Riverdale Review: The Great Escape (Season 3 Episode 5)
On Riverdale Season 3 Episode 5, “The Great Escape,” with Archie’s life in danger, Veronica and his friends devise a plan to free him from Leopold and Loeb. Jughead continues his mission to best the Gargoyle King.
Archie languishing in juvie, forced to participate in a Gladiator-esque existence has been the least engaging plot hoisted upon viewers of Riverdale this season.
It isn’t as snooze-worthy as Riverdale Season 2’s incredibly disappointing SoDale storyline (basically a several-episode arc about real estate), but it’s mainly felt like an excuse to showcase Archie’s abs.
“The Great Escape” finally rewards viewers for their patience by integrating Archie’s stint in Leopold and Loeb with the insidious role-playing game consuming the teen population of Riverdale. Warden Norton isn’t just Hiram Lodge’s lackey, he answers to the omnipotent Gargoyle King as well (or did until he swallowed some cyanide).
The implications of this revelation are far-reaching because now fans know the Gargoyle King’s targets extend beyond the pimply pubescent crowd. Archie is once again thrust into the center of a dark mystery since Warden Norton reveals Archie has “powerful enemies.”
The assumption being Hiram Lodge, but we can now assume the bigger threat is the person or thing serving as the ultimate Game Master.
Archie is the “Red Paladin,” a brave knight and an obvious threat to the Gargoyle King. As Jughead says, “The realm of Eldervair is in disorder, affected by evil, as its heart and soul, the Red Paladin has been captured by the Mad Emperor and twisted into a beast of war.”
Hiram is looking more and more like the member of the Midnight Club who killed Principal Featherhead, and the one with the most to gain if Archie goes down, along with Hiram’s other threats in Riverdale — the teenagers who have managed to thwart him at every turn. It’s the Red Paladin who’s fated to bring peace to the realm.
“The Great Escape,” effectively intertwines fantasy and action, and the result is an entertaining crime caper. Everybody has a role to play, and even when their plan appears poised to go off the rails (Mad Dog is alive! Veronica faces down Hiram — aka “the Dark Dragon”), they rally.
Our heroes are quick on their feet or just one step ahead. The end result is a pulse-pounding, edge of your seat episode that borrows a little something from a pop culture pantheon that includes a Steve McQueen classic and the sexy Ocean’s 11.
Like any great soap opera, Riverdale revels in its ridiculousness — abandon any semblance of reality all ye who enter here. Describing the second coming of Opie Taylor as “extremely dangerous” is hard to absorb without chuckling.
Riverdale Season 3 Episode 5 swiftly moves multiple storylines forward while introducing some promising new ones (Josie, Kevin, and Reggie are about to go rogue!).
Other Thoughts:
- FP insinuates Alice may have not told Betty the entire story, so we have to wonder what else she could be hiding.
- Hermione’s prediction that Archie will be the downfall of the Lodge family feels spot on.
What did you think of this episode of Riverdale? Share your thoughts in the comments below!
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Riverdale airs Wednesdays at 8/7c on The CW.
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Jennifer Lind-Westbrook
Jennifer has been working as a freelance writer for six years, contributing to BuddyTV, Screen Rant, TVRage, Hidden Remote, Gossip On This, and PopMatters. She prefers binge-watching old episodes of The Office (British and American versions) to long walks on the beach. She's still holding out hope that Happy Endings will get a revival.