RIVERDALE: “Chapter Forty-Five: No Stranger” (S3 E10): And The Gargoyle King Is…

With a semi-lackluster return and a fan bait finale, Riverdale was back to true form with “No Stranger” – reminding viewers of its hypnotic and intricate storylines constantly at play. And if you think you know what’s going on and what will happen next, think again.

While the big reveals of Archie’s fate and the identity of the Gargoyle King were finally unveiled, there was much more to the episode, even in the smallest of details, reverberating an intense anxiety for what is to come next.

Welcome Home Archie

While Archie (KJ Apa) is alive, he is no longer the Archie we have come to know and love. “Scarred both in and out,” as Jughead mentions at episode’s start, Archie has a lot to work out – and it is not going to be an easy road. This was something I had addressed at the end of my last episode recap for “No Exit”. Archie as a character now feels out of place within the story, his return to Riverdale exhibiting this feeling – an outsider, with nowhere to put him. This is an issue within the storyline writers have begun to tackle with Archie’s return.

It was immediately and anticlimactically revealed that Archie had indeed survived his bear attack, mostly recovered and on his way back to Riverdale. While the fan-baited conclusion had hopes of catching viewers off guard and on edge while they waited for the next installment, fans could not be tricked, making the use of the “life in danger” cliffhanger useless. The reintroduction of Archie this week felt as though the writers had thrown up their hands, screaming “you got us!”.

Anticlimactic returns aside, it was interesting to see Archie awkwardly try to navigate his return to Riverdale, his interpersonal and academic aspirations snuffed out before he could even attempt to reignite them. Veronica (Camila Mendes) is with Reggie (Charles Melton), everyone is preparing for the upcoming SATs, the principal has advised he repeat a year and bouts of PTSD from his constant state of stress and awareness have finally begun to take a toll on Archie (oh! and was that whiskey he was drinking?!). The out-of-place feelings fans may experience towards Archie’s place on Riverdale are paralleled by Archie as he feels and experiences being out of place. His character has been lost for some time, though if this episode’s arc and multiple intricacies has proven anything tonight, there is a greater game to be played and story to be told.

Have the Lambs Stopped Screaming

Was anyone else excited to see Betty (Lili Reinhart) forced to visit her father to help her retrieve her money her mother had given away as charity to The Farm? This is an interaction I have been craving to see since it was revealed Hal (Lochlyn Munro) was the black hood. His interaction with Betty, mask-less, was too short, leaving interpersonal gaps of conversation and revelations to the true outward nature of Hal. Where Hiram (Mark Consuelos) is a bad guy, Hal is a true villain on the show, one with no fear or regard. With longings aside, the moment finally came for Betty to face her father and it wasn’t without a beautifully constructed cultural acknowledgement.

Both scenes involving Betty and her father not only resembled the look of Silence of the Lambs, but the feel as well. The look of the cell containing Hal, the jump suit, the sliding bin to transfer documents to him, everything screamed Silence of the Lambs. The beautiful look of the shoutout was coupled by the staging of the performances and the delivery of dialogue. Hal radiates a young adult version of Hannibal Lector, the enticing and tantalizing possibility that he can help Betty seeping through the plexiglass was an epic way to honor a horror classic – and one of the best so far within the series.

Hal is not gone yet, and I am excited to see where his character is going in the future of Riverdale. He is a character on ice I can’t wait to see return, especially now that his true nature is in the open. Through his brief interactions with Betty, she is enticed to come back, looking for someone that not only understands her, but understands her mother. The foundation has been set for a future return, and with the rise of The Farm, we may find Betty making more visits in the future.

An Empire Falls… while many more begin to rise

“No Stranger” was not an episode where the biggest bang left the deepest mark. It was an episode based on subtitles, ones that will have lasting effects through the season. Archie and Veronica officially ending their relationship face to face, Betty embracing her father, and Jughead finally unmasking the Gargoyle King (the reveal proving that c*ckroaches can never be exiled) were all the biggest aspects of the evening, yet it was the piercing of a bullet whose ripples trickled the loudest.

Hiram, whose ability to stay one step ahead, finally fell to his hubris, his moment of victory over Jughead (Cole Sprouse) vanquished as an unseen bullet pierces his chest. While we were left with no indication on who the shooter may be, the final moments of the episode alluded to a few possibilities – these possibilities lending themselves to future complications for Riverdale. While it will initially come to mind that Archie might be behind the shooting, this conclusion is too obvious, and with Archie as downtrodden as he is of late, unlikely. The first, after Archie, is The Farm, who have benefitted greatly from Betty’s involuntary contribution. While a seemingly simple brainwashed move by her mother to benefit The Farm reveals in the final moments to be a play within a bigger game, The Farm is now taking residence in what was once the Sisters of Quiet Mercy. They have been slowly gaining followers for the last season and a half, and now have a place to centralize them within Riverdale.

The second potential shooter seems to be Hermione (Marisol Nichols), whose tolerance of Hiram’s threats and commands has reached a boiling point. Threatened to promote Claudius Blossom (Barclay Hope) to Sheriff by her husband, her covert conversation with FP Jones (Skeet Ulrich) following Hiram’s shooting leans to a woman who has more going on behind the scenes than we know about. Telling FP “It’s time”, Hermione shows that she has already had FP lined up to take the sheriff position, waiting for the opportune time to make her move. While shooting her husband, or hiring for the job, seems like a bold and dramatic move to make, it may not be so sudden when you look back to previous episodes and the situations her husband has forced her into.

Could the fall of Hiram Lodge be the spark another has been waiting for in the wing?

Conclusion

The stage has been set for some epic possibilities for the series in the future, and that’s only characters we had the chance to see in “No Stranger”. We have the former Sheriff and his son, the ROTC enforcers, and the expulsion of Toni and Cheryl from the Serpents to contend with – and the inevitable return of Jughead’s mother to Riverdale. There is still so much more to come in the season ahead, with a stage perfectly set for a potentially dynamic execution.

Have you seen the latest episode of Riverdale? What did you think of it? Tell us your thoughts in the comments below!