RIVERDALE "REQUIUM FOR A WELTERWEIGHT" REVIEW

Season 3 Episode 13:

Hey everyone, it's been a while, but we are back with a brand new episode of Riverdale, directed by Tawnia McKiernan, and in this episode, we see fur different storylines, all of which vary in quality, but nevertheless, lets recap. Also, spoilers ahead for the episode.

With Jughead's mother, Gladys Jones, is back in Riverdale with Jellybean, wanting to take over, as she makes deals with Veronica to get her destroyed drug money back, while Veronica also tries not to tell her father that she destroyed all of his drugs, however, the word does slip out. Meanwhile, Jughead didn't want to part ways with Toni who has her own gang, but she declines to rejoin the serpents. Glady's tells Jughead to get the Gollies to join the Serpents, however, they have all turned to be Griffins and Gargoyles, however, Glady recruits them as serpents.

Betty is investigating the farm and discovers that there were people who ran away. Alice is about to be baptized, and Betty realizes what is going on and that her mother could die in her baptism. Betty goes to the baptism only to find her mother drowning, as she saves her. Meanwhile, Archie is getting back into boxing, with Keller being his coach. Archie is offered to be in his first fight and is paid $5000, however, he has to lose. Archie agrees and Keller tells him to pull out, but Archie can't without getting death threats. So with the coaching of Keller and the support of Josie, Archie puts up a great fight but loses as intended, and then he goes home getting to first base with Josie.

Overall this episode of Riverdale was okay. One of the best aspects of the episode was the way that they split up the characters in individual stories, where there was little to none crossover, and they more or less managed to hold their own.
One of the other best parts of the episode was, of course, the visual techniques used in the episode. The cinematography was great, there were some great shots which set up appropriate moods, and the lighting was great. Although the episode looked good, a few of the storylines feel on the face.

The storyline I disliked the most was the Jughead storyline. It just came off as cringey in the first half with him interacting with the Pretty Poisons which was devolved into one weird storyline itself. The structure of the storyline itself wasn't what was bad, it was the content. The episode portrayed Toni in this out of character arrogant way, where she didn't see the wrongdoings of blatant theft, instead, the show finds a poor excuse to create an all-female gang. There was no robin hood idea going into it, or even a theme of class or Marxism going into that story, so it all felt off in execution.

Also, the episode plays the theme of power in a really weird way, where characters such as Jughead and Veronica have a sense of power in the city which makes it seem like the show is aging up the characters past a realistic point. To the point where when they mistakes, they are made to look like fumbling dumbasses, because 'with great power should come great responsibility' and therefore it's hard to root for them as protagonists.

The best storyline in the episode was definitely Archie's. It was a simple A to B plot, which did deal with shady things showing the darkness of the town, albeit, in a realistic way where Archie just seemed like a regular kid. I did like the slight Rocky undertones in the plot, with Archie being the underdog in all of this, going up against someone with all that he has, knowing he has to lose. The whole fight was well constructed, and I wish did go on for longer. I also did like how it felt like a completed story which can easily be continued in future episodes.

Betty's plot was okay. I do wish that we saw more. One part I wish we saw more of was her research. That would have been an exciting thing to see, just an overlay of threads for Betty to pull on revealing the dark past of the farm. A desktop filmed scene with Betty would have been great, filled in more time, but more importantly, been more suspenseful, as she finds more people who have escaped the farm.
Side note here: why was the baptism taking place the Sisters of Quiet Mary? was it the same place, or a slightly different set.

The cast of the episode was great, everyone played their part well in whatever varying degree in quality the script was. So starring in the episode we had  KJ Apa (Archie Andrews), Lili Reinhart (Betty Cooper), Camila Mendes (Veronica Lodge), Cole Sprouse (Jughead Jones), Ashleigh Murray (Josie McCoy)Gina Gershon (Gladys Jones), Skeet Ulrich (FP Jones), Martin Cummings (Tom Keller), Mädchen Amick (Alice Cooper)Zoé De Grand Maison (Evelyn Evernever), Jordan Connor (Sweet Pea), Madelaine Petsch (Cheryl Blossom), Vanessa Morgan (Toni Topaz), Marisol Nichols (Hermione Lodge), and Mark Consuelos (Hiram Lodge).


In conclusion, this episode of Riverdale has been like the rest of this season where it has been very messy in a lot of places. The past few episodes have tried to recorrect that, and Archie's boxing plot is evidence of that, because of the realism it has, as well as feature the headline dark tone of the show. I will give this episode of Riverdale a 6.8 out of 10.
What did you think of this episode? Let me know your favorite scenes and characters from the episode down in the comments below. You can click on the left for more Arrow, or on the right for more Flash, as always thanks for reading, take care.
                                                     

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