Riverdale Review: Chapter Seventeen: The Town That Dreaded Sundown (Season 2 Episode 4)

The town is descending further and further into chaos on Riverdale Season 2 Episode 4 — and everyone seems powerless to stop it from happening.

“The Town That Dreaded Sundown” might be the silliest — and rhyming-est — episode title of the season so far, but it’s also easily one of the best hours of the show’s second outing. Like most have been recently, it’s divided chiefly into two: the Betty/Jughead section, and the Archie/Veronica section.

The big development out of the Betty/Jughead storyline is that the Black Hood killer has a thing for Betty, in some sense. He writes her a letter explaining his killing spree had been inspired by Betty’s Season 1 speech at the Town Jubilee.

Since we know that Betty’s long-lost brother is coming to Riverdale, the immediate thought is that Chic Cooper will eventually be revealed as the Black Hood. But again, that’s far too obvious, so I’m hoping there’s some kind of twist.

Similarly, with all this talk that the Black Hood must be a Southsider (primarily led by Alice Cooper), I’m 100% convinced that the killer will be a Northsider (or an outsider). Really, anyone but a Southsider and particularly, anyone but a Southside Serpent.

Betty is generally a pretty smart character, but it’s incredibly short-sighted and illogical of her to have hidden the truth about the letter until the very last minute. She allows her worry over what Archie will think of her to override her common sense. Not great, Betty.

Speaking of things that are “not great” for Betty — how about that Jughead/Toni flirting, y’all?

There’s really no other word for it. Despite the fact that Toni is (ostensibly) with Sweet Pea, and Jug is definitively with Betty, the two of them bonding over their mutual love of serial killers is their very peculiar form of flirtation.

And that shoulder touch? That set off all kinds of “DANGER, Will Robinson!” alarm bells for me — and probably should for other Bughead fans.

That crack about Betty’s ponytail is funny, but also betrays the fact that part of Toni is a tad antagonistic towards Jughead’s girlfriend. For reasons that none of them are aware of quite yet, but likely will be soon (that she likes him likes him).

It also doesn’t make a ton of sense for Betty to keep the truth about the letter from Jughead. I get her keeping it from everyone else, but her needlessly lying to him is yet another rift in the ever-widening gap between them.

Toni’s reveal that Jughead eats lunch with the Serpents (and hasn’t told Betty) is yet another part of that widening gap. Although, to her credit, Betty takes that reveal in stride, despite her misgivings about the Serpents.

In the end, despite the interloping of Toni, Betty and Jughead manage to solve the killer’s cypher with the clue about his next killing, once Betty embraces her Nancy Drew nature. Unfortunately, it’s pretty clear that Betty and Jughead interpret the meaning of “where it all began” completely wrong.

While they appear to “save the day” at the town hall meeting, Jughead’s closing narration makes it explicitly obvious that “where it all began” means Sweetwater River — where Jason vanished back at the beginning of Season 1 and where we see Archie and Veronica toss the gun at the episode’s end.

Despite the illogical nature of Betty’s secret-keeping during this episode, I vastly prefer the Betty/Jughead sections to the majority of Archie’s vigilante storyline.

The one bright spot in Archie’s section of the episode is Veronica.

If Betty seems to be temporarily irrational in keeping the killer’s letter to her a secret, Archie is the epitome of irrational in… well, everything he’s been doing recently.

I’m running out of sympathy for Archie and his death wish. I fully understand the concept of PTSD and Archie’s love for his dead, but Archie is acting like a straight-up fool.

It’s somewhat of a relief to find out that Archie’s Red Circle video is purposely meant to lure the Black Hood out of hiding. But then you consider the fact that Archie wants to lure the Black Hood out so the killer will confront him, personally.

Regardless of KJ Apa’s impeccable abs, Archie is still just a teen football player and deeply mediocre musician. The delusion that he is capable of confronting a serial killer and avenging his dad is just that: a delusion.

I also don’t fully buy the idea that Archie is so wracked with guilt over not confronting the killer in the immediate aftermath of the shooting, and that this guilt is driving all of his insane decision-making. It just makes no sense.

Among the many doofus decisions that Archie makes: spray-painting red circles all over the Southside, pulling a gun on Sweet Pea and a few other Serpents, and asking Veronica to retrieve his hidden gun from behind a school toilet.

I’m really not sure what Veronica sees in Archie at this point, and I’m almost on Hiram and Hermione’s (admittedly sketchy and manipulative) side when it comes to the relationship.

That’s not to say there aren’t some great things in the Archie sections of this episode.

Veronica’s attempt to show Archie she supports him by commissioning a line of cute, custom shirts is adorable and very Veronica.

Everything leading up to the Serpents-Bulldogs face-off is silly, but the actual cinematography and choreography of that fight in the rain is awesome and incredibly well-executed. Veronica saving the day by shooting the gun into the air (while wearing yet another super-chic coat!) is possibly one of my favorite moments of the entire series so far.

So, to sum it up: As long as Veronica sticks around to keep Archie somewhat in check, I’ll power through this Vigilante Archie silliness until however long it takes to resolve.

Stray thoughts:

• Jughead’s omniscient narration is becoming more and more distracting. The voiceovers all speak from the perspective of someone looking back on all this from the future, which I guess means Future Jughead is either a writer or a ghost…
• That said, Jug’s little serial killer blurb is probably one of the more interesting narration moments.
• Literally why does Dilton Doiley persist in having any skin in this Red Circle game? I mean, props to the guy for taking a knife to the leg like a champ, but I continue to not understand why he volunteered himself for a part in all this. So confused.
• Why is Cheryl sidelined? I also find it really hard to believe that she agreed to Veronica’s goofy T-shirt idea without putting up any kind of a fight at all.
• The best line by far (perfectly delivered by Casey Cott) is Kevin’s impassioned defense of Betty’s ponytail when Toni jokes about it being too tight: “Betty’s ponytail is iconic, and beyond reproach.” YOU TELL HER, KEVIN!!
• Hermione and Hiram’s conversation during the town hall meeting is really intriguing. As I suspected, Hiram manipulated Archie last week in order to sow seeds of chaos. Their moment on this episode confirms that they are specifically trying to cause chaos and make things worse. But to what end? What are these two trying to do?

What did you think of this episode of Riverdale? Share your thoughts with us in the comments below!

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Riverdale airs Wednesdays at 8/7c on The CW.

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