#‘Riverdale’ recap: ‘Twin Peaks’ meets ‘Gossip Girl’ in The CW’s scandalous Archie adaptation | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

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‘Riverdale’ recap: ‘Twin Peaks’ meets ‘Gossip Girl’ in The CW’s scandalous Archie adaptation

We’re not mad at it.

Image: Dean Buscher/The CW

This recap contains spoilers for Riverdale Season 1, episode 1, titled “The River’s Edge.”

“Our story is about a town, a small town, and the people who live in the town. From a distance, it presents itself like so many other small towns all over the world: safe, decent, innocent. Get closer though, and you start seeing the shadows underneath. The name of our town is Riverdale. And our story begins, I guess, with what the Blossom twins did this summer “

Riverdale, The CW’s live-action Archie comics drama, aims to subvert any and all assumptions you have about Archie Andrews (KJ Apa) and his friends from over 75 years of comic books.

This isn’t your grandparents’ Archie this dark, scandalous tale, equal parts Twin Peaks and Gossip Girl, is a lot more like recent iterations of Archie comic book stories, rather than the rosy-cheeked, aw-shucks gang that first debuted in digests back in 1941.

SEE ALSO: ‘Riverdale’ reinvents Archie with a ‘Twin Peaks’ twist, and we dare you not to love it

Narrating the whole saga for us in live-action is the moody, sardonic voice of Jughead Jones (Cole Sprouse), hardly seen in the series premiere but always heard as he tries to make sense of the town’s biggest scandal.

Just after dawn on the 4th of July, the Blossom twins, Jason (Trevor Stines) and Cheryl (Madelaine Petsch), went for a boat ride, and later that day Cheryl was found soaked and alone on the river’s edge and Jason was gone. Cheryl’s story was that their boat capsized and Jason never surfaced, so their parents buried an empty casket and his death was ruled an accident. His body was never found until the first week of the new school year, opening up an official murder investigation where everyone is a potential suspect, even his twin sister who creepily refers to her brother as her “soul mate.” Is Riverdale really going there with twin-cest and twin-tracide right out of the gate?

But we’ll get to that later. First, let’s meet the newest incarnations of the Archie gang and dig into all the secrets that the town of Riverdale is hiding.

New girl Veronica Lodge rolls into town fresh off her father’s incarceration for fraud and embezzlement. Her mother Hermione (Marisol Nichols) claims their apartment is the only piece of property in her name and not her corrupt husband’s, but after getting a duffel bag full of money anonymously delivered by their doorman Smithers (Tom McBeath), it’s clear there is more going on than Veronica realizes.

Camila Mendes as Veronica Lodge

Image: Diyah Pera/THE CW

The most interesting thing to note about The CW’s version of the bratty, elitist rich girl from the comics is that Mendes has been given the green light to fully humanize Veronica. Where she was once evil and manipulative in the comics, now she’s empathetic.

She’s not perfect, of course, and still makes some mistakes mostly where her new crush “Archiekins” is concerned but she’s committed to becoming a better person after realizing that she was basically a spoiled, entitled rich bitch before father’s arrest. She’s using her move to Riverdale as a fresh start, an opportunity to become the best version of herself. Finally, Veronica is a relatable character.

Meanwhile, classic girl-next-door Betty Cooper (Lili Reinhart) is hiding more than enough secrets of her own. Where Veronica is now a flawed hero in her own right one who’s even committed to helping Betty realize her full potential Betty has enough baggage and emotional damage to employ a therapist full-time… but she would never admit to that.

Her overbearing mother, already burdening her with the stress of college applications even though Betty is only a sophomore, pushes her into Adderall abuse, and the whole family is seemingly haunted by the mysterious events surrounding Betty’s older sister, who’s currently living in a group home after her relationship with Jason Blossom prompted a nervous breakdown of some kind, apparently “ruining” her.

But Betty desperately pushes all those issues down to maintain the perfect facade of well, perfection. Helping distract her from all the cracks starting to show in her psyche is her crush on her BFF Archie, whom she hasn’t seen all summer. Encouraged by her gay best friend (and the first openly gay character in the Archie universe) Kevin Keller (Casey Cott), Betty decides to finally tell Archie how she feels especially since, in the wise words of Kevin, “Archie got hot. He’s got abs now!”

Lili Reinhart as Betty Cooper

Image: Katie Yu/The CW

Did you really expect anything less from The CW’s live-action Archie? Yes, working for his father Fred (Luke Perry) all summer in construction had worked wonders on the redheaded teen. Not only had he developed jaw-dropping muscle definition, the physical busywork gave him a lot of time alone with his thoughts, helping him realize how passionate he is about composing music.

When he divulges his new secret to Betty, she practically turns into the heart-eyes emoji. Hot, sweet and gifted with a knack for catchy pop ballads? He’s the total package. But right as she’s pouring her heart out to her best-friend-turned-potential-soulmate, Veronica walks into Pop’s Chock-lit Shoppe, and by the look on his face, it’s clear that the classic Archie/Betty/Veronica love triangle is born.

But as has been repeatedly emphasized, this is not your classic Archie. He’s also harboring quite a scandalous secret more so than contemplating quitting football or telling his father that he wants to forgo inheriting his father’s construction company for a career in music: he’s been engaging in an illicit teacher/student relationship with the now young and hot Ms. Grundy (Sarah Habel) all summer long.

No one knows about their affair, but that all could change as Archie struggles with whether or not come forward about what he heard on the morning of the 4th of July. He and Ms. Grundy were getting in some, ahem, “alone time” at the river’s edge when they both heard a gunshot.

Not knowing back then that Jason Blossom would turn up dead, they tried to forget what they heard, knowing they couldn’t come forward or else Grundy would get in major trouble but with the discovery of Jason’s body with a bullet hole in his forehead, there’s no way Archie can keep quiet about the mysterious gunshot.

Grundy does her best to convince Archie not to come forward, but this is Archie we’re talking about as girl-crazy and dumb as this iconic teenage boy can be, he’s still a good person who always tries to do the right thing, especially with his father teaching him the value of honesty. There is an expiration date on both of their secrets, and the only question is when will it all get exposed?

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Betty and Veronica, oblivious to Archie’s tawdry affair with Grundy, convince Archie to join them on a trio group friend date to the back-to-school semi-formal dance, and Betty finally does get to confess her feelings to Archie. He doesn’t respond to her at first, and at Cheryl’s after-party he’s “forced” to spend seven minutes in heaven with Veronica.

Of course, they can’t deny their attraction: Archie and Veronica kiss, and he realizes he doesn’t feel the same way about Betty that she does about him. He tries to let her down easy later that night, telling her that she is so perfect that he’s not good enough for her, which, in typical boy fashion, he doesn’t realize is the exact wrong thing to say. Betty’s far from perfect, but she hides it so well from those closest to her, and now that’s costing her the one thing she wants most: Archie.

A shining beacon of light in the dark town is the empowered, confident and strong Josie McCoy (Ashleigh Murray) and her Pussycats. With record-ready voices and attitude to back up their talent, the Pussycats know they’re bound for stardom despite being trapped in their small town.

Ashleigh Murray as Josie McCoy

Image: Katie Yu/The CW

When Archie approaches Josie with songs he wrote, hoping to learn from her musical expertise and hopefully to convince the Pussycats to perform them, she shuts him down immediately, letting him know they’re all about building their brand and telling their own story with songs they write. And thus begins the iconic rivalry between Josie and Archie and their musical aspirations.

Other noteworthy moments:

-Jughead’s narration is revealed at the very end of the premiere to be the basis of a novel about all the events of the summer, starting with Jason’s death. Also interesting to note is that he and Archie are ex-best friends, which seems almost blasphemous to Archie fans but is extremely compelling to watch onscreen. Apparently, Archie did something to Jughead and never talked to him about it, ruining their relationship. Instead of letting him destroy another relationship, Jughead helps Archie realize in a tense conversation at Pop’s that he needs to talk to Betty to save their friendship, lest they end up as strained as Archie and Jughead.

-Hermione and Fred dated in high school. It’s going to be pretty awkward when Veronica and Archie find out their parents got hot and heavy after the teens shared a steamy make out sesh.

-Another steamy make out comes courtesy of Veronica helping Betty put Cheryl in her place during River Vixen cheerleading tryouts. Cheryl tries to shame Betty’s goody-two-shoes exterior for lacking “heat” and “sizzle,” so Veronica ends her tirade by kissing Betty in front of the whole squad. Veronica helps both of them make the team, but as a downside, they now have to put up with Cheryl on a daily basis.

Madelaine Petsch as Cheryl Blossom

Image: Dean Buscher/The CW

But when Cheryl tries to goad Betty into finally letting her feelings out, all it does is cause Betty to ball her fists so hard she makes herself bleed before once again swallowing her anger and emotions to maintain that good girl image. The troubled teen is already at her breaking point, and it’s clear she’ll go to any lengths necessary to keep maintain her illusion of control.

-Moose is gay! Well, closeted, but he definitely propositions Kevin in the bathroom for a little heavy petting that escalates into a late-night meet-up down at Sweetwater River. Unfortunately, their secret hookup comes to a screeching halt when they discover Jason Blossom’s dead body floating at the water’s edge, with a clear bullet hole in his forehead, marking the beginning of the series’ big murder mystery.

-Archie ends up making a deal with Grundy: he won’t come forward about July 4th, essentially keeping her safe from anyone discovering their affair, but only if she helps mentor him with his music. She agrees, under the impression that they’ll keep things strictly professional, but that’s clearly not going to happen. At least for now, he can juggle music lessons before school, football practice after school and working for his dad on weekends, so it’s not like he has to choose any particular path yet.

-Jason’s autopsy will be performed on Monday, and by Tuesday the first arrest will be made. The first, but certainly not the last.

Riverdale airs Thursdays at 9 p.m. on The CW.

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