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Recap / Riverdale S 2 E 18 Chapter 31 A Night To Remember

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Chapter 1 | Chapter 2 | Chapter 3 | Chapter 4 | Chapter 5 | Chapter 6 | Chapter 7 | Chapter 8 | Chapter 9 | Chapter 10 | Chapter 11 | Chapter 12 | Chapter 13

Chapter 14 | Chapter 15 | Chapter 16 | Chapter 17 | Chapter 18 | Chapter 19 | Chapter 20 | Chapter 21 | Chapter 22 | Chapter 23 | Chapter 24 | Chapter 25 | Chapter 26 | Chapter 27 | Chapter 28 | Chapter 29 | Chapter 30 | Chapter 31 | Chapter 32 | Chapter 33 | Chapter 34 | Chapter 35

Chapter 36 | Chapter 37 | Chapter 38 | Chapter 39 | Chapter 40 | Chapter 41 | Chapter 42 | Chapter 43 | Chapter 44 | Chapter 45 | Chapter 46 | Chapter 47 | Chapter 48 | Chapter 49 | Chapter 50 | Chapter 51 | Chapter 52 | Chapter 53 | Chapter 54 | Chapter 55 | Chapter 56 | Chapter 57

Chapter 58 | Chapter 59 | Chapter 60 | Chapter 61 | Chapter 62 | Chapter 63 | Chapter 64 | Chapter 65 | Chapter 66 | Chapter 67 | Chapter 68 | Chapter 69 | Chapter 70 | Chapter 71 | Chapter 72 | Chapter 73 | Chapter 74 | Chapter 75 | Chapter 76

Chapter 77 | Chapter 78 | Chapter 79 | Chapter 80 | Chapter 81 | Chapter 82 | Chapter 83 | Chapter 84 | Chapter 85 | Chapter 86 | Chapter 87 | Chapter 88 | Chapter 89 | Chapter 90 | Chapter 91 | Chapter 92 | Chapter 93 | Chapter 94 | Chapter 95

Chapter 96 | Chapter 97 | Chapter 98 | Chapter 99 | Chapter 100 | Chapter 101 | Chapter 102 | Chapter 103 | Chapter 104 | Chapter 105 | Chapter 106 | Chapter 107 | Chapter 108 | Chapter 109 | Chapter 110 | Chapter 111 | Chapter 112 | Chapter 113 | Chapter 114 | Chapter 115 | Chapter 116 | Chapter 117


Title From: A Night to Remember

Tropes

  • A Death in the Limelight: Midge wasn't a particularly prominent side character beforehand, but this episode is probably where she spent the most time onscreen. And it of course ends with her death.
  • Armor-Piercing Question: To climax his brief "Reason You Suck" Speech to Betty, Archie asks considering how they've been recently acting which one of them is more like Chris, and which one of them is more like Sue.
  • Biting-the-Hand Humor: Kevin mocks the practice of 'inappropriate age casting', calling it amateurish. Riverdale has this in spades.
  • Casting Gag: Several in-universe cases for the school musical of Carrie:
    • Archie and Betty as Tommy and Sue, the school's most popular couple and among the few nice characters in the story.
    • Cheryl as Carrie, a girl with an abusive mother who discovers an unusual way to take back her own power.
    • Alice as Margaret, a deeply troubled and abusive mother.
    • Veronica as Chris, as lampshaded by Betty, an Alpha Bitch who had major daddy issues and is controlling of her friends and boyfriend. Though the idea that Veronica is similar to Chris is rejected by Archie and eventually Betty.
    • Midge ends up playing Carrie, a "background character" at her school who is thrust into the limelight. And ends up dead because of it.
  • Documentary Episode: The episode takes the form of Kevin's documentary about the school musical.
  • Easily Forgiven: It takes only a short apology and a musical number for Josie to forgive Cheryl for stalking her, threatening her with a pig heart and a possessive letter, and making Josie think Chuck was her stalker.
  • Evil Is Petty: Penelope doesn't allow Cheryl to participate in the school play, since she sees it as some sort of "matricidal revenge fantasy" against her due to the content of the play.
  • Freeze-Frame Bonus: During Jughead's Jitter Cam, we get a brief glimpse of Chic being the only one still in his seat (with a Psychotic Smirk) while the rest of the audience panics over seeing someone dead.
  • Freudian Slip: During the rehearsal of "Stay Here Instead," Alice sings out Betty's name instead of Carrie.
  • Green-Eyed Monster: Ethel gets a pretty bad case of this when Cheryl and then Midge is cast as Carrie over her.
  • Hope Spot: The episode! Everything seems to be working out in the good guys' favour - both Archie and Veronica have a Heel Realisation, Betty and Ronnie becomes friends again, Archie begins to repair his relationship with his dad (informing Hiram in no uncertain terms that any further attempts to drive a wedge between him and his father will fail, giving the Big Bad his first major loss all season), Chuck fully cements his Heel–Face Turn and is accepted by the gang, Cheryl stands up to Penelope and Alice and Hal begin to repair their marriage. Then Midge is brutally murdered, revealing that the Black Hood is back.
  • I Never Said It Was Poison: When Ethel realizes that Jughead has found the cut out magazines in her room, Ethel immediately denies having sent the threatening letters (that demand Cheryl be dropped from the titular role of Carrie) and insists she was using the magazine clippings for a mood board. Trouble is, the only characters who know about the letter are Kevin, Jughead, and Betty.
  • I Warned You: Subverted. The Black Hood sent threatening letters to change the cast for Carrie (who's being played by Cheryl) or else. However, Cheryl was forbidden from participating by her mother. But as the ending revealed the Black Hood was always planning on killing those escaped him (as Kevin would have to make either Midge or Ethel Carrie without Cheryl).
  • Jerkass Has a Point: Ethel. While Cheryl is a talented singer and well-suited for Carrie, she did strong-arm her way into the lead role, and it wasn't fair that Kevin didn't give anyone else the chance to audition. Sending threatening letters is obviously taking things too far, but it's easy to see where Ethel was coming from.
  • Jerkass Realization:
    • Played with during the Betty-Veronica situation. After Betty reams Veronica out in front of everyone during rehearsal, Archie tells her off about her behavior. So, Betty comes back to apologize to Veronica, only for Veronica to turn around and say that Betty was right about her. She also says that playing the role of mean girl Chris made her realize that she has been a terrible friend. However, Betty disagrees.
    • Archie finally realizes that he has been ruining his relationship with his dad in favor of Hiram, so he gives the latter back his car and makes a grand gesture to Fred with a jalopy he got from the junkyard.
  • Let's Put on a Show!: Riverdale High puts on a production of Carrie.
  • Life Imitates Art: In-Universe; an actual dead body shows up during the musical's opening number. And killed off a la the real show, but in an even more brutal fashion.
  • Mass "Oh, Crap!": An actual dead body in the school play.
  • Musical Episode: The series' first.
  • Mythology Gag:
    • Cheryl covers herself in blood that she claims is Jason's. This might be a reference to Afterlife with Archie, where Cheryl is found drenched in Jason's blood after possibly murdering him.
    • The car Archie brings back for his father and him to work on is an old jalopy, which was the kind of car Archie drove for decades in the comics.
  • "The Reason You Suck" Speech:
    • Betty gives a pretty brutal one to Veronica, accusing her of being exactly as vindictive and manipulative as the character she's playing.
    • In response to that Archie gives a much shorter and more understated one to Betty, telling her she has no idea what Ronnie's home life is like at the moment and reminding her how easily Ronnie forgave her for seemingly publically turning on her.
  • Red Herring: It appears that Ethel was sending the threatening letters seemingly from the Black Hood, however in the end, the Black Hood really does return, killing his target (Midge) for a completely different reason. If he sent the letters or if it was Ethel (unaware that the Black Hood really was going to return) isn't clear.
  • Reformed, but Rejected: Averted finally; Chuck (who auditioned because he wanted to reform his image) proves himself throughout production of the play to be a perfect gentleman who's eagerness to prove himself, and his dedication to performing, wins over the Core Four and others. He's seemingly welcomed into the group.
  • Shout-Out: Jughead calls the letter Kevin received "a classic Phantom of the Opera plot".
  • Sudden Downer Ending: After an episode dedicated to characters reforming and making amends to each other, the Black Hood returns and brutally murders Midge.
  • Troubled Production: In-Universe; the show goes through a lot of this before even opening.
  • Underage Casting: Averted in-universe. Kevin thinks having a teenager play Carrie's mother is amateurish, so he has Alice play her. Though oddly also played straight with Josie as Ms. Desjardin.
  • Wham Shot: When the curtain comes up during the opening number, we see Midge pinned to the wall by numerous knives, and the Black Hood's message painted in blood behind her.
  • What the Hell, Hero?:
    • Archie gives this to Betty after her behavior to Veronica.
    • Archie ends up on the receiving end of one by his father, after Fred learns from Hiram that he gave Archie his first car. This leads to Archie's Heel Realization.

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