Riverdale Review: Chapter Eighty-Five: Destroyer (Season 5 Episode 9)

I think I’ve seen this show before, and I didn’t like the ending.

Riverdale Season 5 Episode 9 “Chapter Eighty-Five: Destroyer” goes back to its roots, with old pairs fighting tired battles, stirring up recycled plot lines that have been explored one too many times before.

Okay, that’s not exactly true for all of Riverdale’s characters.  

Kevin Keller is gifted with a shockingly grounded storyline on “Destroyer”; one that revolves itself around internalized homophobia manifesting itself out of past parental trauma.

Riverdale hasn’t gone too deep into the details of Kevin’s mother in the past — or bothered to explore Kevin as a character much at all — so throwing out so much backstory at once could seem out of the blue, except it isn’t.

Kevin’s habit of cruising the woods for anonymous hook-ups traces back to Riverdale Season 2 — it’s just taken the show four seasons to get around to explaining it. 

Perhaps that’s because adult Kevin has real things he stands to lose, something teenage Kevin never had to worry about. Either way, Casey Cott turns in an outstanding performance, rising to the mammoth occasion of portraying such a painfully complex experience. His journey stands to be one of the most emotionally impactful of the season.

Betty and Jughead also continue to be gifted with complex arcs. Jughead avoids facing his own issues with addiction and abuse by focusing on wild alien encounters. Betty is a martyr carrying the pain and justice for her sister’s death (possible death?) completely on her own shoulders.

Those multifarious obstacles are exactly what makes their interactions feel so natural and effortless. Betty is focused on saving women lost on the Lonely Highway because she couldn’t save her sister. Jughead is delving headfirst into aliens under the guise of a new book.

Both are throwing themselves into solving mysteries that seem to lead down the same path. They’re also still dealing with — or better yet, avoiding — their own separate issues. It allows them to simultaneously reclaim individual narratives while also taking time to crossover into one another’s orbit.

It’s a delicate balance that works well, and it’s clear there’s still a fondness and innate trust there. The angst unleashed in the woods between them also cements the fact there’s a ton of unresolved issues, as well.

Angsty exes forced to work alongside each other as they push past the drama of their romantic past is a pretty clever way to bring two old flames together.

The predominately adult content surrounding their personal lives is an elevated bonus that permits old romance to potentially grow into something fresh down the line.

While Betty and Jughead are out running from their trauma by tracking serial killer rapists (aliens?) and saving the lives of Riverdale’s youth, Veronica and Archie…are playing football against Hiram Lodge.

The issue with Veronica and Archie’s storylines is crystal clear — they’re boring. They’re also something Riverdale has regurgitated for the past four seasons. 

Everyone has assumed their usual positions; Veronica stepping on Archie’s toes to fix his problems with money.  Archie sitting back and uttering useless words of optimism that ultimately solve nothing. Hiram across town planning his daughter and her boyfriend’s untimely demise.

At least in Riverdale Season 3, Hiram was a powerful crime boss hellbent on ending Archie’s life as he knows it. Now, he’s simply another small-town football coach, standing opposite sideline to Archie, watching teenagers battle it out on the field.

The stakes could not possibly get any lower. 

To make matters worse, Hiram’s motives become murkier by the episode. Wanting to take over the town of Riverdale in lieu of building up Sodale puts stock in his relentless efforts. Crushing Archie in a game of football is nothing more than incessant petty rivalry. 

Riverdale can’t even bother to keep Reggie as a new, formidable opponent, or even gray antihero. It instead chooses to place him back on team blue and gold without an explanation as to why, just so he can take his rightful place as the guy who stands in the background.

Archie spent seven years in the Army, and has admitted to horrific PTSD. Veronica has experienced a mysterious accident — something only mentioned once never to be brought up again — in which she almost died tragically.

These backstories are the perfect baseline for character development. There is a lot of untapped potential in Archie and Veronica’s past lives that could push them into the land of adulthood, freeing them from living the same nightmare of a storyline over and over again. 

Even Cheryl — queen of forever 17 — exemplifies growth on “Destroyer.”

We do have to sit through yet another unnecessary musical performance, because she can’t quite let it go, but we also get to witness her making earnest attempts to reconcile Fangs and Kevin after the mess she made in “Riverdale Season 5 Episode 9, “Lock And Key.”

She also has a wonderfully touching moment with cousin Betty. The two connect over the loss of a sibling, and she openly shares her experience to aid Betty in navigating her own.

The problem isn’t the characters existing within the high school — it’s how they act while they’re there. If the point is to juxtapose them as teachers against their time as students, it’s imperative to deliver adult material.

Riverdale can’t simply slap a label on these characters and call them adults, just to have them live their teenage experiences over again. The only way a seven-year time jump works is to trust characters in handling more complex narratives. 

Allow them to delve into deeper, more grounded topics that reflect the current world around them, while unloading their trauma of the past seven years lived off-screen. 

That kind of trauma changes people, and you can’t hide in high school forever. 

Random Thoughts:

• Madchen Amick gives a stellar performance of a mother stuck between hope and grieving. 
• Tabitha spoke to another character this week — hooray! 
• Archie lashing out at Cheryl refusing to help him, after he manipulated her by using her dead brother against her, is atrocious. 
• Lerman Logan is an actual character name on this show. That’s real. 
• Jughead pretends not to care about his teaching job, but he cares so much, and it’s endearing and wonderful. 
• Glenn is clearly a serial killer — most likely the Trash Bag Killer himself.

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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