Riverdale - Killing Mr. Honey - Review: “A Non-Finale”

Riverdale is coming back in a few weeks, so it’s about time: let’s talk about “Chapter Seventy-Six: Killing Mr. Honey”. 

This season has been a wild ride, full of crazy plot twists and unbelievable turns. Well, that is an ordinary day in Riverdale - but throughout this season my patience has often run out. Let’s summarize what happened. Everyone is frustrated by Mr. Honey’s threats to cancel the prom. 

First surprise: through Jug’s point of view, Riverdale creates its first meta-narrative story. He is writing a story for the University of Iowa and he decides to create a quite creepy tale: the gang - Jug, Archie, Betty, Cheryl, Reggie, and Veronica killed Mr. Honey for destroying their senior year. After this homicide, all of them start to give into the darkness inside of them when covering up the murder and Reggie dies in a car accident. Shall we switch to this Riverdale 2.0 and forget the current reality? 

Apart from this fantasy, Honey fears for his safety, after the school receives a suspicious tape. P.I. Betty scrutinizes the full tape and spots Honey's reflection in it and deduces that the whole tape was created by him. Charles and Betty have him fired and prom reinstated. 

After this outcome, Jughead decides to change his story: Veronica and Archie go to the hospital to save Honey’s life; refusing to become evil. The episode ends with the typical plot twist: Betty and Jughead receive another videotape inviting them to a cabin. The second video shows a group of people wearing masks who stab Mr. Honey to death. 

Unfortunately, because of covid19 - Killing Mr. Honey is clearly not a proper finale, and it feels like a filler episode. Clearly, we will find out in season 5 who The Voyeur is.

I am really curious to see how the writers will handle the gang's final months in high school and their future as college students or adults. We have so many examples of teen dramas that handled this big shift successfully, with a complete reset of the stories (One Tree Hill, The O.C., Veronica Mars).

What do you think of Riverdale's "Killing Mr. Honey"? Are you looking forward to watching season 5?