Riverdale (5×12) Citizen Lodge Review

For our review of the last episode of Riverdale, click here.

Synopsis: Hiram shares with Reggie his origin story and how he went from a young Jaime Luna to the powerful kingpin of Riverdale. Reggie reflects on his relationship with his father. (IMDb)

It’s Hiram time.

Based on the episode title, this was of course a Hiram Lodge episode but can the bad guy be redeemed? Is he a man who is merely doing bad things for the right reasons? The main focus of the episode was an origin story of sorts or a rags to riches story of how Hiram got to where he is now. His relationship with his father Javier (who is also played by Mark Consuelos with a moustache which was just weird) possesses several parallels to that of Reggie and his father Marty (Matthew Yang King) as he found himself on the verge of taking the same path as Hiram as a means to prove to himself and his father than he could make something out of his life. But with the gift of foresight, Hiram knows better and saw himself in Reggie.

Citizen Lodge started with Hiram and Reggie at work. The latter still worked at his family car’s lot while working for Hiram but his relationship with his father remained strained. Nevertheless, Marty was concerned about his son despite he working off his father’s debt. Reggie wanted to continue working for Hiram which concerned Marty. As far as he was concerned, he chose Hiram. Now together in Hiram’s office, he told Reggie his story of how, as a young man (Michael Consuelos but it sounded like he was lip-syncing while his real life father delivered his dialog which was also weird), he was a shoe shiner with his dad to a delivery driver for a local mobster. His growing status caught the eye of a young Hermione (Camilla Mendes) whom he started dating. Wanting to get out of his father’s shadow, he decided to change his name from Jaime Luna to Hiram Lodge. Meanwhile, his own father showed his disapproval of him working for a mobster despite he wanting to provide his family something he never could.

Nevertheless, Javier made his plea to the local mobster to spare his son but he was assassinated for his trouble. Hermione, however, was on Hiram’s side. From there, Hiram was on a hunt for revenge for his father and went on a killing spree. Unfortunately, the boss was absent therefore Hiram took his place at the top, married Hermione, moved to New York with her and a baby Veronica. The reason he came back to Riverdale which was why he and his family moved there in the first place was palladium. His father never found any but he did and built the prison as a smokescreen while he mined for it. He found some but there is more under the Blossom Maple Grove which was why he wanted it. In the end, he wanted to do what his father never could.

Hiram had asked Reggie earlier to get him an untraceable gun which was to kill the mobster he tracked down. In fact, that was all Hiram needed Reggie for as his services were no longer needed as he pushed him to repair his relationship with his father which was something Hiram wish he had done. That’s what he tried to do as his remorseful father vowed to make it work this last time.

The episode ended with Hiram watching Hemione on TV on her Real Housewives type show talking about him. He then talked to someone on the phone who was helping him. All he wanted was the palladium as a means to get back everything he lost.

Does this episode really mean anything in the grand scheme? Probably not but it was still a solid episode.

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Keith Noakes

The EIC of the coincidentally-named keithlovesmovies.com. A Canadian who prefers to get out of the cold and into the warmth of a movie theatre.