RIVERDALE: “Big Fun” (S3E16): The Halls Are Alive With The Sound Of Music

The halls of Riverdale High were alive with music. Returning this season with a second induction of a musical episode, Riverdale once again proved why their weekly installments and comic book adaptation outranks the other young adult series it competes with each week. From theme to visuals, from song choice to advanced storyline, Riverdale brought every bit of energy and intensity right up to the final curtain call.

While the choice of Heathers wasn’t a hit with me personally, the episode was a knock out of the ball park. For me, it didn’t matter as much what the musical choice represented for those on screen, Riverdale‘s own story spoke for itself. There was strength that had been lacking several times throughout the season that rushed back the moment Kevin kicked off his musical number in the first few minutes of the episode. This was the Riverdale the CW had invested in and I hope this upward trend continues.

The Farm Encroaches… and Edgar arrives!

There was just so much packed into this episode, from Archie (KJ Apa) and Josie (Ashleigh Murray), as well as Cheryl (Madelaine Petsch) and Toni (Vanessa Morgan), redefining there relationships, to the final break up of the Lodges and back around to Jughead (Cole Sprouse) kickstarting a war with his mother (Gina Gershon), these were all just the appetizers to the main course. The Farm has finally arrived, their leader Edgar (Chad Michael Murray) finally making his dramatic entrance in one breathtaking and ominous crescendo. The occult is here to stay, and their techniques of recruitment are more conniving than the students and parents of Riverdale may be equipped to handle.

As soon as Evelyn (Zoé De Grand Maison), Edgar’s daughter, is announced as co-director of the musical, there is an eerie shift in the techniques behind the scene used to help the actors get into character. Initially inviting everyone to an early cast party at the Sisters of Quiet Mercy (in the Baptism and Gargoyle King rooms strangely enough), the new home base for The Farm, Evelyn seems to be manipulating Kevin (Casey Cott) and others not only through words, but through drugs as well. Giving Kevin a mushroom brownie, he is led to believe he is seeing things, going crazy. Through this setup, Evelyn and The Farm are able to provide Kevin with the much needed comfort he seeks – him and some of the other cast members as well.

Taking things another notch up, like a slow boil, Evelyn invites each member of the cast and crew to reveal something they have never told anyone. It can be small or big, just anything they need to get off their chest. While some do and others do not, it is the similarity in this action that will feel eerily familiar to viewers – this is the same process Alice (Mädchen Amick), Betty’s mother, underwent as she started her induction into The Farm. Manipulating and conniving to a core, The Farm is not only on a mission to recruit but to make others members before they even know what is happening to them.

While Betty is on to Evelyn’s game, keeping a watchful eye on her friends and learning who around her she can trust and who she can’t, it isn’t until the final moments of the episode that the pot finally boils over, cooking those inside – too late to stop the monster from sneaking in the back door. As the cast finishes their final number, one man in the crowd (a crowd strangely littered with random audience members dressed in all white) stands and begins a steady clap, those in white around him rising and joining in. The unison and sound of their power resonates around the room, announcing their arrival to Riverdale. Only those who have not fallen under The Farm’s spell find discomfort in the moment, knowing this is only the beginning.

Seventeen going on … 40?

“Big Fun” was a very interesting episode in a lot of ways, yet what I found most intriguing was this idea of just acting your age. There are a couple of renditions of “Seventeen” sung by the cast, a song that points out the the harsh reality the teenagers of Riverdale live in contrasted to the ones they should be living. They should be going to the mall, seeing movies, getting into teen-related trouble. Instead, they are trying to prevent the return of the drug trade, fighting serial killers and trying to stop the occult. There is this craving for a real life filled with normalcy and old school teenage coming-of-age. While this concept seems pretty straightforward and easy to understand, it is its timelines and application to the actual real world where its impact is most potent.

Teens today live in a different society than those before them, and those before them. Teenagers are growing up faster and facing seemingly more difficult obstacles than we had to face when we were in school. When I was in high school, Columbine was a one time incident that scared us to our core, and the most action we could have expected was a fire drill to interrupt classes. Today, teens not only face shooter drills to interrupt their classes, but live with the fear that it could happen to them, it could happen anywhere. Where in my time there was one, today’s reality is at least one a year – and it knows no age. Though, in the face of all the negativity and fear, teens are pushing themselves to take on the issues at hand, fighting for their safety in schools against brooding politicians who stand firm in their positions. Where they should be at malls or movie theaters, instead they are able to fight back and organize nationwide walkouts, standing on Capitol Hill and around the country making their voices heard.

Beyond terror in the halls, the introduction of more encompassing technology that is closing the gaps between individual and global, the exposure to the world is enhanced, giving them more information and ability to learn and grow faster than generations before them. The world is in the palm of their hand, and what was once unobtainable is now only limited to data rates and internet speeds. As much as all this pushing forward is happening, there is an understanding that we cannot go back to the teens of yesteryear. You can only continue forward.

Conclusion: “Big Fun”

The best episodes are the ones you cannot stop thinking about, the ones you want a companion by the water cooler to mull over every detail. “Big Fun” was this episode and literally chock full of big fun. The energy radiating from the episode is contagious, and leaves a strong regret that there is was week before we returned to see where all this is headed. One thing is for sure, it is going to be epic.