Riverdale season 4 episode 6 review: The truth about Charles
In this week’s episode of Riverdale, we finally learn the truth about Charles and what he’s been hiding from Betty and Alice.
Last week’s episode of Riverdale revealed a big piece of the mystery about Jughead, while moving plenty of other big chunks of the plot forward. This week, we kick off with Pureheart Archie continuing his masked work on the street to help the kids working for Dodger. No matter who helps get a job at Pop’s, he can’t bring Dodger down.
On the Bughead front, Jug is working on the Baxter Brother’s writing contest, but has writer’s block. It’s a cute scene in Pop’s as Betty suggests that kissing his girlfriend might help, and Jughead completely misses it since he’s so wrapped up in his own head. Betty says it again, more pointedly, and he leans across the gigantic booth to kiss her.
Of course, Detective Betty is still on the case of the very boring and ever-present Charles. She presents her findings to Kevin who says, “I’m no expert, Betty. It doesn’t sound like Charles is a serial killer. It kinda sounds like he’s just a lonely gay guy.”
Part of me is hoping this is the case so that maybe Kevin can have a semi-decent boyfriend who will stick around, but I think that’s too much to ask for at this point — for both me and Kevin.
A dogged Betty goes to see Chic in jail and asks him if it was true that he and Charles stayed at the hostel together. Chic says yes, they brought someone home with them, but it got out of hand and Charles killed him. Unsure of what to believe, Chic says he has no reason to lie, which Betty seems to agree with, but as we all should know, Chic is a slippery son of a gun.
Over at the FBI Headquarters, Betty tells Charles she went to see Chic. He gets defensive and asks why she wouldn’t just ask him. Betty calmly tells him it’s because she doesn’t trust him and asks if he has a polygraph lying around.
So, of course, Betty gives Charles a polygraph — because all high school seniors know how to administer a polygraph. Charles says Chic is the one who killed the man, but he got rid of the body. “That was the end of us,” he insists.
Betty asks if he’s hiding anything, and the polygraph needle begins to move. He says he’s a recovering addict and attends meetings at the gym in Riverdale.
Meanwhile, Archie finds out from some of the kids that Dodger pays them in arcade money and free pizza. He decides to see if he can get some arcade games for them as an alternative, with Betty and Veronica’s help.
Things are still super weird at Thistlehouse. After an upsetting course of events in which she believes Julian the doll is haunting her, Cheryl is even more upset to find that her extended family — Aunt Cricket and Uncle Bedford — have arrived to convince her to sell the maple syrup business.
Cheryl doesn’t want to sell, but Toni suggests if she does, they could start over, so Cheryl says she’ll consider it. They ask to visit the chapel and “commune with the ancestors” or some weird Blossom thing, but Cheryl freaks out and tells them it’s forbidden to anyone but her. (Jason’s corpse is still down there.)
Over with the Lodges, Hiram and Hermione are both out of prison and while Hermione and Veronica are charting a new path forward, Hiram is ready to resume business as usual. Of course, Veronica holds strong and kicks him out.
Making the rounds, Hiram comes to the community center. Archie, still polite enough to call him Mr. Lodge (which is kind of precious), asks him what he’s doing there. Hiram says he’s come to pay his respects for Fred and wants to make a donation in Fred’s honor, but Archie refuses to take it.
That night, Hiram breaks into the penthouse late at night. Hermione tells him to get out since she and Veronica are finally free of him. Hiram gets comfortable, takes off his shirt, and starts to very creepily seduce Hermione.
Hermione and Hiram very clearly have an abusive relationship beyond the obvious “we tried to get each other killed.” It’s the more subtle and complex feeling of being unable to leave the person who is your abuser and lover that’s tough to watch.
Back at Stonewall Prep, Jughead has become wrapped up in investigating the Baxter Brothers books rather than writing the next one, convinced that his grandfather wrote the very first one. Betty is clearly suspicious of the conspiracy, but in an effort to be supportive, reminds Jughead that Riverdale High had a literary magazine back in the day, too.
He finds a story written under a pen name with a Baxter Brothers character name in it written years before the first Baxter Brothers story — the proof he needs.
Back at the Lodge residence, Veronica comes home to find that her father has moved back in and asks Hermione what happened. In what sounds like the old Hermione, she simply says she invited Hiram to move back in and Veronica’s eyes fill with tears. Hiram, of course, begins to gaslight Veronica, as he says this is all about her jealousy of Hermosa. Poor Veronica leaves in an outrage.
On the Cooper front, Betty comes home to an upset Alice with FP and Charles who is upset that Betty visited Chic. As it turns out, after Betty left, Chic contacted the FBI to report the murder of the “shady man” and accused Alice.
Charles says he’ll take the lead on the case with the assistance of FP. They leave to go destroy the remaining evidence. Betty apologizes and tells him that if he was able to go out on a limb for Alice, she should do the same for him.
That night, the community center is popping as Veronica has helped Archie round up some vending machines and provided burgers, fries, and milkshakes from Pop’s. Of course, Dodger soon shows up and accuses Archie of being the guy in the mask. Archie really terribly lies, but Dodger has figured it out.
Later at Stonewall Prep, Jughead meets with Mr. DuPont and tells him that he believes his grandfather wrote the very first Baxter Brothers book. This doesn’t go over so well when all that favor he had curried is gone as Mr. DuPont wields every bit of privilege against him, saying he should be grateful that he isn’t going to the headmaster to expel Jughead over the slanderous claims.
If we know our Jughead, though, this isn’t the end of this story… Jughead takes the case to Mr. Chipping, who agrees that the writing looks like Forsythe the first’s and decides to help him.
After the community center party, Archie comes home to a hooded mask nailed to the door. He warns Mary that they need to get out and manages to cover her just in time for the drive-by shooting to happen.
A desperate Archie calls Hiram about Dodger who says there’s nothing he can do. As he goes down this path of vigilanteism, it’s just a matter of time before more crime-friendly Archie returns on his quest for vengeance…
That night, Cheryl wakes up and hears something, taking Toni to the chapel with her. Uncle Bedford has broken in. Saying she’s truly sick (even for a Blossom), he throws her against the wall and threatens to take care of her right then and there.
Of course, Toni comes to the rescue and hits him on the head with some sort of gothic candlestick as the creepy Julian doll watches. So now Cheryl and Toni have killed someone, which will definitely have long-term consequences.
The next day, Veronica comes to the penthouse and finds that a painting of Hermosa has replaced hers in Hiram’s study as Hermosa sits behind the desk. She maintains that she isn’t giving up her place in the family, but whatever happens, it’s going to be fun to watch Veronica spar with her new sis.
At Stonewall, Mr. Chipping comes into class the next day, visibly upset, to discuss Heart of Darkness, “a story about a man losing his moral compass.” But he can barely get the words out as he turns to the window and says, “I’m sorry, Jughead. I’m sorry I couldn’t help you,” and jumps out the window.
Jughead jumps up and runs over to the shards of stained glass, screaming for someone to call an ambulance, but Bret and the other Stonewall zombies just stare. It’s truly bizarre and, honestly, what is going on at this school?
Finally, the big reveal of this episode happens when Charles goes to visit Chic in jail and tells him everything went according to plan: FP led him to the body and everybody, even Betty, was grateful. They place their hands on the glass and say, “I love you, babe.” Vomit. (There goes my hope for a normal boyfriend for Kevin.)
But also, at this point, Betty and I both scream, “I knew it! Something was weird with you!” And this is why we both have such deep-seated trust issues.
Overall, this week’s episode was a bit chaotic and uneven, and it didn’t bring us too much closer to the big mystery at hand. But a lot of fun stuff happened along the way.
Next. Riverdale is bringing back vigilante Archie. dark