Bam Smack Pow
Fansided

Riverdale season 3, episode 20 review: Prom Night

By Catherine Palmer

facebooktwitterreddit

Bughead plots to expose the Gargoyle King at prom. Plus, Archie and Mary clash over his future, and Veronica learns a secret about Hiram on Riverdale.

On tonight’s Riverdale, Betty becomes convinced that Hal is still alive, despite his dismembered hand being recovered at the scene of the transport accident. Meanwhile, after JB reveals the Gargoyle King has a “Gospel” of secrets, Jug discovers a way to lure the mysterious figure to junior prom and reveal their identity once and for all.

Mary comes back to town and expresses mixed feelings about Archie’s passion for boxing, leading Archie to push himself to the limit. Plus, Veronica learns Hiram has been keeping yet another secret, and Cheryl questions her loyalty to The Farm. Here’s a look at what went down on “Prom Night.”

He’s baaaaack

Surely, there are plenty of prom horror stories out there. However, it’s fair to say that my presumed dead, hook-handed, serial killer dad chased me around the school trying to murder me while my classmates partied obliviously in the gym takes the cake.

As always, everyone doubted Betty; and, as always, she was right all along. Her father did indeed manipulate her into getting him transferred to Southside Prison just so that he could fake his own death during transport and become the Black Hood once more. What’s worse… he may have a partner now.

That’s right. The Black Hood seems to be working with the Gargoyle King. Bughead’s plan to lure the King out by getting Betty elected Prom Queen (aka Gryphon Queen) goes haywire when Betty gets a note before the ceremony asking her to come alone to where it all started on Ascension Night in the ’90s: the bathroom.

We see Betty (and young Alice in flashbacks) making her way to the bathroom, but the King isn’t there. Instead, Betty finds the King out in the hallway and demands (at gun point) that they reveal their identity since she did as they asked.

More from TV

Just then, she gets tackled by the Hood, who tries to slash her — repeatedly. Betty fights back with random objects she finds, as she flees from room to room and comes across body after body (all victims of Hal’s latest spree). Eventually, she holes up in Jughead’s old bedroom, aka the closet under the stairs, and is forced to hold the door shut down until Hal gives up. When Jug finally manages to find Betty, Hal is nowhere to be seen.

Fearing for Alice’s safety, Betty goes to The Farm to warn her. Edgar says Betty should stay at The Farm, too, for her own safety, and Betty agrees.

Hey Look Ma, I Made It

Determined to pursue his new dream of going pro, Archie forges Mary’s signature to enter a boxing tournament and, unsurprisingly, complications arise. Archie needs to lose six pounds in just a few days to fight in his weight class, and he needs to fight twice in the same day.

Realizing she may have been hasty in putting the kibosh on boxing, Mary introduces Archie to a Navy recruiter, who offers to consider Archie for a spot in their boxing program. But first, she needs to watch him fight an exhibition match.

Naturally, overexertion and starvation do not prove to be a winning combination. After losing his first match, Archie gets back in the ring for his exhibition with Fangs, against the advice of Veronica (his new manager), and immediately faints.

Archie later admits to Mary that he doesn’t want to join the Navy or go to college; and, though she’s frustrated initially, she eventually says she’ll support Archie in whatever he chooses to do.

Did Varchie get back together?

Well, yes and no. Veronica and Archie continue to reconnect over boxing, and Archie asks Veronica if she wants to go to prom “as friends,” to which she happily says yes. Cheryl, Toni and even Pop Tate assume they’re getting back together, but Ronnie and Arch insist they’re not.

Then, in the moment of truth: prom, they rather surprisingly still don’t get back together. It’s a welcome change of pace for them — not rushing into anything and actually talking instead of just hooking up all the time.

Plus, they have a mission now. Pop Tate tells Veronica that Hiram actually owns Pop’s and La Bonne Nuit. The deed he gave her was fake, so, technically, she’s been working for him the whole time. Using the fact that Hiram doesn’t know that she knows to her advantage, Veronica wants to manipulate him into “digging his own grave,” and Archie readily agrees to help.

Is Cheryl leaving The Farm?

Cheryl’s plan for her and Toni to be crowned Prom Queens hits a snag when Evelyn reveals that competing conflicts with The Farm’s equality code: “may the one become many” and all that jazz. Edgar even intervenes, explaining that being a member of The Farm “requires sacrifice,” so Cheryl getting hung up on something as “trivial” as being Prom Queen doesn’t bode well for her future with the organization. She has to make a choice: Jason or the crown.

Cheryl immediately stops campaigning and stops caring to the point that she even lets Bughead change the theme at the last minute (!) from Fire & Ice to medieval/Renaissance. However, she can’t hide the truth from Toni. She admits during prom that Edgar did not, in fact, teach her humility and that the Farm is losing its appeal. So this begs the question: Is Toni still a loyal Farmie? Was she ever? Has it all been an act to save Cheryl?

Next. Riverdale season 3, episode 19 review. dark

Riverdale Randomness

  • Are we ever going to see Kevin and Fangs’ relationship actually develop?!
  • So yes, the Joneses do technically own the house now. But still, by inviting Betty to move back in with them, Jug was basically inviting her to live in her own house.
  • Are we going to see more of JB now that she’s staying in Riverdale indefinitely?
  • Will Betty be able to take down The Farm from the inside?
  • What do the Gargoyle King and the Black Hood have planned for Riverdale?
Home/TV