There’s a lot happening in Riverdale at the moment. The town is still playing Griffins and Gargoyles, Veronica is trying to manage her debt to her dad and Gladys, and Jug is dealing with the new Serpents. There’s always a lot going on in this show, but this episode especially had a lot going on.

Spoilers below

Let’s start with Veronica (Camila Mendes). She’s been making a lot of mistakes lately, and that’s left her owing a lot of money to her dad and Gladys (Gina Gershon).  She thought she was finally getting a hold on it, and then things just got worse, again. I also blame Reggie (Charles Melton), he has certainly not helped the situation. But Veronica seems to be getting this under control. I’ve enjoyed watching her navigating her way through owning a business, even if she hasn’t always done the right thing. She might have made the right call when she asked Toni (Vanessa Morgan) for help. I’m definitely down for the Pretty Poisons protecting Veronica and her club. The women on this show are smart and together they can do a lot.

While Veronica was balancing ber business and her debts, Jughead (Cole Sprouse) was trying to manage the mess his mother left him with. He didn’t get off to a great start. The Gargoyles stole from the school and almost killed Fangs (Drew Ray Tanner). But helping Archie (K.J. Apa) gave him a great idea, deputize the Serpents to give them purpose. And once again, Riverdale is mirroring Arrow, and I’m here for it. 

Archie’s storyline this week had more than a few twists and turns. It was so sweet when he found the runaway kid and was helping him. It was sad to think someone branded the poor guy. But this is Riverdale and it’s never what it seems. As soon as we found out he’s known for violent behavior and self-harm, I knew he had branded himself. This Griffins and Gargoyle game is insane, that it has a little kid trying to kill Archie to get to play with the Gargoyles. I guess we shouldn’t be surprised that he is still marked for death. Hiram may or may not have been the one that put the hit out on Archie, but this is bigger than Hiram, or is it? It’s still unclear where Hiram lands in all of this.

Betty (Lili Reinhart) is still in the thick of the farm. It’s even worse now that Kevin (Casey Cott) has joined them too. All she’s trying to do is protect the people she loves, but the Farm plays dirty. She can out them for their “cult activities” and have her mom and her darkest secrets be revealed, or stay quiet. She chose neither, she set her house on fire instead. I’m not sure how I feel about that quite yet.

Last but not least, Choni seems to be having problems. Cheryl (Madelaine Petsch) likes having control but she’s given Toni a gang and she’s lost her leader status. I hate that these two are having issues. I hope Cheryl can find a way to deal with how she feels. We’ve had such a great season of Choni and I don’t want it to end.

My favorite part of this episode was the scene with Betty, Archie, Veronica and Jug, all together. We haven’t had one of these scenes in ages. I hope we get more.

The other nice part was most of the characters, at least the teens, got a lot of screen time. We saw the main four and a lot of the other characters too. There was a good balance with all of the characters’ stories this week. It’s not easy with this many characters, but the writers did a good job.

We didn’t get much of Luke Perry, which was sad. The final shot was remembering him. We know that the writers will have to find a nice way to say goodbye to him in the show, so we want as many Fred and Archie scenes as we can get until then.