Riverdale‘s fourth season is officially underway, and it looks like the series is going back to school as only it can. This week’s episode saw its teenage cast members going back to school for their senior year, and a pretty heavy helping of drama that followed. Here’s what you need to know about this week’s installment, “Chapter Fifty-Nine: Fast Times at Riverdale High”.
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The Core Four have dinner together at Pop’s every night, so they can be there for Archie following Fred’s death. The town prepares for the school year to begin again. The Core Four celebrate on the night before the first day of school, and muse about how high school will be over before they know it. Veronica and Archie go into her room to hook up, while Betty and Jughead do so on the couch. The next morning, all four of them oversleep and are late for the first day of school. They run into the new principal, Mr. Honey, who is unhappy that they’re late.
Charles tells Betty that he hasn’t heard information from Alice in a while, which causes her to worry. Later, Kevin tries to reconnect with Betty, and apologizes for what happened at The Farm. He offers to take a role at the Blue and Gold, as a way to potentially rekindle their relationship. Betty visits Charles in his office, and finds documents showing that the FBI has Kevin under surveillance. Kevin has supposedly been talking to Fangs, and Charles thinks that could be their way to trap the farm. Betty meets with Kevin at Pop’s and tells him that a witness supposedly wants to testify. Kevin later relays that information to Fangs, who doesn’t trust him. Betty and Charles confront him about the meeting, and he says that Fangs is all he has. Betty later apologizes to Kevin, and reveals the truth about Alice being a mole for The Farm. Charles later gets upset with her for telling Kevin about Alice, but Kevin finds out the location of where The Farm, and that Edgar is armed.
Veronica meets with her attorney, who asks who she’s going to testify for in the trial involving her parents. She refuses to make a comment. She is accosted by reporters while she and Archie are at school, and a peeping tom tries to take a photo of Veronica in the locker room for a local website called “Rumordale”. Mr. Honey later meets with Veronica, and reveals that a report from Rumordale suggests she was responsible for Hiram’s crimes. He suggests that she take a sabbatical from school until the court drama is over. Veronica later meets with Reggie, who denies that he had anything to do with the article. Veronica later visits Hiram in jail, who reveals that he was the one who leaked the story. She is later hounded by reporters again, and ultimately agrees to make a press conference at the speakeasy — after she performs a choreographed routine of “All That Jazz”. During the press conference, she claims that Hiram threatened her to commit the crimes. Later, Veronica and Archie are filling out college applications, and Veronica decides to use her mom’s maiden name — Gomez.
Jughead’s short story submission gets the attention of Mr. Chipping, a teacher at Stonewall Prep. He offers Jughead the chance to study writing at the prep school, but he turns it down. Chipping later visits FP and tells him about the offer, and Jughead eventually agrees to take a tour of Stonewall. He and Betty arrive for the tour, which is held by a student named Bret. Betty quickly finds the school overrated. Jughead sits in on a book club meeting about Moby Dick, and quickly stands out from the rest of the students. During a boring time in English class, Betty convinces Jughead to enroll in Stonewall. He agrees and prepares to go, only to learn from FP that his grandpa went there for a few months as a kid. FP claims that he wanted Jughead to make the decision about Stonewall on his own, and that he’ll have a great year there.
During Spring Break, FP leads a search party to find Jughead in the woods.
Other tidbits from the episode include:
- Archie trains at the boxing gym. He suggests that Mad Dog come with him to school and potentially join the football team, and he eventually agrees. Archie helps Mad Dog talk to the football coach, who agrees to let him join, to Reggie’s surprise. At practice, Reggie gets knocked down by Mad Dog, which leads to him being hit and verbally abused by his father. Reggie later bullies Mad Dog in the locker room. Later, he gets a black eye, which Veronica believes is from his dad. Reggie’s dad confronts him again at practice the next day, and Archie attempts to stand up for Reggie, but it ultimately leads to a fight. Archie and Reggie later talk about it, and Reggie admits that his dad abuses him. Archie asks how he can help, and Reggie decides to break his dad’s car with a baseball bat, which ultimately gets his dad’s attention.
- Cheryl prepares for the first day of school, asking Jason’s bloated corpse for help on her outfit choices. She tries to win the good graces of Mr. Honey but fails when he quickly cancels the school dance that she and Toni were planning. Cheryl decides that they should throw an unofficial party at the mansion. They throw the party, where Cheryl promises that she’ll get Mr. Honey out of the school sooner than later. During the party, Reggie almost unlocks the door headed to Jason’s corpse. FP breaks up the party to follow up on a noise complaint, which was called in by Mr. Honey. The next day, Cheryl leaves a live beehive on Honey’s desk.
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