Riverdale: S6 E8: The Town

After learning that Percival Pickens is behind a blistering article calling Riverdale the worst town in America, Archie comes up with a plan to prove him wrong. Meanwhile, after the Town Council goes after their casino, Veronica and Reggie decide they’re going to do everything on the up-and-up moving forward. This episode was written by Brian E. Paterson and directed by Rob Seidenglanz. Also, this episode was broadcast on April 3rd 2022 by The CW. SPOILERS FOR THE FOLLOWING EPISODE AND SHOW AHEAD…

Let’s Build A… House?

I’ve been watching Riverdale with my friend since it came back from winter break, and the entire time, we sit there laughing at how ludicrously stupid the show is. I genuinely can’t believe how terrible the show is now because it just keeps making ridiculous decisions. I genuinely think this might have been one of the worst episodes in a while, but my thoughts keep changing every time I think about it. I’m genuinely so conflicted that it’s hard to have clear thoughts.

After a blistering article detailing how Riverdale is the worst town in America is released, Archie is on the warpath. Speaking out against the anonymous author, Archie speaks in front of the town at the meeting. The author steps forward, and it’s Percival Pickens, the weird guy claiming to be the ancestor of the guy who founded the town. He has a British accent and big ideas on how to change the town of Riverdale. His first idea is to ship all the homeless people out of Riverdale because they’re allowing crime and poverty to run rampant in Riverdale. It was such a ridiculous notion and an even more ridiculous way to set up Pickens as the villain for the second half of this season. Basically, the rest of the episode becomes one long battle over whether to keep the homeless people in Riverdale. However, Archie has a trick up his sleeve and decides to BUILD THE HOMELESS PEOPLE MINI-HOUSES. I still cannot believe that Archie genuinely pitched the idea of building mini-homes free of labour charges. However, they would still cost TWENTY GRAND? HOW? We saw the finished product at the end of the episode, and they were tiny. Regardless, certain weird things happen throughout the episode. Firstly, Doc, Jughead’s homeless friend, decided to knock Kevin out with a hammer to stop production on the houses. This was a really strange moment because it seemed like Doc was under some kind of trance, which it turns out he was. I predicted very early on that this had something to do with Pickens, and I also guess that he had the power of persuasion, which he used on Doc, and then Kevin and Tom Keller to promote himself to Deputy Sheriff. Honestly, the idea of these superpowers is getting less exciting the more I watch because it really doesn’t make sense. When it was just the people in the explosion, at least it made partial sense why THEY had powers. However, now that Pickens has a suggestible nature, the superpowers storyline no longer has the same effect. Also, Pickens just asked the homeless people to leave, gave them money, and they left. In other words, this ENTIRE storyline meant nothing because Pickens got his way in the end. I’m already over this storyline…

Another storyline that had ABSOLUTELY no progress made was Veronica and Reggie’s casino storyline. The episode starts with them being shot down by the town council, specifically Alice, who can’t seem to separate father from daughter. Therefore, Veronica decides they should partner with the council, and the only way they’re going to do that is if they run their business legitimately. Unfortunately, this doesn’t last long, as a man commits suicide in one of the back rooms. The plot thickens, though, as the man was winning, and he only decids to kill himself after Pickens had a conversation with him at a card table. This was another clue that Pickens had a superpower, so it just made the reveal completely useless. Anyway, they do LITERALLY EVERYTHING by the book, but the council decided that they would only partner with the casino if Veronica took a back seat, which she isn’t prepared to do. Suddenly, all bets are off, and Veronica is more than happy to do things illegally. Essentially, we’re back to the beginning of the storyline, and this entire episode was a complete waste of time!

If you asked me to briefly explain what happened in Cheryl’s storyline, I’m not sure I could quite tell you. It seems like, and I’m going to do my best job here, that Cheryl is trapped in a mental prison, guarded by a mental depiction of her mother, and Abigail is keeping her there so she can inhabit her body. It’s at times like this that I MISS the days of Gryphons and Gargoyles. Anyway, Britta decides to consult with Nana Rose to work out how to get Cheryl back, and Nana Rose is weirdly compliant. Wasn’t Nana Rose the reason they’re in this mess? I know I’m struggling to keep up with the episode, but HOLY SHIT, it’s embarrassing watching this show sometimes. Britta then drugs Abigail, and herself, so that she can enter Cheryl’s dreamscape and communicate with her. I’ll admit, these scenes were INCREDIBLY entertaining, and it’s all thanks to one person: Nathalie Boltt! I commented on Penelope’s disappearance in the previous episode, and, whilst she only appeared in a dream, her appearance in this episode was a breath of fresh air. The storyline might not have made any sense, but at least it was goddamn entertaining. Nathalie Boltt acts her SOCKS off to deliver her performance, and I couldn’t get enough. Watching Cheryl be suppressed by her mother and eventually overcome it was a really interesting depiction of “overcoming your demons”, and I’m glad they involved Penelope because it made this endlessly more fun. I’ve said it once, and I’ll say it again, I don’t care about the Abigail storyline, but at least it delivered some of the best scenes in this episode.

Scattered Thoughts

• Jughead can now read thoughts, which essentially means he hears people’s words in their brains before they speak them, meaning he can essentially have a normal conversation. In other words, Jughead’s hearing damage now makes very little sense because he might as well have had the power to read thoughts anyway.
• Also, Pickens knew that Jughead was digging around in his brain, which makes me think that Pickens is something completely supernatural and unlike anything, our protagonists have faced before.
• Betty returned at the end of the episode and revealed that she was having trouble seeing with lights on. It seems like both Betty and Jughead’s powers have come with a debilitating feature, and Archie’s weakness is the rarest metal on Earth… That seems fair!
• Veronica asks Heraldo to do some research on Pickens, but it turns out there’s no trace of him before he came to Riverdale. I wonder who he really is and whether he has any connection to anything we know about the show so far!

MVP of the Episode

• Honestly, I think I’m going to give the award to Archie because his idea to help the homeless people was noble. Although, I’d like to give an honourable mention to Penelope Blossom for making this episode bearable.

Verdict

I don’t think it’s any coincidence that this is one of my least favourite episodes of the season so far, and it didn’t feature Betty in a big way. Nathalie Boltt was doing everything she could to make me invested in Cheryl’s storyline, but I just don’t care. I want Penelope back permanently, not just a cameo appearance every ten episodes or so. Also, this superpower bullshit is getting out of hand now. Whoever came up with this storyline and genuinely thought that it was a good idea needs to be fired because it’s seriously letting the show down even more.