Riverdale – Chapter Seventy-Five: Lynchian

By starrymag | May 5, 2020

By: Courtney Groom

 

 

Jughead (Cole Sprouse) is showing Charles (Wyatt Nash), Betty (Lili Reinhart) and Alice (Madchen Amick) the newest tape he received from the mysterious Riverdale voyeur of someone in a Betty mask hitting Jughead with a rock. Betty says she’s not interested in getting involved in another new mystery, but Jughead is determined to track down who is behind the tapes. Charles says he could do with an extra set of eyes and ears to go over all the footage, so Jughead agrees to help.

 

Elsewhere in Riverdale the Lodge family are sat having breakfast together when Hiram (Mark Consuelos) sits down to tell Veronica (Camila Mendes) that he has closed a rum deal to serve for a chain of casinos up and down the Eastern seaboard. Veronica says she turned down that exact offer weeks ago to tap into the college crowd market where she is determined to beat her dad at the rum war once and for all.

 

And at Riverdale High Reggie (Charles Melton) confronts Kevin (Casey Cott) and Fangs (Drew Ray Tanner) after hearing rumors that they’re somehow creating a large sum of money and he wants in. Reggie asks if Fangs is dealing again until Kevin explains to him that it’s the “Tickle Business” that’s making them big bucks.

 

Betty’s in her room reading through her diary from when she was in fifth grade. The entries are all about how she fell in love with the boy next door, Archie (K.J. Apa). Alice comes in and teases Betty over her diary then continues to tell her how she can’t believe that she’s going to Yale soon. The mother and daughter have a heart to heart while Betty can’t stop thinking about her recent kiss with Archie.

 

Charles and Jughead are going through more tapes. Charles tells him that both dropoff boxes, the one at the Sheriff’s station and the one they have upstairs, are under surveillance 24/7. Jughead thinks they can identify the person who dropped off the faux snuff film, so he and Charles look through the hours of footage together. Jughead recognizes someone very familiar, but tells Charles he’s going to check the lead out alone.

 

Archie and Betty are in the bunker together, laying down, awkwardly. Betty says Jughead’s working late with Charles and Archie says Veronica’s with Cheryl (Madelaine Petsch). Betty questions why they’re together and Archie says he doesn’t know but it’s nice as they start to hold hands.

 

At school Jughead asks Ethel Muggs (Shannon Purser) if she has a moment to talk in private to talk about the videotapes. Jughead asks if she dropped a couple at the station and she admits that she did, but it was just hours and hours of her house – nothing new. Jughead then tells her there was something new on one of them, footage of someone dressed up as Betty murdering someone dressed up as him with a rock. Ethel doesn’t know anything about that and Jughead tells her she’s the only person who has a direct connection to Betty and him who dropped off a tape. Ethel swears she didn’t. She explains she’s just trying to keep her head down and make it out of Riverdale in one piece.

 

Back at Charle’s office he asks Jughead if he solved the case and Jughead tells him he had a hunch, but it didn’t pan out. He did; however, have another thought that maybe their suspect is not a Voyeur, but maybe they’re a filmmaker. The way the tape was filmed shows they could have hired actors and they knew exactly what they were doing. So, he and Charles agree to check out a theatre, a record store and a video store.

 

Kevin is at Pop’s alone when Terry (Spencer Lord) and his two “bodyguards” turn up. Terry says that he found out Kevin is making more money from the tickle videos due to getting friends involved. He threatens Kevin and asks for forty percent of the overall cut and leaves.

 

Charles and Jughead get to Blue Velvet Video and the clerk, David (Kett Turton), asks if he can help them. Charles flashes his FBI badge and inquires if he can ask some questions. Jughead wants to check all the records to see who has rented what and David is happy to oblige. While looking through the log Charles notices an E. Muggs rented Friday the 13th sixteen times. David says Ethel is one of his regular customers.

 

Charles tells Jughead that he doesn’t trust Ethel. Jughead admits that renting Friday the 13th over ten times is excessive, but it’s not a sign of guilt. Charles mentions Ethel has a predilection for horror films and she dropped off a videotape at the station. Plus, Jughead said himself that she was obsessed with him. That makes her a prime suspect. Jughead tells Charles that it finally seems like Ethel is in a good place and that he doesn’t think she has the bandwidth or even the equipment for that kind of operation.

 

Jughead goes to the school office and asks Miss Bell (Marion Eisman) if the school has an AV Club. Miss Bell tells Jughead there is an AV Club and only members are allowed to use the equipment like videotapes and cameras. He wonders if Ethel is a member and Miss Bell says she’s the president. She admits that Jughead happens to be the second person to ask her that today as the first was an FBI Agent.

 

Jughead goes back to Charles’ office and asks where Ethel is located. Charles says she’s at home with her parents. Jughead tells Charles that Ethel’s not their voyeur and Charles takes out a tape and hands it to Jughead. They searched Ethel’s house and they found it. He tells him to watch and then rethink his innocent belief of her.

 

That night Hiram goes out to beat up Hunter Malloy (Billy Wickman), who threatened Veronica and Cheryl if they didn’t pull their rum away from the college market. Hiram pulls a gun on Malloy as he begs him not to pull the trigger and promises to leave Veronica alone. Hiram puts the gun down and walks back to his car as Malloy follows and beats him down to the ground.

 

Veronica arrives back home and sees blood stains all across the mirror and floor. She then discovers her beaten up dad sat down in a chair. She fixes him back up and tells him that she is always going to be there for him no matter what.

 

The next day Betty is reading another diary entry at the Blue and Gold office when Cheryl comes in to drop off yearbook photos. She tells Betty she’ll be needing two pages. Betty says that it is one page per senior, but Cheryl wants to pay tribute to Jason. Betty agrees, not really caring, and Cheryl asks her cousin what’s wrong. Cheryl grabs Betty’s diary and starts looking through it, admiring how much Betty hated her back in the day all because she snuck a kiss with…Archie. Cheryl asks if she was right when she said Betty and Archie were doing more than just pretending to date when Jughead was dead. Betty denies it, but then admits that she thinks a part of her has been in love with Archie for ten years. Cheryl tells Betty she’s been in love with the idea of Archie, but the real romance she found was her and Jughead.

 

Elsewhere at school Jughead asks Ethel if she has a minute and throws down the videotape that Charles found while searching her house. It’s a sex tape of Jughead and Betty, filmed without their consent at Stonewall Prep. Ethel admits there’s a secret place in the back of the Blue Velvet Video Store called the Scarlet Suite and that they have voyeur tapes, darker stuff like sex tapes. That’s where she found Betty and Jughead’s sex tape. The second she saw what it was, she swears she turned it off. She only kept it because she didn’t want anyone else to get their hands on it. She tells Jughead to go to the Scarlet Suite and he’ll find what he’s looking for.

 

Charles and Jughead, along with other FBI agents, storm into the Blue Velvet Video Store giving a warrant to David to search the store. They get to the Scarlet Suite and look through the hundreds of videos until Jughead gets to one that has a very disturbing cover of Clifford Blossom. David tries to get into the room, but FBI agents are keeping him behind. Jughead asks him where he got that tape and he says he doesn’t know as people come and go all the time. Jughead tells him it’s a video of Clifford Blossom shooting his son Jason Blossom. It’s a real snuff film.

 

At the Bonne Nuit Cheryl confronts Veronica about their rum business. She admits when they first started the business it was fun, but now it’s getting too serious and she wants out, effective immediately. Veronica agrees and they both hug it out.

 

In the bunker Archie gets his guitar out, telling Betty he wants to share something with her. Archie wrote her a song and starts to strum his guitar and sing until Betty stops him. She tells Archie that she loves Jughead and Archie loves Veronica. Maybe all of this has been because everything is changing in the next few weeks and they feel safe with each other, but Betty doesn’t want to hurt or lose Jughead and Archie doesn’t want to hurt or lose Veronica either. So, they both agree that whatever this was it is over.

 

At Blue Velvet David says that the Scarlet Suite’s closed until further notice. Principal Honey (Kerr Smith), who was trying to go down to the Scarlet Suite, wonders what happened. David says the FBI raided him and all of his contraband has been confiscated. Honey’s sorry to hear that, saying it’s probably for the best.

 

As Jughead and Betty are talking at Betty’s house he gets a call from Cheryl. He tells Cheryl he’ll be right there and then tells Betty that Cheryl was sent another tape so she agrees to go with him.

 

At Thistlehouse Cheryl says the tape was sitting on her doormat when they got home. While putting the tape in, Toni (Vanessa Morgan) tells Jughead and Betty they thought it was going to be like the other tapes at first. However, this tape reveals to be a recreation of when Clifford shot Jason, only someone is dressed up like Clifford and someone as Jason. Cheryl wants to know why they’re coming after her, but Jughead tells her it’s not just her as he got one, too. And he fears that this is just the start of it.