Riverdale Review: Chapter Twenty-One: House of the Devil (Season 2 Episode 8)

Everything falls apart on Riverdale Season 2 Episode 8 — in particular, the show’s core relationships. As a bonus (of sorts?), the episode also features one of the most truly cringeworthy moments I’ve ever seen on TV.

Since “Chapter Twenty-One: House of the Devil” is all about the show’s relationships, that’s how I’ll tackle my review for this episode: relationship by relationship, both romantic and otherwise.

Josie & Cheryl

First up is the currently very awkward friendship between Riverdale‘s head Pussycat and her redheaded BFF.

While the hour doesn’t spend much time with these two, their brief scenes just serve to reinforce what we learned last week, on Riverdale Season 2 Episode 7: that Cheryl is harboring an unhealthy obsession with Josie.

This time around, Cheryl steps up her bizarro “courtship” by offering Josie a ~sensual lavender oil massage~ in the girls’ locker room and criticizing her music career choices.

Poor Cheryl. She’s really screwy in the head right now, and all of her “flirting” techniques are just awful. Josie is very clearly uncomfortable with Cheryl’s attention.

While I’m never going to be mad about the show introducing more queer characters, I’m really hoping they don’t keep going down this terrible “crazy bi chick” road. It’s such a stale stereotype (Basic Instinct, anyone?), and it really needs to be laid to rest.

Give the people what they want — give them Cheryl and Toni!

Archie & Veronica

To be completely honest, I find #Varchie very boring and un-engaging. I haven’t been terribly interested in anything with these two since their scandalous closet hook-up at Cheryl’s party way back in the early part of Riverdale Season 1, when they had to resist “betraying” Betty. That was dramatic and tense and interesting.

The main draw with these two seems to be sex appeal. Which is fine! But, for me — and I imagine for at least some other viewers — a ship needs more than that to sail.

I’m not feeling the deep emotional connection that apparently exists between Archie and Veronica. And supposedly it’s there, given that Archie makes things super awkward with his spontaneous “I love you” confession.

Don’t get me wrong. KJ Apa and Camila Mendes have oodles of chemistry. The sexy montage at the beginning is lots of fun, if not a little bit awkward.

(Like: why does narrator Jughead know so much about the intimate details of Varchie’s relationship, for one? How is “carnal defiance” — aka, horny teens having sex everywhere and anywhere — the “opposite of death”? Literally what even is narrator Jughead saying?)

I just don’t particularly care that their relationship falls to pieces by the hour’s end. It’s a little sad, but I’m not exactly weeping over it. If the show wants me to care about Varchie going forward, they’ll need to deepen it and up the stakes.

Jughead & Betty

On the flip side, I’m much more invested in Bughead, largely because the build-up has been less centered around the purely physical. After everything that happened between them in the first season, I truly do believe that Jughead adores Betty (and vice versa). Which makes his choice to push her away, for her own safety, all the more painful.

While it’s a little annoying that this is happening so soon after Betty did the exact same thing (pushing away Jug to protect him from the Black Hood), their breakup makes a lot more sense than Varchie’s.

Jughead has gotten himself into a hell of a pickle with Penny Peabody and the Serpents. Betty’s deeply cringeworthy Serpent Dance/striptease just puts everything into perspective — she’s insistent on being a part of his world, and as long as he’s a Serpent, she’s in active danger.

Penny actively threatening Betty’s life is just the straw that breaks the camel’s back.

Of course, I also need to address Betty’s striptease, a central component of this episode.

It’s so deeply uncomfortable. I actually had trouble watching it all the way through. Also, why does everyone on this show need to sing? It’s totally fine if a few people don’t break out into song. And “Mad World” (“that Donnie Darko song,” according to Archie) is such an intensely bizarre and off-putting choice for a striptease.

Plus, it happens in front of a room full of gang members. And Betty’s mom. And Jughead’s dad. Who claps for her when she’s done and thanks her for the performance. Literally everything about Betty’s striptease is so uncomfortable. The memory of it is burned into my brain. Gah.

FP & Jughead

Perhaps the most heartbreaking “break up” of the episode is the falling out between FP and Jughead.

FP starts out the hour on such a high. Recently released from prison, he’s intent on turning over a new leaf. Of course, this being Riverdale, it’s not such a huge surprise when things fall apart for him almost instantly.

FP in a Pop’s uniform is very adorable, but it’s not to last. By the end, he’s back in with the Serpents and drinking again — but not because he couldn’t resist the temptation.

Though he claims he won’t allow “the pigs” to keep him from his “Serpent family,” in reality, his rejoining the gang is a ruse. FP is a Serpent once again to get Penny off of Jughead’s back and onto his. It’s actually really sad. And of course, it contributes to Jughead’s guilt and resulting decision to break up with Betty.

Hopefully, Penny is taken care of by the end of the season. I imagine that she’ll wind up collateral damage when the Black Hood strikes again. She’s a manipulative drug dealer, so that’s pretty solidly in the sinner category.

I can’t say I’ll be sad to see her go.

FP & Alice

One of the brightest spots is the chemistry between FP and Alice. Holy moly, I’m loving this potential pairing. Dare I say these two are now my favorite ship on the show? I dare say I do.

When they first shared the screen as adversaries during the first season, there was a hint of a spark there that caught my eye. I didn’t at all expect the writers to follow through and build on it, but thank god they recognized the magnetism between Skeet Ulrich and Mädchen Amick!

“Chapter Twenty-One: House of the Devil” all but explicitly says that there was a romantic history between FP and Alice, back when Alice was a Serpent in her younger days.

That scene in Pop’s, when FP convinces Alice to come to his “retirement party” and passionately tells her to “leave Hal… at home”? Oooh, boy. *fans self*

I’m really looking forward to seeing this develop. The Hermione/Fred “parents romance” of Season 1 has got nothing on this.

Betty & Archie

Perhaps the biggest shock of the hour is the fact that #Barchie may finally, at long last, be rising.

While it’s completely possible — and, let’s be honest, likely — that this is just the writers faking us all out, the final scene sets up the idea that Betty and Archie might rebound with one another after their respective breakups.

This is a show on The CW, so it’s pretty much expected that every possible romantic entanglement will be explored. But the ease and quickness with which Archie turns his attentions back to Betty really makes me roll my eyes at his apparent love for Veronica.

I can see Betty rebounding and seeking solace with Archie because she’s hurt by Jughead pushing her out of his life. But Archie is basically reacting to the fact that Veronica won’t say she loves him yet — so he’s seeking out and exploiting the one person whose love he’s always had “in the bag,” so to speak.

The idea of this happening makes me not like Archie very much, but that’s not exactly new for me. At the very least, a scandalous, secretive Barchie hook-up would inject some much-needed new tension and drama back into the core four. But will the writers actually go there?

Given the legions of diehard Varchie and Bughead fans, it’s a risky move — but one that could pay off enormously if handled well.

Stray thoughts:

• Veronica realizing her parents don’t truly love one another — and that their lack of “I love you’s” has contributed to her inability to open herself up to Archie — is a painful moment.
• No one even mentions Kevin or where he is! C’mon, show.
• Near the end, Janitor Svenson (aka, Joseph Conway) is looking at a photo of a group of men. Who are those men? Are they the ones who vigilante-killed his family’s murderers? Guessing so, and also guessing that at least one person we’ve already met will be counted among that group. Maybe Pop?
• Cheryl is clearly not over FP’s tangential involvement in Jason’s murder, as evidenced by her milkshake spilling moment.
• The Black Hood/Riverdale Reaper connection is getting a bit convoluted, and I’m losing interest in the overall mystery — which is pretty much exactly what happened in Season 1, where I virtually stopped caring about who killed Jason Blossom. Hopefully, something interesting happens to reposition the Black Hood story as a central, intriguing plot.

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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