Riverdale (4×18) Lynchian Review

For our review of last episode, click here.

With the newest wave of videotapes being delivered to the residents of Riverdale, Jughead and the Coopers sit down to watch the video that re-enacts the murder of Jughead Jones. These tapes are no longer peeping Toms, things are getting a lot more serious. Of course, this is described perfectly by Jughead’s definition of the term Lynchian where everything feels like something out of a David Lynch story which is essentially the essence of Riverdale. Here’s what happened in “Lynchian.”

With a new Riverdale mystery emerging, Betty decides to take a step back and focus on what matters. School? Nope. Her relationship with Jughead? Wrong again. No, what matters is reading old diary entries about her life-long crush on Archie and escalating this to a “friendly” snuggle session in the bunker. It doesn’t help that Archie has been pining over their kiss as well making their feelings a lot more complicated.

Archie goes to Fred’s grave for advice while Betty finds an entry about a childhood proposal Archie made to her (which she said to try again at 18). They continue their discreet affair and propose a date at the bunker the next night. Betty opens up about this to Cheryl who tells her that Betty and Jughead are endgame and need to start acting that way. So that night at the bunker while Archie sings a song he wrote about Betty to her, she cuts him off and tells him they cannot continue. This rejection prompts Archie to start an application of the Naval Academy and Betty throws out her childhood diaries.

Meanwhile, unlike his girlfriend, Jughead has decided to dive headfirst into the latest Riverdale mystery. He scours surveillance footage with Charles and discovers a familiar face: Ethel! After an interrogation and a raid of her house, they find Jughead and Betty’s sextape. Ethel reveals she got it from a black market section of the video store called “The Scarlet Suite.” When they raid the store, they find a film of Cliff Blossom killing Jason and decides to shut it all down which upset one of its frequent customers, Principal Honey himself! (Of course he would frequent a place like this). Betty rejoins the investigation just as Cheryl receives the video they just found, showing that whoever is behind the tapes had some connection to the Scarlet Suite.

And finally, Kevin and Fangs continue their tickling video business and bring Reggie in on it, but he takes it to the football team and cheerleaders which is promptly shut down by Principal Honey. Veronica and Cheryl manage to create a college student version of their rum which causes local moonshiners to get angry. This causes Hiram to get involved, get beat up and then get revenge by killing the head moonshiner. Oh Hiram, never change.

What did you think of “Lynchian“? Let me know in the comments below!

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Dylan Phillips