Riverdale (5×14) The Night Gallery Review

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

Synopsis: Cheryl enlists the help of Archie, Kevin, Fangs and Reggie after she learns there is palladium underneath her maple groves. Betty and Alice confront a trucker who may have been involved in Polly’s disappearance. (IMDb)

It doesn’t matter how the writers dress a convoluted episode to try and not make it seem like a convoluted episode but Riverdale once again goes back to the tried and true method of hamfisting a bunch of subplots in one episode and not doing a single one any justice. It’s a shame because some of it worked until they were ruined by overly-melodramatic writing and general silliness. Though it may still boast a lot of characters, there is such a thing as balance and picking a lane as it stumbles its way to the end of what has been a long season due to the COVID-19 pandemic, causing a nearly 6 month gap in the middle.

The episode title, The Night Gallery, takes its name from the latest gallery of Cheryl’s paintings she was showing to her art dealer connection Minerva Marble (Adeline Rudolph) for whom she still had feelings for. Each of them had a story including that of Archie who continued to struggle with his PTSD and other demons who now agreed to lead a team to help mine the palladium under the Blossom maple groves before it fell in the hands of Hiram Lodge. Speaking to a therapist about his issues, he was getting comfortable and opening up but being underground in a mine brought back some uneasy feelings. Going against his beliefs and turning to drugs to help with his anxiety, he went a little crazy as some of the other guys soon did. In the end, the mine was leaking carbon monoxide which was causing hallucinations and other issues for which Archie originally blamed the drugs he was prescribed. However, his therapist believed he needed more help and to stay away from others as his issues went far beyond carbon monoxide.

The next story involved Betty’s ongoing crusade of finding Polly. In the last episode, she abducted a suspicious trucker and here, she started to interrogate him but was getting nowhere. Enlisting her mother for help didn’t go anywhere either. Threatening to turn to some more violent methods (based on the killers she captured), she made some headway but based on what she heard, there was certainly more to the story.

The last story involved Jughead who was getting some help. In an alcoholics anonymous group, he basically told them his story from his beginnings as a writer to his struggles today with alcohol and drugs. His main focus was retracing his steps to figure out what happened during the night of his book release party for which he did not remember. It was weird but it was also sad as he felt lonely as no one seemed to miss him as he fell down the rabbit hole of addiction.

Mostly a catchup episode with that last story, this episode essentially went nowhere in the grand scheme. What is the endgame and do the writers even know what it is?

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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.