Riverdale Review: Chapter Ten: The Lost Weekend (Season 1 Episode 10)

Riverdale Season 1 Episode 10, “Chapter Ten: The Lost Weekend,” tackles a classic teen drama trope — the high school house party, featuring underage drinking and a fist fight.

A typical high school house party might have a game of Truth or Dare or Spin The Bottle or even beer pong, but Cheryl and Chuck decide to start a game they call “Secrets and Sins.” It’s not really an actual game. It’s more of a way for the writers to get every important character up to speed regarding the various secrets on the show.

• Cheryl says Veronica’s dad purchased the drive-in land, which is news to Jughead.
• Veronica accuses Cheryl of both twincest and killing her brother because she was jealous of Polly, which isn’t really a secret or even true, but at least someone actually pointed out the Cheryl/Jason creep factor, and Veronica never even met Jason.
• Dilton Doiley brings up Archie and Miss Grundy’s affair, so now a large portion of the student body knows about that.
• Chuck tells everyone what happened in the jacuzzi with Betty and Veronica back on Episode 3.

(Hilariously, F.P. is just observing this whole game, and no one seems to care that a grown-ass man is quietly watching these kids air each other’s dirty laundry.)

Those first three secrets don’t actually change much of anything, but that last one provokes Jughead to punch Chuck and helps bring Jughead and Betty closer together.

Throughout the episode, Betty is struggling with “Dark Betty,” as Chuck puts it, and whether or not she should share that side of her with Jughead. Meanwhile, Jughead, who didn’t want a party in the first place, feels even more out of place when his classmates show up with kegs, and he uses his “weirdo” loner status and the party as a reason to push Betty away.

It’s a great episode for Betty and Jughead as a couple, especially since so much of their time spent together is about Polly or their investigation into Jason’s murder. For once, it’s just about them.

Betty wasn’t even willing to discuss her “Dark Betty” moment with Veronica the day after it happened, but she opens up to Jughead, even showing him the marks from where she dug her nails into her palms (again), and that seems to have quelled his worries that she’s too perfect for him.

The Betty-Jughead storyline is the highlight of the episode, as Veronica and Archie deal with more parental drama.

Veronica’s subplot involves plenty of talk about her father’s shady dealings and his connection to the Blossoms. This storyline isn’t quite as boring as the construction project stuff, but it’s definitely in second place when it comes to Boring Riverdale Plots.

Thankfully, it all leads somewhere that’s actually interesting — Veronica wants to help Betty with her investigation into Jason’s murder.

I just mentioned in my review of Episode 9 that it feels like it’s been ages since Betty and Veronica had a real heart-to-heart, and I’ve been getting frustrated with every Veronica storyline focusing on her father.

Her desire to help with the investigation is because of father-related reasons, sure, but at least she’ll be spending more time with Betty and less time having serious discussions with her mother over legal documents.

While Betty and Veronica are dealing with problems like “the guy I kind of tortured is back at school” and “I just found out my dad has a motive for Jason Blossom’s murder,” Archie is dealing with more typical high school problems, like “my parents are finalizing their divorce” and “my girlfriend dumped me.”

You do feel for him — at least about the divorce, not so much the break-up with Val (she is very justified in calling him a hot mess) — and it gives him a reason to get drunk and allow tons of people to trash his house, but yet again, Archie’s problems seem out of place when everyone else is dealing with more serious issues.

So far this season, Archie has been dull and wrapped up in his own problems, but on the past few episodes, he’s at least been a good friend to Jughead and Betty. On this episode, though, he does a 180-degree turn from trying to stop Betty’s surprise party to fully supporting it — even though he knows Jughead doesn’t want it — just because he’s wallowing in his own self-pity.

Of course, he’s only a teenager, and he should be allowed to be upset about his parents’ divorce and his break-up with Val, but when Betty, Veronica, and Jughead are dealing with their more serious problems with way more maturity, it’s hard to cut Archie some slack.

It seems like Archie’s main problems will continue to be romance and family drama, since he makes out with Veronica again after the party, and his mother (iconic redhead Molly Ringwald) returns home.

OTHER THOUGHTS:

• Cheryl calls her friends “stuttering sapheads,” which is the best (and only) maple-syrup-related insult I’ve ever heard.
• Veronica wakes up in Archie’s bed, but she’s still wearing her party outfit, and Archie (who is shirtless, but still wearing pants and a belt) is sleeping on the floor, so I don’t think we’re supposed to assume they slept together.
• F.P. insinuates that Alice Cooper was a Southside Serpent in her youth, and I want a spin-off prequel about that immediately, or at least a flashback episode in Season 2.
• Alice is surprisingly chill with Betty about the party. Loving to hate Alice was fun, but just plain liking Alice is enjoyable, too. Especially since she still does ridiculous stuff like look out Betty’s window with binoculars to spy on F.P. and Joaquin in Archie’s room.

What did you think of “Chapter Ten: The Lost Weekend”? Share with us in the comments below!

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

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