Betty Is Frothing At The Mouth On This Week’s ‘Riverdale’

Betty (Lili Reinhart) survived almost being lobotomized by a cult. By those standards, frothing at the mouth is no big deal. It doesn’t even look like her beehive’s been terribly flustered, but if the painting of Cheryl (Madelaine Petsch) in this trailer for this week’s episode is a tipoff to another Night Gallery-esque episode, then Betty’s not in any real danger anyway:

The title of this week’s episode, though — “Tales in a Jugular Vein” — makes it sound like Jughead (Cole Sprouse) is the one calling the shots, and while Bughead’s been done for  a while now, and ’50s Jughead doesn’t have the same history with Betty that 21st century Jughead does (hence Jeronica), the show has always played with the idea that these couples are destined to be together. Jughead writing a story where Betty gets knocked off seems to point to there being no residual, cross-generational feelings between them and — Bughead-fan or not — that’s a little sad.

Evil parents were all the rage on last week’s episode, as Kevin (Casey Cott) let Betty in on her mom’s mechanizations, meaning Alice (Mädchen Amick) is in for her daughter’s wrath. Clifford Blossom (Barclay Hope) reinserted himself into the narrative, by trying to dictate what Archie (KJ Apa) and Cheryl should do with their futures. Given that Clifford has spent most of his time on Riverdale dead, it’s a good reminder that he could be a serious player.

Some other thoughts on last week’s episode:

• Ethel (Shannon Purser) can’t win. Her parents have been murdered, yet somehow the investigation into their deaths is becoming all about Jughead (Cole Sprouse) – the guy she has a crush on — and Veronica (Camila Mendes) bonding. She never told Betty she could steal her sex book yet somehow that was the last straw for Alice, and now she’s living with the Sisters of Quiet Mercy. Usually Ethel and Kevin (Casey Cott) are neck and neck, but even he had a better episode.
• As direct as Riverdale was with its movie references last week, the title of the book Toni (Vanessa Morgan) gave Cheryl initially stumped me. Google wasn’t finding any results for The Cost of Pepper, but that’s because it’s inspiration is Patricia Highsmith‘s The Price of Salt (which is also the source material for Todd Haynes‘ Carol). With that in mind, it’s probably not a coincidence that Cheryl’s look, when she drove up to Archie dressed in a headscarf, felt very Carol or Douglas Sirk-esque.
• Another good move by the wardrobe team last week: having Archie’s mom (Molly Ringwald) look totally out of place at Thornhill, in her pink, flower print dress (while all of the Blossoms were wearing red).

Riverdale airs Wednesdays on The CW.