#The Stateside Riverdale fandom that have gotten 3+ episodes of S5b seem to hate it so who knows if this is sustainable

[riverdale-retread]

Riverdale S5 E4 (The True Season 5 Start) (maybe spoilers, probably not) (will also only make sense if you’ve watched the episode, as this is not a recap).

5 Things I loved  

1.  I loved that Archie is in some sort of war but we don’t see what war.  This makes for a much more interesting way to deliver the information they need to rather than get bogged down on which war in which place.  It made me think of Dogville, a film by Lars von Trier, where the ‘set’ is a sound studio with markings on the floor.  You are watching a show, says Riverdale, so this a deliberately crafted alternate universe.  It doesn’t matter which war. 

2.  When Archie comes back to Riverdale, the Serpents are performing a song on stage at the Whyte Wyrm.  Utterly pure Bollywood.  There is no reason to do this song number, they just wanted to do it.   I love that there is so much show in Riverdale.  I’ve also never seen a heavily pregnant woman do a sexy song and dance routine AT A BAR in any form of media before!  There’s references to Britney back in the day with the girls in short shorts carrying actual boas on their shoulders. I also hollered with laughter at both Archie and Kevin outright wanting to laugh at this show Toni is putting on.    

3.   I love the post time jump misery of everyone. Post college life as a 20 something can suck so bad, seems to be the point. 

 Job  - Being committed to a career can lead to discovering people in your life don’t want you to outshine them (Veronica). You might think you’ve set yourself up for something long term and then turn out to be wrong (Archie).  You can do all the things - graduate from a good college with good grades after you earned a sensible degree - and still have to hustle like a maniac or settle really hard to make ends meet (Toni, Kevin, Fangs).  Tasting early success can end up showing you only how  very far you have to go and how little it matters (Jughead). 

Personal life - You can definitely have an I have absolutely no friends, wtf happened to me evening or two (Betty). Whatever you didn’t heal from in your teens can take over your whole life with drastic adult consequences (Cheryl, and possibly, Reggie). You can be irresistibly drawn to the absolute wrong person to be with and nobody can stop you because you’re grown (Veronica, Betty, Jughead, and again, possibly Reggie).  You have even less support from parents/ guardians than ever before (Veronica, Cheryl).  And sometimes, when you meet up again with people you were really close to in your teens, it’s actually awkward and terrible (the Diner scene).

4.  I love thicc slutty miserable adult Jughead.  I had a person who really disliked me for this blog (their ask was an ad hominem attack)  ask an interesting question:  A Jughead stan? (derogatory).   I wasn’t sure, but I think now I can be. I’m a Jughead stan!  I am surprised that I find adult Jughead so much fun, like, even more intriguing than the beautiful delicate sadboi, the passionate Serpent Fail King, the feral manic G&G player, or the smug preppy (though I am partial to this last) iterations.  This irritable person who talks over a fan to correct her and obviously engages in a game of self-defeating chicken about not doing any housework with his equally irritable girlfriend - I love this, that he went from being the most perfectionist idealist teen to this dude who memorizes his best performance review for his job. (See also my 3rd point). 

5.  I love that they did something with the Serpents and the Serpent Queen.  FP’s failures (it was more FP’s fault than Jughead’s) as Serpent King decimated the Serpents, and Betty should never ever have been anything other than a Serpent groupie, so Toni and Sweet Pea (SWEET PEA GETS TO TALK!) reconstitute the group, with Toni at the head, and they seem to have learned something from Jughead’s time as King, when the Serpents were homeless and under a lot of strain. They’ve diversified - they own a bar, they run a trucking business, and those who want to and can also get white collar jobs

3 things to consider

1. The dream shows how Archie views all these old friends.  Jughead is a burden and an obligation, at the same time - someone he has to save, maybe, but definitely someone whose entire weight he has to carry around.  Reggie is an equal (when he falls, Archie moves on). Veronica, Betty, Fangs and Sweet Pea are merely his ‘audience.’   The person who actually takes time to pay attention to what is happening to him and sends him love & encouragement without any demands is Cheryl.   Someone - if it was you please say in the comments! - gave me an important hint, that Cheryl is known or likely to be the spokesperson for the creators of Riverdale, so maybe this just means, The Show Loves Archie.

2. Betty thinks she caught serial killers, in the multiple, in high school. But she didn’t, so she’s still very wrong all the time about her own life.  Her Dad and Charles desperately wanted her to know who they were and she just refused to take the fucking hint, and Jughead actually figured out most of the rest (Penelope as the true Gargoyle King, that Hiram was using the Gargoyle King as a prop, the stuff with the Stonies).  The one bit that Betty put together on her own was that Warden Norton killed the Principal In the Cupboard, and he wasn’t even that important.

3.  What makes a town or city function? According to Riverdale they are in order of priority: (1) emergency services esp having a fire station and more law enforcement than the lone sheriff and social services, (2)  solvent residents (signified by the abandonment and decay of the leisure space, the park, as well as the metastasized skid row), (3)  connection to the national transportation network (if Greyhound won’t have a stop in your town you’re done for?), and (4) a high school.