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Riverdale season 3, episode 17 review: The Master

ByCatherine Palmer|

On tonight’s Riverdale, Betty recruits an ally to infiltrate The Farm and learns the shocking reason Alice joined. Plus, Jughead goes to war against Gladys.

After attending an open house at The Farm, Betty devises a scheme to take down the cult from the inside. Meanwhile, Jughead and the Serpents take on Gladys and the Gargoyles, and FP gets caught in the middle.

Plus, Veronica tries everything to get her dysfunctional family to stay together, and Archie helps out an old friend. Here’s a look at what went down in “The Master.”

So that’s how The Farm hooks people

No, it’s not that Edgar Evernever is Chad Michael Murray…although, as Cheryl notes, the fact that he’s Riverdale’s newest “hot dad” certainly isn’t hurting The Farm’s recruiting efforts.

Sadly, as Betty has long suspected, the truth behind The Farm’s power is quite sinister and cruel, which she finally confirms by convincing Cheryl to go undercover. After Cheryl interviews with Evelyn and Edgar, Betty asks her cousin to find out where they keep the recordings of the interviews.

The op goes sideways when Edgar gets suspicious of Cheryl and takes her to a secret room. To Betty’s horror, the bug she gave Cheryl cuts out. When she checks in with Cheryl the next day at school, Cheryl says she’s done being Betty’s spy, which Betty agrees is for the best, but that she’s not done with The Farm.

Hoping she can still get Cheryl out, Betty breaks into The Farm and recovers not only Alice and Polly’s tapes but also Cheryl’s. However, when she tells Cheryl the good news, Betty finds out what really happened in that room. Cheryl “saw” and “talked” to Jason “in the flesh,” or so she says.

Putting two and two together, Betty asks Alice to meet her and learns that Alice also joined The Farm because she was able to reconnect with a dead loved one: Charles, the secret son she had with FP.

More determined than ever to shut down The Farm, Betty asks Alice to introduce her to Edgar, who reveals he’s well aware of Betty’s theft and has back-up tapes. Nonetheless, he seemingly agrees to answer all of Betty questions about The Farm. But just how honest will he be?

The Southside DEA

If you didn’t like Gladys before, you’re definitely not going to be a fan after this episode. Determined to defend her burgeoning drug empire, Gladys threatens her teenage son and later goes to extremes when he refuses to back down.

Under FP and Tom’s direction, the Serpents have been training as deputies, and it hasn’t been going well. However, tired of waiting on the sidelines, Jug decides it’s time for the Serpents to take matters into their own hands. They start busting street dealers with great success, but end up ruining the sting FP had been running to catch Kurtz.

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Though FP threatens to arrest the Serpents if they go rogue again, they jump right back into the fray when Mad Dog (Archie’s juvie cellmate) reveals the location of the Gargoyles’ HQ. Mad Dog and his fellow inmates were going to be forced into Hiram’s new prison, until Archie and Veronica blackmailed the governor into pardoning them.

Mad Dog reconnects with his grandma and younger brother and learns they’re living in an apartment building that the Gargoyles have taken over. Together with Jughead, Archie and the Serpents, he leads a raid against the gang. Despite going up against armed Gargoyles, the Serpents triumph…for the most part.

Kurtz escapes after throwing himself and Jughead out of a window. Remarkably, neither he nor Jughead seem to be at all injured after falling at least two or three stories onto pavement.

Back at home, Jug condemns Gladys for arming the Gargoyles, noting that he and his fellow Serpents could’ve died. She remains unapologetic, but insists that he leave FP and JB out of the loop. Will Jughead remain silent, though?

As for Mad Dog, he reveals to Archie that he has agreed to be one of Elio’s fighters in exchange for Elio setting up his family in a Northside apartment.

A united front?

Despite the fact that Hiram’s (and to a lesser extent, Hermione’s) constant scheming has ruined her life many times over, Veronica remains devastated that her parents are splitting up and devises a ruse of her own in the hopes of keeping her family together.

After Hermione reveals that she is afraid for her life, Veronica fakes a death threat: leaving fish on Hermione’s bed. As Veronica had hoped, Hermione assumes it’s a message from one of her and Hiram’s enemies. Veronica appeals to Hiram to change his mind about leaving Hermione on account of her safety.

Hiram does change his mind about disinviting Hermione from the grand opening of his prison and publicly proclaims her to be the “love of [his] life.” He also rethinks getting divorced…and gets an annulment instead, much to Veronica’s dismay. Hiram explains that this way Hermione can remain under his protection, but that there’s no chance of them getting back together.

Riverdale Randomness

  • How did Archie go from working at the gym, so he wouldn’t have to pay for a membership…to owning the gym?!
  • Hiram’s comeback that trying to kill Archie is “water under the bridge” is my favorite Hiram quote now.
  • Since Veronica regrets breaking up with Archie, will Varchie be reuniting?
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