Spoilers!! Once again, it's extremely difficult for me to avoid spoilers, so be mindful of that fact before you read the rest of this blog post!
Once again, there are two separate stories happening in "Riverdale" -- at least when it comes to the kids. First there is the ongoing story involving Archie and his jump into song-writing and performing. Riverdale High is going to be hosting its annual talent show and he plans to showcase his music. Except that he's being overhwhelmed by stage-fright!
He decides to team-up with Valerie from the Pussycats to perform a duet, which ultimately leads to her being booted from her band! Meanwhile, Veronica is pissed off because she has planned to team-up with Archie for his performance. This leads to an interesting new rivalry between Archie & Valerie and the New Josie & the Pussycats (with new member Veronica Lodge!!)
Ultimately, Archie finds his courage and encourages Valerie to get back in with the Pussycats. Archie does excellently as a soloist and the Pussycats end up doing a wonderful version of "I Feel Love" during the talent show. (You can watch a clip of the latter song here)
Meanwhile, Betty and Jughead continue to investigate the mystery behind Jason Blossom's murder. Some quick sleuthing within her parents' financial records give them a clue that Polly is being treated at a home for wayward girls. Betty is reunited with her sister Polly -- and discovers that Polly is pregnant with Jason's baby! Not only that, but she doesn't even know that he's dead.
Turns out that Jason and Polly had been planning on eloping on July 4th. The Coopers learned of their plans before it could be enacted and Polly has been locked away ever since! Betty eventually confronts her parents and pointblank asks if they were behind Jason's murder. (I'll leave that up to you to find out if they did it or not!!)
Betty and Jughead decide to track down the car that Jason and Polly were reportedly going to use for their getaway vehicle. Luckily, it's still there! But it's loaded down with drugs and other illegal items. They rush off the police, but not before Juggy gets his prints all over the evidence! Too bad some shadowy figure sees what they're up to and makes sure that there's not much for the police to find when they arrive!
There was one last surprise that got the entire Internet excited: Jughead kissed Betty after their road trip to Polly's group home. Half of fandom loves this match. The other half is upset because Juggy is supposed to be asexual in the comic book and there's way too few self-identified asexual characters in the world. Still, they make a cute couple. And it's not like Archie is making much of an effort to share some romance with either Betty or Veronica in the TV show. So I'm all for this romantic match!
"Riverdale" is nearly halfway done. You had better be watching this great program. If not, you can still catch up with the program on the CW website and stream it for free. And then you need to tune in every Thursday night for new episodes of "Riverdale" at 8:00 PM CST!