Jughead doesn’t raise his hand, so Mr. Chipping calls on him. Jughead smiles cooly: “Oh, I’m in, and I’m winning. And from now on, please call me Forsythe the third,” he says. (We can still call him Jughead, though, right? Right?)
It’s nice to see the latest chapter in the Jones’ men story. FP shouldn’t be surprised at all that Jughead has latched onto his grandfather’s identity as Jughead has always been strongly linked to his family. I suspect this isn’t the last we’ll be hearing of Forsythe the first.
We end with another flash forward to spring break with the Riverdale crew in Biology lab. FP busts in to arrest Betty, Archie, and Veronica for, “the cold-blooded murder of my son, Jughead Jones.”
Well, there’s no ifs, ands, or buts about that! We know where we’re headed now, but how do we get there? And do you really think that Jughead’s going to die? The more certain it looks, the more I hope it’s not true…
Next. Riverdale season 4 episode 4 review: A very Riverdale Halloween. dark