Riverdale – Chapter Sixty-Five: In Treatment

By: Courtney Groom

In the Cooper house, after Betty (Lili Reinhart) returns from her morning run, her mother Alice (Madchen Amick) is sat waiting impatiently in the kitchen. She starts to question Betty about when she became a liar, holding up a rejection letter from Yale University. Betty is stunned that she didn’t get in, but Alice continues to lecture her on being too occupied with Jughead as she produces birth control pills that she found in Betty’s room.

Things get pretty heated and Betty storms out to go see her school counselor, Mrs. Burble (Gina Torres), about the situation. Just as they sit down and right before they get started, Alice comes in. Betty accuses her mother of stalking her, but Alice assures Betty she didn’t know she’d be here. She came down to talk to Mrs. Burble herself to see if she’d give her any insight on how to talk to Betty.

Betty tells Mrs. Burble that is what’s bothering her – her mother. Alice tells Mrs. Burble that Betty’s problem is that she’s been rejected from college because she’s too busy having sex. Betty tells Alice she was going to say there were months, or years, worth of psychotic parenting to unpack. Mrs. Burble notes that there are a lot of feelings to get to and asks Betty if she would mind if her mother joined them for the session.

Mrs. Burble asks Betty if she hides anything from her mother and Betty tells her yeah. She too asks Alice who says she keeps secrets only when it’s in Betty’s best interest. Betty asks if her joining a cult was in her best interest or when she went uncover with the FBI and working with her long-lost-half-not so dead- brother Charles was in her best interest. Alice tells her she was protecting her. Betty also brings up the fact that Alice gave away Betty’s college fund to The Farm and Alice tells her that was when she was under the influence of Edgar. Betty says she was fine taking care of herself when Alice abandoned her for The Farm, yet she keeps treating her like a child.

Alice asks her if that’s a crime now, a mother wanting to protect her child. Mrs. Burble tells Alice that Betty’s education, relationship and behavior might make her afraid that Betty is growing up. That may be why she gave away Betty’s college money…because if she can control her she can hold on to her childhood just a little bit longer. Alice says she already lost two children and Betty, growing up and leaving for college and moving on means she’s losing her too. Betty says she can’t be her only hope. Polly is an asylum so she needs her. But then Alice yells out it’s because she loves Betty the most.

At Riverdale High Archie (K.J. Apa) is asleep in class as his teacher calls him out and sends him to Mrs. Burbles office. Archie tells her he is struggling to sleep due to staying late at his community center to help keep the town safe. The community center is also why he didn’t apply for any colleges and he feels he is needed here. Mrs. Burbles notices the cuts and bruises on Archie’s hands and knows it’s not from football. So, Archie admits he goes out at night trying to catch thugs. Mrs. Burble wonders why he is trying to be a vigilante because all this is fueled from the anger and upset he has gained from the passing of his father. But Archie says he has no choice since it’s exactly what his father would have done. With that Archie goes back home and tells him mom, Mary (Molly Ringwald), that he is setting up a help line at the community center and that until Riverdale is safe again he is moving out.

Back at Riverdale High Cheryl (Madelaine Petsch) and Toni (Vanessa Morgan) are talking in The Lounge when Cheryl gets called to the principal’s office. Principal Honey (Kerr Smith) tells Cheryl she’s had twenty-six absences this semester and Cheryl protects herself by saying it’s because she’s suffered numerous family deaths, her mother disappeared, raising twin toddlers and she is the sole caregiver for her Nana. Principal Honey says that is the reason he has decided to put a certified adult in charge of the cheerleading squad. He will let Mrs. Burble interview her and make a recommendation. If she deems Cheryl psychologically unfit, it’s over.

Mrs. Burble tells Cheryl the only way she’s going to get what she wants, her Vixens back, is if she talks to her about herself. Mrs. Burble asks Cheryl if she received a videotape. Although Cheryl doesn’t answer we see that Mrs. Burble knows she did. She then asks her how it made her feel. Mrs. Burble wonders if she has ever talked to a professional about everything she’s been through from her mother’s abuse, her brother’s murder, her father’s suicide, her time in conversion therapy, an organ harvesting cult and her near-death experience in Sweetwater River. Cheryl gets defensive and tells Mrs. Burble that Sweetwater was just an accident. Mrs. Burble notes it would be okay to tell her if it wasn’t. Cheryl says she copes with all the trauma in her life by talking to her dead brother Jason (Trevor Stines) and she thinks he answers back.

Cheryl tells Mrs. Burble about the hauntings at Thistlehouse and Mrs. Burble replies that she’s being haunted by grief, by guilt over her family’s misfortune and her brothers’ death. Mrs. Burble asks why Cheryl said “brothers.” Cheryl shares the story of her being one of three babies, but that she absorbed one in the womb and he has resurfaced as a doll that’s moving around her house. Cheryl beings to break down and cry, asking what’s wrong with her and why she’s lost her mind. Mrs. Burble tells Cheryl she thinks someone is trying to make her think that she’s lost her mind. She says they can tell the existence of Julian with a swab of Cheryl’s saliva. There is a test that shows whether a person absorbed a fetes in the womb by analyzing if they have one set of DNA or two. After giving Cheryl the number for a doctor, Mrs. Burble tells her as a counselor that she thinks she’s done A-plus work when it comes to the Vixens. As an administrator, she’s going to recommend to Principal Honey that he bring in a coach to supervise the Vixens while Cheryl focuses on herself for a little while.

During class Veronica (Camila Mendes) gets a call from Dean Kingsley at Harvard and she goes out into the hallway to answer. Dean Kingsley tells Veronica he knows it’s unorthodox, but as Dean of Admissions he wanted to give her a personal heads up that she’s been accepted for Harvard’s Class of 2024. She dances around in the hallway, as seen by all of her classmates, before getting herself together to say thank you. Dean Kingsley tells Veronica to give his regards to her father and thank him for the rum he sent, realizing that Hiram (Mark Consuelos) interfered and guaranteed Veronica a place.

Veronica meets with Mrs. Burble, who congratulates Veronica on getting into Harvard – her dream school. Veronica says it was her dream school, but now it’s her nightmare because her father meddled in her affairs and, apparently, bought her way in. Veronica continues to tell Mrs. Burble that now she’ll never know if she could do it on her own and Hiram did this to prove he can and will always control her.

Veronica says she wants nothing to do with her father, but Mrs. Burble points out that Veronica obediently comes when he calls her so she doesn’t think this is hate. It’s an obsession. Veronica says she has no desire to become her father as she has zero respect for him. Mrs. Burble suggests to Veronica to cut ties with Hiram for good. Veronica should say yes to Harvard, but moving forward she should not engage with her father.

Betty gets home after spending the morning argue with her mom and finds Alice in the kitchen. Alice asks Betty to help set the table for dinner and as Betty puts the place mats down she a check on the table. A check of her college funds made out to her is there from her mom. Betty smiles and turns to Alice and says, “I love you most, too, Mom.”

Cheryl meets Toni at Pop’s and tells her she got her DNA test results. She tells Toni to promise her, no matter what the contents of the envelope, she’s there for her. Cheryl looks at her results and it confirms she is 100% Cheryl Marjorie Blossom. She’s not crazy, haunted or made up of any of Julian’s DNA. So, Cheryl is now going to find out who the person is behind the Julian doll trying to drive her crazy.

Veronica is in her father’s office. Hiram wants to know why he got a call from Dean Kingsley informing him she turned down her Harvard acceptance. Veronica says there’s been no mistake and she took an offer at Yale instead. Veronica tells Hiram it was one of her dreams until he ruined it for her. Veronica tells Hiram that she is done running around and being his daughter. She asserts that from now on she is nothing to him. Hiram tells Veronica she’s never been able to walk away from him. Veronica says he’s right, but her guidance counselor told her that there is one way to end this. She has to kill him, not through murder but through business. Specifically, the rum business.

The episode ends in another flash forward with Veronica, Archie and Betty are at the police station stood in a line-up. FP (Skeet Ulrich) asks Bret and Donna (Sean Depner and Sarah Desjardins), who are also at the station, if they’re sure those are the three suspects they saw that night. Bret says it’s definitely them while Donna admits those are the kids they saw kill Jughead.