Matthew Pelli, Reporter
@PelliMatthew
Riverdale Blog #1: Season 2 Episode 11, “The Wrestler”
Attention all Riverdale Bulldogs: welcome to the Courant’s first Riverdale Recap. As of Wednesday, January 24th, 2018, Riverdale’s season two hit the halfway mark. Before we recap the most recent episode of this teen drama, let’s review the top 5 essential things to know before watching.
*Warning: Spoilers Ahead*
- The Black Hood
The Black Hood has been the biggest villain throughout the season. The Black Hood was eventually revealed to be Joseph Svenson, a Riverdale janitor. Although some people may think the Black Hood is dead, there is lots of speculation that he is still alive.
- The Lodges
The Lodges are the sketchiest family in this show. From Hiram Lodge arriving in season 2, and numerous amounts of uncomfortable business deals while roping in their daughter, the Lodges kept us on the edge of our seats every episode.
- Chic Cooper
As we learned at the end of the first season, Chic Cooper is Betty and Polly’s long lost brother. The mysterious son of Alice Cooper made his appearance midway through the season. He initially rejected his new family, but after some encouraging acts of heroism from Betty, he temporarily moved in the Cooper household. Lots of information is still unknown about Chic.
- The South Side
Lot’s of controversy in Riverdale has been surrounded by the South Side. The North and the South rivalry is a constant battle in the show. After Jughead switched schools and joined the Serpents, the problems have increased. After Southside High shut down for “unknown reasons”, Jughead, his friend Toni Topaz and other serpents began attending Riverdale High, and let’s just say it hasn’t been a smooth transition.
- The Relationships
Relationships have really developed since the beginning of the show. Over the course of the first season, the two major couples have been Archie and Veronica, and Jughead and Betty. Things have really changed since then. Betty and Jughead have been in numerous alterations throughout season 2 about his involvement with the Serpents, and are momentarily broken up. Veronica and Archie broke up when Veronica couldn’t say “I love you” back to Archie. At this point, Veronica and Archie are back together, while Betty and Jughead are still broken up. We’ll have to see where this season takes us.
Now, that we’ve covered some basic information from the first 2 seasons, let’s dive right in to the most recent episode, “The Wrestler”. This episode was jam-packed with lots of drama, singing, and Riverdale festivities.
Chic Cooper was a major topic during this episode. In “The Wrestler”, we find out what Chic’s job is, and let’s just say it’s not safe for school. This stirred up major drama with Hal Cooper, who doesn’t approve of Chic. Moving on, Betty and Chic have begun to bond over there shared inner darkness. Chic says that his line of work is good way to discover this darkness and towards the end of the episode, introduces Betty to his line of work.
While the Cooper’s are dealing with their own problems, the feud between Hiram Lodge and Archie Andrew began to brew. This episode involved a wrestling batch between the two. Clearly, Hiram doesn’t like Archie and does not approve of him dating his daughter. All Archie wants is to get closer to Hiram and find out what he is up to since Archie’s deal with the “FBI”. Whether this man who allegedly grew up in Riverdale himself is actually with the FBI or not, Archie, at the end of the episode, accepted an internship with Lodge industries, in order to get more intel on what is going on with his girlfriend’s family.
Another plot line in this week’s episode that stirred up some crazy drama was the history surrounding Riverdale’s founder, General Pickens. Jughead’s interview with Toni Topaz’s grandfather, one of the oldest Serpents alive, turned into a shocking confession about what he knew about the true history of how Riverdale came to be. It turns out that General Pickens slaughtered around 400 people, including children. These remaining people ended up forming the group, currently known as the Serpents. In order to find justice for these people, Jugheads takes it upon himself to protest at the Picken’s Day festival. The protest is stopped by Hiram Lodge, who tries to cover up what really happened. The episode ends with the head of General Pickens’ statue chopped off and missing. Who did it? The Serpents? Or was it Cheryl, furious that her great grandfather played a role in the massacre that killed all those people so long ago?
That’s all for this recap, tune in next week for Season 2 Episode 12, “The Wicked and The Divine”.
