Riverdale Review: Chapter Five: Heart of Darkness (Season 1 Episode 5)

After spending a few episodes focusing on other matters, Riverdale Season 1 Episode 5, “Chapter Five: Heart of Darkness,” dives back into the mystery of who killed Jason Blossom.

Also, Archie’s crucial football vs. music dilemma returns.

Veronica may be joking, but she speaks the truth when she says to Archie, “You’re back to being boring.” We’re five episodes into Riverdale, and the least interesting character on the Archie Comics-based show continues to be Archie himself.

This is especially true since the mystery of who fired that gunshot on the Fourth of July was solved a few episodes ago. Archie has nothing to do with the Jason Blossom murder anymore, so while almost every other teen is off playing Veronica Mars or uncovering deep-dark family secrets, Archie is by himself, anguishing over how to split his time between music and football.

At least Valerie from Josie and the Pussycats makes the plot a little more interesting, but she’s mostly just there to encourage him to keep writing his music even after a professional songwriter tells Archie his songs are juvenile and his sheet music is sloppy.

Plus, in a case of “our leading white male character is the best at everything,” Archie is actually offered the chance to be varsity football captain — even though the last time we see him practicing, he gets tackled about a dozen times and doesn’t seem to know which plays are which. But he turns the position down so he can focus on his music.

We’re probably supposed to… be happy about this decision? Or maybe we’re supposed to worry about his chances of getting a football scholarship now? We’re probably supposed to have some sort of reaction to his big decision besides, “Oh. Okay.”

If this were a regular teen drama that didn’t have a major murder-mystery element to it, maybe Archie’s story would be a little more compelling. But compared to what all of his friends are going through, Archie’s problems are laughable.

Archie’s dilemma seems incredibly trivial on this episode in particular since a few huge bombshells involving the Coopers and the Blossoms are dropped.

The revelation that Cheryl’s great-grandfather murdered Betty’s great-grandfather is a convenient reason for the Coopers’ hatred of Jason and the entire Blossom family. It’s juicy enough and a good foundation for a good old-fashioned family rivalry. It’s just bad blood going back a few generations, so there’s no real way for the issue to be solved.

The secrets that come out about Polly and Jason, on the other hand, are far more interesting.

There haven’t really been any major “maybe she/he’s the killer” moments so far, but after finding out the teens were engaged, Riverdale is definitely pushing viewers’ suspicion toward the Cooper parents — especially since Mr. Cooper is the one who stole the sheriff’s murder board.

It is only Episode 5, so the Coopers almost most definitely aren’t actually the killers, but at least we’re starting to have some real suspects to put the “who” in “whodunnit.”

While all of these secrets are coming out, two relationships are also strengthened during the episode — Veronica and Cheryl, and Betty and Jughead.

For the past few episodes, Cheryl has bounced between being the mean girl and acting like she’s everyone’s friend. In the last episode alone, she was rude to Veronica’s mom and smugly told Veronica her mom was talking to a Southside Serpent, only to cozy up to Veronica and Kevin at the drive-in the next day.

A different side of Cheryl — Mourning, Vulnerable Cheryl — returns for Episode 5. A deeper introduction to the Blossom parents reveals how awful they really are, which explains why Cheryl acts the way she does sometimes.

Cheryl is extremely entertaining the show’s resident Mean Girl, and Madelaine Petsch is excellent in that capacity, but it is nice to see her have a genuine connection with Veronica. Hopefully, that relationship will evolve in the future.

Meanwhile, the Betty-Jughead murder-solving journalist team continues to be delightful. Despite Jughead’s standoffishness and loner tendencies, he and Betty have an effortless sort of chemistry that makes it easy to believe they’re close enough to go poking around in a dead boy’s bedroom together.

The episode ends with Jughead telling Betty that they need to talk to Polly, setting up what is sure to be another juicy, revealing plot with even more Betty-Jughead adventures.

OTHER THOUGHTS:

• Isn’t Cheryl a sophomore, like everyone else? So Polly, who is Betty’s older sister, was 16 or 17 and engaged to a 15- or 16-year-old boy? I’m probably being a little nitpicky for a teen drama, but that’s a little weird.
• The romantic tension between Fred and Hermione returns, with Fred helping Hermione out when the Serpents threaten her and ultimately offering her the job he previously denied her. I’m looking forward to how definitely not awkward Archie and Veronica are going to be about this.
• Plenty of Riverdale characters have pretty strong aesthetics, from the bright red hair of Archie, Jason and Cheryl to Veronica with her casual high school attire of pearls, heels and handbags. But Grandma Blossom might just take the cake — old-fashioned wheelchair, one cloudy eye, and a single red curl in her white hair. It is a look.

What did you think of “Chapter Five: Heart of Darkness”? Share with us in the comments below!

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Riverdale airs Thursdays at 9/8c on the CW.

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