Riverdale Review: Chapter Six: Faster, Pussycats! Kill! Kill! (Season 1 Episode 6)

Riverdale Season 1 Episode 6, “Chapter Six: Faster, Pussycats! Kill! Kill!,” continues to try to find the right balance between the Jason Blossom murder mystery and the traditional teen drama aspects of the show.

On the last episode, Archie’s problems seemed trivial when put up against Jason’s memorial and the Cooper-Blossom family drama. On this episode, though, it all feels a little more cohesive.

Part of that may be because Archie’s storyline pulls the Pussycats, Veronica and all their parents into the mix. He’s only really focused on his own performance for the variety show, but because he’s Archie, he manages to cause a domino effect that causes plenty of drama for everyone else.

He’s kind of unaware of that drama throughout the episode, though. He’s happy to have Valerie join him for his performance, even though that causes a strain between Josie and Valerie. He’s totally fine with his dad dating Hermione, so he’s surprised when Veronica’s upset about it.

He does, however, offer to help Betty and Jughead when they’re discussing their plans at lunch. It’s something, at least — one brief moment that shows he’s not completely oblivious. He doesn’t really know what they’re up to, but he at least realizes they’re up to something.

The decision to keep Archie unconnected to the murder and much of what his friends are doing does keep the murder mystery from taking over the entire show, but surely as the season draws to a close and questions about Jason’s murder need to be answered, Archie will have to get involved somehow.

For now, though, the variety show plot isn’t a total bore, especially since we get to know Josie a little better. Josie is the main character we’ve spent the least amount of time with, and we get to see what her home life is like and learn why she takes the Pussycats so seriously.

I really do like Josie, especially after this episode, and if there was a spin-off about Josie and the Pussycats, I would absolutely watch it, but — and I voiced a slightly different version of this concern earlier in the season — I still don’t totally see how Josie herself is going to fit into the show on a regular basis.

When she does show up, it’s likely that Valerie will be there, too, so it seems odd to me that Josie is a series regular and not Valerie. Valerie is the one who spends the most time with Archie, and the two share a kiss at the end of the episode, suggesting she’s going to be sticking around for a while. So why is she only recurring while Josie is a main character?

Elsewhere in the variety show plot, Veronica freaks out over the fact that her mom and Fred Andrews are dating. Between Archie and Veronica, you probably wouldn’t expect Archie to be the more mature one, but seeing Veronica’s more vulnerable side is a nice reminder that she is, in fact, just a teenager.

The opening and closing narration for “Chapter Six: Faster, Pussycats! Kill! Kill!” tries to tie the variety show plot to the murder mystery plot with a central theme of fear, but another connection is “the parents on this show are terrible.”

At one point, Jughead tries to reassure Betty, saying, “They’re parents. They’re all crazy.” Similar lines have probably been uttered on almost every single teen drama in existence, but it’s never seemed quite as true as it does on Riverdale.

While Hermione Lodge is forging Veronica’s signature and Miles McCoy is being a jazz snob and walking out on his daughter’s band’s performance, the Cooper parents are yelling at Betty for sneaking off to visit Polly.

Riverdale has done a good job so far of dishing out some answers about the Jason Blossom murder to keep viewers from becoming frustrated while still keeping most of it a mystery.

Of course, the Cooper parents have been lying about what happened to Polly. She’s really pregnant with Jason’s child, and she was sent away to a home for “troubled youths” after her parents discovered she was going to run away with Jason on the Fourth of July.

The answers are just enough to make the story a little clearer, but they throw in a few new twists to complicate it again. There was a car full of evidence supporting Polly’s story, but it’s mysteriously set on fire at the end of the episode, and Polly herself has disappeared, leaving behind blood on a shattered window.

In the middle of the lying-parents-pregnant-sister drama comes another relationship development — a kiss between Betty and Jughead.

Betty and Jughead certainly have chemistry, and there’s definitely support from fans (who have deemed the ‘ship #Bughead), but the kiss kind of comes out of nowhere. They’ve been spending a lot of time together, sure, but personally, I was expecting a little bit more of a build up to a potential romantic relationship between the two of them.

Not that one kiss is a guarantee that a relationship will actually happen.

Betty is distracted by thoughts of her sister and Jason literally the second after the kiss ends, and it doesn’t come up again before the end of the episode. It wasn’t that long ago that Betty was coping with her heartache from Archie’s rejection, so who knows if she’s ever even thought about Jughead like that?

It looks like the next episode will be centered around Jughead, with his Southside Serpent father returning. Maybe bigger issues won’t allow him the time to worry about if Betty reciprocates his apparent feelings for her… or maybe she’ll end up being there for him when he needs her most.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fj3MziVEqts

OTHER THOUGHTS:

• Riverdale‘s fake search engine is called “Sleuthster,” which is hilarious.
• In hindsight, the pregnancy reveal was such a classic teen drama twist that it should have been obvious, but it honestly didn’t cross my mind.
• Josie and the Pussycat’s cover of Donna Summer’s “I Feel Love” was very cool (although I have to wonder if the school would have had some dress code issues with their costumes), and Archie’s song is pretty good. A little generic, maybe, but not bad for a high school student.
• As mentioned, the parents on this show are terrible, but I think what made me angriest was the irritated way Hal says, “Did you find what you were looking for?” You lied and told your daughter that her older sister attempted to commit suicide, and you have the audacity to be angry at her for trying to find out the truth? You should be apologizing to her!

What did you think of “Chapter Six: Faster, Pussycats! Kill! Kill!”? Share with us in the comments below!

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

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