Riverdale - Chapter Forty-Three: Outbreak - Preview: "The Gargoyle King Defeated?"

Please remember that I’m attempting to keep these previews as insightful as possible, but as spoiler free as possible as well, which leaves me with not a lot to work with.

Riverdale season 3 has been a mess, yet I still keep coming back. I’m always mildly entertained but also walk away feeling like an old man. There’s cringeworthy lines and acting and plots that make little sense, yet here I am. Riverdale has truly morphed into my own guilty pleasure. This first half of the season has felt really long and it’s hard to imagine there might be 14 more episodes this year. The fall finale rightly spins some things on it’s head and I’m curious, if not obligated to see what happens next.

Here are the non-spoiler laden highlights of the Fall Finale of Season 3, Chapter 43: Outbreak.

Well at the very least I can say that this episode does feel like the climax and possibly false (resolution) of the seasons major storylines…minus the Farm. I haven’t been as interested in this season and I am really over Hiram Lodge, sure teen dramas need a parental figure to hate a la Dan Scott or Caleb Nichols but there’s something about Hiram that just doesn’t work.
I don’t care about his war with Archie, (a teenager) or his own daughter. I don’t care that he’s a crime boss, and I just wish he never came back to town at this point, and judging by events in the finale, I’ll never get my wish. There’s more V versus her dad stuff thanks to Hiram’s ties to basically everything happening in Riverdale. We finally learn of Hiram’s plan in the close of the episode after he has a scene of admission to V. There is an interrogation scene involving Cheryl and Veronica that I found particular enjoying. (Also is anyone else feeling suspect about Reggie this season? It wouldn’t surprise me that he’s a mole for Hiram)

For once I cared more about Archie and Jughead’s storyline over everyone else. Gina Gershon is electric as Gladys Jones. I was sold from the minute she saunters on screen that this a woman that FP would fall for. It’s great to see the conflicting emotions surrounding this little family reunion and just how far this mother would go for her son, the serpent king she abandoned. Archie makes a major decision this week thanks to some knowledge dropped by Gladys, that isn’t making me the most excited about his storyline in 2019. This Archie on the run plot feels like it’s gone on for seasons and not just a few episodes.

There’s not a lot I can say about Betty’s and the Sisters of Mercy without spoiling the storyline that I’m tasked with not revealing. Just know everything is not as it appeared at the end of the last episode and Betty made have made an even bigger mess with what she does. (Also, the Griffin Queen rises!) It was nice to see Kevin and Moose making out, I rolled my eyes at Cheryl calling the freaking JROTC to war and there’s a very cute but very you guys are in freakin-highschool-this-is-way-too-much moment for Cheryl and Toni.

Here are some initial thoughts I wrote down on what can’t be revealed:

Does Riverdale even exist in America? How could this happen without making national headlines?

I’m so confused about the Gargoyle King, is this the real Gargoyle King? This is what G & G has been this whole time? That can’t be it right? Wait, is that not it?

I’ve never eating pop rocks again.

Oh Gladys, that’s so much blood. Mama’s gotta protect her own, eye for an eye and all that.

Riverdale, Chapter Forty-Three: Outbreak airs Wednesday, 12/12 on the CW. Will you be checking it out? Sound off below!