Riverdale Review: Chapter Twenty-Four: The Wrestler (Season 2 Episode 11)

Secrets, lies, and scheming abound on Riverdale Season 2 Episode 11, an ironically rather unengaging and unexciting installment of the series.

Each member of our main quartet has their own thing going on — with the most overlap between Archie’s and Veronica’s stories — so let’s take this one by one, shall we?

Archie & Veronica

Like Riverdale Season 2 Episode 10, “Chapter Twenty-Three: The Blackboard Jungle,” this week’s installment is extremely Archie-centric (much to my noted chagrin). This time, our ginger-haired hero is desperately angling to get closer to Hiram Lodge, per Agent Adams’ orders.

Or at least, that’s how it starts off.

While the concept of Riverdale‘s men being in tight little outfits and wrasslin’ is great in theory, in practice it ends up being… a bit of a drag, honestly.

Archie’s FBI alliance continues to stretch the limits of my ability to suspend disbelief.

Agent Adams’ plan is so hackneyed and fundamentally flawed. His latest gambit is to, essentially, use an underage teen as a mole in a potentially quite dangerous criminal enterprise.

Um, what?

My hope is still that Agent Adams isn’t really an FBI agent and that good ol’ Arch is being duped. Because if this is real, I’m going to have a hard time taking this show even remotely seriously ever again.

The meat of the hour focuses on Archie’s efforts to get into Hiram’s good graces by joining the wrestling team, which Hiram was on back in the day. In Veronica’s eyes, this is something Archie is doing simply to bond with her dad and win his respect.

In the beginning, it’s all a ploy.

But by the end, when Archie successfully bests Chuck Clayton (oh hey, Chuck) in a match and stands his ground against Hiram’s intimidation tactics, he does seem to have fallen under the spell of his girlfriend’s dad. He even ignores Agent Adams’ phone call and claims that business, not music, is what he wants to do with his life.

Overdramatic Voiceover Jughead calls this the beginning of Archie’s criminal apprenticeship. Is this what we’re in store for this season? If so, I’ll pass, thanks.

On the flip side, Archie might actually be conning Hiram. We’ll just need to wait and see, I guess.

On top of being duped by Archie, Veronica deals with tension between herself and Josie once the Mayor clues Josie in about the Lodges and their sorta-shady dealings. This leads Josie to pull out of the Pickens Day performance, and Veronica responds by “stealing” the Pussycats.

I have to say, this is not a good look for Veronica. I’m not loving the way her parents’ influence is making her act. And poor Josie looks so utterly crushed when she sees “Veronica and the Pussycats” up on stage.

As an aside, Josie needs to get out from under her mom’s thumb ASAP.

Jughead

Jughead’s storyline continues to be even more of a drag.

On the bright side, we’re treated to Toni calling Jughead out on using her grandfather’s painful history to get back at the Northsiders!

I’m thrilled that someone has finally addressed Jughead’s semi-irrational hatred of and anger towards the Northsiders. Obviously the bigotry among many of them is awful, but Jughead continuously seems as if he’s getting mad just for the sake of being mad.

It’s not interesting. At all. It’s boring and repetitive.

Also, how hilarious is it that something a student wrote in a school newspaper has the ability to rile up an entire town and inspire a protest? Riverdale is such a weird little down.

The almost-protest has potential — and Toni’s impassioned speech is great — until Hiram inexplicably manages to defuse the tension simply by rambling about the town’s diversity and legacy. Because diversity and legacy means that celebrating a man who committed genocide is… A-OK?

I’m 100% sure that whoever decapitated the Pickens statue did it purely to frame the Southsiders — which, of course, will work flawlessly to pit the North and South at one another’s throats.

Betty & Chic

By a narrow margin in a largely meh episode, the Betty and Chic plot is the best of the group.

Tensions mount in the Cooper household, as Alice tries with all her might to make Chic feel welcome and at home. Hal, on the other hand, isn’t having it.

Is it just me, or is Hal’s chilliness towards Chic very suspicious?

I hypothesized last week that FP, not Hal, might be Chic’s biological father. The more I think about it — and the more I consider Chic’s extremely intense, and downright FP-like, gaze — the more I’m sure it’s true. Now I’m thinking that Hal might already know the truth.

Once Hal discovers Chic’s secret webcam boy life, he confronts Alice and cryptically mentions that Chic needs to leave their home and Alice “knows why.” Is it because Chic isn’t Hal’s biological son? Hm.

I’ve enjoyed seeing Lili Reinhart portray Dark Betty in the past. It’s an unexpected and intriguing side to a character normally presented as the picture of pure and innocent bubbly sweetness. Now, it seems as though Betty will have a foray of her own into the webcam world, courtesy of her newly-discovered big bro.

That’s one way for siblings to bond, I guess?

Granted, we’re not exactly sure yet what Chic shows Betty on the laptop, when she asks him to show her how to deal with her darkness. But… it’s definitely web cam stuff, isn’t it?

My money is on Betty’s black bobbed hair wig making an appearance in some webcam videos in the near future. Hopefully, the eventual fallout isn’t too rough on her.

Stray thoughts:

• After Alice and Hal’s blow-up argument over Chic at Pickens Day, Penelope Blossom swoops in like a seductive bat out of hell. What’s her deal? Does she want to initiate an affair with Hal just to stick it to Alice, or is there some other ulterior motive in place?
• Cheryl gains major points for being visibly and vocally horrified about her Blossom ancestor’s heinous acts.
• Is this show ever going to address the fact that the Mayor and Sheriff Keller are sleeping together?
• Or the whole Cheryl-is-obsessed-with-Josie thing? Where did that go?
• Last week, I said that Chic reminded me of Peyton’s creepy brother Derek from One Tree Hill. This week, I’m more struck by how similar he looks to Dave Franco! Seriously, it’s uncanny.

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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