RIVERDALE TOP MOMENTS FROM EPISODE 1X09 “CHAPTER NINE: LA GRANDE ILLUSION”
Maple syrup flavored mayhem coated season 1 episode 9 of Riverdale.
The Blossom’s are front and center in this episode of Riverdale. After Polly (Tiera Skovbye) decides to move in with the Blossom family, Alice (Madchen Amick) goes on a rampage. Archie (K.J. Apa) receives an offer from Cheryl (Madelaine Petsch) that comes with some major strings. Meanwhile, Veronica’s (Camila Mendes) attempt to help a friend backfires when she learns that her father is responsible for their misfortune in La Grande Illusion. Let’s take a look at this week’s top moments.
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Cheryl makes Archie an offer he can’t refuse.
Cheryl needs a date for the annual tree tapping ceremony, and she thinks Archie is the right man for the job. At first, he says no because he doesn’t think Valerie (Hayley Law) will be happy about it. Mama Blossom (Nathalie Boltt) steps in with an offer to help him get enrolled into a prestigious music school. Archie thinks their kindness is innocent even though his friends warn him not to trust them. But he accepts offer anyway.
“Famous last words, Archiekins.” Veronica Lodge
As Archie gets into the thick of things, the web of lies begin to unravel. The Blossom’s may seem perfect, hiding under their expensive wardrobes, but the truth is much darker than the image. And it doesn’t take long for Archie to see that he should’ve listened to the warnings he was given. Once they were proven valid, he wants nothing to do with them. The night seems like a total loss until he overheard Cheryl’s parents discussing the Lodge’s. He learns that the Blossom’s are responsible to Veronica’s father being thrown into jail.
Come hell or high water, Alice will have her revenge.
Alice is in total despair. Polly chose the Blossom’s over her. Rather than try to reason with her daughter, she writes a skathng article about the Blossom’s and heads over to the paper to publish it. But when she gets to work, she discovers that all her passwords no longer work. That’s when her estranged husband (Lochlyn Munro) tells her that she’s fired. Needless to say, she didn’t take the news well. She decided the best course of action would be to throw a brick through the front office window.
“I want my daughter back, you bastard!” Alice Cooper
After hearing from Archie, Jughead (Cole Sprouse) and Betty (Lili Reinhart) tell Alice that Polly is only with the Blossom’s to spy on them. That should be the best news she could possibly hear. But now that she’s been fired, Alice has no way to continue her investigation. That’s when Jughead and Betty offer her a position at the school newspaper, The Blue and Gold. It sounded silly at first, but it’s a way for them to all work together to solve the mystery of Jason’s murder.
Polly is not as innocent as she looks.
Betty is worried about her sister. She hasn’t been in contact with her since she moved in with the Blossom family. When she learns about Archie’s plan to be Cheryl’s date, she asks him to reach out to Polly. After the tree tapping ceremony, he has a chance to dance with her and get some info. She tells him that the Blossom’s are watching them and to appear like their conversation is happy.
“Just keep dancing and smiling.” Polly Cooper
Polly asks him to tell her family to stop trying to contact her. It turns out that she’s doing an investigation of her own. She didn’t pick the Blossom’s over her own family. Instead, she moved in with them so that she could get inside the lion’s den. The Blossom’s have plenty of secrets and Polly is determined to reveal the role they played in Jason’s murder.
Veronica learns the disappointing truth about her father.
Ethel Muggs (Shannon Purser) read some of her original writing in front of the class. The sadness in the words hits home for Veronica and she wants to help her out of her depression. Ethel starts talking and she learns that her father lost a significant amount of money in a bad deal. That’s when Veronica realizes that her own father was the cause. Veronica goes out of an all-out search for more information. That’s when she discovers that her suspicions were correct. Her father caused Ethel’s father to lose everything.
“You want to do something? Tell the truth.” Ethel’s Mom
Things get much worse when Veronica learns that Ethel’s father has tried to commit suicide. She runs to the school bathroom in tears and rips the pearl necklace her father had given her off her neck in perfect dramatic fashion. Betty, being the true friend, comes to her aid and lets her cry on her shoulder. Feeling horrible, Veronica goes to the hospital and meets Ethel’s mother. But when she reveals that Hiram Lodge is her father, they want nothing to do with her.
A storm of chaos is coming and it’s named, Cheryl Blossom.
Cheryl shows up at Archie’s house with an expensive guitar. It’s supposed to be a gesture of gratitude for attending the maple tapping ceremony. It seemed like things were going to work out, especially when he took up for her when he heard people dissing her. But when Cheryl kisses him by the pool, he rejects her and leaves the family party. She is left alone and very unhappy.
“The ice woman cometh.” Jughead Jones
At the end of the episode, Cheryl sits on her bed scratching out the pictures of several people. It’s made clear that she wants revenge on Archie for leaving her at the family party. And, although she’s sweetly wishes Polly goodnight, she wants to get back at her too. Cheryl on the rampage is never good for anyone. Who knows what she’ll do…
FINAL VERDICT: The Blossom’s might be the biggest threat of them all.
In “La Grande Illusion”, written by James DeWille and directed by Lee Rose, the already dark waters of Riverdale blackened even further. We saw levels of depth we hadn’t seen before from from Alice, Polly and Veronica. We were impressed with the overall writing of the episode, and the acting in the darker scenes was some of their best of the season.
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But most importantly, we learned that the Blossom family is even more involved in Jason’s murder than we previously expected. This family is boundless when it comes to what they want, and we can’t wait to see what happens next. We’ll be tuning in for sure.