Riverdale - Tangerine

Discussing Ep.

- That's right, Jug. Play by the rules. Of course, you know he won't.

- AHA HA HA HA HA HA.....Ronnie didn't get into Dartmouth. Maybe she's not the genius she thought she was.

- Wow. Way to slag community colleges. Sure, they aren't the expensive educational monoliths that universities are, but they have their benefits too!

- Do they not even have colour photo technology in Riverdale either?

- "People die changing tires on the side of the road, Mr. Jones. At least I'd die with a shred of honour." What a stupid thing to say. Did they not paint Fred Andrews as a hero for sacrificing his life for Shannon Doherty by pushing her out of the way from an oncoming car while changing said tire? And now Archie completely negates that sacrifice with that one line. Well done, you fucking hack!

- Ya know, I'm thinking from earlier before.....didn't FP designate a bunch of Serpents as deputies? Why aren't they going around doing all the dirty work instead of Archie?

- What the fuck?

Is this Jug AND Charles talking to each other? Brother to brother? No set up? No big meeting between these two? Just Jug asking Charles for the FBI's help? It figures!

- That sucks! I wanted to see the footage of Polly freaking out!

- I hope Polly's possessed. THAT at least would be interesting.

- Sigh!

Ronnie addresses her as "abuelita," which means "grandmother." But in the next line, she calls her "Godmother." Godmother in Spanish is "madrina." Can they not even get this right?

- I love how they just came up with this Lodge family recipe for rum out of nowhere. Nowhere in the previous 3 seasons did they even HINT at the idea that the Lodge's became famous for rum production. And if they did, it wasn't noteworthy.

- So I'm guessing someone is calling Cooper women, saying some line that activates the serial killer gene and that's how they're turning into these killing machines all of a sudden. I mean....why the fuck not?

- I've got to admit, Alice looks both sexy and scary at the same time!

- That is such bullshit! Of course, Betty...the genius that she is and the luckiest person in the world....knows how to break Alice's hypnotic state with a mere snap of her fingers! Fuck this show!

- Well, that's one way to get to Hiram....through mom!

- Oh, fuck you, Archie! So, is he now in charge of his dad's construction company too? He's going to fire the foreman JUST BECAUSE he was interested in buying the company? A company that Archie is not even overseeing? Archie shouldn't be in charge of anything....he's too much driven by anger to be competent at anything!

- Yes! Tell me that Evelyn makes an appearance!

- What the fuck is this?

Man, I've never wanted one of Cheryl's stupid schemes to work more than this scheme of poisoning herself to death. All the best, Cheryl!

- Damn it! It was a ruse!

- I fail to see how Archie honours his father's memory in any way by always resorting to violence to get things done. It's like it's the only thing he knows how to do. I'll give massive credit to this show if by the end of it all, Archie turns into a pacifist and learns to handle problems through peace!

- I will say, it's a nice touch of attention to detail to have Cheryl with a spider broach and Penelope with a scorpion broach....both members of the arachnid family!

- "Lunatic child!" I miss Penelope!

- Oh, that's rich, Cheryl! Charging your mother with "gaslighting" when you did the same to Toni! And charging her with murder? Did you and Toni not just kill your uncle recently?

- Fuck! At least FP acknowledges that Fred would not approve one bit of FP and Archie going around and getting into brawls!

- So Dupont did it all legally. He bought the rights to the Baxter Bros. story from Forsythe for $5,000 (which must NOT have been cheap back then) and turned it into a fortune. Seems fair to me!

I'm actually kind of impressed that they deflated this puffed-up heroic journey that Jug went on. I'm happy to see that he turned out be wrong!

- Yes! I missed Evelyn!

- What? So once they're "triggered," they try to kill Dark Betty or anyone named Betty? Don't do it in front of Betty White then! This is up there with contrived plots, I'll give them that! I mean, if this was Edgar's idea, why didn't they employ it before he went into Evel Knievel mode?

- Damn, she looked sexy talking into the phone like that!

- So, saying the word "tangerine" three times will trigger the victims? I've heard saying "Bloody Mary" in the mirror three times in the dark yields unfortunate results too!

- Did Archie just get FP killed? Way to go, Arch! Hope you're happy.

- Shit, it's true! Darla is supposed to be Dodger's mom! THE ACTORS ARE BOTH THE SAME FUCKING AGE!!!!

- Yeah, what a surprise that Archie has no honour by keeping his word and decides to try and end another problem with violence!

- "It wasn't your happiness with the she-goblin that I wanted to destroy." AHA HA HA HA HA HA!!! Penelope always has the best insults.

- What....who is this guy? Is he a part of the cast? He looks familiar.

- LOL! Well done, Hiram! I like how plays. Sending the Columbia rep to Ronnie's bar to see how she operates.

- That is so fucking insulting. Having this guy pretend to be this woman's son. They are both the same age!

I guess it speaks more to her aged appearance and to his youthful looks than anything else!

- Well, you just stepped into it, didn't you Dodger? Because you're dealing with no ordinary teenager. You're dealing with....

- See what I mean? Dodger hit Archie full on with a metal plate and Archie just shrugged it off!

- I really hope Ronnie's song and dance left a sour taste in the Columbia's rep's mouth because she's just a stripper pole away from being an exotic dancer!

- Okay, first of all, does Ronnie not need some kind of license to make rum in the first place? I'm sure Hiram would have stopped that. Second, I applaud Hiram for getting a patent...but threatening to sue Ronnie for all that she has? She has NOTHING! It's pretty much all his anyway.

- "Underage party girl, Veronica Luna." My sentiments exactly!

- Ya know, if I were Jug, I'd be pissed at Archie for nearly getting my dad killed!

- Sigh!

Ya know, I feel bad for Dilton. He built that bunker. He made it. And now that he's gone, everyone and their mother is using it. The least they could do is call it Dilton's Bunker!

- Oh, for fuck's sakes. Going back and stopping the birth of Dark Betty? Doesn't she have a serial killer gene? Isn't Dark Betty a part of her genetics? It's not psychological, it's genetic! You can't kill it if it's genetic! These people can't even keep their canon straight!

- "Go and play."

First of all, the cat looks already dead. Secondly, telling young Betty to just go and play and essentially leave your dying cat to lay there and die a slow and painful death rather than take it to a fucking veterinarian is worse than killing it with a rock! At least killing it was a mercy killing.

- Oh, of course. Columbia likes people with good stories and Ronnie obviously has a good story. Bullshit! She has money and you just want her money, so just leave it at that!

- Ya know what...

Cheryl looks so much better without all the clown makeup. She looks far, far more sympathetic too.

- Damn! I'll give them credit for acknowledging that Archie is so far off the mark from what Fred would want him to be. There may be hope yet.

- LOL! Why do they look like they're from Hogwarts?

- I'm curious to know why Cheryl didn't do Jason's funeral...viking-style. Push him off into the river and then fire a flaming arrow at his casket. THAT would have been infinitely cooler!

- Wow, what a close family the Andrews clan is! Fred had a brother he never bothered to tell Archie about!

- So....Betty activated Dark Betty? Are we going to get the return of the black wig and dominatrix outfit too?

This was typical Riverdale....lots of contrived plots and stuff that made no sense. Why did they decide now to cleanse Cheryl of her obsession with Jason? Seemed kind of arbitrary that they did that. They seemingly ended the Baxter Bros. mystery for Jug, and the Dodger storyline came to an end rather abruptly too. So I'm assuming, come the new year, we'll get a whole new set of storylines that have little or nothing to do with these storylines and there will be no coherency whatsoever.

I will just sit here and enjoy one last time watching Evelyn speaking all sexy-like into the phone!

Evil - 7 Swans a Singin'

Discussing Ep. 1.10

This was a rather haunting yet beautiful episode just for the singing alone. Having the girls sing that tune, especially in the private school where the sound echoed throughout....it was eerie but nice. I'm legitimately surprised that I didn't get the tune stuck in my head.

I kind of figured that the reason why the girls were singing this tune wasn't related to any supernatural occurrence, but I liked how they kept the real answer vague throughout the episode. I also liked how Kristen brought up various incidences throughout history where similar occurrences of mass unexplained behaviours and epidemics occurred, like the Tanganyika laughter epidemic or the dancing plague of 1518.  Kristen tried her best to diagnose the situation, figuring it was Stuck Song Syndrome. When her tactics to change the tune in the girl's heads didn't work, they tried to chalk it up to the food or to some kind of asbestos. Neither of those seemed to be the answer. It was here that having a teenage daughter came in handy because it was Lynn who turned them onto the Puddy's Christmas video.

This thing was fucking creepy.....like Santa Claus somehow hooked up with Ren & Stimpy and they did too much weed together and decided to make a music video! I assumed that perhaps there was some kind of low frequency audio that was influencing the kids, although I wasn't sure. I certainly wasn't expecting it to be a frequency that could affect only teenagers! And I certainly wasn't expecting this.

This just made me cringe! Shoving a pencil or scissor in your ear? Damn! What I was expecting was Ben to solve this since this was out of the realm of expertise for both Kristen and David. Sure enough, there was a low frequency message, but it wasn't coming from this video but rather from this Youtube influencer.

This was rather funny because she was very much like some Youtube influencers.....just this kind of ditzy individual who posts really superficial videos to get likes and subscribers. It was a subtle comment on the landscape of Youtubers and how far and obsessed some people will go to get subscribers and views. Although it was revealed that Townsend was the one behind putting the frequency in her video that would cause teenagers to commit suicide, there was something rather weird. When Kristen was watching the end of the video, and Malinda tells the viewers "you have been warned," there was another voice (a deeper voice) that said that line along with Malinda. When David saw the video, that other voice wasn't there. And considering that Kristen's daughters all heard that voice, and Lyla stabbed herself in her ear, it seemed that perhaps The Sixty were targeting Kristen in particular. Hell, she's being targeted heavily and her stupid mother isn't helping!

Sheryl really pissed me off in this episode. When she was talking with Lexi, giving her advice on how to handle the school bully, I couldn't help but notice that she talked EXACTLY like Townsend! Her logic was sound but her morality was not. But that's how evil sometimes operates. I could agree with her advice in that Lexi had to stand up to her bully, but not by bashing her head in with a rock! Telling her that "you make them your bitch or they make you theirs" was a line that perhaps works in the adult world, but not in a kids world. Mind you, the fact that it worked didn't help matters. But what really pissed me off was how Sheryl denied the whole incident and essentially gaslit her own granddaughter! When we find out that Townsend advised her on the whole thing, it made sense. I have a feeling that Sheryl is going to become a casualty of this war since she's obviously not able to resist Townsend and see him for what he is. I could see Townsend disposing of her when she's outlived her usefulness.

While it seemed David was being targeted in a different way. First off, I couldn't blame David for 'slipping,' as it were, by sleeping with Reneé. I mean....c'mon! That woman is gorgeous and he wasn't really left in a position to exercise self control. But what I was really happy about was that they didn't abandon the relationship outright. I was worried because when he was in confessional, he said that he and Reneé decided to go their separate ways because they knew it wouldn't work. I couldn't buy that since Reneé had been so into him for so long that I couldn't see her just giving up. Maybe the sex was bad that she had no problem walking away? Either way, their relationship continued not because of David or Reneé but rather because of some mystery person who could write in Julia's handwriting and take photos of David and Reneé in David's room! I'm really curious to see how they explain this or explain this:

I was happy to see that they didn't abandon David's vision just yet, revealing the 3 stars that David had seen before. We had seen these 3 stars over David before too, but now David is looking up at them as he bleeds out. I'm willing to bet the attacker was sent by Townsend or The Sixty because they see him as a serious threat. After all, Townsend wanted to send an incel to shoot up David's prayer meeting! But what does that have to do with the love note in Julia's handwriting? And why is Reneé getting those Wi-Pokes with the pictures of the two of them? I don't necessarily blame David for not going to Ben with this problem as he doesn't want to reveal everything that is going on with his life but I figured Ben could have probably figured out where the pokes were coming from.

I'm assuming David survives this and it's going to be a big mystery as to who that guy was and how he targeted David. And kudos to David for fighting him off because that guy was carrying a HUGE knife! I'm talking a Crocodile Dundee kind of knife!

There were no puzzle pieces this episode, at least not any that I could see. Maybe one flashed on the screen and I didn't see it. But beyond that, they keep adding more pieces to the overall puzzle. Who or what is contacting David? What will happen with Sheryl and how will she assist in Townsend destroying Kristen's family? And who the hell does Townsend have in this bag?

Is that an incel that he targeted from the last episode? Is he going to torture this person to do what he wants? And whatever happened to that prayer meeting that he was going to send Sebastian to go and shoot up? They made it seem like that was going to happen relatively soon. Considering David's state of doubt in regards to his faith and his relationship with Reneé, I couldn't see him leading a prayer meeting anytime soon. And now that he's sort of out of commission, I don't see what point there is for Townsend to recruit anybody to shoot up a prayer meeting that isn't going to happen. I'm curious to know who this person is that Townsend has in that bag and how his attack will continue with Kristen and David. And will he shift his sights to Ben at all? Ben has been left alone for the most part but I'm wondering if that will change because the trio are stronger being together.

The trio.....I wonder if perhaps the 3 stars are also in reference to the three of them.

And I will say this about the trio, I'm loving their relationship with each other. Especially Kristen and Ben. It made me laugh when Kristen is coming up with diagnoses for the singing girls in front of  the new monsignor, and he praises her for her work and her contribution. The look on Ben's face after that compliment and when he afterwards calls her a "teacher's pet" was just so precious.

And also when David and Ben get together to buy a gift for Kristen, how they both are sort of arguing that they should have gotten Kristen something after she got them something and then both chip in to get her those earrings. In some ways, I hope that Kristen and David don't end up together because I feel like it would ruin the dynamic of this trio. Ben and Kristen are like brother and sister, with Ben already establishing himself like the fun uncle to Kristen's daughters, him being Ben The Magnificent and all of that. David is the clear leader of the group but he's incredibly flawed and riddled with both personal and real demons which betrays the cool and strong exterior that he presents to the other two. Kristen has her own issues but I feel like she's a nice balance between the two and brings that touch of femininity that is clearly needed. The three of them work really well together even with their opposing views and it's because of that that I could see Townsend and The Sixty wanting to break them up.

I'm curious to see what strategy Townsend and The Sixty will employ to do just that.