Riverdale Recap With Spoilers: Pilot/The River's Edge
The episode opens up with a mysterious voice explaining that Riverdale is like most small towns: [...]
The episode opens up with a mysterious voice explaining that Riverdale is like most small towns: seemingly idyllic, but with secrets.
The voice explains that the story really begins with "what the Blossom twins did this summer," and we see Jason and Cheryl Blossom drive out to Sweet Water River for a boat ride, which ended with scoutmaster Dilton Doily finding a soaked and sobbing Cheryl by the river's edge, whispering her brother's name.
A week later, the voice says, Jason's death was ruled an accident and the family buried an empty casket. Cheryl told everyone that Jason had fallen out of the boat trying to recover something she dropped, capsizing it and drowning. The town was still dealing with the tragedy when the next mystery came to town: Veronica and Hermione Lodge, returning to Hermione's hometown because apparently the pair have no access to Hiram Lodge's money.
Hermione tells Smithers, who greets them, that she wants one of Pop Tate's cheeseburgers.
At Betty Cooper's apartment, she's changing while Kevin Keller sits on her bed, trying to encourage her to confess her feelings to Archie Andrews, who Kevin sees through the window and says Archie got hot over the summer.
At Pop's, Betty shares a story with Archie about praise she got from Toni Morrison during her recent internship. Morrison told her that one summer can change everything, and Archie agrees, saying that his life has changed, too: he realized this summer that he wants to make music.
When Betty starts talking to Archie about their friendship, building to talking about their potential relationship, Archie is distracted by Veronica, who arrives to get her mother's order and introduces herself to Archie and Veronica. She introduces herself as new to town from New York, and admits she's nervous about starting at Riverdale tomorrow. Turns out Betty is the one who's guiding Veronica through the school the next day, and Archie invites her to sit with them, but Veronica declines.
At home, Archie tells his dad that he can't work at the construction company this afternoon because he has to go to football tryouts.
In her room, Alice Cooper lectures Betty about keeping focused on school and making sure her life doesn't fall apart like her sister's did. She says she needs Betty to be smart and stay focused...and to remember to take her Adderal.
At school, Reggie Mantle approaches Archie to ask how he got so jacked over the summer, and when Archie tells him it's from working construction, asks whether Archie hooked up with any bored housewives over the summer. Archie walks away.
Betty starts walking Veronica through the school, and Veronica is snarky and dismissive about the school before Kevin Keller comes and gives her the skinny on the town. Veronica asks him to be her gay best friend, but quickly he upsets her by asking about her dad. She asks if everyone in town knows and when there's no answer, she realizes the answer is yes and gets frustrated.
Elsewhere, Josie McCoy and her Pussycats are rehearsing when Archie comes to ask her for some help with his music. While Melody and Valerie both look interested in Archie, Josie tells him in no uncertain terms to get lost.
In another hallway, Veronica asks Betty if she's dating Archie, as she's interested in him. Kevin says they aren't, but that they are "endgame." He tells Veronica that the upcoming dance might be cancelled on account of the tragedy that happened with Jason.
At an assembly, Cheryl Blossom speaks to the school and says that her brother wouldn't want them to mourn him, but to celebrate his too-short life by moving on with theirs. While she's talking, Archie's eyes catch on the music teacher, Geraldine Grundy, and it's revealed that the two had an affair over the summer.
After the assembly, Archie tracks Ms. Grundy down in the hallway and asks her to talk abotu music, but she tells him to make an appointment during office hours.
At Andrews Construction, Archie's father Fred is accosted by Hermione, who wants a job; she reveals that the two used to be close and even dated, before she met Hiram. Fred tells her that he would like to help but since her husband is on trial for fraud and embezzlement, he can't offer her a job doing his finances (the one he's hiring for, and she came for).
At lunch time, Kevin and Bety are listening to one of Archie's songs when Veronica comes to them and says it's great. She admits she expected people to be more interested in her scandal, but Kevin tells her that she ordinarily would, if not for Jason and Cheryl. After Archie excuses himself for his meeting with Grundy, Cheryl comes and invites Veronica to try out for cheerleading. Veronica invites Betty along. After Cheryl leaves, Betty says that she tried out last year but Cheryl tore her down. Veronica offers to help her prepare.
In her office later, Archie is playing his music for Grundy. She's impressed, but still doesn't want to help him with an independent study because she doesn't want to be alone with him and potentially repeat mistakes. He presses, saying that he needs to be able to talk to her about what they heard on July 4 -- a gunshot, early in the morning by the river. She tells him that they heard fireworks, and that even if it was a gunshot they couldn't explain why they were together at 6 a.m. on the riverbank. She tells him that they need to live with not saying anything, and that he should pursue his music without her.
After their cheerleading audition, Cheryl is unimpressed -- especially when Veronica tries to get some attention by kissing Betty, which Cheryl says hasn't been shocking for 20 years. She tries to goad Betty into a confrontation by bringing up Betty's sister, who had a nervous breakdown after her breakup with Jason Blossom. She tells Betty she's not on the squad, but Veronica is. Veronica, meanwhile, tears Cheryl a new one, saying essentially that she used to be as awful as Cheryl is, and eventually she'll be knocked off her pedestal -- maybe now, by Veronica.
On the football field, the coach offers Archie Jason's old jersey and number. He wants Archie, a sophomore, to step up to varsity. When Archie starts to balk, mentioning his dad's company, the coach has no patience for it and tells Archie to sleep on it.
In the girls' locker room, Betty helps Veronica into her cheerleading outfit. The pair wear their uniforms on the walk home, where Veronica explains that she used to be as bad as Cheryl, but after her father's disgrace, she realized how entitled and awful her family was. She decided that moving to Riverdale gave her a fresh start, and she was going to take it.
Betty admits that Polly was really into Jason, and Jason wasn't interested in Polly. During the relationship, Alice turned on Polly, distancing herself from her. "Jason hurt Polly," Betty says, "but it was my mom that broke her."
Archie is walking past when Veronica calls him over and essentially forces Betty to ask him to the dance -- but she invites Archie "to come with both of us," saying that Veronica should have a date, even if it's just a friend. Archie tries to decline but Veronica won't have any of it and talks him into going.
At home, Betty's mother comes into her room and confronts her about being a cheerleader, but Betty is having none of it, saying that she spends so much of her life trying to be perfect for everyone else that she deserves some things for herself. She tells her mom she's going to buy a dress so she can go to the dance with Archie and Veronica, then storms out on a shocked Alice.
At Hermione's apartment, she returns home to the news that her car service "found her missing bag." After Smithers leaves, she opens a bag with Hiram's monogram on it, and it's full of money. She asks what he's done.
Fred comes to Archie, asking him what's going on since the football coach called him and said that Archie had bailed on varsity football to work for his dad. He asks Archie who he was lying to, since he told both men that he couldn't do what they wanted to be with the other. Archie admits that he changed over the summer and no longer wants his dad's company -- that he wants to pursue music. His father ultimately tells him that he doesn't care about football, and he has no interest in forcing Archie to work at the construction company, but that Archie needs to be confident enough in his decisions that he doesn't have to lie to his dad.
At the dance, Betty and Veronica are asking Archie what he's going to decide about football. Archie ultimately excuses himself to talk to Grundy again, telling her that he needs her help, and that if she helps him he promises to never tell anyone about July 4. She breaks, agreeing to set the study up, and abruptly walks away from him.
Elsewhere, Kevin tells Betty that he's been propositioned by Moose.
On stage, Cheryl Blossom introduces the entertainment: Josie and the Pussycats, who are playing a song for Jason.
During the song, Archie tells Betty that he's going to do his independent study in the mornings, football after school, and work with his dad on the weekends. Betty finally comes clean to Archie about her feelings for him, but he is blindsided and doesn't know what to say. When their body language gets obviously awkward, Cheryl tells two of her minions to make sure they and Veronica all come to her afterparty.
At Cheryl's party, she sets up a game of Seven Minutes in Heaven and gets Archie and Veronica into the closet together. After the two talk harmlessly for a while, it eventually escalates to a kiss. Shortly after they kiss, they exit the closet to find that Betty "spiraled and fled," in Cheryl's words.
Archie wants to go with Veronica and try to find Betty, but she tells him that's the last thing Betty wants, and that they messed up. She heads home and spends some time with her mom, who sees something is wrong and asks her about it.
Archie heads to Pop's to look for Betty, btu instead finds Jughead -- who is revealed to be the narratorial voice. He's working on a noir novel about Jason Blossom.
Jughead asks Archie whether being on the varsity team means he's Mr. Popular now, and Archie says no, that he thinks he lost his best friend tonight. Jughead tells him to just talk to Betty -- that it would go a long way, and that it would have gone a long way with Jughead, too.
When he gets home, he finds Betty waiting outside her house. She asks him again if he loves her, and he tells her yes, but that he can't give her the answer she wants. He says that she's too perfect and he'll never be good enough for her. She turns away from him and goes inside.
At the river's edge, Kevin and Moose are about to start skinny dipping together when kevin trips and sees what tripped him up: Jason Blossom's body, with a bullethole in his forehead.
By morning, Jughead explains, everyone would be talking about it. The town will have fundamentally changed. On Monday, he said, the autopsy would take place and on Tuesday, halfway through fifth period, the first arrest would be made.
MORE: Ashleigh Murray Compares Her Archie to Rachael Leigh Cook's / New Riverdale Photo Showcases Famous Love Triangle / Molly Ringwald is Archie's Mom! / First Riverdale Footage Released / Kevin Smith Wants to Direct An Episode of Riverdale / Riverdale Tie-In Coming From Archie Comics / Supergirl's Melissa Benoist Visits Riverdale, Hangs Out With Archie and Jughead / Ashleigh Murray Shows Off Riverdale's Josie and the Pussycats on Twitter / Riverdale Resumes Production, Showrunner Shares Class Photo / Robin Givens Cast As Riverdale's Mayor -- And It's Josie McCoy's Mom / Stranger Things' Shannon Purser Joins CW's Riverdale | Sabrina the Teenage Witch Could Come to Riverdale
Riverdale stars KJ Apa as Archie, Cole Sprouse as Jughead, Lili Reinhart as Betty Cooper, Camilla Mendes as Veronica Lodge, and Luke Perry as Archie's father Fred Andrews, among others. The series' showrunner is Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa, Archie Entertainment's Chief Creative Officer and the writer of Afterlife With Archie, the publisher's wildly popular zombie series.
Riverdale debuted tonight on The CW. You can check out our review of the pilot here.
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