'Riverdale' Season 4 Episode 17 Review: Sinister tapes, Hedwig retaliation and a show-stealing [spoiler] kiss
Spoilers for 'Riverdale' Season 4 Episode 17 'Chapter Seventy-Four: Wicked Little Town'
We have all been waiting for the return of our favorite murder mystery and this episode had us furiously invested into what's coming up next. With the third round of sinister videotapes making their way into the homes of Riverdale's residents, the teenagers decide to fight Mr Honey's (Kerr Smith) ignorance to keep the little bit of freedom they have left. Two of them, although sweet, may have gone a tad bit too far.
As the variety show was all set to premiere at Riverdale High, there was only one hothead in the way, Mr Honey. We don't know what stick he has up his a** but he refused Kevin Keller's (Casey Cott) initiative to perform a song from 'Hedwig and the Angry Inch'. Claiming that it was not appropriate for high school and intensely sexualized, Mr Honey portrayed the ignorance that most adults face when it comes to understanding the pressure that teenagers face.
After accused of being queerphobic by Cheryl Blossom (Madelaine Petsch), and not budging an inch on the need to perform a song from the Broadway musical, Mr Honey decides that anyone deciding to perform a song from the musical will be barred from senior prom.
Knowing our gang, solidarity runs in their blood. They didn't take Mr Honey making Kevin feel like he "was nothing" as a joke, and so the gang decided on a peaceful protest with "we're people, not numbers" attitude. Mr Honey couldn't take the blunt force trauma on his ego and canceled the variety show, but our gang performed it with all the love and loyalty they could muster at the Le Bonne Nuit.
Now, while we were pushed towards this highly awaited musical episode, it seems that it is the last thing we are going to take away from it.
Granted the episode had beautiful numbers performed by most, the musical episode felt short of excellence compared to its past counterparts. What did strike us though was the romance and kiss between #Barchie. If you remember, in order to take the Stonewall Preps down, Jughead Jones (Cole Sprouse) had to fake his own death, leading a huge ploy to convince the Stonies that he was dead. As part of that ploy, Betty Cooper (Lili Reinhart) and Archie Andrews (KJ Apa) had to pretend to be in love — well, they are not playing pretend anymore.
With Betty gunning for Jughead to graduate, she tries to help him organize his upcoming assignments only to realize that her man can't get his mind off mysteries to solve. With the sinister tapes still a dangerous confusion, Jughead decided to help Charles Smith (Wyatt Nash) figure the whole mess out. Of course, the duo ends up in a big fight. On the #Varchie side of things, Archie tells Veronica Lodge (Camila Mendes) that her father Hiram Lodge (Mark Consuelos) has been working out in the gym. He then reveals that Hiram may not be going to his doctor's appointments as often as he says he is because of an incident that took place during weight lifting. Veronica feels betrayed that Archie didn't come to her sooner and starts a fight.
As Betty comes to Archie's garage to practice songs for their 'The Archies' band performance, they are presented with a scenario without their significant others. A romantic song with a guitar and you have a #Barchie kiss, which was passionate might we add. Betty and Archie may be riddled with guilt but neither come clean to their significant others. Instead, the episode ends with a huge performance on top of Pop Tate's.
Cut to a scene where we see Jughead watch a tape only to find a person wearing Betty's mask murder another person wearing a Jughead mask with a rock. And we are back with the creepy mysteries.
The episode celebrated identity, genders and expressions, much like 'Hedwig and the Angry Inch' and it definitely speaks to an entire generation. We had no idea how far the narrative would go considering the characters are in their senior year, but this, right here, is one thing to keep us going — will #Barchie officially be a thing?
'Riverdale' airs on Wednesdays at 8 pm EST on The CW.