'Riverdale' Season 4 Episode 10: There's a dangerous bond brewing between Archie and Uncle Frank
This article contains spoilers for 'Riverdale' Season 4 Episode 10: 'Varsity Blues'
In the midseason finale of Season 4 titled 'Tangerine,' we had too many unanswered questions and in all 'Riverdale' fashion, the midseason premiere titled 'Varsity Blues' left us with some more.
In 'Tangerine', the Andrews family saw a new relative come to 'Riverdale' and we wondered why Uncle Frank (Ryan Robbins), Fred Andrew's (Luke Perry) brother has come to the murder capital?
Uncle Frank is as much of a hunk as he is shady yet we find a bond brewing amid the hostility as Archie Andrews (Kj Apa) is faced with another possible father figure.
After Archie allows Frank to stay with him, he suggests that his father's brother stay back and work at Andrew's construction. Conveniently, Frank does not seem too reluctant to pack-up, leaving Mary Andrews (Molly Ringwald), Archie's mother is in a tough spot.
Having just lost his father, Archie seems to gravitate towards Frank — to the point where he calls his uncle to help bail him out of jail. Yes, it's Archie, of course, he got into a fight, are we really surprised?
Although this was not Archie's fault as he was just protecting his friends, it led to a bonding session at Pope Tate's where Frank and Archie talk about boxing — Frank boxed in the military.
Mary, getting more uncomfortable with the closeness of her son and brother-in-law, shares Frank's troubled past with Archie. Apparently, the "straw that broke the camel's back" was when Frank skipped town after crashing the Andrews car while intoxicated, making it his third strike which could result in jail time.
Fred took the DUI charge for his brother but didn't hear from Frank again. When Archie confronted his uncle about this, we got a sobby story of how Frank didn't want his brother to take the blame for him, but Fred did that because "that's who he was".
You see, we don't trust Uncle Frank, his coming to 'Riverdale' under the cover of paying respects to his late brother seemed too convenient. After all, Fred was shot before and the Andrews family has been in danger multiple times, where was the concerned Frank then?
We are right to remain wary of him, and Archie finds out the hard way when Frank offers Munroe (Eli Goree) painkiller drugs to drown out the pain of his injury during the Championship game of the Bulldogs vs. Stonewall prep.
Frank seems to have slipped a bit of the "good act" when he told Archie ''You respect what a man chooses for himself."
We don't know why Frank is in Riverdale or if Mary revealed the entire story but Archie's trusting nature always has foreshadowed trouble. We see commonalities between Archie and Frank, especially boxing and the possibility of their bond growing deeper seems imminent.
Archie did see the good side slip when he found out about the drugs his uncle had given Munroe, but will he forgive or forget? The last thing 'Riverdale' needs is another drug dealer as it took more than one season to take the other one down.
Or this may take another route with the Andrews family, either way, we're expecting a dead body to pop up soon.
'Riverdale' Season 4 airs on Wednesdays at 8 pm on The CW.
