Josie Premieres At The Babylonium On The Next ‘Riverdale’

Keeping Riverdale’s timelines straight can be a real challenge, but with Josie (Ashleigh Murray) making her big return in the next episode, it’ll be interesting to see how the series reintroduces her. Some of that tea can be found in the trailer below, which has Josie singing but mostly talking about having her film premiere at the Babylonium. That’s where things get fuzzy, though, because how is it that Josie and Veronica (Camila Mendes) know each other? Did Josie ever attend Riverdale High, because she wasn’t there when Veronica became a new student at the start of the season, and if they met in New York (or through Veronica’s parents (Mark Consuelos and Marisol Nichols) running in the same circles), then what would possess her to visit Riverdale in the first place? What’s her movie about? Will any of her co-stars be the Pussycats Dolls or from Katy Keene?

Too many questions? Then let’s switch over to the subject of this week’s episode, “Stag,” which saw the series yet again decide to backtrack rather than commit to making choices. Take Betty (Lili Reinhart) and her mom (Mädchen Amick). Following last week’s beauty pageant, it seemed like they might be making some progress. At least Betty saw some goodness in her mom, but now they’re back to slapping each other and, while it’s one thing for a relationship to have ups and downs, it just feels like they’re going in circles.

Even worse than that plot (un)development, though, has to be the series’ choice to try and make Jughead (Cole Sprouse) and Veronica (Camila Mendes) a couple again. Was anyone asking for that and, if they were, the time to do that was the beginning of the season. Since they’re break-up, Veronica and Jughead have barely looked at each other beyond that one episode where Jughead took Tabitha (Erinn Westbrook) to the Babylonium for a date and didn’t consider Veronica’s feelings. There’s been no lingering sexual tension between them and yet here they are, kissing. What happened to Betty and Veronica exploring their feelings for each other? How seriously are we supposed to get invested in these relationships when they’re so easily severed, like Reggie (Charles Melton) and Archie (KJ Apa) this week? Sure those horny goobers were cute but is it going to last more than an episode, and why wasn’t Ethel (Shannon Purser) recruited to help fight the comics production code, or is  it going to be one, long ‘pageant winner duties’ excuse from now on?

Riverdale airs Wednesdays on The CW.