‘Riverdale’ Channels ‘Oppenheimer’ For Next Week’s Episode

Going by the preview, Riverdale isn’t just experiencing an atomic bomb threat. The bomb is going off, which explains the whole Cheryl (Madelaine Petsch) screaming in the trailer for next week’s episode. What it doesn’t explain is why Riverdale has suddenly gone black and white. Like maybe if the atomic bomb had triggered the change that would’ve made “sense” but the 50s have been color up until now, so why change things?

Of course, if the atomic bomb is related to the whole Bailey’s comet drama than this might be Riverdale‘s signal that it’s about to go back to the present day, which could be a good thing, because, just like last week’s episode, this week’s really scraped the bottom of the barrel for storylines.

Like what was the point of having Jughead (Cole Sprouse) be responsible for creating Sabrina the Teenage Witch? Is Kiernan Shipka coming back, because otherwise this subplot’s even more pointless?

Then there are the implausible plot developments, like Josie (Ashleigh Murray) choosing to have her film premiere at the Babylonium. No way, after having just explained how much she has riding on this film, does Josie choose Riverdale over Hollywood or New York. It doesn’t make sense, like why not have Josie be in Riverdale for filming? That could’ve worked. The writers could’ve even included the Babylonium by making it a sci-fi movie like The Blob, which came out in the ’50s and included a scene of patrons running out of a movie theater. Then the location would’ve been justified. Plus, you can try to manifest good reviews all you want but that doesn’t mean they’ll happen unless you don’t want reviewers to be honest, and it sounded awfully like that might’ve been the case here, didn’t it?

With only three episodes left, the series should be building up to something great. It’s not and, for a final season, that’s disappointing.

Some other thoughts on “A Different Kind of Cat”:

• If Josie’s song sounded like something Eartha Kitt would sing that’s because it was, except the song was “Moving Uptown,” not “Going Uptown”:

• There were a lot of abusive directors in the ’50s, so maybe that’s why Josie said Veronica (Camila Mendes) would make a good director, because otherwise her treatment of Kevin (Casey Cott) and Clay (Karl Walcott) should’ve been upsetting.
• What was Reggie (Charles Melton) thinking telling Julian (Nicholas Barasch) of all people that he and Archie (KJ Apa) had a threesome with Twyla (Alaina Huffman)? And is the series so afraid of exploring a relationship between Reggie and Archie that it would rather fake threaten to pair Archie up with Mrs. Grundy (Sarah Habel) again?
• Only on Riverdale do you get a montage of Cheryl painting and Fangs (Drew Ray Tanner) singing to Betty (Lili Reinhart) discovering self-love for the first time.

Riverdale airs Wednesdays on The CW.