Season 2 of Riverdale started off intensely fast and furious, and it truly hasn’t stopped since. This season has introduced a serial killer, Jughead’s decent into the Serpents, and a lot more dirt on Riverdale and its town of “sinners” that we ever would have realized. It may not be swarming with Vampires and Werewolves like Vampire Diaries, but Riverdale is just another small town full of secrets, history and rich characters.
This season we have watched relationships change, evolve, and become distorted as new secrets have been revealed and loyalties tested. We have seen Jughead embrace his inner-serpent and delve deeper into his Southside roots, while trying to still hold onto Betty, Archie and Veronica. We have seen Cheryl Blossom and more of her deranged craziness as she is now infatuated with Josie–so much so that she has framed innocent people to get Josie isolated. We have seen Veronica and Archie get extremely intimate, both physically and emotionally in truly a way that no two teenagers should. These high school students are, much like their predecessors of 90210, One Tree Hill, Vampire Diaries and the like, living little mini-intense quasi adult lives. Between Veronica Lodge’s parents’ background, and Jughead’s fathers’ background, you already have the makings for gang wars, insider trading, drug dealing and laundry smuggling. All this while Jughead himself initiates into a gang and Veronica becomes part of the family business.
Meanwhile, on the other hand we see Archie and Betty–the two golden children of the series, faced with darker aspects of themselves. They are still best friends. Still dating Veronica and Jughead, and yet this season has shown that even perfect Betty and Archie have deep, dark corners they are not ready to reveal about themselves. We have seen them wrestle with their own inner demons while trying to hold onto their inner morality. In the mid-season finale we finally find out who the serial killer The Black Hood is….or do we? Joseph Conway, is the school janitor who watched his family be murdered years ago, and then accused the wrong man of the crime. The scenario is that he sought resolution for his own sin by punishing the other sinners of the town. Revealing their inappropriate affairs, their sins against the bible and other moral crimes as he saw fit. Crimes where he stood as jury, judge, and executioner. And yet this entire season Archie remembers the fierce green eyes that he saw shot his dad. Eyes that Joseph Conway does not have. So was he truly the Black Hood? Is this nightmare truly over??
No doubt January will bring us much more teenage angst, ridiculously drama-filled situations, and further plot twists and turns. Yet despite how ludicrous these story lines and characters may be, we will still tune in for our weekly dose of youth and intrigue because we just cant help ourselves.
