Riverdale: Top 5 Most Important Moments from ‘Chapter Twenty-Three: The Blackboard Jungle’ (Season 2 Episode 10)

On Riverdale Season 2 Episode 10, Betty tracks down her long-lost brother, while Archie finds himself in a sticky situation involving Veronica, her dad, and an FBI agent.

Unfortunately for me, a notorious Archie hater (OK, that’s harsh — Archie disliker?), this hour is extremely Archie-centric, with most of the main action revolving around our redheaded wet blanket hero. He’s approached by a mysterious FBI agent who looks like a Jon Hamm knock-off and who inexplicably wants to work with a teen boy to take down a powerful potential-criminal, Hiram Lodge.

So yeah. That makes lots of sense.

As we jump back into the crazy world of Riverdale, here’s a rundown of the most important moments from the midseason premiere, “Chapter Twenty-Three: The Blackboard Jungle.”

1. Betty and Alice track down Chic Cooper

To put it simply: Betty’s long-lost older brother is a super creep. Guy’s weird.

Interestingly, they forefront Chic’s strangeness, which makes me think it’s possibly all a red herring. Otherwise, why would they make it so clear right off the bat that he’s a rather unsavory fellow?

I’m not exactly sure what Chic’s job in “fantasy fulfillment” entails, but I’m sure we’ll find out more in upcoming weeks. In any event, here are the facts:

• Whatever Chic is doing, it’s dangerous enough that he got viciously beaten — and stabbed?!
• Alice is generally a smart person, so it’s obvious that her maternal instincts/guilt for giving Chic up for adoption have led her to think it’s a good idea to invite a virtual stranger — who, again, was just stabbed — into her home.
• Chic is giving off serious Creepy Derek from One Tree Hill vibes.
• Have we already begun placing bets on whether Chic’s biological dad will end up being FP, not Hal? We’ve already established that FP and Alice were involved romantically as teens. Plus, Betty and Jughead sharing a half-sibling is just the kind of incest-adjacent thing that Riverdale lives for.

2. Archie beats the snot out of Nick St. Clair

This is mostly great because Nick St. Clair is smarmy, overprivileged teen personified, and he 100% had that beatdown coming.

The surrounding aspects of Archie’s visit to Nick are pretty good too. On Archie’s part, his plan is smart. He realizes he can kill two birds with one stone, getting the hush money Cheryl wanted from Nick while also getting confirmation that Nick assaulted Veronica. The latter is what Archie needed to take back to Special Agent Adams, as a potential motive for why Hiram may have arranged Nick’s accident (which we know he did).

And Archie dressing up in Jason’s fancy blazer to sneak into Nick’s fancy private school is so good.

As out of control and awful as Cheryl can sometimes be, I do enjoy seeing the protective friendship between Archie and Cheryl at work.

3. Archie comes clean about his kiss with Betty

This is a fantastic moment, and easily one of my favorites for a reasons.

I’ve been vocal before about my “meh” Varchie feelings, so I didn’t like Veronica’s reaction because of shipper reasons. Instead, I enjoy the fact that the writers took our expectations about the Archie/Betty stolen smooch fallout and subverted all of that.

Typically, on a teen drama, the “big secret” will be drawn out for weeks on end. Part of me anticipated we’d see lots of awkward looks exchanged between Archie and Betty, our redheaded hero fretting about whether to come clean to Ronnie, and a few near misses where he’d try to and then decide against it.

Instead, Archie comes right out and tells Veronica the truth, right down to the fact that Cheryl witnessed the kiss and was blackmailing him over it. Veronica’s reaction is perfect and also realistic, given what we’ve seen of her character and her former mean-girl reformation. Hat’s off to Camila Mendes for pulling the brief scene off beautifully.

You can see it all on her face: Veronica’s shock, her hurt, the betrayal, and her coming to terms with it when she realizes the truth of Archie’s love for her. It’s all very good.

Unfortunately, as we all know, this confession is simply Archie’s way to continue hiding his much bigger secret: that he is actively working with an FBI agent to take Hiram down. When Veronica inevitably finds out about this, we can expect a blowout fight and, most likely, a major (if likely temporary) breakup.

4. Jughead’s Serpent loyalty reaches an all-time (and slightly ridiculous) high

First, let’s all take a second to appreciate how cute Toni is during this entire episode. She serves some serious looks. And yes, I’m including the nerdy Riverdale High uniform apparel too.

Can’t say I blame Cheryl for the inevitable crush she’ll develop on the Southside High transplant. (Hint hint, Riverdale writers.)

Aside from the Toni stuff, parts of the plot following the Serpents integrating into Riverdale High after the closure of Southside High are enjoyable. The visual of Sweet Pea in the silly Riverdale High uniform is absolutely hilarious, as is Jughead’s reaction when he sees his Southside friends in their uncharacteristic new duds.

Overall, though, I find this version of Jughead to be very grating. His over-the-top, blind allegiance to the Serpents is starting to get on my nerves. Worse, it’s becoming boring and predictable.

Yes, I understand that the Serpents have become Jughead’s found family, a group where he feels he finally fits in. For that reason, he’s showing an exaggerated devotion to them and an unnecessarily intense adherence to the Serpents’ rules — rules that even FP scoffs at a bit when he’s basically telling Jughead to get his head out of his butt and chill out a little bit.

I hope that Jughead’s Serpent affiliation becomes interesting again. I much preferred it when he was torn between the Serpents and Betty. Now that Betty is out of the picture (for the time being), it seems as if he’s redirected all of his mental energy into leading the gang. And that’s not particularly engaging, to be frank.

5. Archie tells the FBI agent about his Black Hood doubts

As it turns out, Archie isn’t such an epic dingus after all.

At the very least, he’s considered the fact that the janitor = Black Hood thing doesn’t quite add up — something the viewers realized immediately after the big midseason finale probably-fake reveal.

Whether Agent Adams will actually help Archie in his investigation into the real Black Hood’s identity — as if Arch doesn’t already have enough going on — remains to be seen.

Other Thoughts:

• I am here for the fan theory that Archie is hallucinating Agent Adams. Or that Archie just got tricked by some rando faking an FBI affiliation.
• Cheryl and Toni meet for what I’m pretty sure is the first time. Ships, ahoy!
• The entire thing with Mama Blossom as a modern-day “courtesan” is just so out-of-place. I’m left wondering how, if at all, it’ll tie into the larger plot. In any case, Cheryl is right to describe her home life as a “Dickensian nightmare.”
• This happens, and I’m already here for it:

• I continue to adore Veronica’s reading eyeglasses collection.
• Despite how generally uninteresting I find Polly, I’m admittedly intrigued by this Farm cult she’s gotten herself roped into. Polly really can’t catch a break, can she?
• Is it weird that I find FP absolutely adorable in his little Pop’s uniform? That snazzy bowtie, though!

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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