Riverdale: Chapter Fourteen: A Kiss Before Dying

Riverdale: Chapter Fourteen: A Kiss Before Dying
The CW
October 11, 2017
Soap Opera
DVD
B-

This second-season opener, written by creator Aguirre-Sacasa, has a timeline issue and it is bloody, but I'm still going with the series default of B- since there is some good acting here, and some interesting twists.  Not only does Ms. Grundy show up in a nearby town, only to be killed, but Archie gets blood everywhere as he has to drive his father to the hospital.  When he's told that he can't see his father for an hour or two after surgery, he goes home with Veronica, walks his dog, takes a shower with Veronica, perhaps has sex (they consummated on the previous episode, while Bughead was interrupted during a makeout), changes his clothes, argues with Veronica, cries on her shoulder, a little time passes, and he returns to the hospital.  Now, he presumably drove his dad's truck to and from home (we learn at the beginning of the episode that he doesn't have a license), but even so, that's a lot to happen in at most 120 minutes.

Meanwhile, Jughead and Betty have a new case to solve, as they simultaneously work out what their relationship is with him now secretly living in his dad's trailer and trying to resist the lure of his dad's gang, the Serpents.  Cheryl threatens her mother, and Hermione threatens her daughter.  Oh, and Kevin is still the gay sounding board.  (I'll talk more about him and some of the other characters I haven't addressed much when we get to the end, but for now I'll say that, as with most soap operas, it's tough to juggle all these characters.)

Kiwesi Ameyaw would be back twice as Dr. Masters, and Enid-Raye Adams would return once as the Head Nurse.  Although Midge Klump was mentioned once or twice earlier (as the girlfriend of bi-curious and closeted Moose), this is the first of nine times we see her and I'm not even sure she had a line.  More significantly, after so much mention in Season One, Hiram Lodge (Mark Consuelos) finally appears, released from prison and hoping to rebuild his family.