Riverdale, an Archie Comics adaptation on the CW

So how did this little secret of the gang's parents never once come up last season when the Black Hood was killing sinners?

Because its a secret?

Presumably, Alice never told her husband about it.

I expect we'll learn more in the flashback episode, and I imagine this secret may end up tied to the Gargoyle king in some way.

I meant, why did none of them gather round to discuss the possibility that the Black Hood could know about it since he was targeting sinners.

Because while he did shoot one of them, he wasn't really targeting them as a whole so they most likely figured (correctly) that he didn't know about it.

I mean, they all have enough sins besides this one that they also probably thought it wouldn't matter anyway.

Edited by ArthurEld on Oct 19th 2018 at 11:33:19 AM

Further thoughts:

• So not only is this show taking stuff from Arrow (Cheryl's archery) but now we got underground fighting matches like Luke Cage?

• Look Veronica, I understand showing support for your boyfriend. But maybe there are better ways to do it other than forcing someone to not run for class president. As callous as she may have put it, Cheryl was right that she'd have better use for the class presidency than Archie does right now. Unless Veronica gains the ability to literally freeze time in place, there is no way she can keep everything the exact same as it was when Archie left. Nor should she try.

• So much for Fred being the only reasonable adult in Riverdale.

• I really doubt a bunch of high school cheer leaders showing up at a juvie football game would have been accepted, corrupt warden or no.

• And have Veronica and Hermoine forgotten that Hiram is on parole? If they want him out of their lives, call up his parole officer.

Prisoners fighting each other because guards force them to is an old idea.

Same with Cheryl and her archery. I doubt it was inspired by arrow and is probably just more of the typical sort of 'rich girl' thing, like horse back riding or debutante balls.

Edited by ArthurEld on Oct 19th 2018 at 6:59:24 AM

Those prisoners would not keep playing as long as the cheerleaders were performing.

The reason why prisoner fight rings happen a lot in media is because it's a real thing that actually happens in prison.

Putting it in TV shows and movies is a way of raising awareness for the distressingly large percentage of the population that doesn't give two shits about actual news and gets their entire impression of their world through media osmosis.

Edited by TobiasDrake on Oct 22nd 2018 at 12:10:51 PM

Unfortunatley, Riverdale is so divorced from reality that anyone watching this show is likely to come away thinking underground prison fight rings are more fiction than fact.

I mean this very same episode features a high school cheerleading squad doing a rendition of Jailhouse Rock for the entertainment of juvenile inmates.

Even then, Riverdale is no Luke Cage. I highly doubt this plot development was introduced to raise awareness of any real life issue and not just typical CW drama. Hell, I'll be amazed if the Riverdale writers even know prison fight rings are a thing that exist in real life.

Edited by windleopard on Oct 22nd 2018 at 11:59:31 AM

Consciously, no. But if every time Bob sees a prison on TV, there's a prison fight ring, he'll start to wonder if there's something to this. It's an aggregate thing.

Reality often provides a better source for cheap drama than anything the imagination can dredge up.

The Gargoyle King real or not is heinously creepy. I'm kind of reminded of the monsters from Stranger Things, except unlike those, this thing might have some sort of cult followers.

And I kind of mentally saw the Insight gained effect happen when Jughead stumbled on the altar and the bodies of Dilton and Matt. He saw something there, I think, that indicates far darker things happening behind the scenes.

Edited by NickTheSwing on Oct 23rd 2018 at 2:24:16 AM

That all just makes it sound like you didn't know prison fight things are a real thing, so of course no who works on Riverdale could possibly know that either.

Just like if Arrow didn't exist, Cheryl wouldn't have picked up a bow.

Kind of a reach.

I'll be honest, I hope the Gargoyle King is a real thing. Archie Comics did delve into supernatural horror from time to time, IIRC. It's been literally over a decade since I read the old comics I grew up on, but I remember something about Archie and the gang dealing with classic horror monsters?

I don't know. All I know is that I caught up on this show recently and it's been hilariously compliant with my ridiculous demands. I was watching season 1 and I was like, "Clearly the show needs to adapt Archie v. the Punisher next!" and then season two was like, "BLACK HOOD MOTHERF*CKER".

So then I was like, "...Sabrina the Teenage Witch?" and the show went, "She's getting her own show and it's gonna be awesome!" And I was like, "Oh, cool. But I wanted witchy shenanigans in Riverdale," and the show was like, "WILL YOU ACCEPT A GARGOYLE KING?"

Yes. Yes, I will.

EDIT: I was joking around with a friend about the conflicting tones of Riverdale and Sabrina when discussing a possible crossover. In jest, I proposed, "THE DEVIL has come to Riverdale...to deal drugs!"

But if they attribute mind-altering substances to the visions of the Gargoyle King that the characters are having in order to play up the ambiguity about whether or not he exists, that could actually be a thing. They did call attention to Betty's Adderall; it could be laced with something.

Edited by TobiasDrake on Oct 23rd 2018 at 8:16:35 AM

I kinda hope they reference Marvelous Maureen somewhere along the line. (I actually have the Laugh issue episode 6 was in and never found anything else about it until now.

You know what this show does well? Fanservice. This show could teach other shows how to do fanservice correctly.

Yes.

Yes it does.

...And the Gargoyle King is on the move in episode 3.

FP and Alice definitely have something to hide, why else would they throw away such vital evidence. They did something with that game.

Ethel / Ethelyne seems to be in cahoots with the Gargoyle King and his weird cult thing, which seems to involve drinking from goblets where one goblet is full of cyanide poison.

The whole "suddenly everyone has a rulebook for it" thing again gives me creepy vibes. There's an unsettling Lovecraftian vibe to this. Like, just playing this game or involving yourself with it and its lore does...things...to your brain.

Maybe my Insight metaphor earlier might've been closer than I thought. Those books damage your sanity.

There is no way in hell that Alice and Polly's little newborn sacrifice cult is not related to this in any way...

I'm willing to entertain the possibility that The Farm is only thematically related to the Gargoyle King, with the season revolving around cults and the supernatural (whether imagined or otherwise).

The same way that season two was about crime, with no actual connection between the Lodge Mafia and the Black Mask killer despite both being at the forefront of the narrative.

Edited by TobiasDrake on Oct 31st 2018 at 1:10:55 PM

Yeah - that seems to be shaping up to be the season theme. The supernatural, real or imagined, and to a degree I think sanity vs insanity.

Related to this, a theme of how much you're seeing is there, versus just plain madness.

Though I will say going by F.P.'s and Alice's reaction to Gryphons and Gargoyles, there was something that happened with that in the past. Did someone die playing it?

This is a strain of madness that originated in the past, and now is being spread across the school thanks to Ethel Muggs. I eagerly await the results of these actions.

So not only did Sierra get ousted as Mayor but it turned out to be a job she didn't even want. And apparently, her affair with Sheriff Keller was just them picking up from high school.

Edited by windleopard on Nov 9th 2018 at 12:46:21 PM

I bet some people like Nana Rose less after learning that Penelope was Not Blood Siblings with Clifford.

I think that was possibly the silliest episode in the entire show, even more than the one with the maple syrup.

That was fantastic. I've been on the fence about this whole Gryphons and Gargoyles thing, because I grew up in the 90's and I remember when people were absolutely dead serious about saying that D&D is a satanic horror game that will lure your children into debauchery and suicide/murder.

So. Like. I've been having a Poe's Law issue with this plot. "Not sure if ironic satire or totally sincere throwback fearmongering."

Then this episode came along and went, "Hey guys, check out these life-ruining hard drugs: POP ROCKS WITH COCA-COLA." And I cracked up laughing because I remember that moral panic too. This is absolutely 100% a throwback satire, and that means I can comfortably enjoy the ridiculousness.

I hope they find a way to bring up that great Satanic instrument of destruction bent on luring your children away from the Lord, Pikachu.

Edited by TobiasDrake on Nov 12th 2018 at 4:10:32 AM

So that episode really had me thinking that the warden was the Gargoyle King.

But the Red Paladin escaped, and he paid the price.

For the record, I think the Gargoyle King is Penelope Blossom.

I think that would be kind of an ass pull the same way Hal Cooper turning out to be the Black Hood was.

Also, how the hell did Veronica miss Archie's burn mark when they had sex in the locker room?

And really? A corrupt prison warden is involved in a conspiracy revolving around a role-playing game from the 80s? I mean a drug dealer and a serial killer made some sort of sense in the previous seasons but this felt like a really ham-fisted way to connect two plots that should have been in separate seasons.

Guess Mad Dog died for real this time.

Edited by windleopard on Nov 15th 2018 at 4:41:30 AM