Riverdale Season Three Premiere | Review

Hello and welcome back to The nerd shelf!

Today's post is going to be on the season three premiere of Riverdale. If you've never watched it Riverdale is based on on the characters of Archie Comics. The show follows Archie, Betty, Veronica, and Jugheads lives in the small town of Riverdale and explores the darkness hidden behind its seemingly perfect image. It's a teen mystery drama that will make you laugh, cry and want to figure out who did it. I've recommended this show to so many of my friends and they are now obsessed.

I loved this season premiere. To be honest, I didn't really like how last season ended and because of that, I didn't remember everything. But this premiere made me so hopeful that they have learned from their mistakes and that they will bring us an amazing third season.

SPOILERS AHEAD!!!!

So as I said I did not really like the back half of season two. I think that they made a mistake with having the whole season about the black hood. I think that they should have made the first half about the black hood and then switch to something else. It was too drawn out and there were too many filler episodes. What I loved about the first season is that there were only thirteen episodes so they didn't need filler episodes. That's what's so hard about having twenty-two episode seasons, you have to fill it out. But I hope that they have learned from their mistake and have written this season a little different. This season premiere was amazing though. It threw us right into the drama and that ending... I was just speechless. I didn't know what to think.

Okay, so there are a few smaller storylines that I want to mention before getting into the bigger ones. Cheryl (Madelaine Petsch) and Toni (Vanessa Morgan) has been away together over the summer. Cheryl throws a pool party and during it, Cheryl tells Toni that she is worried about Archie (KJ Apa). I loved this scene because we get to see more of  Cheryl's emotional and human side. She can be such a bitch that it's nice to see her care about someone else, especially since Archie saved her life.
  Josie (Ashleigh Murray) and Sweet Pea (Jordan Connor) has had a summer fling. Sweet Pea wants to continue it but Josie says that she needs to focus on her music and school. I love this but I have to say, it felt really weird at first. They are just not a couple I thought would ever happen.
  Kevin (Casey Cott) makes a sex pact with Moose (Cody Kearsley). They decide that they are going to lose their virginity to each other before Halloween I think. I laughed so hard at this. I just thought it was something so funny to throw in there in all the chaos.

So last season ended with Archie getting arrested. I had completely forgotten this and thank god for the recaps. They have apparently been in the courtroom all summer, Archies mom, Mary (Molly Ringwald), has come back into town and she and Sierra McCoy (Robin Givens) are Archies lawers. Okay, so one question I have is why does Archie wear a bowtie in court? I don't know why but this made me laugh so hard. It just doesn't feel like a bowtie occasion. Am I the only one who thinks this? Anyway, the judge sends the jury home over the weekend and he tells Archie to make the most of this time. It seems a bit bias to me, like he already knows how this is going to turn out.
Archie is having dreams when he's sleeping and daydreams of his friends leaving him. He doesn't want to get left behind and I get it. It must be terrifying to know that you might not be able to graduate with your best friends because you'll go to prison. I don't think he'll be in prison long though. That would be weird.

Archie and Fred (Luke Perry) finish fixing up the car that Fred gave him and Betty (Lili Reinhart) helps. By the way, Fred punching Hiram (Mark Consuelos) made me so happy. Finally, someone did what should have happened long ago. I can't stand Hiram!
The scene where all four of them, Archie, Betty, Veronica (Camila Mendes) and Jughead (Cole Sprouse), are in the car going to the river was great. It made me smile, and then when I realized that Archie is shirtless I just started to laugh. I think there were three or four shirtless scenes for Archie this episode. I love how they're milking that. There's that scene at Cheryl's pool party where Archie talks to Reggie (Charles Melton) about the football team. He basically tells him how to lead them when he's gone. He has just decided that this is his fate. And I think it mostly has to do with the fear. His gut is telling him that he's going to end up in prison but that's why I don't get why he takes the plea deal in the end. Like why do you have to be so stupid Archie?! I don't get why. His reasoning of not wanting everyone to fight like this all over makes no sense to me. He's innocent, so why take a plea deal that says your guilty? I don't get it. Archie has been getting on my nerves, especially last season. He just seems to be so fucking stupid sometimes. His decisions have made no sense. Oh, and another thing, he is now a serpent. It's for protection in prison but I don't get why everyone is a serpent now and I'm not sure I like it. I think the only one who isn't is Veronica.

Let's get into Veronica's story. Hiram has framed Archie and Veronica is fighting back. I love that she is so on his case about it. At first, she tries to beg him to drop this thing. She tries to go to the hotel and convince the jury and gets caught by the chief of police who is working for Hiram. And then at the end when he tells her that he did this to punish her I loved that she just flat out told him that she's not his daughter anymore. You don't get an heir to the Lodge name. She's done. I loved that because I can't even imagine what I would do if my dad would do this to my boyfriend (not that I have one). I would probably cut off all contact as soon as I could and never talk to him again.
  Veronica is working at Pop's. I like this, it feels like a callback to when Hermione (Marisol Nichols) used to work there. Their conversation at the police station was great too. Veronica is on Hermione's case and is trying to make help Archie. Hermione just tells her that Veronica is protected because she is Hiram's blood but he would take her out without thinking if she did anything to cross him. I don't like that she doesn't have any power. I thought that was a thing in season two. But maybe that was just Hiram making Hermione feel like she could do more than she actually could. That is one thing that I feel like the writers need to make more clear.

Let's get into Jughead for a bit. He has some of his serpents spying on the Ghoulies and they find their dog, Hot Dog. The Ghoulies have him and Jughead decides that they are going to go and get him back. Betty decides that she is going to go with them and when Jughead tries to refuse she tells him that she's the serpent queen and she has to go. I don't know if I like this. The whole king and queen thing just make me a little uncomfortable and it also feels like their age is showing at this moment. And then I realize that there is a group of kids in charge of a gang. What the fuck. They all go and Jughead goes to get Hot Dog. Penny (Brit Morgan) comes out with her Ghoulies and they have a stand-off. When one of her Ghoulies comes towards Jughead an arrow comes out of fucking nowhere and strikes him in the shoulder. I forgot that Cheryl can shoot a bow and arrow. She then aims at Penny's head so that Jughead and Hot Dog can get away. I loved this scene because it's so silly. I feel like the show is aware of how silly and weird it is sometimes and I LOVE it!

So Dilton Doiley (Major Curda) goes to Jughead about something. We see him and another boy plays some type of board game earlier in the episode and then he goes to Jugheads trailer to tell him something. He's talking about the game and he thinks that it's real. He says that the Gargoyle king is real, whoever that is. He seems a bit crazy in this scene. Also how old is he supposed to be? I feel like he's supposed to be younger but I can't pinpoint an age for him. Jughead has to leave for Archies trial but he tells Dilton to stay so they can talk when he gets back. But when he comes back Dilton is gone, and he left a map. Jughead follows the map and finds some type of ritual killing. Dilton and that other boy have carvings on their back and they seem to be dead. Now, this is just fucking insane. What the fuck is going on? And this was not even the weirdest thing that happened this episode!

Okay so lastly, Betty. Betty is popping pills. She's taking Adderall and apparently, she's faking prescriptions. She has been working for Sierra and Mary on Archies case and has been trying to spend as little time with her mom and sister. Alice (Mädchen Amick) has gone full-on crazy. Polly (Tiera Skovbye) convinced Alice to go to the farm for help. The farm seems like a cult for sure. Alice even wants Betty to stop taking Adderall and she was the one who forced them on her from the beginning. Polly is sketchy as fuck. Something is weird with her, and we saw that last season as well. She is trying to get Betty in trouble. I don't know why though. Does she want to recruit her whole family to the farm? It seems like it. So at the end of the episode, we see Betty waking up in the middle of the night because she hears noises. She goes downstairs and outside and sees some kind of ritual that Alice and Polly are doing with some other people. They hold the twins over a fire and then drop them, except they don't fall into the fire and die, they float. WHAT THE FUCK. And then Betty has some kind of seizure. I don't know what to think. I thought maybe witchcraft but then I saw an interview with Lili Reinhart where she said that there is not going to be anything supernatural in the show. But this makes me so confused. Was she just hallucinating it all because of the pills? WHY WHERE THEY FLOATING??? I just want to know.

Okay, so those where my thoughts on the season three premiere. I loved this episode and it made me really excited about this show again.

/Johanna