Liam Hoofe reviews the third episode of Riverdale season 2…
With everything from season 1 now seemingly wrapped up, Riverdale shifted its full focus to the main plot threads for season 2 here, with each character’s arc becoming clearer as each episode passes. With one murder and several attempted murders on his hands, the Riverdale murderer, now known as ‘The Black Hood’ is making quite the impact on the sleepy little river town.
While it initially appeared as though The Black Hood was targeting Archie, it became clear this episode that the villain is out to wreak revenge upon the town itself, meaning that absolutely no-one in Riverdale is safe this season. That doesn’t stop Archie raging his one-man war against The Black Hood, though, and this episode he takes things one step further, sending out a rallying cry to all those who want to stop the murderer.
Over the course of the episode, Archie assembles himself a little team called ‘The Red Circle’, and in the episode’s closing moments we see Archie and his group send out a message to the Black Hood. Now, while Riverdale has never shied away from the ridiculous, this felt like a little too much. Seeing Archie surrounding by shirtless hunks with red hoods over their faces was too silly to stomach and it’s difficult to imagine there was anyone who took that moment seriously. Sure, the whole thing was a nice nod to the comic books, but it could have been saved for later in the show and it now means that Archie’s sole character arc for this season is revenge. He’s basically a knock-off Batman, and his topless cronies are going to do very to help his credibility in the long run.
The Black Hood is not the only evil Archie has to deal with this year, though, as his relationship with Hiram Lodge took an interesting few turns this week. Hiram is quickly becoming one of the show’s best characters, and actor Mark Consuelos is doing an excellent job of portraying Hiram’s chameleon-like ability to switch between charming and menacing. Hopefully, he and Archie continue to butt heads through the season. His relationship with Veronica is also one of the show’s best elements, while Hermione is becoming increasingly difficult to read as the episodes pile up.
There’s also trouble brewing on the Southside of town, as Jughead was attacked at his school in this week’s episode. This is only the second time we have seen Jughead at side High since he moved their last season and it was a nice way to further establish his growing ties with the Serpents. Having Jughead restart the school paper was a nice touch as well, and it was that decision that led to his attack by the ominously named ‘Ghoulies Gang’. Could Jughead also have another potential love interest? This would be a nice way of keeping Betty involved and also switch a lot of character expectations for Jughead that were built-in the first season.
The episode’s other main story focused on Kevin Keller and his late-night antics. Exploring Keller’s sexuality, and the attitudes towards in such a small town is a nice piece of character work and it really helped develop a character who was often just a sidekick last season. Hopefully, we get to see more of Kevin from here on out and his late-night shenanigans are almost definitely going to lead to an encounter with The Black Hood in the coming weeks. It was also great to see Cheryl getting involved. She is, in my opinion, the show’s most enjoyable character and I really hope she gets a good storyline to deal with this season.
‘Watcher in the Woods’ was a solid episode of Riverdale, one that furthered established the menace of the season’s central villain and also reintroduced several supporting characters back into the mix. Archie’s storyline is getting kind of silly, but I have faith that they can do a decent job with it.
What did you think of ‘Watcher in the Woods’? Let us know in the comments, and let Liam know on Twitter @liamhoofe
