Riverdale review – Black Hood finally revealed!

By Tribute on May 10, 2018 | 7 Comments

Holy cow (and bulldog, snake, ghoulies and fries)!

This week’s installment of Riverdale, “Judgment Night,” finally reveals (though there remains some uncertainty) the identity of the Black Hood. At the very least, a character confesses to being the Black Hood.

The entirety of the penultimate episode of season two takes place in the aftermath of Fangs’ shooting. Thematically, it’s an interesting departure from the rest of this season. The entire episode takes place during the night of Fangs’ shooting, and follows the townspeople of Riverdale as they each deal with the reckoning of their actions this season.

I’m most disappointed in the direction the writers have taken Cheryl (Madelaine Petsch). In season one, she was the girl everybody loved to hate. By the end of season one, it was clear there is more to her that meets the eye and that the leads — therefore, the audience — were too quick to judge her.

Cheryl hasn’t had an arc this season. Instead, she’s just a chess piece for plot. She’s gone from stalking Josie (Ashleigh Murray), to dating Toni (Vanessa Morgan), and now she’s suddenly a gifted archer with impeccable aim even when her target is a moving person and it’s pitch black out?

If the rules of reality and/or familiarity are bent too far, suspense is lost. There were moments in this week’s episodes where characters should have been killed or incapacitated from their injuries. Seeing these characters dust themselves off made me stop worrying about them. The writers will build suspense by any means necessary, but I don’t believe the “cliffhanger” at the end of the episode will result in a character death. It was just a stunt.

The presumed Black Hood revealing his rationale wasn’t convincing enough. It’s just a need to cleanse the town of “sinners.” It never got deeper than the fact that this person has “darkness” inside them. Wow, how profound!

Next week is the season two finale. It’s been 22 episodes since the season one finale, but it doesn’t feel like our characters have changed much. Archie (KJ Apa) is supposed to be the show’s lead, and yet he doesn’t feel like he has a distinct personality. Imagine having a milkshake with Archie at Pop’s. What would that be like? I for one can’t imagine hanging out with Archie, because he doesn’t have a personality. Season one Archie was into football and music. Season two Archie is all about Mr. Lodge (Mark Consuelos). No thanks Archie, I’m busy.

What a waste. The show never delved into why Archie’s parent’s split up, or introduced us to Jughead’s (Cole Sprouse) mother and sister, or seriously explored Dark Betty (Lili Reinhart). I still think this show needs episodes dedicated to specific characters — even side characters — to make Riverdale and its citizens feel more realistic.

Riverdale has been renewed for season 3. Let me know in the comments what your predictions are for the finale and what your hopes are for season 3. ~Yanis Khamsi

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1. Joe • May 10, 2018 @ 10:42 AM

   Very dark.

2. Steph • May 10, 2018 @ 10:54 AM

   Haha, what a great analysis Joe. LOL. I actually really liked the first two seasons. Dedicating each episode to specific characters would be interesting, but that would make the episodes too long, in my opinion. YEAH! SEASON 3!!

3. Steph • May 10, 2018 @ 10:59 AM

   Haha, great analysis Joe. LOL. Yeah, I don’t think season 3 should do that thing with dedicating a whole episode to each character. It would make the episodes too long. Keep doing what your doing!

4. Sindy • May 10, 2018 @ 3:59 PM

   Agree with review, and its dark. At this point I’m over watching 20+ year olds playing over sexualized high school teenagers. And the plots are too over the top and not relatable.

5. Snepts • May 12, 2018 @ 2:59 PM

   Really captures the essence of the Archie comics.

6. Robin • May 13, 2018 @ 3:58 PM

   This show has gotten to be too much for me. I don’t understand what Jughead did at all, did he think he was dealing with honourable people? He’s way too smart for that. Too much killing and violence in this show. I can’t watch it anymore. I agree with Yanis, it was way better last season when the four friends were together solving problems. Now Veronica’s part of the mob, so is Archie (why is he so into Lodge? Doesn’t make sense), Jughead is only too happy to be part of a gang (when before, he didn’t want to be part of it at all). That leaves Betty as the only likeable character.

7. Snepts • May 13, 2018 @ 6:06 PM

   They really should give Veronica her own show, she’s that good.

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