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beesmygod · 5 years

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this is what riverdale is about (part 6)

part 1

part 2

part 3

part 4

part 5

and now...we come to the end of our journey...the final 4 episodes of the season. who killed jason blossom? you forgot that’s what we were doing, huh. you were way too distracted by sex archie and the jughead/betty relationship (called ‘bughead’ in universe).

i have a friend who has been watching riverdale because i have basically tricked him into doing so and frankly, what i am typing here was and is only the surface of this show’s nonsense. as he watched episodes, he reminds me of all the completely bananas shit that this show throws at you literally every second it is on screen and honestly its a relief to know that, as much as i can try to just give you some basic facts, watching the show itself is still a totally different transcendent experience. its really the only show of its kind; shamelessly stupid but unaware of it while openly delighting in all the silliest cliches presented as straight faced as possible. if these write up do anything for you at all, please, please. watch the show. you will be shocked at how much more there is to discover.

images are from the riverdale wiki

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SEASON 1 (PART 4):

the lost weekend: this is the one with a very special guest star in it: molly ringwald as archie’s mom! she and fred (luke perry) have been separated for some amount of time for an unknown reason. yay she’s so cute! i love her. oh uh, also they’re getting a divorce. the papers are going through. archie gets the bad news in the middle of a gaming sesh with jughead.

meanwhile, veronica meets with her dad’s lawyer (whose name is paul sowerberry?? he never shows up again despite his unbelievably silly name) and tells him she’s not giving him a good statement as to her father’s character to help him get a lesser sentence. “fuck you dad!” is the general sentiment before she stomps out to go to school.

oh man there’s a weird aspect of this show that i have neglected to mention. this isn’t something i’ve ever experienced in school so it was totally foreign and weird to me but the students have their own lounge that they mingle and talk in...at...some point during the school day?? jughead’s opening monologue of this episode makes great pains to talk about how every moment of their lives are scheduled from 8am to 3pm but there’s apparently plenty of sittin’ time where they can just laze about this random room talking about crimes they have or are going to commit. a great deal of talking happens in this room when usually you’d have to like, sneak a convo while getting shit out of your locker between classes. i dunno, it’s weird. this is where archie tells veronica about clifford blossom sending her dad to jail so he can jack the land everyone is fighting over.

archie and betty make plans to celebrate jugheads birthday by taking him to the movies, which i feel like is in poor taste given his movie house was just destroyed but whatever. with betty coming along it’ll be just like the three muskateers! betty replies “AcTuAlLy ThErE wErE fOuR mUsKeTeErS” and somehow he doesn’t beat her to death with his bookbag right there and then. betty then doubles down on the bad words flowing out of her mouth and proposes they hold a surprise party for jughead since, according to his dad, he’s never had one. i have no idea what would compel her to think he would want this. even i know he doesn’t want this and i only know him through a tv screen. on top of this she goes out of her way to invite his deadbeat alcoholic dad multiple times. i thought she was supposed to be the smart, observant nancy drew type but like...what the fuck betty. jughead does, in fact, get pretty pissed at archie just for telling his girlfriend that he even has a birthday. presumably instead of telling him he emerged fully formed from the leader of the black parade’s forehead.

after finding out from some files that her dad was receiving money monthly from clifford blossom for some unspecified reason before the arrest, veronica challenges cheryl to a dance off and wins. unfortunately, veronica cant come forward with what she knows because it would make it look like her dad put a hit out on jason in retaliation. dance off to relieve the pain.

jughead fucking hates his party and makes sure everyone knows it. this is something NORMAL people do and he is NOT normal!!! he leaves the party in a huff when cheryl shows up to get her dance off revenge by ruining the party by inviting the whole school. this is the episode where he does his famous “im a weirdo, i have a hat” speech, which is deliciously dumb. they get in a fight, while jughead’s dad talks to kevin’s boyfriend (who you will remember is a member of his gang he assigned to keep tabs on the progress of the teens looking into the whole land plot mess) while betty’s mom secretly listens in?!

cheryl activates chaos mode and locks everyone in the house so they can play a game called “secrets and sins” which is really just an excuse for her to ask everyone horrible questions to make them feel bad. veronica accuses cheryl of fucking her brother, dilton doiley tells everyone about grundy’s statutory rape of archie andrews and chuck tells everyone about dark mode betty drugging him for an impromptu bdsm session which causes jughead to go apeshit and try to throw a weak little baby punch. jughead’s dad, as the only adult who for some reason let all this happen, finally throws everyone out and tells them to go home.

archie and veronica sleep together, by which i mean, next to each other in the same room. veronica testifies on her father’s behalf and discloses to betty the link between jugheads dad and the serpents and her dad’s land plot dreams. molly ringwald appears for 20 seconds.

INHALES. OKAY.

to riverdale and back again: its homecoming babey! archie’s very supportive mother has a nice talk with him. :) veronica founds out that her dad only has to serve “a few more months” in prison for his various white collar crimes, further proof that riverdale takes place in america. jughead and his dad have a nice normal breakfast while fp sweats and asks him “hey uh, how come uh you’re writing about the uhhhh murder and investigating it and stuff” like a normal dad would. archie and veronica tentatively agree to start going out.

penelopy blossom brings polly (betty’s pregnant sister, remember her? i didn’t) a strawberry milkshake in the most ominous way possible. veronica plans to sneakily find out if jughead’s dad is helping her own and for what purpose, ultimately. jughead accepts and invite to betty’s house for dinner, not knowing her mom is going to grill the shit out of him and his dad over the whole kid murder thing.

polly finds the ring jason proposed to her with back in penelope’s room while snooping, and has no idea how it wound up back in the hands of his mother. according to penelope, jason threw it in their face when he renounced his lineage, then gives her another milkshake.

the cooper family event is disrupted when betty, wise to her mother’s horseshit, invites her estranged dad to dinner too. all hell breaks loose when the subject of homecoming comes up and fp reveals that while alice and hal were crowned homecoming king and queen, they got in a knockout, drag-out fight backstage. alice flips out before he can reveal what it was about and betty and jughead flee for the dance. meanwhile archie and veronica try, and fail, to find something incriminating in fp’s trailer.

cheryl discovers the milkshakes are DRUGGED and polly is going to sleep through homecoming. she informs her parents that she has disposed of the ring (evidence) and they dont have to worry about it anymore. you can see where this is going.

jughead’s dad drops a bomb on him right before homecoming that they’re going to move to toledo to meet up with jughead’s mom and baby sister. jughead hates this bc he just got used to betty and he wants to write his murder book.

archie and veronica sing a truly terrible cover of “kids in america” that has to be seen to be believed.

youtube

meanwhile, sherrif keller tears up fp’s house with a search warrant and finds the gun that was used to kill jason blossom. WHAAAA??? BUT ARCHIE AND VERONICA JUST SEARCHED IT??? how could this happen.....jughead finds out about the web of deception weaved by the friends and tells them all to fuck off so he can go to toledo with his family. jughead literally turns around and is informed that his dad was just arrested for murder. his life is so hilariously bad.

the sheriff sucks so bad at his job because he tells his gay son everything who then spills the beans to archie and co (sans jughead) who learn that fp is being framed, because they already tossed the place before.

cheryl has the ring. at this point none of these things mean anything.

i cant believe i still have two more of these. i’m going to have to split this post after this one.

anatomy of a murder: as it turns out, archie discovers, information you discover during a breaking and entering won’t hold up in court. oops. meanwhile fp inexplicably confesses to kidnapping jason after his fake drowning at sweetwater river so he could use him as ransom after discovering he heir to all that sweet maple syrup money. according to fp, jason nearly escaped so they cut their losses and blasted a hole in him. he also confesses to torching the car and stealing the sheriff's files (which we, the audience, know hal cooper did, not fp). well. that’s that, i guess.

betty’s dad comes back to the family home to destroy the murderboard evidence all like “whoo hoo! fp took a bullet for me!” hal’s concern and his reason for stealing the files in the first place, as it turns out, was because the feud between the coopers and the blossoms is more complicated than we thought. the coopers WERE blossoms, until grand-pappy was murdered, so they packed their shit and left with a new name. so that makes polly and jason related. cool!

fp apparently used his his last phone call to call kevin’s boyfriend who, after some pressing by the gang, admits that while he didnt see fp pull the trigger, he did help him put jason’s body in a freezer. this tip leads them to the corpse of a serpent who had a sack of money in a monogrammed dufflebag with the initials “h.l.” (hiram lodge). this is a comically dumb move for a crime boss to make. it is shockingly stupid.

joaquin tells kevin about a secret stash he and fp set up before he bounces from town forever because riverdale sucks. in the stash is jason’s jacket. everyone puzzles over what it means until betty, noted brain genius checks the pockets. in it they find a usb drive.

they sit down and watch the usb and react like they’re watching a sad documentary and not a snuff film. betty calls CHERYL OF ALL PEOPLE and tells her what they just saw on the usb. cheryl, queen of chaos, confronts her dad and tells him that everyone knows what he did.

it turns out the video depicts jason tied up in the basement of the whyte wyrm, there the dead serpent watches over him. clifford blossom walks in and blows a hole in his kid. fp confessed to protect jughead, who was threatened by cliff as the heat poured on.

clifford dies surrounded by his greatest love, maple syrup, by hanging himself in the syrup barn. lol

the sweet hereafter: how the fuck is there another episode of this? they solved the murder, what else could there possibly be to do. wtf. anyway.

the cops find hella drugs in the maple barn after clifford’s death. the assumed story is that jason learned about his dad’s heroin smuggling business and threatened to tell the cops on his dad which lead to his abduction, and eventual death. i guess the polly thing is in here too somehow. not important i guess. the lodges prepare for hiram’s arrival. betty and archie are going to be honored by the mayor for cracking the case at the 75th annual jubilee (wtf). hermoine attempts to buy fred out of the project now that the cops are cracking down on the serpents and making them the face of the construction company is now a very bad look.

betty tries to write an article for the town paper about fp being innocent but her parents wont publish it, citing it as a conflict of interest given she’s smooching the subject’s son. jughead FINALLY JUT NOW gets a social worker who realizes that fred has a dui and is not fit to care for a kid. he has to transfer to a new school district...SOUTHSIDE HIGH SCHOOL!!!

cheryl apologizes for throwing hands at jughead in a previous ep and gives him her iconic spider brooch. i am only bringing this up because she says, specifically, that selling it will net him a good amount of hamburgers and “s t-shirts” for years. why is she the only one who notices he only wears one kind of shirt. betty’s article getting published in the school paper leads to the above retaliation.

veronica’s mom honest to god asks her to sexually manipulate archie into convincing his dad to sell the project to her.

betty’s mom, after a confrontation, tells betty abt the fight she and her dad had on homecoming night when they were high schoolers. turns out...alice was pregnant. she gave the baby up for adoption after she went to the sisters of quiet mercy, like she did with polly, even though hal wanted an abortion. betty immediately tells all her friends this shit.

jughead transfers to the new high and flourishes. turns out they’re all baby gangsters there so they look at him and his dad as kings to be admired. when the archie group heads off to go rescue him, it turns out they dont need to do anything. but now that theyre all conveniently together, veronica gets a txt from cheryl saying she’s going to go be with jason....

they rush to the river where cheryl is having her ophelia meltdown in his stupid little river boat dress where she punches through the ice until she falls through. theres no way to describe how silly this scene is unless you see it so i won’t try but its so melodramatic and cheesy that youre going to be amazed that it got through the writing team at all. archie saves her by punching through the ice the other way. from under the ice. you will soon find, that all of archie’s solutions are to punch things.

betty does a speech at the jubilee that convinces fred not to sell. a nice ending for him.

meanwhile cheryl burns her fucking house down for a lark. just for the drama of it all.

the same night, jughead and betty start to fuck, as do veronica and archie. not int he same room, like totally separately. but jughead is interrupted by the serpents and a dog named hotdog, who give him a jacket of his own so he can join the team. betty is scandalized.

archie goes to meet his father for a breakfast at pop’s chocklit shoppe for a serious talk. but while he’s int he bathroom, a man with a gun is holding up the chocklit shoppe. he demands fred’s wallet, then pops a hole in him and runs off.

and that.........is where this season......ends.

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thank you for joining me for season 1 of this shitshow. i love this shitty show. if you loved reading about it, or were mortified by whatever the fuck happened here, then you should watch it as well.

i never pass up an opportunity to shill myself, so if you like what i write, drop me a buck or two at my patreon. i do more writing like this, but also i mostly make comics, so make sure to read the page when you’re signing up so you know what you’re getting!

i WILL return...with season...2!

https://www.patreon.com/aghoststory

#riverdale

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flightfoot · 6 years

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Apollo’s pretty terrible at reading people’s thoughts and emotions at first, but becomes an expert at it over the course of the books, once he starts dropping his facades

Apollo is only this good at reading people when he actually tries. At first, he often didn’t put in the effort, and just fooled himself into thinking that they were thinking or feeling what he wanted them to be thinking or feeling.

When Apollo meets Meg, he actually thinks about his own people-reading skills.

My highly advanced people-reading skills told me she [Meg] was hiding something, but that was not unusual for demigods. For children blessed with an immortal parent, they were strangely sensitive about their backgrounds. (THO 20-21).

Apollo wants to believe that having a god as a parent is a great blessing, so he doesn’t really choose to think about what kind of life a lot of these demigods lead, what with often being raised by a single parent, getting kicked out of schools, and being hunted by monsters constantly. He doesn’t care to know, so he doesn’t dig and figure it out.

He also misremembers how much he’s helped Percy.

“But Percy Jackson has always been reliable. You have nothing to fear. Besides, he likes me. I taught him everything he knows.” (24)

He’s only really interacted with Percy four times: when picking up the Hunters in Titan’s curse; when disguised as Fred the Hobo; sort of when he made Rachel the Oracle of Delphi; and when he sent Percy to retrieve his wayward Celadon in Singer of Apollo. And Percy was NOT happy with Apollo after Singer of Apollo. But Apollo wants to be partly responsible for Percy’s successes and he wants everyone to like him, so that’s what he remembers.

Speaking of Singer of Apollo, that short story really shows how little he used to listen to others, and how easily he could be fooled into believing that they are thinking and feeling things that are favorable to him.

“we’re kind of off duty, Lord Apollo. It’s Grover’s birthday.”

“Happy birthday!” Apollo said. “I’m so glad you’re taking the day off. That means you two have time to help me with a small problem!”

He’s not really listening to what Percy has to say here. He’s twisting Percy’s words to mean what he WANTS them to mean, and it’s not like Percy can really refuse him, for fear of incineration.

When Percy and Grover get back from retrieving the rogue Celadon, Apollo offers a reward, which Percy declines:

“Well, good job you two! As your reward, you’re invited to watch me perform on Mount Olympus.”

Grover and I glanced at each other. Insulting a god was dangerous, but the last thing I wanted was to hear more music.

“We aren’t worthy,” I lied. “We’d love to, really, but you know, we’d probably explode or something if we heard your godly music at full volume.”

Apollo nodded thoughtfully. “You’re right. It might distract from my performance if you exploded. How considerate of you.” He grinned. “Well, I’m off, then. Happy birthday Percy!”

Now apparently people exploding while listening to Apollo’s music IS a serious concern, but Apollo still should have been able to tell that Percy and Grover were actually just looking for an excuse to skip the concert... if he had cared to look more deeply into what they were thinking and feeling. Which he didn’t. He didn’t even care enough to remember that it was Grover’s birthday, not Percy’s. I strongly suspect that if post-TBM Apollo could rewatch his interactions with Percy and Grover during this quest, he’d face-palm at how oblivious he was. Or be tempted to punch himself in the face. Or both.

Back in The Hidden Oracle, he IS actually able to read Percy when he meets up with him a short time later, but dismisses his own reading of Percy’s expression, since it’s not favorable to him.

If I didn’t know how much Percy Jackson adored me, I would have sworn he was about to punch me in my already broken nose. (26)

He does this sort of thing a lot throughout THO and TDP, where he reads people and situations accurately, and then tells himself that that can’t possibly be the case. He mostly stops that by the time TBM rolls around, though.

Apollo gets this reading-accurately-and-then-denying-it thing a lot with Percy especially.

“Well, never fear,” I said. “There are always new opportunities to win fame! That’s why I’ve come to you for help!”

He gave me that confusing expression again: as if he wanted to kick me, when I was sure he was struggling to contain his gratitude. (33)

Apollo just can’t seem to accept Percy’s true thoughts and feelings, so he always just goes with the interpretations that’s most charitable to himself, like when Percy mentions that the Oracle isn’t working:

I swallowed back the taste of fear and seven-layer dip. “I just... I assumed - I hoped this would be taken care of by now.”

“You mean by demigods,” Percy said, “going on a big quest to reclaim the Oracle of Delphi?”

“Exactly!” I knew Percy would understand. “I suppose Chiron just forgot. I’ll remind him when we get to camp and he can dispatch some of you talented fodder - I mean heroes -” (47)

I suppose Apollo’s right in that Percy understands what Apollo means. Percy just isn’t thrilled about it, which Apollo doesn’t seem to realize. Or rather, doesn’t WANT to realize. He desires Percy’s respect and even adoration, so he keeps on fooling himself into thinking he has it.

This self-deception doesn’t hold up for very long. He gets better at reading people pretty quickly - especially Meg, since he doesn’t crave her respect or adoration the same way he desires Percy’s, so he’s more willing to take his own reading of her at face value, rather than trying to fool himself. Plus he knows very little about her, neither does anyone else, and she’s not volunteering much. So if he wants to know more about his new master, he has to become really perceptive and good at getting her to open up.

I glanced at the rings on her middle fingers. “So yesterday... those swords. And don’t do that thing.”

Meg’s eyebrows furrowed. “What thing?”

“That thing where you shut down and refuse to talk. Your face turns to cement.”

She gave me a furious pout. “It does not. I’ve got swords. I fight with them. So what?”

“So it might have been nice to know that earlier, when we were in combat with the plague spirits.”

“You said it yourself: those spirits couldn’t be killed.”

“You’re sidestepping” (THO 133)

A little later in the conversation, he’s able to acquire enough hints from her words and expressions to get an idea of what may be going on:

“I never met my mom.” she said. “I didn’t know who she was.”

“Then where did you get the swords? Your father?”

Meg tore her waffle into tiny pieces. “No... my stepdad raised me. He gave me these rings.”

“Your stepfather. Your stepfather gave you rings that turn into imperial gold swords. What sort of man -”

“A good man,” she snapped.

I noted the steel in Meg’s voice and let the subject rest. I sensed a great tragedy in her past.” (THO 134)

Apollo is able to ask just the right questions to get the hint that something is kinda weird about Meg’s relationship with her stepfather, and to get a hint that something traumatic is involved - and also that pursuing that subject would be bad for his health.

When he and Meg end up in Python’s cave, he’s also able to identify that Meg’s more terrified of the man’s voice, than she is of the giant reptile talking to him:

Next to me, in the glow of the apple, Meg seemed to have turned to bronze. Her eyes were wide with fear. A little late for that, but at least she was quiet. If I didn’t know better, I might have thought the man’s voice terrified her more than the monster’s. (THO 168)

Probably the best, and possibly his most important reading of Meg, was when he was able to identify what sort of manipulation Nero had used on her, to get her to obey him.

“Meg had been trained to regard her kindly stepfather Nero and the terrifying Beast as two separate people. I understood now why she preferred to spend her time in the alleys of New York. I understood why she had such quick mood changes, going from cartwheels to full shutdowns in a matter of seconds. She never knew what might unleash the Beast.

She fixed her eyes on me. Her lips quivered. I could tell she wanted a way out - some eloquent argument that would mollify her stepfather and allow her to follow her conscience. (THO 289- 290).

His ability to read both the situation and Meg is crucial to persuading Meg to fight back against Nero, even if it doesn’t last. Plus, it lets him identify much of the basics of what happened to her, even though he’s not outright told, which is useful in his efforts to help her throw off his brainwashing in later books.

Meg isn’t the only person Apollo can read - far from it. In the Dark Prophecy, he’s able to tell that Leo and Calypso have asked to stay at the Waystation:

“Assuming we live through tomorrow,” I said, “you two intend to remain at the Waystation.”

[...]

“How did you know?” Calypso asked.

“The serious conversations with our hosts?” I said. “The furtive glances?” (291)

He’s also able to persuade some blemmyae to blow up the Cave of Trophonious, and that a 5 second timer counts slower underwater. Blemmyae are stupid though, so that’s not as impressive as it sounds.

Over in The Burning Maze, Apollo’s able to read Jason pretty well, despite only having known him for a few minutes. He’s able to tell that Jason’s hiding something.

“All right,” I said. “What did the Sibyl really tell you?”

[...]

“What makes you think I’m holding back?” he asked.

“Please,” I said. “Don’t try to be evasively prophetic with the god of evasive prophecies.” (211)

Piper seems to have an idea that Jason might still be holding something back, but Apollo acts like he knows for sure, and is able to persuade him to open up.

Later in their conversation, Apollo reads the situation between Jason and Piper REALLY well.

“You would’ve let us lead you cheerily off to your death? How would that have affected Piper’s peace of mind, once she found out?”

Jason’s ears reddened. It struck me just how young he was - no more than seventeen. Older than my mortal form, yes, but not by much. This young man had lost his mother. He had survived the harsh training of Lupa the wolf goddess. He’d grown up with the discipline of the Twelfth legion at Camp Jupiter. He’d fought Titans and Giants. He’d helped save the world at least twice. But by mortal standards, he was barely an adult. He wasn’t old enough to vote or drink.

Despite all his experiences, was it fair of me to expect him to think logically, and consider everyone’s feelings with perfect clarity, while pondering his own death?

I tried to soften my tone. “You don’t want Piper to die. I understand that. She wouldn’t want you to die. But avoiding prophecies never works. And keeping secrets from friends... that really never works. It’ll be our job to face Caligula together, steal that homicidal maniac’s shoes, and get away without any five-letter words that start with D.” (214-215)

Apollo’s social skills here, his ability to read Jason, and knowing just what to say here is really impressive. He may have complained in the past about not being a silver-tongued orator anymore, but I’d argue that his skills there have IMPROVED, not lessened. He just needed to get over some of his self-pity and awkwardness first.

Jason’s not the only one he’s gotten good at reading and giving advice to, though. While on board Caligula’s wardrobe boat, he pressed her about the song she sang, “Life of Illusion”, and what it meant to her. That the way she sang the song, she was talking about herself, and her feelings about Jason. He got her to open up.

“I tried,” she murmured. “After the war with Gaea, I convinced myself everything would be perfect. For a while, a few months maybe, I thought it was. Jason’s great. He’s my closest friend, even more than Annabeth. “But” - she spread her hands - “whatever I thought was there, my happily-ever-after... It just wasn’t.”

I nodded. “Your relationship was born in crisis. Such romances are difficult to sustain once the crisis is over.” (263)

Piper confesses that the major problem she had with their relationship was how she had been manipulated and pressured into it by Hera’s and Aphrodite’s machinations, and how she wanted a chance to figure out who she is and what she wants.

“You’re wondering who you are without all the pressure.” (264)

She’s not even sure if she counts as Cherokee, since Cherokee heritage is matrilineal, and her mother is a Greek goddess, not Cherokee. Apollo has some surprisingly profound and comforting words of wisdom for her:

“It’s been my observation,” I said, “that you humans are more than the sum of your history. You can choose how much of your ancestry to embrace. You can overcome the expectations of your family and your society. What you cannot do, and should never do, is try to be someone other than yourself - Piper McLean.” (265)

Apollo now excels at really listening to people and offering comfort and support. He hasn’t done so in the past, either by choice because he didn’t care, or because he honestly wasn’t as good at reading people and seeing what they needed. But now he’s excellent at it, and I suspect that his skill will only improve.

Apollo’s also gotten really good at reading situations to manipulate his enemies, like when his party is captured by some pandai while infiltrating Caligula’s ships.

I scanned the deck. No additional guards were running toward us, no searchlights were trained on our position. No horns blared. Somewhere inside the boat, gentle music played - not the sort of soundtrack one might expect during an incursion.

The pandai had not raised a general alarm. Despite their threats, they had not yet killed us. They’d even gone to the trouble of zip-tying Piper’s and Jason’s hands. Why?

I turned to the largest guard “Good sir, are you the panda in charge?”

[...]

I studied his majestic ears, then hazarded an educated guess. “I imagine you hate people eavesdropping on you.”

Amax’s furry black nose twitched. “Why do you say this? What did you hear?”

“Nothing!” I assured him. “But I bet you have to be careful. Always other people, other pandai snooping into your business. That’s - that’s why you haven’t raised an alarm yet. You know we’re important prisoners. You want to keep control of the situation, without anyone else taking credit for your good work.” (241-242)

Apollo used some pretty limited info, managed to arrive at the correct conclusion, and then manipulated the situation to his benefit (though the others started helping at that point). Even Piper could scarcely have done better!

Later in the scene, when Meg is able to fight back, Apollo’s the one who notices that Crest doesn’t want to hurt them, and is able to persuade him to leave.

With a horrified whimper, Crest dropped his bow. He staggered backward, struggling to draw his sword. Meg yanked her first scimitar from Amax’s dust-covered chair and marched toward him.

“Meg, wait!” I said.

She glared at me. “What?”

I tried to raise my hands in a placating gesture, then remembered they were tied behind my back.

“Crest,” I said, “there’s no shame in surrender. You are not a fighter.”

He gulped. “Y-you don’t know me.”

“You’re holding your sword backward,” I pointed out. “So unless you intend to stab yourself...”

He fumbled to correct the situation.

“Fly!” I pleaded. “This doesn’t have to be your fight. Get out of here! Become the musician you want to see in the world!”

He must have heard the earnestness in my voice. He dropped his sword and jumped through the gaping hole in the glass, ear-sailing into the darkness.

“Why’d you let him go?” Meg demanded. “He’ll warn everybody.”

“I don’t think so,” I said. “Also, it doesn’t matter. We just announced ourselves with a literal thunderbolt.” (252)

Everyone has access to the same info about Crest that Apollo does, and yet Apollo is the one who tries to save Crest, is able to persuade him to retreat, and understands Crest well enough to suspect that he won’t raise the alarm (not that it mattered).

Later on Apollo sees Crest again.

“I think we’re being followed,” I said. “Our friend Crest.”

Piper scanned the night sky. “What do we do about it?”

“I’d recommend nothing,” I said. “If he wanted to attack us or raise the alarm, he could’ve already done it.” (266)

Apollo’s better at reading the situation than Piper is here - probably because he identifies with Crest, music-lover that he is. He’s able to read Crest really well, and make the correct decision. Much like with Meg, reading Crest accurately was key to getting his help later. If Apollo hadn’t been as good as he is, Crest would still be dead, likely murdered by Meg, and Apollo would be gone for good.

Apollo’s people-reading skills have grown so much, from not being able to/not caring to read Percy accurately in The Singer of Apollo, to being able to wheedle out what Jason’s hiding, to giving Piper some excellent support and comfort. I believe that these skills will again prove to be vital in the next book, particularly when meeting Reyna. Nico helped her somewhat, getting her to open up about her father and telling her that she did what she had to do, but they were interrupted before they could really finish their heart-to-heart, and she still hadn’t seemed to have totally come to terms with what happened to her father. I suspect that Apollo will be able “heal her heart”, not by starting a romantic relationship with her, but by helping her put her past to rest and being supportive.

#apollo #lester papadopoulos #TOA centric #trials of apollo #toa #tho #tho spoilers #tdp #tdp spoilers #tbm #tbm spoilers #the trials of apollo #the hidden oracle #the dark prophecy #the burning maze #This took so long to put together and required a few revisions as my plan for it changed #But overall I'm satisfied with how it turned out #I hope everyone likes it!#I'd love any discussion or comments you guys have for it!

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floggingink · 6 years

Text

Riverdale, “Chapter Twenty-Five: The Wicked and the Divine”

Jughead has seen more “mob movies” than I have, so I can’t verify his “classic trope,” but he’s speaking my language

I found Archie’s Devil Wears Prada errand-montage zippy and playful, much like Hiram Lodge himself

especially the direction of the construction guy’s arm clapping Archie’s shoulder to add movement to the swerving transition (not a technical term) as he steps into the trailer

Hiram’s soft V-neck sweater is, I assume, cashmere

Veronica’s look is so inseparable from collars and pearls that she has a collar made of pearls sewn into her dress

RAS wanted a Veronica-confirmation episode, so by God, he is getting one, and Veronica’s age be damned! Hiram and Hermione wanted “the same monsignor” from Veronica’s baptism, who I guess has been on leave at the Vatican for five years okay!

Archie wants to know if Veronica will have “to memorize stuff”

Veronica’s confirmation sponsor is her grandmother, which is par for the course, as is volunteering at a soup kitchen for her like 8 hours of required community service. I also had to write a report on Saint Lucy and pray a rosary in front of an abortion clinic. Veronica probably won’t have to do that, since you can’t say abortion on Riverdale

do soup kitchens have any actual paid employees, or are they all stocked with kids who just need volunteer hours/Matthew Goode’s character from The Good Wife in his spare time wearing that blue sweatshirt to characterize him as being “just that nice”?

Hiram is such a fucking soap opera star when he says Veronica has made him “the happiest father ALIVE.” like, alive?

“ISN’T SHE A MIRACLE?”

on FP’s kitchen table is the same kind of half-gallon of milk that Jughead was drinking from the morning after his birthday party. the Andrewses kept a spare half-gallon of skim milk just for Jughead in their fridge? the nicest thing Fred ever did for him

Jughead doubts it: Jughead is VERY sassy with Sheriff Keller and FP loves it!!!! because Jughead can have an anti-authoritarian ’tude WITHOUT NECESSARILY being “a gang member” at that particular moment!

FP is so crisp and put together! FP looks GREAT! what up though, Gladys?

wow I can’t believe Jughead’s article wielded so much political power that its legal ramifications echo throughout the entire episode, as if Jughead were Nellie Bly

“CAN I GET A QUOTE?” this is the Jughead that FP plainly adores

Jughead and Betty both drink skim milk, so, their wedding will be soon

are men on webcams actually fool enough to ask the webcam girls if they can MEET IN REAL LIFE? I have no knowledge about this world, but I would imagine the answer would be “Have you ever seen a film, ever?”

50 Shades of Betty: Betty looks pretty great in that severe black fucking wig and I still want an apology from Chuck specifically about dissing the wig

“Catholic chic” means veils optional, like the stole in black tie

What damn high school in America: Jughead doesn’t have to wear the preppy Lodge uniform, I see? shame

Best costume bit: Betty’s heart sweater is possibly my favorite thing she’s ever worn. I want it BADLY

ARE YOU TELLING ME HIRAM LODGE WANTS TO SUE A HIGH SCHOOL NEWSPAPER?

“DEFAMATION OF CHARACTER”? IS THERE SOMETHING HE WROTE THAT WASN’T TRUE? ARE YOU ~NOT~ BUILDING BOWLING ALLEYS ON NATIVE AMERICAN LAND? I will fucking suit up and be Jughead’s lawyer on this. as has been demonstrated, I have seen every episode of The Good Wife and can probably practice law in Illinois (for instance I know that in Illinois you only need one-person consent to secretly record a conversation)

I love Betty and Jughead being in the same room, of course, but Betty’s gentle, poking “And...did you?” is EXCEPTIONALLY cute. Betty is so cute. and sometimes scary

Jughead’s least clueless moment of the season so far is him looking back knowingly at Betty when she says maybe he would do it to “avenge Toni’s grandfather”

“WE’RE PALS.”

Jughead kind of looks great leaning against the window. like the lighting or something. God, please let me one day see the two of them making out with Betty in her cheerleading uniform

okay, I thought Betty and Jughead, IT WAS IMPLIED, had already had sex, because I was shown them waking up together after they had slept together in the trailer. apparently they LITERALLY slept together. APPARENTLY THEY HAVE NOT HAD SEX YET. I should have known, from the sleeper biceps, that Jughead was still pining IN THIS WAY, FOR THAT! I should have KNOWN Betty had not RIDDEN JUGHEAD INTO THE SUNSET YET. fuck! what am I doing!

Every triangle has three corners, every triangle has three sides: I also emotionally defend Betty’s ecru lie about not having “done anything” with anyone since the breakup since, as one will recall, immediately after her and Archie’s kiss they stared in horror at each other and have not talked about it since, thus cancelling it out as a real kiss (this is also a statute of Illinois law)

Hermione Lodge has some sort of skinny gold Lothlórien belt on over her deep merlot blazer

Archie > Dawson: Archie is sweet when he apologizes for making Pop double-check the order: “It’s more to make sure I get everything right.”

Archie hears Pop’s slip about Hiram being “the boss,” but other things happen and he FORGETS! at what inopportune time will he remember? when he’s physically embracing Jughead Jones?

although couldn’t Pop just play it off like Hiram is Archie’s boss? think on your feet, Pop

for the record I love Agent Adams and his whole deal. his plan is so insane that it might be brilliant. I just do still wish he were being played by either Sterling K. Brown or Max Greenfield

he doesn’t appreciate Archie’s attitude: “Is there a problem?” yeah, uh, Archie’s like twelve years old and not a trained undercover field agent? I love this stupid shit

oh, everyone’s being evicted from Sunnyside? if only Jughead hadn’t driven the southside’s only lawyer out of town with Kenickie Murdoch’s switchblade

OH MY GOD HERMIONE’S PANTS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

according to everyone’s facial expressions, Veronica is under the impression she is doing good political maneuvering inviting the McCoys to her confirmation, Hermione is stunned she did so, Veronica really wanted to sing a solo, and Josie doesn’t know why she has to fucking apologize for anything

Josie being Veronica’s “gift” from Mayor McCoy is horrifying

Sixth period is Intro to Film: Cruel Intentions is a fantastic Catholic standard, containing as it does cocaine, “experimental” girl-on-girl French kissing, Ryan Phillippe’s ass, the line “I'm the Marcia fucking Brady of the Upper East Side and sometimes I want to kill myself,” and implied step-sibling fucking, all of which I think Riverdale should include more of

the blue and red lighting inside the Wyrm is still nice. does the Wyrm even count as a dive? strippers probably wouldn’t waste their time at dives

wow there are some true beards in this crowd

okay…..the idea that Tall Boy is a better suspect than Jughead…...because he’s physically taller…..is singularly the most fantastic thing…..I have ever heard…..

I’ve seen Brick like thirty times: the sound of Archie shifting on the leather of Hiram’s couch is real good

“I RESPECT A MAN WHO WOULD GO TO SUCH EXTREMES.” HIRAM PLEASE!!!!! ARCHIE IS TOO DUMB FOR THIS!!!!!!

Gay?!: Ben? who the fuck is Ben? who is BEN? who the fuck?

OH MY GOD Jughead got in to see the mayor AGAIN! is Ethel Muggs her secretary???

Jughead interrupted Mayor McCoy eating her salad at her desk

for like the third time in the series she says she’s “always liked” Jughead, which, fat lot of good that’s done him

in Riverdale there is a red uniform at the soup kitchen, because even THE POOR must abide by aesthetics

Archie doesn’t know what cutting cigars means

Archie’s shoulders are nice under that polo

Betty’s plan about “treat it like a missing person’s case” and making it like this snooping Blue and Gold intrigue thing is of course welcome as a pretense for the two of them working together (on the show’s part), but in reality it’s just the fucking bare minimum that THE AUTHORITIES should ALREADY BE FUCKING DOING THEMSELVES

at this point I went to bed and had a very gripping, sexy dream about Veronica and Jughead. Veronica and Jughead

“Damn good coffee”: Hiram floating having to “bring Archie in” on the Lodge Family Tammany Hall is only slightly less absurd than the Federal Bureau of Investigation having already done so. what does Archie need to be brought in on, exactly? he’s just Veronica’s arm candy. he barely knows what a cigar is

while it is STILL ODD that Veronica has done a 180 on her accepting her father’s criminality, she still holds Archie up as a beacon of goodness, because, like I said, shoulders, polos

Jughead’s “order of the Ophidians” as he tapes up the Missing poster is either, so far as I can tell, an extremely obscure MMORPG reference or he’s just calling them snakes, but like, in Latin

Penny didn’t die of gangrene from her blistering wound like on the Oregon trail? probably a plus

FP is in some deep pain here. this is so far beyond his worst fears about Jughead joining the Serpents that he like never even fucking considered—I NEVER FUCKING CONSIDERED IT, IT WAS FUCKING RIDICULOUS

I certainly don’t think Penny’s terms are like, PARTICULARLY OUT OF LINE

ooooh Jughead’s little snipe at his father for fridging Jason!

I DON’T EVEN KNOW WHAT TO DO WITH “YOU WILL BE THE DEATH OF US,” THE ANGUISHED REALIZATION IN FP’S EYES, GLADYS STAY AWAY!!!!!

I can’t believe the sixth season of The Wire takes place in Riverdale and doesn’t even have Sonja Sohn playing Agent Adams

Alice’s angel wing-white Founding Father blouse and Betty’s textured peach sweater

Hal is REALLY skittish about Chic, considering that HE’S HIS SON, SO FAR AS WE KNOW. but Hal hordes important information until the bitter end, so he probably just knows some shit

The Blossom Whoever the fuck’s spawn: “He’s a stranger. That’s my beef.”

“It’s been ~some time~ since my last confession” is usually the most accurate clocking I could give as well

I love the very dangerous clusters of candles inside the confessional

These students are legally children: NO ONE is helping Veronica. Veronica is trying to “find her thing” like, in the dark, lit by votive candles

I loved the circle of beautiful mob wives drinking wine and talking about how praying to “the Almighty” for “forgiveness” makes them feel better #aspirational

Hiram isn’t fucking around with Mr. Man “disrespecting Pop Tate.” Pop Tate is an angel, doing his best out here in a chaotic world. his poutine is probably great!

Archie’s stuck using the wrong kind of plunger

Poppa Poutine says Hiram lost his “mojo” in “the joint”

is Poppa right? is Hiram weak? if you subtract the Andrews boys, he doesn’t seem to have any problems

The 2001 Josie and the Pussycats movie was a masterpiece: Josie is back with killer witchy earrings, a lovely dress, and a fierce hold on the remainder of her personal agency

of course it’s “Bitter Sweet Symphony” but with harps. you know the Verve doesn’t get any royalties from that song? are the Rolling Stones the worst band in the world?

I LIKE THE SWOOSH FROM LARRY OR WHOEVER AND POPPA BACK TO ARCHIE WATCHING THEM

the back of the church is bathed in purple, the altar is yellow, the monsignor is in BRIGHT PALM SUNDAY RED, and this is what church should have always been like

Fwoopy hair is the best hair: Hermione’s strong-shouldered structured white jacket is amazing and Jughead forgoed his hat, to be respectful

Cheryl’s a chaos angel from hell: slightly strangely, Cheryl isn’t there at all this episode, but what we are truly robbed of is seeing what she would have worn to the confirmation

Veronica has a SUPER-SWEET very light pink/purple manicure!

Summer + Blair = Veronica: you better believe when Veronica was asked if she renounced Satan I was like, IS SHE GOING TO LOOK AT HER FATHER AND STORM OUT OF THAT CHURCH????? I THOUGHT SHE MIGHT!!!!!

instead I got an amazing thematic light show about Veronica choosing to believe in Archie’s unflagging internal compass and following his light (“the light of the Lord”!)

HE GIVES HER A TINY HAPPY NOD WHILE SHE’S THINKING, LIKE “YEAH BABE I KNOW YOU RENOUNCE SATAN!!!!!”

Veronica was rich: Veronica does look like a fucking angel up there

wow, Dilton isn’t DJing the afterparty? weird

why are Betty and Archie standing together AT ALL?

Abuelita is 100% right about pinching Archie’s cheek and Archie goes with it because he is respectful

Jughead eats: Jughead is so tormented he neglects the buffet!!!!!!

Jughead’s suit is very nice. I like the progression of his wearing better and better suits

Betty takes the news of Jughead’s CONFESSION that he “cut” Penny pretty stoically, as she did boil a guy once

POOR JUG IS RIGHT, IT DIDN’T EVEN MATTER!

Closed Captioning tells me the junkyard guy’s name is “JUNKYARD STEVE,” MY MAN

“If only we lived in a town where the answer could be no.”

Sexy, aesthetic Southside: Jughead in his leather jacket OVER HIS SUIT JACKET is pretty good!

“BY ANY CHANCE WAS THIS GENTLEMAN TALL?” OH MY GOD!!!! CASE FUCKING CLOSED BOYS!!!!!!!

Hermione hauling Veronica back for the photographer

Archie looking up from behind the closing art deco elevator doors

The female gaze: Archie is of course so handsome and perfectly proportioned in his suit. his handsomeness is such a given that I take it wholly for granted, like how when not suffering an allergy attack I can breathe from both nostrils but when one hits and I’m sneezing up my guts I’m like, air coming in from both nostrils? true bliss, I’ll never forget it again

God, did he get rid of his tailored cranberry Blossom suit? not the WORST crime committed in Riverdale, but probably worthy of eviction

Fifth period is AP English: as @hangingonyourwords noted, Archie knowing the word “coup” is VERY surprising! GOOD, ARCHIE

Hiram Lodge is, I think, listening to that song from Carmen while pouring himself a stiff drink, the massive Rory Gilmore portrait of Veronica over one shoulder and the blue light of an antipodean sea streaming in over the other, using a rotary phone to call in A MURDER

Tall Boy having to suffer interrogation by Jughead, whom he surely must have always despised, is his final indignity

Jughead calls Betty “one of us,” which has not been given enough fanfare by ANYONE in the show! Betty is ONE HUNDRED PERCENT as much a Serpent as Jughead, unless Jughead’s mother is a Serpent, except that she hasn’t had to shout their stupid rules into someone’s face yet

I’m writing a scene where it’s gay.: “YOU HAVEN’T ANSWERED MY SON’S QUESTION.”

the poor Serpents have been twisted around rich northsiders’ fingers for so long that they don’t have any fucking idea what to be doing when NOT at the behest of a blackmailer or bribery. I don’t know what it means to be a Serpent except that it means you’re poor and comely. and VERY civic-minded

“You’re a Judas, Tall Boy. And an idiot.”

Gay.: Sweet Pea raises both his arms to vote

FP’s gonna run Tall Boy out of town. a word of advice: one town over is not far enough

hell, Archie’s seen all those mob movies too! he and Jughead must’ve watched them together while Jughead was sleeping in his bedroom

Archie’s speech to Veronica is GOOD, ARCHIE, and what Veronica gets out just reinforces my thought that Hiram is literally starting a second town under Mayor McCoy’s nose, which would concern me expect that it has been definitely shown that even after things are executed on Riverdale I confuse myself and am invariably exactly wrong

I would probably kiss Archie too if he looked at me like that and said “I’m with you,” which I think explains Betty

HAHAAAAAAAAAAA OKAY!!!!!! SOMETHING IN THE WATER IN FP’S TRAILER

Jughead’s suspenders? a startling plus!

I like the quietness of “Maybe we can ask Veronica on Monday.” it reminded me of Archie’s face-saving some-other-time-definitely promise to go to the library with Jughead

“Maybe we should just investigate quietly until we know more.”

BLESSED BE THE CHILDREN and Jughead’s brusque scoff at himself for saying “my darkness”

in a move that the last few episodes haven’t shown him as having enough sense to make, Jughead puts his hand, not on Betty’s hand, but directly on the skirt of her dress

also Jughead knows that dress zippers have a point where you think it’s gone all the way down but really you’ve got a little further to go otherwise you can’t get the waistline over the hips? Jug’s got a little bit of game going on!

I like the silhouette of Jughead’s Adam’s apple

while Jughead is doing an excellent job delicately checking in with Betty’s sacral chakra, with his bare hand, I don’t want to overlook either his own gently crossed ankles as he holds her or his AMAZING SOCKS

when Betty tells him she needs to tell him something, he EXHALES a “What?” before he says “What is it?” WHOOP

she is missing a pretty sick meatloaf or pork of some more at her mother’s dinner table

I didn’t think there was a physiognomically scarier white guy around than Chic himself, but I was wrong!!!! it’s definitely that guy at the door!!!!!!

oh shit, Archie sort of got somebody (else) killed. this is like when Jughead didn’t mean to but definitely got somebody’s face beaten in by Tall Boy and Serpent Baby—holy shit what happened to that kid!!!! where did Serpent Baby go???

Certified pedigree: OKAY SENDING THE STATUE HEAD TO HIRAM LODGE VIA A CONFIRMATION “PRESENT” TO HIS DAUGHTER IS A PRETTY GREAT MOVE. I ASSUME THIS WAS YOU, FP JONES. FP IS REALLY GOOD AT PUTTING WORDLESS THREATENING MESSAGES INTO BOXES

in the shot bingo of Riverdale, the middle box would have to be Betty coming through her front door and pausing because she hears something suspicious

Mädchen Amick, MÄDCHEN AMICK: the squishy sound effect of the rags on the wet floor? her perfect hair? her bright blue turtleneck? “Elizabeth, did you lock the front door?” Alice is already three steps ahead!!! Alice Alice Alice!!!!!

Alice and FP have now both cleaned up somebody else’s murder’s cranial blood (I’m assuming Chic clocked this guy, which means it was probably Melody), further proof they belong together

Please protect Betty: Betty fucking Jughead probably saved her life

Next week: Cheryl shoots a bow and arrow!!! into my heart!!!!!!!!!

#i say #commentary #riverdale #tropes

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tamlins-stories-and-poems · 7 years

Photo

Ok so this is a fic I’ve been writing for a while and is currently over like 60k words I think, but I’m only posting about 2k here as a sort of teaser. Basically this came about because @fire-fira and I were chatting about Bart and La'gaan and I ended wondering about if La'gaan had known and or helped raise Bart in the lost future. Lots of angst and fluff mixed together in this. If I get more than ten notes from people other than Fira and myself(preferably including reblogs) then I’ll post the next few sections! :D

Edit: Part two is [Here] if I did this right!

Uncle Laga was said to be the last Atlantean. He never joined the battles, he just watched the children of the rebellion. He loved kids, despite his gruff manner, they reminded him of his short time on some team. Some of the older folks called him Kraken, with awe in their voice. He’d snort in contempt when then did, and glance down at his peg leg before saying “Not anymore.” When Don and Melonie had their first two kids, Laga watched them too. When they had their second set of twins, Laga withheld a scream. He knew the face of the boy, and when the boy was named Bartholomew Allen the Second, Laga nicknamed him Bart. He started telling stories of the time before the Reach when Bart and his twin were old enough to understand them, a lot of them focusing on his friend Jaime. Bart somehow ended up in Laga’s lap a lot, or huddled against his side as one of the few younger kids got his favorite spot. When the kids hit twelve, they’d stop spending their time in uncle Laga’s care and move into mission training instead. Bart didn’t want that to happen. He looked up to his parents a lot, but they were never really around. Because they were both speedsters, they ran all over the planet to find people and resources, along with fighting the Bugs. He hated the Bugs. The Bugs destroyed Uncle Laga’s life, and Uncle Laga’s homes. They’d destroyed the Watch Tower. They’d poisoned Atlantis. They’d smashed the zeta ports. Now all Laga had left was hope that he’d find the second Kid Flash, who apparently went back in time. “You know, Bart,” Laga said one night, when the Allen kids were all huddled around him again, due to both their parents being on a mission, like most of the time. “If Kid hadn’t thought that killing the old host was the way to go, we might’ve had a Beetle on our side.” “What do you mean?” The five year old Bart asked. “The old Blue Beetle, he was my friend. We’d call him Blue, and tease him when he talked to his Scarab, and he saved my life a few times. But then Kid explained to the League how Blue was going to betray us, how he knew it would happen soon, and begged for permission to keep that from happening, in any way possible. We thought that he meant just sticking as close to Blue as possible. We agreed to let him. Blue’s body was found in Mongolia about a month later, but a new, giant Beetle had long since shown up and B-Kid blamed himself. He’d really liked Blue.” Laga explained. “Wait, but, if he killed Blue Beetle, why is there still Blue Beetle?” Bart asked, quietly. “Because the Bugs had technology that they were able to reset when our Blue died. Kid was convinced that they used it to control our Blue. Neptune’s beard, I miss those two.” Laga sighed. “Never you mind, Bart. The past is the past, and we don’t have the time travel to change it.” “But if we had time travel, you could go back and see your friends again, right, uncle Laga?” Bart guessed, putting his tiny elbows on La’gaan’s chest and resting his face on his hands. “I’m too old to save the world. I’m fifty, Bart. Even before the Bugs, even with people making sure I had healthy bones and joints that didn’t scrape every time they bent, I’d still be starting to push it with heroing.” Laga murmured. “They’ve been here almost forty years.” “So, who would you send to save your friends for you?” Bart asked. “Maybe one of you four. Would you like to go to the past?” Laga teased. “Is there food in the past?” Bart sighed longingly at the thought of food. “Yes, lots of it. Now go to sleep.” Laga said. He started singing in the Atlantean language, “Sweet water child…” he murmured, rubbing Bart’s back. Bart sang along to the lullaby until he fell asleep. Laga stared at the roof of the cave, as adults sobbed and screamed in the distance. The base wasn’t under attack again, but everyone here was traumatized. “Stay safe, my little electric eel. Don’t let your fear hurt our friends when you go.” He sighed, hoping that this time Bart would get to know Jaime well enough to try to save him from the Reach. “Please break this ekstassa time loop. Please save the world.” Laga had long since figured out that they had to be in a time loop of a sort. Future boy comes back to the past to stop what caused him to come back? Please, anyone who’d read any science fiction could tell you that that alone would be a time loop, and Kaldur had sent him a lot of science fiction when they were kids. Science fiction he and Lori and Bubbler would stay up far too late to finish reading on the computer they’d all built together. Laga sighed again, so much knowledge had been lost. Even if they could get rid of the Reach, nothing would be the same. Were his people truly lost? Had they really been poisoned or did they just lock themselves away like the amazons had? He hadn’t seen Cassie or Donna since the fall. Diana would look younger than him now. He wondered if she missed the Team as much as he did, or had she even made it back to earth after the incident with the trial? He’d seen Batman, but the head the Reach had claimed was Batman’s head was in truth Nightwing’s. Jason, the scum who had died, then never told anyone that he’d come back to life, had taken up the cowl after that. Now he’d passed it on the the Demon’s son, Damian, who had passed it off yet again to someone younger. Laga sighed again and closed his eyes. It was never good to think of the past.

.*.°.*.°.*.

Laga smiled as the children ran and played in the sun. “Why don’t you four ever join them?” He asked the Allen four. “I’m too hungry.” Yajri said, pitifully. “Same.” Her twin, Kuri agreed. “I have to save my energy. I use it so quickly.” Bart muttered, drawing his bony legs close to his stomach. Bart’s twin, Belle, said nothing. Her stomached was slightly bloated from hunger, but the rest of her was pure bones, as if her muscle had been eaten away in hopes of energy. She never spoke much anymore. She just stared, eyes hollow and longing, at where the other kids played. The Allen’s weren’t the thinnest kids. They got a lot of food, due to being speedsters, and being the children of the children of the two most important members of the rebellion. But Laga remembered how the speedsters had needed to eat before the fall, and sighed, supposing the kids were right not to play with the others. “Just be sure to talk with them when you can.” Laga said. “Social skills can save your life, and you can’t get proper social skills if you don’t hang out with people your age.” “Okay.” Yajri agreed for all of them. They wouldn’t. Everyone knew they wouldn’t. They’d sit together at story time, and be silent supports when Laga was needed, but they never talked to the other children alone.

.*.°.*.°.*.

The base had been attacked again. Laga had gotten most of the kids out. Belle had looked at them solemnly as he tried to get the kids out, and said, actually said, “I’ll die soon anyways. I need too much food. Give my portion to the others.” Then she ran off to the fight. Laga managed to get all the kids somewhere where they’d be safe and hidden, and convinced one of their attackers that they were hidden in a different spot, before the attack was eventually called off due to too many casualties on the Bugs’ side. Laga picked up the tooth that had been punched out of his mouth, and a scrap of cloth he’d ripped off a Bugslave’s shirt, and made it into a necklace, before digging the kids out of their hiding spot. Wally’s daughter had dropped by recently, and put her son, Raiku, into Laga’s care. She also dropped off a lot of nutrient tablets that had had the trackers and meta detectors removed. Laga wasn’t sure he believed that, especially after the last attack, but uncovering kids who didn’t look like they were about to starve to death was worth it, in his opinion. Even if they weren’t nearly enough for the speedsters. Even five a day hadn’t been enough to make Belle feel better. Laga knew she would’ve been the fastest if she’d had the energy to run. “Everyone okay?” He asked. Fred, named for peace by his Norwegian mother, took the tooth neckless and put it on Bart’s neck. “Yes, uncle Laga.” He said. “We’re fine. This time.” “Where’s Belle?” Bart asked. “Why can’t I feel her using the thing?” Laga winced. “She went to meet your good grandpa.” He said. “She’s dead?” Kuri shrieked, she was almost old enough to go into training now, Laga would have to see the back of her soon. “I’m sorry.” Laga said, and put a hand on her shoulder. She was slow for a Speedster, slower even than Wally, by a long shot, but she was still one of them. “She was too fast for me to stop. She said to give you all what would’ve been her share.” Bart hung his head. It was the first death that was real to him. Even his mother’s death hadn’t been fully real to him, since she was gone so often anyways. His dad had shown all the young speedsters some moves after that, but he still was rarely around. Almost like he couldn’t bare to se them. Laga picked him up, cradling the boy. “Let’s get back to the adults.” He said. The group trudged back to the wrecked base. They’d almost had buildings before this last attack. Yajri carried Raiku, who was only three, and cried with her twin. “Uncle Laga!” A twenty year old, the newest Longshadow, called. “They destroyed the food stores, bring the kids over and have them all eat something before everything spoils!” The non-Speedster kids rushed past him, everyone was always excited at the chance of more food. “Aren’t you hungry?” Laga asked the speedsters. “Belle’s dead. It’s not right to eat without her.” Yajri said. “She sacrificed herself so you all could live. Go eat.” Laga frowned. “If you don’t eat willingly, I will force feed you.” The three he wasn’t carrying trudged to the food, and Laga carried Bart over. Bart couldn’t stop crying. He was able to eat around his tears, but only food that was placed in his hands, and he cried harder whenever Laga tried to set him down. Laga started to sing a song he learned in the conservatory, “Stay strong, my sea child, stay strong, and fight. Stay strong, my sea child, and live through the night. Stay strong, my sea child, stay strong today, stay strong my sea child, ‘till the pain goes away. Stand strong, little sea child, stand strong for me, stand strong, little sea child, and kind please ye be. Stay strong, my sea child, though all seems but wrong, stay strong, my sea child, don’t pass along.” Bart had stopped crying, and was staring at Laga with wide, confused eyes. He hadn’t heard this lullaby since the night his mother died, when Laga had sung it to Don. Others, who had lost more, had heard it more often, and many people had begun to join in. “Yes, stay strong, my sea child, don’t let pain scar, stay strong my sea child, I know it be hard. Stay strong, my sea child, know I love you still, stay strong my sea child, don’t let pain kill. Stay strong, my sea child. Stand strong, little sea child. Stay strong, my sea child, and always come home to me.” The whole rebellion was singing by the last line, a few people had started crying, and many were hugging each other. “The death song?” Don asked, having just arrived back. “Who- how many this time?” “Flash.” Laga looked up at the man, guilt pulling his face taught. “I’m sorry. I tried to convince her to stay with the others. She was sure it was the only way.” “She took out nearly fifty Bugs!” Someone said. “She shredded them from the inside before they knew what was happening! We only lost three of ours today!” Don’s gaze swept over the kids, as his eyebrows drew together and his eyes grew wide. “No.” He said. “Belle? My baby Belle?” “She would’ve starved within the week if she hadn’t.” Laga said. “She wanted her death to mean something.” He gave another piece of food to Bart. “I tried to stop her, but she buzzed out from under my hand. I couldn’t think of her above the all of the others.” “How did she die?” Don asked, turning to the larger group. “She tackled me out of the way of Blue Beetle’s plasma cannon.” A woman said. Red Robin’s daughter, six months pregnant, a meta with healing powers. “I tried to save her, but my powers have been on the fritz since I conceived. All I could do was take away her pain.” “Did she say anything?” Don asked. “To apologize to Bart for her. To tell him she wished him life, and that she hoped he and their sisters would be well. Sweet water children.” Bart started crying again, and flung his arms around Laga’s neck. Laga held him close, rubbing his back soothingly. “Don.” Laga said. “The food stores have been destroyed. Eat, rebuild, and find us more food, please.” “My daughter’s dying words said nothing about me?” Don looked heartbroken. “Don, please don’t do anything too rash.” Jason said, frowning at the younger man. “Don’t leave us just because a child who saw you more as an idol than a family member didn’t mention you.” “You never did have any tact, Jason.” Laga sighed. “Don, sit down, now.” One good thing about raising the children in the rebellion, nearly everyone listened to everything Laga said, half on instinct. Several people sat, including Don. “Flash, listen to me, you are going to eat, you are going to help us rebuild, and you are going to find us more food, because you still have three children and a responsibility to the rebellion. And you are not going to do any of that recklessly, because no one here can afford to lose you. Do you understand?” Laga demanded. “Yes, uncle Laga.” Don looked down, tears dripping down his ash stained face. “She was my youngest.” “I know.” Laga put a gentle hand on the man’s shoulder. “Live for her. She wanted us all to be able to live. Now, eat.”

To be continued…

#la'gaan #bart allen #young justice #yj #found family #found family fic #TamLin's works #TamLin's writing #read more

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kyloren · 7 years

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Regarding the Finale and the upcoming Season Two

So, I feel like the finale’s purposeful hinting that Jughead’s possible joining of the Southside Serpents might create tension between him and Betty — given that she obviously gives him a concerned look when he puts on the oh, la la~ jacket, which understandably dampens his spirits some, more on that later — is a sort of red-herring.

The same way the pilot queer-baited viewers, the finale is V→A→B→J-love-square-baiting the audience and stirring up drama just to keep us guessing until Season Two premiere.

The finale established Varchie and Bughead as canonical ships, with the former going from semi-dating to actual dating, and the latter being a solid supercarrier (is it? or is it still a dreadnought?). And while sure, both vessels can hit turbulent waters and, hey, Riverdale is an adaptation of Archie comics, so V/A/B tension is expected (although I have an inkling the A/B part of it might be just from Archie’s side) — we have been hit over the head so many times with the Jughead/Betty and Archie/Veronica soulmate parallels that I honestly think that the show-runners intend those two ships to be eventual endgame. Please, please let Bughead be endgame. #CrossingFingers #HopingNoOneJinxedIt.

But back to my original point; it being that I have a few theories regarding the Southside Serpents storyline. One of which is that Jughead will eventually accept being a Serpent — hopefully with Betty’s support, but maybe without — in order to uncover the truth about the drug-ring in Riverdale and clear the Serpents of the allegations. He and Betty are too much of Intrepid Reporters to let that one go. Plus, Betty’s speech to her mother and then later to the town hinted she will take the truth by its dirty underpants and drag it into the light.

Maybe he won’t even join them in any official capacity, and his putting on the jacket was just the show-runners teasing the audience, but it was a very clear symbolic gesture that his allegiance is now with the Serpents and the Southside, and he will take their side over that of the people of the…err, I guess the Northside…? (Southside is still part of Riverdale, right? Does the better off side of town have a name?)

Somehow I feel like Betty will join him on the whole support the Southside…side. *face-palms* being real eloquent here. But as much as I would want a serpent!Bughead with Betty going all ‘Full Dark, No Stars’ on everyone’s asses, I am fairly sure Jughead will ultimately return to Riverdale High after an indeterminate amount of time at Southside High. As much as the Southside accepts him, Betty was right in saying he is Riverdale and he will return to where he is needed soon enough.

Plus, from a meta point of view, it is clear the entire core four is having some sort of Coming of Age storyline with Betty becoming a more confident person who stands up for what she believes in, Jughead coming to terms with his insecurities and finding both a place and the people he belongs with, Archie’s whole find-yourself arc, and Veronica unlocking a well-rounded-person achievement and becoming better, just as she promised to herself to do. So, Jughead’s season two storyline will obviously bring him back to Riverdale High.

All in all, the show-runners are trying for Romeo&Julet, Westside Story vibe for Bughead in the finale, but ultimately I think it is Varchie that will play out the star-crossed lovers theme in Riverdale, given the blatant allusions to the Hiram Lodge-Fred Andrews antagonism, while Bughead will have a more Neutral Good take on the Bonnie&Clyde-esque Battle Couple of Justice and Truth.

If it wasn’t blatantly obvious already, I could probably gush about Bughead moments in Sweet Hereafter for another 3k words, but I shouldn’t. I really shouldn’t. Though I will say this: hand-holding while running through the forest is a pretty underestimated romantic gesture. And now, I’ll try to reign in the Yes, that is my OTP! vibes.

Tangential observation, but I think the reason why Jughead was #WhenHeSmiles over the jacket was because it was concrete proof, along with the whole biker-gang spreading out at his doorstep, that what FP told him — “Serpents take care of their own” — wasn’t just him wishing on a star and stubbornly holding out on the law, but actually adhering to a code. So, Jughead got validation that his father wasn’t just being a stubborn moron and screwing himself over by not taking the deal, but was “sticking by his own”.

Side-bar: Who else teared up a bit when FP told Jughead in a roundabout way that he was proud of him; please, raise a hand?

Also, I think that Archie and Cheryl might not have a romance arc, as much as a substitute-sibling arc where a lot of Cheryl’s unresolved feelings regarding Jason will be projected onto Archie, who actually is a legit good person and probably is the best choice to be their recipient. I just really want those two to bond, okay?

In the same line of thought: Poor Cheryl. She needs a hug and some decent friends because her face in that scene where she was talking to Jughead and Veronica was about to ask her if she was okay, but was interrupted by Archie (or was it Kevin?) who ran there to tell them about Betty’s locker, well, it was just heartbreaking. Seriously #GiveCherylAHug2k17.

I’m fairly sure that Hiram is behind Fred’s shooting. That’s the reason why Hermione was so keen on buying him out; she was trying to protect her friend-slash-ex-lover from her husband, who, need I remind you, had already used violent underhanded tactics against Fred before.

Also, I wouldn’t be surprised in the least if Hiram is involved in the drug trafficking and Clifford landing him in jail was his attempt at cutting Hiram out of it. But it might be just me. I tend to assume Hiram has his fingers in all the pies. All of them.

P.S. Can we go back to Jason, pls? In one of the first episodes Archie said Seventeen-years-old and how he will be remembered?, and when you look at Jason in hindsight, that line can’t help but break my heart.

Although I tend to think of Jason as a Base Breaking Character given how much of his characteristics are expositioned via other people’s subjective opinions of him, so he is very much subjected to Alternative Character Interpretation, he turned out to be a pretty solid kid. I mean, I used to think Cheryl was just waxing poetic about her bro-bro, viewing him through rose-coloured glasses and all that, a point that seemed to have been confirmed in episode 3 with the score-book, but…maybe he wasn’t a wolf in sheep’s clothing like I assumed.

The kid got his girlfriend pregnant, wanted to do the right thing by her, loved her enough to defy his family (Fridge Logic moment, but if Jason and Polly’s babies are ultra-super-Blossom, something Mama Blossom was totes okay with, then why didn’t the Blossoms want him to date Polly? I get why Coopers didn’t want that. Hal is anti-incest and Alice is very anti-Blossom, but C&P are very cool-with-casual-incest parents, so Jason dating Polly wouldn’t have been that horrible a thought for them to swallow.), and started being a drug mule in order to get the funds for them to run away. Which, I guess, was how he figured out Clifford’s involvement with the drug trafficking. Maybe he wanted to do something about that, too; he did have drugs stashed in his getaway car. Jason wasn’t the most upstanding citizen, but he tried to do good and was killed for it. …just…poor kid.

P.P.S. Also, slight confusion over here at my end. Let me get this straight. Jason got drugs A from the Serpents to move them somewhere. Since FP claims they don’t deal with hard stuff, drugs A might be marijuana or something. Somehow Jason found out that Blossoms traffic drugs B, which might be cocaine or something equally hardcore. The same drugs he had stashed in his getaway car. But since the show insists on calling all drugs just ‘the drugs’ and using virtually identical packages in their footage, I am still not sure if drugs A≠drugs B. Give me evidence, I beg you.

Rant over? Rant over.

#bughead #riverdale meta #riverdale headcanon #riverdale spoilers #riverdale theories #character: archie andrews #character: betty cooper #character: jughead jones #character: veronica lodge #pairing: jughead x betty #pairing: archie x veronica #otp: bathed in sunlight; drenched in shadows #tv: riverdale #mila.txt #this tag is meta #♔: victrix #*

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starlightafterastorm · 7 years

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WHO’S THE MURDERER?

So the big question of Season 1 is “Who killed Lilly Kane Jason Blossom?”

(Forgive me I HAD to put the Veronica Mars reference in there. It makes me laugh every time)

@somebooksmakeusfree and I have been going back and forth and we’ve compiled this list. Which we will probably go back and revise as we get closer to the reveal. My comments are after the “N” and hers are after the “A”

Buckle up, this might turn into some long speculations...

Who we can rule out for SURE:

Betty - N: Was in LA for her internship. Our Hitchcock blonde has a solid alibi.

A: I know what you’re thinking, “...but what about ‘Dark Betty?’” ‘Dark Betty’ may have her secrets, but I don’t think this is one of them.

Veronica - N: Just moved in from New York. She had NO reason to be anywhere near Riverdale/Jason.

A: Agreed.

Who we can PROBABLY rule out:

Archie - N: Because it’s fucking Archie and there was so much drama about him hearing the gunshot and even if we don’t have a solid alibi for him yet on the weekend of the 11th IT’S NOT GONNA BE HIM.

A: Come on guys, Archie couldn’t keep a secret (or a girlfriend) if his life depended on it. I know it. You know it. Jughead knows it.

Jughead - N: I’m willing to bet it’s not Juggie even if he doesn’t have an alibi for the 11th. He’s one of the core four and Cole probably wouldn’t be joking about it if it actually was him (or would he? Cole is the trolliest of trolls). Also they’ve already ruled him out in episode 7. And gave us a beautiful Bughead scene to boot.

A: Cole even rhymes with “troll.” So far, we haven’t been given a motive that would explain why Jughead would ever murder Jason, even with his father’s entanglements with the Blossoms and the Sneks. (Can we talk about how sad it is that he doesn’t have an alibi because he was probably spending that time alone...living in that shack of a drive-in theatre? *cries*)

Fred - N: My god, please don’t have THE ONE GOOD PARENT ON THIS SHOW BE THE MURDERER. I doubt it’s Fred.

A: Fred is too one-dimensional of a character...unless crazy things happen when his ex wife returns.

Hal - N: The fact that Hal was shown to break into the Sheriff’s home to steal the photos probably rules him out. The fact that they placed so much suspicion on him early on seems like a fake out. I think HE THINKS Alice did it and he stole the pictures to protect her.

A: Or he stole them because he knew the real reason Polly and Jason were running away and he didn’t want anyone finding out about Polly’s condition or putting suspicion on their family in general. Definitely not Hal.

Alice - N: I believe Alice when she says she didn’t do it. I also believe her when she says she would have done it if given the chance. She told Hal he should know what she’s capable of. It’s possible we learn more about some sort of specific event that might justify that statement OR it might just be that they’ve been married for close to 20 years and he should know her well enough by now. And also if she was a Serpent then HELLS YEAH she’d be capable. but I doubt she did it in this specific instance.

A: Alice has really been redeeming herself lately. Could she have killed Jason? Absolutely, she disliked him because he was a Blossom and because he “ruined” Polly’s life. Did she actually do it? Probably not, though Hal may secretly think she did. Anywho, I’m living for brick- throwing, Jughead-liking, emotional Alice.

Polly - N: I think the whole Cooper family is… not quite all there, Polly included. But with the nuns and being locked up and being pregnant and everything I don’t think Polly did it. Her distress at finding out Jason was dead was too real. (HER FACE WHEN SHE ASKED BETTY WHEN HE WAS COMING TO GET HER BROKE MY HEART) But also she was being held captive by insane nuns.

A: Okay, my theory, if Polly did it, is that she had a psychotic break and doesn’t remember killing him. WHAT IF DARK BETTY ISN’T ABOUT BETTY, BUT A HINT ABOUT POLLY? If Polly really does have Dissociative Identity Disorder or another mental illness, she may have repressed the act of murder. Why would she have killed him? Maybe he decided he didn’t want to be around for her and their unborn babies, or decided they couldn’t run away, or tried (like Hal did to Alice) to force her to have an abortion. Then again, probably not. The details of the murder seem rather difficult for a pregnant woman to execute, let alone a teenager that lives with parents and is locked up in a creepy asylum.

F.P. Jones - N. Nope. Not him. Same thing with Hal, it’s a fakeout with the jacket and the Serpents. NO DOUBT HE’S GOING TO GET FRAMED FOR IT THOUGH

A. It’s too easy.

Kevin Keller - N. Probably not but Kevin’s been acting sort of shady and there have been weird cuts to him sometimes (though I thought that was more due to his hiding the fact he’s dating Joaquin). I don’t know. I hope it’s not him.

A. I can’t decide if finding the body rules him out or makes him more suspicious. I love Kevin so much. I don’t think he did it...and Joaquin better not hurt him!!!

Cheryl Blossom - N. I had ruled out Cheryl but girl was acting SHADY in episode 9. I think her grief is real but… you know she’s got her own issues to deal with. And she’s not dealing with them well.

A. She’s losing it, but I really don’t think she killed her twin.

Hermione - N: Same as Veronica. Even if Hiram was somehow involved and Hermione is ok with shady dealings on behalf of her husband I think straight up murder is where she’d cross the line.

A: If Hiram did put a hit out on Jason, this doesn’t mean Hermione didn’t know about it though...

Reggie Mantle - N. Nah. Probably not Reggie.

A. I really doubt this too.

Dilton Doiley - N. Probably not but Dilton could have snapped and gone FULL SURVIVAL mode on Jason.

A. Not convinced.

Chuck Clayton - N. Maybe some revenge thing having to do with football? I’m voting no on Chuck. ALTHOUGH HE WAS BEING SO SHADY WITH OUR SHADY GIRL ETHEL. Was he really just apologizing?

A. Chuck is a lot of things, but I don’t think murderer is one of them. Besides, his only motive would be to take Jason’s captain position, which I’m not convinced he’d have been in the running for anywho, unless...well, ya know...nepotism. ***Edit: After episode 11 I’m starting to get weird vibes about everyone’s favorite shady girl, Ethel, and Chuck. Are they working together? Was all of this a big con? What would the reason be for that anywho? I have no idea, but creepy Ethel creeping on the hot tub scene and then Chuck and Ethel consulting civilly during lunch does not bode well...

The Pussycats - N. I don’t think it was any of them.

A. Nah.

Grundy - N. We haven’t seen her since episode 4. She might have been crazy enough to do it but my gut says she’s gone for good (or until they bring her back for drama’s sake in season 2).

A. GRUNDY IS THE WORST!!! I don’t see why she would have any reason to kill Jason though.

Viable suspects (BECAUSE WE JUST DON’T KNOW)

Clifford Blossom - N. DUDE DID NOT FLINCH WHEN HE WAS SHOWN HIS SON’S BODY. We haven’t seen enough of him to really tell but he’s been less broken up about it than his wife and daughter. And the shame of having his heir/only son run away with a Cooper might have made him snap.

A. Cheryl really is the only Blossom who’s been genuinely upset. Both of the parents are sketchy. Both of them are super creepy to Archie, the surrogate Jason, which makes me wonder what they were like to the real Jason.

Penelope Blossom - N. Even if she didn’t pull the trigger, it’s highly possible she was complicit in the murder in some way. She’s creepy as hell.

A. She is one creepy lady. Did she caress Jason like she caresses Archie at the funeral? I put nothing past her.

Ethel Muggs - N. Ethel was SUPER shady in episode 3. She enjoyed Dark Betty and Chuck’s retribution a little too much. And as Jughead’s narration of how that whole situation would have darker rippling effects no one could have predicted, Ethel thanks B + V sweetly and Cheryl says #JusticeForEthel. Also… what was the conversation she was having with Chuck in Episode 11? (Also... that scene with Jughead. Was that supposed to come off kind of creepy and lovelorn? Was it just a nod to the comics or something more?)

A. Barb Ethel is definitely sketchy. If we hadn’t had the hospital scene, I would have thought her whole ‘parents fighting’ story was made up. Something is off about her….

Hiram Lodge - N. He has been pulling some sneaky shit behind the scenes all season. Maybe a pointed attack to the Blossom family that had been coming for a long time? (I FUCKING CALLED IT BEFORE EPISODE 9). I want to say it’s not him though because i think he’ll become the big bad antagonist of season 2.

A. He seems the most likely villain, but it’s just so easy. It’s too easy. For all we know, he’s wrongly behind bars and the real mastermind behind all of this has been Hermione all along...

Joaquin - N. We just don’t know enough about him to rule him out.

A. He’s kind of the Snek’s errand boy, but he also clearly has a sense of morality that seems like it might stop him from committing murder. Also, #DontHurtKevin.

Sheriff Keller - N. Everything could be a cover up.

A. He’s a terrible sheriff...

Mayor - N. It’s been mentioned before how hard it was for the mayor to get her position as an African American woman. Maybe it was a power play against the Blossoms?

A. Murder seems like bad politics, but then again, so does sexual assault and habitual lying...

Principal Weatherbee - N. Look we don’t have all the facts. It could be Weatherbee. It could not be. We just don’t know.

A. Definitely don’t know enough about him.

Pop - N. POP. HE HAS A FREEZER. NO ONE KNOWS WHAT HE DOES IN HIS SPARE TIME. HE COULD HAVE GOTTEN INTO A DISPUTE WITH THE BLOSSOMS BECAUSE OF MAPLE SYRUP.

A This is it guys. This is my crack theory. Pop knows all the town gossip probably, because...they’re clearly the only restaurant in Riverdale. He also is the only one that we can confirm probably has a freezer large enough for a body. What is his motive? No idea, but he’s definitely the most unsuspected person in town.

#riverdale #riverdale theories #who killed jason blossom?#betty cooper #jughead jones #archie andrews #veronica lodge #jason blossom #cheryl blossom #i should tag ALL the characters but i won't

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bmgmw · 7 years

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a hypothetical Riverdale scenario

Heads up this is gonna be long, so more after the cut. So I rewatched all of Riverdale and here’s my current theory. I’m not swearing by any of this in the slightest, just having fun theorizing! And since this show is on the CW, why not get a little crazy with it (okay I got a lot crazy, sorry!)?

Okay let’s break it down into four components: Riverdale parents, Jason & Polly, Grundy (this theory operates under the assumption she’ll either return late this season or next season), and the Riverdale kids. I think that certain Riverdale parents are connected to plotting the murder, Grundy connected to the actual murder, Jason and Polly’s situation just incidental timing, and the Riverdale kids are going to be the ones to figure it all out (which goes with the show’s theme of ‘breaking assumptions’—as Jughead tells Betty, ‘we are not our parents’). Clearly there a lot of parallels between the parents and the kids, and the kids solving the murder and changing dynamics would be one way to break those assumptions and parallels.

Let’s start with the adults. In the Riverdale One Shot Comics (set in canon, showing what the kids did over that summer), we learn that Hiram Lodge was arrested on the evening of July 4th (I can’t remember if this is mentioned in the show as well or not). We also know he’s still basically conducting his shady business from prison. He wants to gain real estate/control of Riverdale, and he hires the Serpents to lower the value on the drive in property so he can buy it for a cheap price via Hermione.

So what does this have to do with Jason? Well, we know both the Lodges and the Coopers have antagonistic relationships with the Blossoms. But while the Coopers’ bad blood with the Blossoms stems from more personal reasons (old blood feud, Jason/Polly, Penny vs Alice catfighting), the Lodges’ beef with the Blossoms is more business related. Penelope says the Lodges have sticky fingers, Hermione says Penelope doesn’t know the difference between money and class, and then there’s noteworthy bit from Jason’s funeral:

Penelope: You think you’re so clever coming here offering your pity? Hermione: What are you talking about? Penelope: …So you’ve come to gloat? With the warmest regards from your husband, I’m sure….

While it hasn’t explicitly been stated, the Blossoms most likely still run the Riverdale maple industry. The town is proud of their maple. And what does the maple industry need? Maple trees, of course. With Hiram wanting to develop and take over Riverdale, I think he wanted to develop on the forest surrounding Sweetwater River. There’s certainly disdain from the Blossoms regarding Hiram (as seen in that Penelope/Hermione bit, and it can also be seen in the entire dinner conversation with how Clifford speaks to Veronica about the maple industry and then takes digs at Hiram).

What’s one way to make Sweetwater River less appealing and make it easier to get approval to build around? A murder would certainly do it. And a murder of the competition’s son in particular would definitely send a message to the Blossoms (one that Penelope seems to be aware of in that bit she has with Hermione at the funeral). So I think the murder was planned by Hiram. I think Hiram wanted to get arrested on July 4th, so he could say he has a solid alibi of being in police custody. My guess is he planned to send a Serpent, let’s say KP perhaps, to actually do the job after Hiram was safely arrested, and pay him well (this is possibly why KP says to her the money wasn’t enough).

However, this is a CW show, I highly doubt it’s as simple as “Hiram hired the Serpents and KP killed Jason, the end”. So let’s get a little crazy with this theory. So even though KP was demanding the extra money from Hermione (who I don’t think knew about Hiram planning the murder), I’m going to theorize he was doing so without having been the one to actually end up killing Jason. But since Jason ends up dead anyway and Hiram is away in prison, he figures he can take credit (to Hiram, not publicly ofc) for the murder and trick Hiram to paying him anyway (at least before Jughead gets questioned, I think FP changes his plan after that).

So who actually murdered Jason? Grundy, but not in connection to Hiram at all. So let’s back track a little first to the whole Jason & Polly situation. We know Jason and Polly dated. With Jason now dead and Polly being an unreliable narrator (as most of these people are tbh), we have to sort of piece together the reality of their relationship via context clues. Based on the fact that Jason wrote Polly’s name in the hook up book and based on the way Polly talks about Jason, I think Jason cared about her, but just not as much as she cared about him. And when Polly tells Jason about being pregnant, he’s probably freaked out to how the parents will react due to the Cooper-Blossom feud/the fact that they’re all nuts, so he proposes to Polly and tells her they’ll run away and start a new life. As confirmed by Trevor (football player that Betty goes on a date with), Jason begins selling his stuff and selling drugs to earn his own money. I think during this time he gets involved with the Serpents (re: the drugs). So now the Serpents, already hired by Hiram for the murder, now have double the reason to keep a close eye on Jason.

Jason and Polly hide the car (that Betty and Jughead later find), and Jason enlists Cheryl to help pull off his disappearance plan, but doesn’t tell her much beyond the fact that he wants to run away from their overbearing parents. They go through with the boat ride and Jason makes it to the other side of the river. He waits for Polly, who obviously never shows because Alice sends her away (how did Alice find out? Probably read her diary like she did to Betty). After waiting a while, Jason becomes worried and decides to search for Polly. But he’s too far into this plan to actually back out of it and go home. Jason gets back to the Riverdale side of the river (perhaps w/ help from Sabrina who lives on the Greendale side? Or maybe he just swims, he is captain of the water polo team after all).

So Jason is alone in the woods, a prime opportunity for KP to carry out the task: capture Jason and then kill him once Hiram has his alibi of being arrested. But before that even gets a chance of happening, Jason is taken by Grundy (I’m assuming here that her story about her ex is fake). We know Jason was getting “independent study” from Grundy before Archie (so like end of previous school year), so I’m willing to bet it was of similar nature….except unlike Archie, he rejected her advances. We know Grundy was at the river with Archie at 6 AM that morning when they heard Dilton’s gunshot, but we don’t know what happened after. We know the Blossom twins arrived at the river around a just a bit earlier (“just after dawn”, narrates Jughead). In Dilton’s flashback when he reveals he saw Grundy’s car at the river, it’s only the car shown, there’s less daylight and the campfire fit doesn’t look like it’s been used (which is different compared to the lake flashbacks of Archie/Grundy at 6 AM). So I’m guessing he saw the car earlier than 6. I think Grundy got to lake early to wait to meet up with Archie and she saw Cheryl and Jason drive by that road near the lake edge. Archie arrives closer to 6, they have their little picnic rendezvous, and they hear Dilton’s gunshot after 6. They split up. Archie leaves to go to work or whatever boring Archie thing he does, and Grundy gets in her car and leaves, encounters Jason along the road in the woods, and offers him a ride (typical Grundy move). Desperate, he accepts. She lets him stay at her place and hide out, and once again she tries to make an advance. But he rejects her again, telling her about Polly, which sets her off. So she ties him up, keeps him hostage for a week (trying to win him over), and eventually shoots him on the 11th (we know she has a gun). She dumps the body in the river, since she knows that’s where he was last spotted and where Cheryl said he drowned (and water helps rid of some evidence). Like Betty says in her end of 1x04 monologue, “Maybe I was right about some things too. Maybe Miss Grundy was dangerous in some way”. All those references about how Jason and Archie resemble each other (plus the football similarities) make sense in this scenario. The murder target wasn’t supposed to be Archie, as some people theorize, but it certainly could have been had things gone differently. And if Grundy comes back before being found out as the murderer, well, Archie could be in trouble then possibly as her next attempted victim (especially if she sees him w/ Valerie/whatever girl he’s into at that time). The fact that in 1x04 they bring up jail as an option but agree to her volunteering to quit and leave town makes me think she won’t leave town forever….

So what about FP and Jason’s car? Well I think he followed Jughead and Betty to protect Jughead. He saw Jughead got his prints all over it, so to protect him, as well as himself (due to the drugs) connection, he torches the car. As much of a drunk that FP is, he does seem to care about his son, and he clearly did not want to see him getting in trouble with the sheriff, especially for something he didn’t do. As for Jason’s jacket, I think he kept it in order to plant it on someone else, probably Fred Andrews. Fred is a pretty good person to frame: Fred and the Blossoms seem to have some sort of drama going judging by the 1x08 promo of Fred confronting Clifford (“you’re ruining my son’s chances”), Fred is very passionate about Archie’s football and Archie taking over Jason’s spot wouldn’t help a framed Fred look good, Fred won the construction contract for constructing Hiram’s former drive in property (thus tying him to Hiram on paper) with Hiram’s wife as his bookkeeper and romantic interest. The more Fred ties himself unknowingly to the Lodges’ business, the better he becomes as the person to frame. And FP certainly has personal reasons to plant the jacket to frame Fred. And if seeing what Jughead is going through really makes FP want to try to change his ways, then focusing on framing Fred, as messed up as it is, puts the spotlight on Fred and the Lodges, not the Serpents and the Lodges. It would set up FP in a good spot. Hiram wouldn’t rat FP out because doing so would also implicate Hiram, since FP didn’t actually murder Jason he’s technically innocent, and if FP goes to work with Fred again, he wouldn’t have an apparent motive to frame Fred…..but the other Serpents would since Fred and FP would be destroying the Serpent hang out spot. So even if people started to realize Fred was framed, FP doesn’t appear to have as much motive as the rest of the Serpents. Additionally, Molly Ringwald is set to appear in episode ten as Mary Andrews (Archie’s mom). According to Variety, she “blows back into town in her family’s hour of need”. Fred being framed for murder would be a pretty compelling hour of need and reason for her to show up. (i also think everyone’s gonna air their dirty laundry out at the homecoming dance in this ep, and we’ll get more of the adults backstories of their relatonships–like how Mary, Hermione, and Alice were friends).

(And one last loose end: Hal and the murder board. I think he just wanted to protect Polly and her secrets tbh. The poor guy was crying at home videos of her.)

Anyway, if anything even close to this hypothetical craziness happens, then I reckon that Season 2′s “Big Bads” are going to be Hiram, potentially Grundy round 2 (to actually finish her story line), and probably a new person.

Of course…..I could be way off on all of this, and it was really Kevin the whole time. XD

#riverdale #riverdale theories

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briangroth27 · 7 years

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Riverdale: The Most Unreliable Narrator?

Full spoilers…

Riverdale quickly became one of my favorite new shows of this season, bridging smart teen drama with a murder mystery and a darker, Film Noirish tone. The show shoots for a mix of Twin Peaks and Dawson’s Creek and absolutely nails it. I’m definitely excited by the prospect of the show leaning even farther into the Twin Peaks side, potentially introducing Lovecraftian beasts and concepts next season! Riverdale was co-created by the author of the excellent Afterlife with Archie and The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina, Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa, so a leap into that kind of horror shouldn’t be surprising.

With that in mind, I have what could be an insane theory…

Jughead narrates the series, but to my recollection, he’s never directly commented on himself when narrating. What if this isn’t just him keeping authorial distance while writing his true crime book about the events in town? At the end of the pilot, the narration even commented on an iconic scene of Archie, Jughead, Betty, and Veronica at a Pop Tate’s booth, saying “To someone on the outside peering in, it would’ve looked like there were four people in that booth. But I was there. And I can tell you, really, there were only three: a blonde girl, a raven-haired girl, and the luckiest redheaded boy in the universe.” That line has stuck with me for how odd it was that Jughead doesn’t even consider himself a person—at least not one worth mentioning—but what if Jughead isn’t speaking? What if Jughead is not the narrator?

What if the Narrator is just something with Cole Sprouse’s voice? We know Jughead was supposed to go on a road trip with Archie over the summer, but Archie ditched him to go camping with Fake Miss Grundy. Still, Jughead asked for a lawyer when questioned by Sheriff Keller and Fred Andrews gave him a fake alibi. Why would Jughead need an alibi? Is it possible he doesn’t remember what happened to him, because he was infected/possessed by whatever otherworldly beasts we might meet next season? It seemed odd to me that one blown-off road trip was enough to destroy Archie and Jughead’s friendship, but what if Archie not being there led to something horrible happening to Jughead that he can’t remember? That, I could buy driving a wedge between them like the one we saw at the beginning of the season. To leave all trappings of the grounded world of the show behind for a minute, I think one of these Lovecraftian terrors could be talking to us each week as the Narrator from within Jughead, and neither he nor we know it. It wouldn’t consider Jughead a person anymore, but a vessel it uses to walk around Riverdale.

Jughead is already something of a Lovecraft-styled hero in his detachment, isolation, and authorial pursuits. The word jughead was slang for a stupid person; clearly Jones isn’t a fool, but what if he just doesn’t realize what’s happening to him? He said in episode 10 that something was “wrong” with him, but what if that’s not just teen melodrama? What if we haven’t seen Jughead eating many burgers (though he was scarfing them down the prequel comic) because of some side-effect of his possession? If Jughead isn’t fully Jughead and doesn’t know it, that makes him a pretty perfect match for Betty. The show revealed early on that she has some sort of dissociative disorder where she believes that she’s her sister Polly sometimes, but doesn’t remember it. I read this as her needing Polly to feel safe as a kid, and that she still needs “Polly” to cope with her parents’ pressure as a teen. If Jughead’s sorta in the same boat, I think helping each other through their issues would be a cool way to develop and deepen their relationship. Just like “Polly” broke through, what if Jughead lines like “It’s the Dark Ages…” aren’t just super-angsty declarations, but subconscious inklings of what’s really happening to him and the town around them? Is it possible that whatever’s in Jughead is not evil, but looking to save people from its own kind? If they go full, hopeless Lovecraft, probably not.

Alice Cooper made a crack about the Blossoms “worshipping some dark pagan god” in their gothic manor and in the latest episode Cheryl commented that her grandmother has gypsy blood (just as Grandma Blossom was using a crystal to correctly predict Polly is pregnant with twins). What if these aren’t throwaway lines, but hints at what’s to come; at what’s already creeping into the town? What if Jason’s death was accidental? What if it were a botched “baptism” of sorts (look at what Cheryl and Jason are wearing in those flashbacks: odd clothes to run away with your secret pregnant girlfriend in), where he was supposed to receive one of these Lovecraftian beasts? Perhaps it went south and one of his parents shot him in the head to stop it. Cheryl said Jason was “supposed to come back” early on. What if she meant “back to life” in a very literal sense (maybe temporary death is part of the process of being host to whatever they’re summoning) and not just him faking his death? If that’s true, maybe Cheryl did kill him to save him from full possession. What if Jughead happened by on his unexpectedly solo road trip, and that’s how he accidentally got the Narrator in his head? What if great grandfather Blossom killing great-grandfather Cooper was the result of a similarly failed communion with something dark, which started a feud because neither family wanted to accept blame for screwing up? Alternatively, the dark ritual could’ve been successful, starting the maple syrup company, and then Blossom really did cut Cooper out of it. Maybe Grandpa Blossom had his cut throat in a similar ritual to re-up on their demonic prosperity. I’m thinking the Lodges got the Blossoms out of trouble with the law (whether the murder of Great-grandpa Cooper was supernatural or not), and the payments the Blossoms were sending them all these years were repayment. What if the land everyone’s fighting for was the site where that original attempt went down, and the Blossoms need it to re-secure their fortune/future? That’d line up nicely with possibly-possessed Jughead actually living on the grounds for a long time. What if Undead Jason isn’t just a nod to Afterlife with Archie; isn’t just a guilt-driven hallucination, but a harbinger of these Lovecraftian beasts? What if Dilton has seen these beasts too (maybe via one of his inventions?) and that’s why he’s become a crazy survivalist? Maybe he’s training his scouts to protect them from what he knows is out there.

What if Fake Miss Grundy (a classic Greg Berlanti misdirect/repurposing of a comic book character, btw) is connected to these things and delivers teen boys to them as part of some kind of ritual? It was implied she was sleeping with Jason Blossom too and the last time we saw her, she’d already set her sights on another teenage boy; what if Fake Grundy (and possibly, possessed Jughead) killed Jason as a sacrifice or something? It’s also possible he was always intended to be the sacrifice, but was killed by someone else first. What if Archie was next, but Grundy had to wait for a preordained time or something and got kicked out of town before it could happen? Is that why he’s the “luckiest redheaded boy in the universe?” Is that why the Blossoms keep putting an unsettling amount of focus on the fact that Archie looks so much like Jason, because he was going to replace him in their ritual (either literally swapping his soul with Jason's, wherever it is, or just taking Jason's physical place in this hypothetical ritual)? I now think Cheryl’s being groomed to take Jason’s place since Archie bailed, but this could be a reason to suddenly charm Archie into their inner circle. That could imply Grundy and the Blossoms were on the same side, unless there are competing dark things out there. What if Archie’s stage fright manifestation of the jocks in werewolf masks was a result of coming into contact with magic via Miss Grundy, allowing him a glimpse behind the terrifying, sanity-shattering curtain? Though, that wouldn’t explain the mask Archie had in his drawer.

Why not go full-on crazy? What if Fake Miss Grundy is actually Real Miss Grundy given youth (or the appearance of youth) as the means to complete her side of the bargain with these theoretical beasts? What if stealing the identity of a dead woman is just a cover for an extremely long life? An old woman posing as a young one is a classic witch M.O., and we know there are witches just across the river in Greendale (Sabrina among them). I thought the Grundy storyline was the show’s one weak spot so far: it ended without enough punishment for her and without fully dealing with what this statutory rape did to Archie emotionally (as with most parent/teacher relationships on TV), but what if she’s coming back for a supernatural metaphor on that very subject?

Sure, a second season could just go full Afterlife With Archie and do zombies, but Lovecraftian beasts would be so much more original and fun in my opinion. Besides zombies feeling endgame with most everyone probably dying, everyone’s doing them nowadays. Lovecraft-esque twists on the 50s/60s-pulp monsters the Archie gang faced on Archie’s Weird Mysteries would be my dream season. And if one of those beasts drove its victims crazy, making them only see the world in “Classic Archie Vision” like Jughead’s nightmare, then I’d be all for that! What if that’s exactly what Jughead’s nightmare actually is?

I do think Jason’s killer (and likely their motive) is human, but I don’t think that eliminates the potential for events and characters around his death to be supernatural in nature. I think it’d be so easy to subtly shift context and throw the show we know into this dark supernatural world. What if the events that change Riverdale in the finale are the opening of seams between Riverdale and wherever these beasts are coming from?

What do you think? Is this crazy, or could it happen? Would you want it to?

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lostinafictionaluniverse · 7 years

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Riverdale 1x09 thoughts

Under the cut bcos its super long, read at your own risk

Jughead’s opening narrative

Blossoms have controlled the maple syrup business since the town’s founding? No mention of the Cooper’s/ Hal grandpa

AAAnnnd we don’t hear Jason speak yet again.

The sickly, sweet smell was inescapable - allusion to the Blossom’s influence on the town, how all-pervading their power is? And how they leave their mark on everything? That last comment by Cheryl after she kisses Archie - about her lipstick being Maple Red and the sweet taste being because of it? Was it really necessary? Is it some sort of clue? I love how Maple Syrup stands for so many things in this town - For the Blossoms, its obviously power and legacy; and its also the symbol for slut shaming so does that link slut shaming to the Blossom clan somehow? Its sweet, its sticky, its red - hmmm, blood is sticky and red too....

Bughead scene in Betty’s room

THEY’RE SITTING ON HER BED LITERALLY ON TOP OF EACH OTHER (*DYING WHALE NOISE*)

SHE IMMEDIATELY AIRS HER CONCERNS TO HIM

HE’S HER ROCK, HE’S THERE TO LISTEN AND HELP HER AND ASSUAGE HER FEARS AND BUILD HER UP AND SHE KNOWS THIS!

WE’LL FIGURE IT OUT - BETTY IS NOT ALONE ANYMORE, JUGHEAD IS WITH HER IN ALL OF THIS SHIT SHE’S GOING THROUGH

COME HERE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! (BRB - BUSY DYING)

HER SMILE AND LEANING TOWARDS HIM, HIS HAND SLIDING DOWN HER THIGH, HER HAND GOING UP TO HIS FACE, HIS SMILE, THE KISS

ALICE COOPER, I’M GOING TO KILL YOU!

THE STARTLED JUMP, HURRIEDLY BREAKING APART, THE LOOK OF IRRITATION ON BETTY’S FACE!

Alice shows no surprise at Juggie being there, means she knows, or she let him in. So Bughead already has the stamp of approval from Mama Cooper! It could be that Alice saw how their extreme disapproval had affected Polly (and Jason) and hence she decided not to do the same to Betty? Or maybe she genuinely likes Juggie like Madchen has said?

Her deciding to go after the Blossoms reeks of anger about her own failure to get her daughter back. She talks about the Cooper-Blossoms feud, but its really something else, something we will know only in ep 12. What the Blossoms really did to the Coopers. Why would Alice hate the Blossoms so much for what they did to her husband’s grandpa? This is personal (Hal says as much)

“According to your milquetoast father”- what’s with Alice calling Hal all these coward names? What did Hal do or didn’t do that was so cowardly? She brought this up earlier - when Betty questioned Hal if he had killed Jason - she said he wouldn’t have the stomach for it.

Seriously did Alice hate Jason so much just because he knocked up her daughter? She was hoping he’d rot in hell when they found his body, she was positively gloating when the coroner told her about scavenger activity and him being tortured, she thinks killing him would be a brave thing to do. This much hatred for a boy who got her daughter pregnant? Alice can be dramatic I know, but this is a bit too much, even for her.

Ronnie and Hermione

I’m glad Hermione told Ronnie exactly what was happening with Fred and how Hiram had gotten to know about them

Seriously the kids in this show seem so much more mature than the adults, Ronnie tells her mom to come clean - this is a small town, tell him before he gets to know from anyone else.

Cheryl and Archie

What’s with all this sudden interest in Archie, Cheryl? Has she always been interested? Remember Betty warning Ronnie in the pilot not to talk about Archie when Cheryl approaches them? Do they have a history? I don’t want Kevin or Reggie, I want you. She makes it seem as though it was all about him defending her to Sheriff Keller, but idk.

Ethel and Ronnie

Ronnie recognized Ethel’s poem for what it was - a cry for help. Then her confession to Kevin about what she and her BFF at Spence did to a girl called Paige (and the girl had to have therapy and transfer schools). Clearly she feels guilty as hell. Ronnie is trying to change and that’s what’s the best thing about her. She hardly ever backslides on her mission, in fact the only glimpses we see of the old Ronnie is possibly the regret laced in her voice when she talks about what they lost.

I love that she immediately talked to Ethel and offered compassion and kindness. Ronnie is such friendship goals - really!

Archie and Penelope Blossom

That far angle camera shot with both of them standing made me think they were gonna kiss! Archie - you truly are a ginger stallion offering rides to anyone who cares to get on!

Penelope brought up that jersey thing again - not only brought it up - they actually showed us that moment from the funeral when Archie offered her Jason’s jersey which makes me think this is important somehow. The fact that Penelope commented on his resemblance to Jason yet again - ‘i swear when the light hits you just right” - makes me wonder if that theory about him being the victim might not be true? Or the resemblance may not be concerned with the murder itself but to some other secrets that maybe revealed as to the truth of these kids’ real parentage? If Cheryl and Jason are not really Blossoms, then the whole legacy plot-line fails. Jason is not the heir, neither is Cheryl.

Why does everyone need to reiterate the fact that Archie is good and decent unlike everyone else in this town??? Show us, don’t tell us. We had Cheryl, Mr and Mrs Blossom all talk about his great character and his goodness. Why are they rubbing in that fact? Is it not obvious? Or is it foreshadowing that he really is not good and decent and is going to do something dastardly? Or is it that in the Blossom’s book, good and decent people can be bought and /or used to their advantage? Like maybe they used some other good and decent people? Eg; Mary Andrews. What if Penelope was barren and couldn’t have children and since it was so important for the Blossoms to have a heir, Clifford had Jason and Cheryl with Mary (they need not have slept together, IVF and surrogacy were viable options) or someone else entirely? Maybe Fred needed money to set up the business and Mary was paid handsomely for it. And Fred wasn’t entirely on board with it, hence the tension between him and Mary and also the reason why they separated years later? Could this be the secret Fred is keeping? It was said that Cheryl and Jason’s twincest would be explored in this episode, but not quite in the way we expect. Was it an allusion to Cheryl kissing Archie? I know this theory has a hole because why would Clifford and Penelope actively encourage Archie to hang out with Cheryl? But I’m excited at the possibility that there maybe a link somewhere - Archie resembling Jason cannot just be a coincidence. The theory that Archie may not really be Fred’s son but Mary and Clifford’s has already been talked about. This could also be a reason for Fred and Mary to split if he found out years later. And maybe Cliff didn’t know, Mary never told him cause she was already married to Fred or something? But they’re drawn to Archie because he reminds them of Jason. Else its hard to understand the Blossom’s fixation with him! Archie’s loyalty to his dad keeps coming up too, he was willing to give up his musical career if Cliff would help his dad’’s business. It would be poetic if Fred wasn’t really his dad, yet they have this inextricable bond.

Archie was very believably seduced by the promise of a great musical future at the Bradenburg school and who wouldn’t be?

The kids in the common room

Jughead being the first to deduce that Mrs Blossom offering something to Archie cannot be without any strings attached - he’s so razor sharp, this boy!

Okay with you being a gigolo?

Ronnie is wise - she knows its hard to get by without connections but also that these connections come with a price-tag.

She looks to Betty for support, but Betty thinks its a great idea. Throwback to Archie asking Ronnie for support when Betty was attacking him about the Grundy thing, and Ronnie sides with Betty! Methinks Betty wasn’t thinking about Archie here, she wanted someone to get info on her sister for her, which is okay!

Maple syrup tapping scene

That scroll thing was ludicrous!

Cheryl was so nervous about the tree tapping thing, Archie’s encouragement got her going. Cheryl demeanor is a facade, she’s lost and lonely and also bitter and jealous. She wanted her parents’ attention, but Jason got it, he became the Golden boy. So she resorted to wild erratic behavior to get her parents’ attention. Inside, she’s just messed up, she craves approval and attention. Like all attention hungry kids she will do whatever it takes to ensure that all eyes are on her. She loves flattery and is immediately susceptible to anyone who even shows her a modicum of kindness, which shows she hasn’t had much growing up. Her parents are horrible to her, her brother was good to her, but he died. I wonder if her yearning for her parents’ approval made her hate Jason to deep down? Or at least resent him for being the favorite? Did she inwardly rejoice when he decided to run away, knowing that now her parents would now rely on her with Jason gone? Maybe they’d even cut him off from their legacy and she could be the heir? I did support the Cheryl killed Jason theory because of this notion. She does have a motive. If it were to come out that she actually really hated Jason and was jealous of him, she would have a very good reason to do away with him. It could also be that she loved him just like she says she does, and still thinks Polly killed her brother. That’s why she reddened Polly’s face and why she was the one to ask her to come stay with them in Thornhill.

Polly thinks the Blossoms killed Jason, Cheryl thinks Polly did and the Blossoms just want their heirs aka Jason’s children that Polly’s carrying. Ugh! What a mess!

Archie standing up for Cheryl was sweet and very Archie-like but it was a tad overdone - “Don’t underestimate Cheryl”? Don’t bet against her”? I think its foreshadowing about how crazed, dangerous and vindictive Cheryl really can be if you get on her wrong side which Archie managed to do by the end of the episode! Also her prompting him about her 4.0 GPA was so Cheryl!!!

Archie gets sucked into escorting Cheryl to a banquet. And he’s going to have a suit tailor-fitted for the occasion! Poor sod!

So Ethel’s grandpa and dad are both called Manfred?

Hermione and Fred

Hermione finally came clean to Fred and told him about the land and the Lodges being the anonymous buyers. Fred was understandably pissed. Hermione is a smart cookie, maybe her business acumen is actually better than her husband’s and she’s the one calling all the shots while pretending to be this helpless, hapless woman. Didn’t Penelope say at the end that they should’ve sent Hermione to jail instead of Hiram?

So Clifford told Hiram that Hermione and Fred were together? Why? Just to gloat? Or to get him to sabotage his own building which is precisely what he did. So he knows exactly how Hiram would react. I’m curious about Hiram. If he was this cold-blooded businessman that everyone says he is, he wouldn’t react so impractically to his wife seeing Fred. He wouldn’t sabotage himself just for getting back at his wife’s lover, he could’ve thought up of other ways to deal with Fred. So Hiram loves Hermione, but does Hermione love Hiram? Was she just playing a game with Fred so he would get on board SoDale? But Fred was interested in SoDale anyway, She could’ve got him on board even without playing cootchie-coo with him. So did she really care?

Fred toughened up and asked for a 20% stake and also ended things with him and Hermione. Which was great. Showed backbone and also his - I’m sick of you people using me and my family as pawns- speaks about his righteous anger against being taken for a ride. Hermione wasn’t pleased but had to grin and bear it for now. Hiram is certainly not going to be pleased.

Back to Bughead and Cheryl (and I’m back to capslock)

POWER COUPLE WALK IN STEP

BETTY LOOKING TO JUGGIE FOR REASSURANCE SINCE SHE FINDS HER COURAGE FALTERING WHEN SHE CONFRONTS CHERYL

HE LOOKS BACK AT HER WITH A -YOU’VE GOT THIS BABE

AND OUR BABE ATTACKS - WHAT STOCKHOLM SYNDROME SPELL HAVE YOU CAST OVER MY SISTER?

JUGGIE LOOKS ON ADMIRINGLY AT WIFEY WITH A SMILE

THEN ATTACKS WITH HIS OWN - HOSTAGES DO NOT GET TO MAKE OUTGOING CALLS!

SO NANA BLOSSOM’S POWERS ARE TRUE, POLLY IS HAVING TWINS!

Cheryl mentions a Dr Patel, Is he Raj and Tina Patel’s dad? If yes, will we see them in Riverdale S2? Sidenote: Isn’t Tina one of Cheryl’s friends already?

CHERYL DID YOU JUST CALL MY SON A HOBO YOU WITCH!!! (I love Cheryl btw, she’s so extra and Madelaine plays her so well)

SHE LITERALLY CUTS THROUGH THEM, PUSHING THEM APART! I already mentioned I think this is foreshadowing that she will be responsible for the conflict that creates a rift between Bughead.

BUT FEAR NOT, IT’S ONLY MOMENTARY. SINCE OUR BOY’S HAND IS BACK ON HIS GIRL’S BACK ALMOST THE IMMEDIATE NEXT SECOND! WHICH ALSO MEANS THE BUGHEAD RIFT IS GOING TO BE VERY VERY MOMENTARY AND THEY WILL BE BACK TOGETHER ALMOST IMMEDIATELY AND STRONGER THAN EVER!

Ronnie and Ethel

Ronnie telling Ethel her dad used to buy her expensive gifts whenever he did something wrong. Poor Ronnie. Her heartbreak at finding out Ethel’s dad had attempted suicide was so genuine, that scene was powerful and Camila played it very well, pulling apart the beads from her neck, symbolically destroying her dad’s hold over her. And her finally telling her mom she as done lying for him. It was a touch choice for Ronnie to make, loyalty to family or doing the right thing. I’m so glad she had the strength of character to make the more difficult choice!

Cheryl at Archie’s house

OMG Cheryl is really so extra. She called Fred DILF!

The Icewoman cometh!

Bribing Archie with an ‘84 Les Paul in their signature colour. Swoon!

I soo love Jughead’s expressions all through this exchange!

‘My claustrophobia acts up in small houses’. Is this going to come up again? Cheryl’s claustrophobia? Is someone going to lock her up in dark, dingy closeted space and that triggers something in her? Is she the one in danger that they’re trying to rescue in that snow scene like so many have already pointed out?

Cheryl kisses Archie twice and leaves a lipstick mark in this episode - on his cheeks and lips. Is this foreshadowing/ symbolism of some sort?

‘He’s also pimping himself out to Cheryl’ - Forsythe ‘subtle’ Jones everyone!

Hal and Alice

So Hal fired Alice and blocked her password? Really? He went there? And Alice calls him milquetoast?? More like fearless warrior to me! Hal showed his petty, vindictive side too, so there’s that!

So what’s this, Hal? You hate the Blossoms more than anyone, you don’t want to raise a child with Blossom blood, you have a personal vendetta against the Blossoms from before you were even born! And you’re telling Alice you won’t support her in HER personal vendetta? What even???

Okay, theory time! We know that Alice was mad at Hal for what he did to her - the same thing he did to Polly. But he only made an appointment for Polly. He may have done the same for Alice, but does that make it obvious she actually aborted the child? Maybe she gave it up for adoption (this was a choice the Coopers were on board with even for Polly)? Maybe the child was Cliff Blossom’s and that’s why Hal’s extreme hatred for any child with Blossom blood? Maybe Cliff raped Alice and got away because of his powerful connections and that’s why Alice’s extreme hatred for Cliff? I know it sounds crazy but it could explain a lot. I initially thought that Jason and Cheryl could be Alice’s kids (with Clifford) and they gave them up to the Blossoms to raise since Penelope was barren or whatever, but then Polly and Jason incest - yewww! But it would be delicious if the twins thing were actually a Cooper family thing and not a Blossom family one like everyone’s thinking, no??

Alice certainly has rage issues, throwing a brick at your husband, calling him a bastard all in front of your teenage daughter? WTF Alice?

Bughead at the Blue and Gold!

BETTY TELLING JUGGIE ABOUT HER PARENTS FIGHTING AND HOW ALICE THREW A BRICK AT HAL. LIKE I SAID, HE’S HER ROCK AND SHE CANNOT HIDE ANYTHING FROM HIM NO MATTER HOW UGLY!

JUGHEAD BEING JUGHEAD WHEN HE SAYS I WISH I’D SEEN THAT. HIS HUMOUR AND SARCASM ARE SO PART OF HIM NOW, THEY’RE NOT AN ARMOUR ANYMORE

BETTY ROLLING HER EYES AT HIM AND HE IMMEDIATELY APOLOGIZING FOR BEING INSENSITIVE - MARRIED!!!!!

BETTY BREAKING DOWN - THE COOPERS WON’T EXIST ANYMORE. SHE’S TIRED OF FIGHTING, POOR BABY, SHE’S EXHAUSTED AND SHE DOESN’T KNOW WHERE IT’S ALL GOING AND NOTHING IS MAKING SENSE

*SUPPORTIVE BOYFRIEND MODE ACTIVATED* - YOU ARE STRONGER THAN THE WHITE NOISE, STRONGER THAN YOUR FATHER, STRONGER THAN YOUR MOTHER, YOU’RE HOLDING YOUR FAMILY TOGETHER, DON’T GIVE UP, DON’T

THAT COLLAR GRAB, THE EARNESTNESS, THE URGENCY IN HIS TONE, HE CANNOT SEE HER BREAK APART, SHE IS HIS CONVICTION, HER FIGHT IS HIS FIGHT TOO. HIS FAITH IN HER ABILITY TO HOLD HER FAMILY TOGETHER IS AN ASSERTION THAT IF HE COULDN’T DO IT SHE COULD! SHE HAS TO SUCCEED, THEN MAYBE SOMEWHERE THERE WOULD BE SOME HOPE FOR HIM TOO!

DID YOU NOTICE HE SAID YOU’RE HOLDING “THIS” FAMILY TOGETHER - NOT “YOUR” FAMILY BUT “THIS” FAMILY- HE CONSIDERS HIMSELF A PART OF HER FAMILY. SHE’S HOLDING HIM TOGETHER TOO! SHE MADE HIM WHOLE, FIXED ALL HIS BROKEN PIECES. HIS “DON’T LET GO” WAS A PLEA FOR HER NOT TO LET GO OF HERSELF - BETTY COOPER, OF WHO SHE WAS DEEP UNDERNEATH AND WHAT SHE’S CAPABLE OF AND WHAT SHE BELIEVES IN.

SHE IS IMMEDIATELY CONVINCED BECAUSE “I WON’T” IS A PROMISE SHE MAKES TO HIM. A PROMISE THAT SHE WILL BE WHOLE, UNBROKEN AND STRONG FOR HIS SAKE AND WILL CONTINUE TO KEEP HIS FAITH IN HER ALIVE!

THE HUG!

THAT’S ALL - GO HOME

Val and Archie

WHAT DID CHERYL SAY TO VALERIE??

The Blossoms are buying you!

If you have to ask - you don’t know me at all! Slay, Valerie!

Val blowing off Archie - good for you, Val!

Archie at Thornhill

Cliff Blossom thinks Archie by his daughter’s side could improve her image? Why Archie again?

What were Cheryl and her dad arguing about when Archie was dancing with Polly?

Polly was playing Nancy Drew, I was right! But she’s being foolish. She’s heavily pregnant (with twins!) and she needs to protect her babies first. She entered the enemy’s lair without a thought for her own protection? She’s scared, she doesn’t want the Blossoms to know, which means she thinks they are dangerous. Why would she put herself and her babies willingly in harm’s way just because of the Cooper penchant for sleuthing? Also don’t understand how Betty and Alice can be okay with this madcap scheme?

Cheryl again with the you’re-the-only-good-person-in-this-town which changed the minute Archie wanted to leave. So she’s susceptible to flattery and also petty and vindictive when rejected. Did she kill Jason because he was kind of ‘rejecting’ her for Polly? Or was she secretly happy he was out of the picture so now she could become the focus for her parents?

There could be 2 reasons Cheryl hates Polly. One because Polly’s kids would be the heirs to the Blossom legacy and not her. After Jason she may have thought herself to be the sole claimant. But Polly being pregnant ruined everything for her. Btw, did they do a DNA/ paternity test yet to find if Polly is telling the truth about Jason being the father? The Blossoms are just taking Polly’s (and the Cooper’s) word for it? I think they would smell something underhanded knowing the Coopers are involved. Also Cheryl could hate Polly because she still thinks Polly killed Jason and wants to exact her own revenge on Polly.

So Clifford sent Hiram to jail and that makes Hiram a suspect. But does this mean Hiram is really innocent? Or that Clifford just exposed his guilty ass?

Bughead and Alice

BETTY LOOKING AT JUGGIE TO INVITE HER MOM TO THE BLUE AND GOLD!

*SON-IN-LAW MODE ACTIVATED*

BLUE AND GOLD HAS A HIGHER ANNUAL OPERATING BUDGET THAN THE REGISTER? IS THAT POSSIBLE?

BUGHEAD BUGHEAD BUGHEAD

*SCREAMING*

BYE

ETA:

The last scene with Bughead realizing Hiram Lodge could be a suspect, Archie looking on clueless, while Betty and Jughead go back and forth completing each other’s sentences - OMG they’re so fucking attuned to each other!!

They have Hermione Lodge, the Blossoms, The Coopers, Hiram Lodge and Reggie Mantle (???? Why??) as probable suspects already. Why is FP Jones not on the murder board???? Because they don’t know about the jacket?

THE PROMO FOR 110

JUGHEAD LOOKING UPSET AT THE MENTION OF A BIRTHDAY PARTY (MAYBE HE HASN’T HAD ONE IN FOREVER BCOS OF HIS DAD OR SOMETHING BAD HAPPENED AT THE LAST PARTY HE HAD AND HE DECIDED NEVER TO HAVE ONE BCOS IT BRINGS BACK BAD MEMORIES? *SOBBING*)

BURGER CAKE

BETTY IN A CROWN SWEATER

BUGHEAD ADORING LOOKS

ETHEL LOOKING SHADY AF

CHUCK CLAYTON GETTING SLAPPED BY BETTY

JUGGIE PUNCHING CHUCK

JUGGIE BRUISED ON HIS FACE (WHO’S A BRUISER NOW, MOOSE?)

RONNIE LOOKING UP WORRIEDLY (IS SOMEONE UPSTAIRS IN THE ROOM?)

SOMEONE IN A WHITE FUR COAT UNLOCKING (OR LOCKING) A DOOR - CHERYL?

ARCHIE AND RONNIE MAKING OUT

EVERYONE IS WASTED

WTF is happening?

#riverdale reviews #my riverdale reviews #riverdale 1x09 #bughead

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briannaslist · 7 years

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Riverdale, S1E6: Recap

Chapter Six: Faster Pussycats! Kill! Kill!

The best way to start the day is with an awkward breakfast. Betty invited Jughead over for breakfast as part of a crafty plan. He asks where the restroom is and Betty’s mom decides to show him; while they’re out of the room Betty sneaks into her mom’s purse to take a picture of her checkbook. This way she can figure out where Polly is being kept. I’m curious to know what plan B was if her mom didn’t do what they expected; I guess it’s good that her mom is overbearing.

At school, it’s time for the annual Riverdale Variety show auditions. This is apparently a big deal since this is a small town and there’s nothing to do. For whatever reason, these are open auditions. That can make sense since they’re all going to be performing in front of people during the show anyway, but it always seems strange. Anyway, Archie walks out there and immediately gets hindered by stage fright. It doesn’t help that Reggie and some other football players are there heckling him and Josie almost looks delighted by his failure.

Valerie tries to reassure Archie about the fact that every performer gets stage fright. Archie suggests that maybe it’s because he didn’t have his “team” up there and would feel better if she performed with him. But she reminds him that she’s in a band and they’re headlining the events. Headlining band for a high school talent show. What is Riverdale?

At lunch, Betty and Jughead decide to continue having a conversation about Polly; of course, this is a secret so they’re keeping to themselves at the table. They did some further investigating and found out that Polly is being kept in a home for “troubled youth”. Archie asks them what’s up and if he can help and Jughead immediately shuts down his offer because they need to be stealthy. Let’s start with not having private conversations in public. But also, Archie, Jughead is clearly interested in Betty; read the room. Luckily Veronica and Kevin come to the table so Archie can feel included in something. Since Kevin is the host/organizer for the Variety show, Veronica talked him into letting Archie have a spot in the show. And to put Archie at ease, Veronica also offers to sing with him.

Later, when Valerie is rehearsing with Josie and the Pussycats, things go awry. Josie is on edge, which puts Valerie on edge. So much edge they could be called Jughead. Josie is being a diva and Valerie says she doesn’t have this issue when she sings with Archie. Josie says Val either sings with them or Archie. So Valerie decides to quit. Which hurts Josie, clearly. But none of this would have happened if she wasn’t being such a bitch.

Meanwhile, at Andrews Construction, Hermione and Fred discuss the state of the finances at the business. It’s bad. Hermione suggests downsizing with the employees. But Fred says he can’t do it because the guys trust him and the last time he fired someone it didn’t go so well. (FORESHADOWING) So Fred tells her that he was actually hoping to talk to the mayor for some help in getting the contract for developing the land at the old drive-in theater site. Of course, the dramatic irony is that he doesn’t know the buyer is Lodge Industries. He asks Hermione to co-host with him and she agrees, also suggesting that they host dinner at her place. They’re standing all close and one thing leads to another and then they’re kissing in front of an open window. Which Veronica happens to see since she was coming to bring her mom a little plant for her desk.

Meanwhile, Josie is telling her mom about Val quitting (conveniently leaving out that her behavior is the reason why Val left). Her mom says it doesn’t matter because Josie is the most important member anyway, but she has to fix it soon because Josie’s dad is missing two concert shows to come and see her. Her mom tells her to find someone skinny and pretty, but not skinnier and prettier than her. And a woman of color – can’t forget their branding. And in case you were wondering why Josie is the way that she is, that was your explanation.

When Hermione comes home, Veronica confronts her about kissing Fred. So glad Veronica addressed this right away. She asks if Hermione is going to leave her dad when he’s released. Hermione says that it was the first time they kissed and it just kind of happened and that she can’t really say what’s going on because she doesn’t know.

So Veronica joins in on the edge the next day as she walks into the student lounge and sees Archie practicing with Valerie. He’s all excited to tell her that Val quit her band and is going to be performing with her, totally missing that Veronica feels slighted by this. And also how it’s not really great that Valerie had a fight with her friend and left her band. So Veronica yells at him about his lack of loyalty and he’s wondering why she’s so mad, and Veronica says that his dad kissed her mom. Archie tries defending the kiss by saying that it was his understanding from his dad that they were both into it. And Veronica says, “They’re married! To other people!” It’s Archie’s counter that really just drives his obliviousness home – his parents are separated and her dad is…incarcerated. He had a moment to back track and he decided to double down. Veronica reminds him that it’s only been three months since that happened to her dad and Archie finally realizes his mistake and then tries to offer her the part back. Incredibly this makes the entire situation worse because if she accepted then where does that leave Valerie and it leaves Veronica mad because she doesn’t want Archie to do her any favors.

Veronica goes for immediate revenge by responding to the flyers that Josie and Melody are putting up looking for a new band member. She walks down the hallway as a member of Josie and the Pussycats, right by Archie and Valerie, making sure that everyone feels slighted.

And now for a major storyline shift – Betty and Jughead go to see Polly in the home for “Troubled Youth”. Jughead has to wait in the lobby, but Betty can go see Polly. And she learns the real reason why Polly was sent away – she’s pregnant. But that was kind of obvious from the talk in the previous episodes. The real twist is what Polly tells Betty about July 4th:

Jason’s parents made them break up because a Blossom dating a Cooper was abhorrent to them. But then she told him about the baby and he was super happy and they planned to run away together.

Polly packed her bags and was going to meet him on July 4th, but her parents figured it out. They had the people from the facility take her away and board her at the home for troubled youth.

She still remembers where she was supposed to meet Jason. She tells Betty exactly where it’s parked.

She has no idea that Jason is dead.

Which leaves Betty to break the news. Talk about a reunion. Polly is distressed and they make Betty leave her.

But hey, who cares about that when we can see Veronica at band rehearsal. Josie is annoyed by Veronica’s distractions and Veronica says she’s just a little stressed. Josie tries to pull the “poor little rich girl” Pot meet kettle, Josie, daughter of the mayor and a prolific jazz musician. Veronica explodes for a moment about her problems but stops mid-sentence and just decides to let it go. Josie tells her she’s sorry about her dad.

Back to Betty – She’s being held in an office when her mom bursts in to get her. She tells Betty that she’s notified if Polly gets a visitor. She and Betty start leaving with Jughead trailing behind, when they run into Polly. Polly is distraught and angry that she wasn’t told about Jason before. Alice says, “Baby it’s for your own good!” and Polly yells back, “You always say that and it’s not true!” while she’s being dragged away. Can’t possibly be good for the baby. And seriously, what kind of stuff has been going on in the Cooper household?

Meanwhile, Archie and Fred are having dinner with Hermione and Josie’s family. It’s another awkward meal! Two in one episode, what a treat! Josie and her dad are both making snide little comments that are just unnecessary for a polite dinner. Josie’s dad finds out about Val leaving the band and is clearly unhappy because he thinks Val is “the real deal”. Doubt that helps Josie’s esteem. After dinner, when Fred gives his presentation, Josie’s dad decides to be condescending to him. When he doesn’t even have any actual influence or stake in this. He’s literally just there because it’s polite to invite the whole family. Josie’s mom says she likes the presentation and wishes she could help, but the buyer is already in the process of closing the deal and it would take two shareholders’ signatures to give Fred the contract instead. So this whole dinner was a complete waste of Fred’s time. And she and Hermione knew that.

Back at the Coopers, Hal and Alice are questioning why Betty even went to see Polly. It’s super stupid. She hasn’t seen her sister in months and they didn’t even give her a real, concrete reason why she was gone. Of course she would want to go. In fact, if they had been more forthright, this whole incident wouldn’t have happened. As if Betty would not eventually figure out that her sister is expecting a child. Betty wants answers and she says considering what she heard today and putting it with other information makes her think that Hal has a motive. She points out that he was also missing from major stuff happening while Sheriff Keller’s house was broken into and she wonders if he’s the one that stole the information. Which, spot on Betty. She asks him point blank if he killed Jason. Note: This is not an appropriate way to find out if anyone committed a crime. Hal just stares at her in disbelief while Alice laughs and says there’s no way someone as spineless as Hal could actually do that and that Betty is sounding crazy like Polly. They tell her Polly’s story is all fake.

Josie and Veronica hang out at Pop’s. Wait, where was Veronica during the dinner being hosted in her apartment? Everyone else had their kids there. Josie vents about how critical and demanding her dad is about the music. Veronica tells her about Hermione and Fred kissing – that strikes me as a bad idea. They had a brief bonding moment and don’t have any real issues with each other, but that’s kind of a big thing to share with someone you don’t really know. The least number of people should be hearing about that. Josie says that Veronica should be open hearing her mom’s take on some things.

So Veronica decides to talk to her mom. But her mom talks first and tells her that she wants to award Fred the contract and she needs Veronica to sign the document. See, when they took Hiram away, he made Veronica a legal officer of Lodge Industries, so she’s the second signature that they need. Veronica is very uneasy and she asks if her mom will stop seeing Fred if she signs it; her mom says she can’t do that, so Veronica says that she can’t sign it because she wants not part in rationalizing what Hermione and Fred are doing. She storms out and her mom just forges her signature instead. This may have been avoided if her mom just explained that the business is failing and Andrews Construction is an honest business unlike the people Hiram was trying to hire.

Archie tells Val that she should perform with the Pussycats; he says he does still want to sing with her at some point in the future, but she belongs up there with them. Plus, after meeting her dad, Archie can see why Josie is the way she is. Val didn’t know that Josie’s dad was in town, and she quickly sees why Josie has been so rude.

Valerie talks to Josie and asks her why she didn’t say anything about her father coming into town. They have their heart-to-heart and Val tells her she wants back in the band. Josie says, “I guess there’s always room for one more kitten in my litter box.” Terrible phrase, not cute at all. There must be something else with cats that can be used.

They perform “I Feel Love” by Donna Summer. Out of all the Donna Summer songs they do the one that had three lines and is super inappropriate to sing in front of your parents and peers at a high school show while wearing cat leotards. But their voices do sound nice, so I guess that’s something. I haven’t liked any of the covers that Josie and the Pussycats have done so far. As they’re performing, Josie’s dad gets up and leaves. Josie can see this from the stage and has to keep it together until the end. There are only like three decent parents in this town; it’s almost comical.

While all of this was going on, Jughead went to visit Betty. He decides to by-pass the awkwardness of ringing the bell by using a tall ladder to get to Betty’s window and knocking. Where did this boy get this ladder? And the window is to the front of the house, so it’s not like it’s sneaky or subtle. Betty lets Jug in and tells him that her parents are crazy and she has to wonder if Polly is crazy too considering how she was talking the other day. (I don’t think Polly’s crazy; she was excited and animated to share everything with her sister.) Betty then wonders if she’s crazy too. Jughead consoles her and says, “We’re all crazy Betty. We’re not out parents. We’re not our families. Also….” And he kisses her. It’s very cute. But it’s during this kiss that Betty remembers Polly telling her about where Jason’s escape car was parked. They decide to go check out the validity of this.

They find the car right where Polly said it would be. And the car is all packed up. Jason’s jacket is in there along with some bags and drugs. Jughead takes a video off the trunk and Betty says they need to get the sheriff and then they can get her sister. But they’re being watched during this whole thing. They get to the school to get Sheriff Keller while Archie is performing. They can hear him in the hallway over the speakers. The sheriff says he got their text and ask what’s going on. They tell him that Polly and Jason were going to run away together and they know where the car is. Betty chooses to go with them, but she acknowledges that she heard Archie singing.

So, quickly – before Archie went on, he and Veronica apologized to each other. He does a great job and people clearly love it. And while we’re here, following the show, Archie and Valerie kiss, Josie cries and is comforted by her mom, and Veronica finds out that Andrews Construction got the contract. From Fred. While she and her mom exchange super uncomfortable looks.

But while all this was happening, the police go to Jason’s car only to find it on fire. Of course, if they had used that phone that they texted the sheriff on to call him instead and just tell him like that, they may have reached the car in time. Betty and Jughead go to get Polly, only to find the window broken with blood on some of it and Polly gone. Though in hindsight, how was Betty going to get Polly out of there? Everyone is a minor.

Questions: Who was watching Betty and Jughead? And I didn’t mention this in the recap because it’s already too long and it just really didn’t fit, but Archie had two incidents where he was freaked out by a wolf mask and some of the football players in the mask – what is that about? I guess we’ll see.

#riverdale #riverdale1 #riverdale 1x06 #tv recaps #long post

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wrestlingwiththoughts · 7 years

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Evolve 79, February 25, 2016 (Queens, NY)

I thought something was afoot when I saw a group of five paramedics huddled together in the general attendance section in the crowd, but it turns out that these paramedics simply enjoyed their independent professional grappling. There also were noticeably more women in the crowd than in past Evolve shows, and it warmed my heart to hear one woman get very invested in the show. At one point, she yelled, “Wait, this is fake?” Despite that realization, she stayed and cheered Tracy Williams and Darby Allin, chanted “Bro” with the crowd at Matt Riddle, catcalled Timothy Thatcher, and applauded when Zack Sabre Jr. won the Evolve championship from Thatcher. After the show, at the nearby Taco Bell, I overheard a group of young women discuss how they were going to an upcoming WWE show with signs. It was really encouraging to see so many women at this Evolve show, and I hope that they all come back and bring friends. As Zack Sabre Jr. stated later, “Professional wrestling is for everyone; this Earth is for everyone.”

1. ACH vs. Jason Kincaid

I’ve been watching wrestling for long enough now that I have to value, possibly even over-value, when someone doesn’t move like everyone else. To me, that’s the appeal of someone like Jason Kincaid. ACH is a fine junior heavyweight wrestler, and Ring of Honor missed its chance to capitalize on ACH when he worked for the company. ACH was charismatic, sharing his confusion at Kincaid’s moves with stares at the crowd. When a wrestler interacts with the crowd by directing their reaction to their opponent, is it still breaking the fourth wall? ACH also displayed his athleticism with skillful dives, powerful dropkicks, and enziguri kicks. However, my eyes were drawn to Kincaid, whose movements remind me of Ophidian’s serpentine style, bending in ways that demand great flexibility and moving at angles that are different from other wrestlers. Kincaid slithers over ropes and around the ring to play into his Eastern meditation gimmick (which seems ripe for an eventual heel turn to team with someone like Stokely Hathaway, by the way), and his charismatic really shines through his movements. This was entertaining, and it set the crowd up to stay excited for the rest of the show.

2. Chris Dickinson vs. Fred Yehi vs. Austin Theory vs. Anthony Henry

Speaking of wrestlers who move at unique angles and have unique attacks, my attention during this match was on Fred Yehi, though Chris Dickinson was the actual focus of the match. Yehi plays into his small stature by attacking his opponent’s joints or areas where everyone, no matter how strong or fast, will be vulnerable, such as fingers and toes. His height also creates a different angle and look for the German suplex, which is ubiquitous in professional wrestling in 2017. The way Yehi bounces off the middle rope instead of the top rope is another way Yehi plays into his small stature to make himself a more compelling figure in the ring, and his work does not go unrecognized with me.

Dickinson, on the other hand, is a beefy fellow who has never impressed me in the ring. He has great looking power moves for a wrestler his size, and he has some blue collar charisma. His nickname, “Dirty Daddy,” is almost repugnant when chanted by the crowd, and he still bears the shame of his reckless chairshot on Kimber Lee and how he tried to defend himself. He reminds me of wrestlers like BJ Whitmer or Brent Albright who can hit some impressive looking offense without ever forming a connection with the crowd.

Austin Theory is tall and lanky, and he looked lost in some parts of this match, like he was desperately trying to remember when his spots took place during the match so he could impress the crowd. Also, I know that he’s playing with his name, but he really should reconsider wearing tights emblazoned with “Unproven” because it just makes him sound not tried and tested, which is what the word actually means.

As they say, Anthony Henry should be a crowd pleaser because he has two first names, but he was only slightly more memorable than Austin Theory. He exhibited a frantic sense of energy, and at least he didn’t seem like he was lost in the ring. The spot where he kicked both Dickinson and Yehi was almost believable

Dickinson won to continue the story of Catchpoint’s implosion by powerbombing Theory to score the pin while Yehi had Henry trapped in a submission hold. It was a creative ending, and it teases his upcoming tag team title challenge with Jaka against fellow Catchpoint members Yehi and Tracy Williams.

3. Jeff Cobb vs. Jaka

Part of me wonders if Gabe Sapolsky is tempted to use the same strategy to promote Jeff Cobb the same ways he was able to successfully promote Samoa Joe back in the early 2000s in Ring of Honor. While Cobb is similar to Joe in size and athleticism, the former Olympian Cobb has a grappling legitimacy that Joe could never claim. Unlike Samoa Joe, Cobb does not project a monstrous ferocity or confidence in his striking; though he is a large man, his chops don’t seem to carry the force that they should even though he has incredible physical strength, as he demonstrated with the delayed vertical superplex and the way he caught Jaka for the Tour of the Islands in the finish. I have felt that trying to package Cobb like he is the next Samoa Joe is a mistake because he can dominate opponents with his grappling, and Samoa Joe never excelled at ground-based grappling. Cobb also has incredible strength and surprising athleticism; his standing moonsault and shooting star press look physically impossible given his size.

Jaka, on the other hand, has great looking strikes, and I wish that they had leaned into this contrast more by making this a grappler vs. striker style match instead of the hoss fight template that they used. The match started violently and was paced to escalate, and it held the crowd’s attention. Nonetheless, I wonder if it could have been better, which seems to be the case with a lot of Jeff Cobb matches.

4. Keith Lee vs. Tracy Williams

With his bulky knee braces and kinesio tapes on his right shoulder, Tracy Williams looks like he is breaking down under the physical stress of his intense schedule and hard-hitting style. It would be a shame to see Williams sidelined because of his injuries, but it almost seems inevitable given his physical deterioration. His passion in the ring is almost unparalleled on the roster; only Fred Yehi projects intensity like Williams during matches.

Keith Lee is a large man who feels comfortable throwing his weight around the ring. Because he faced Williams, he was able to deny Williams simple things like Irish whips or suplexes due to the size difference, which set this in the classic “big man vs. little man” match template.

Williams jump Lee at the start of the match and overwhelm Lee, but Lee’s size advantage allowed him to weather the flurry of offense and grind Williams down with violent offense like belly to belly suplexes and a sitout powerbomb that bounced Williams and Lee off the mat and stunned even Lee with the force of the powerbomb. When Williams’s flurry failed to stun Lee to let Williams score a quick victory, he changed tactics and targeted Lee’s arm, including a hanging armbar in the ropes. However, Williams wasn’t able to stun Lee long enough to really wear out the arm, while every move Lee hit devastated Williams. Because Williams couldn’t grind Lee down to force a submission victory, he had to change tactics again and stand toe to toe with Lee. This was Williams’s undoing because Lee could easily cut Williams’s offense off with his power advantage, and Lee won the match with his Ground Zero move. The match was entertaining, and I appreciated the story they told about how Williams had to change his tactics several times to try to find a way to take Lee out. Williams’s intensity usually gives his matches a sense of purpose, and he works well with larger men, as his matches with Chris Hero and now Keith Lee demonstrate. I think he could have a great match with Jeff Cobb in the future.

5. Ethan Page w/The Gatekeepers vs. Darby Allin

I have not been a fan of Ethan Page, and this was maybe the first time that I can see him as a viable antagonist in Evolve. Most of the credit goes to Darby Allin, who once again sacrificed greatly in order to make himself a compelling figure in the ring. Allin came to the ring wearing a paper cutout of Page’s face as a mask, which gave him a creepy energy. Page attacked right away to start the match, but Allin was able to escape Page’s package piledriver attempt and send Page to the floor. He then hit the coffin drop trust fall on Page and the Gatekeepers to spark an already hot crowd. Page held the Gatekeepers back and brawled with Allin on the floor. As the larger man, Page gained the advantage and nearly killed Allin by throwing him from the La Boom stage to the ring post, which resulted in a sickening fall. I thought that would be the spot where Darby Allin almost dies, as he usually does during a match, but instead he dies multiple deaths after Page handcuffs Allin after a two count. Page practically begs Allin to give up, but Allin insists to the referee that he wants to continue the match, so Page destroys Allin with slams. Allin forces a comeback with a headbutt and an incredible hands-free hurricanrana on Page and dropkicks to the Gatekeepers. Page stops Allin on the top turnbuckle and hits him with a powerslam from the top rope, but Allin refuses to quit and spits at Page. Page is enraged and hits the RKEgo and a powerbomb to finally pin Allin in this match.

After the match, Page berated Allin for being a loser who is pitied by the crowd. The Gatekeepers then put Allin in a body bag, and Page declared that Allin should consider his career to be dead. Allin was then taken away, and Page stated his intentions to become the Evolve champion.

There is an annoying logic hole in the middle of the match where the referee should have disqualified Page for handcuffing Allin, but you could dismiss it by countering that Allin wanted the match to continue. The match served its multiple purposes well, using Allin’s never say die attitude to make Page look vicious and petty while allowing Allin to show resilience and bravery in a unique way. I dread the idea of Ethan Page as Evolve champion, which taps into a metanarrative heel heat as he builds his case to challenge for the Evolve championship.

6. Matt Riddle vs. Drew Galloway

Because Timothy Thatcher missed months of Evolve shows in 2016, Matt Riddle became the unofficial face of Evolve. His development took place most prominently in Evolve. Galloway, a former Evolve champion, was himself once the face of Evolve, but his crusade to save Evolve from itself seemed to fizzle out due to his injuries. Riddle hits a charging knee strike to start the match with a near fall, and he followed up with an exploder suplex and a running senton. Galloway recovered, and they brawled on the floor. Galloway slammed Riddle on the metal guard rail and targeted Riddle’s ankles and feet. Galloway then countered Riddle’s strikes with a short piledriver for a near fall. Riddle arose to continue to hit Galloway with strikes, but Galloway cut Riddle off with a running kick. This only stunned Riddle, who then hit Galloway with the fisherman brainbuster to lay both men out. They rose together and continued their battle, and Galloway got a near fall with the inverted Alabama Slam. Riddle countered the Future Shock with the Bro to Sleep. Galloway countered Riddle’s senton with double knees, set Riddle up on the top rope, and hit the air raid crash from the top. Riddle kicked out and frustrated Galloway. Galloway tried to hit the Future Shock, but Riddle escaped and hit a tombstone piledriver. Riddle then pounced and locked Galloway in the Bro-mission, forcing the referee to stop the match when Galloway appeared like he could not defend himself from Riddle’s hammer fists.

This was very entertaining, though it felt like Riddle and Galloway could have an even better match in the future. Galloway can claim that he never gave up and was cost the match by the referee stoppage. The finish also plays into Riddle’s MMA background, keeping that aspect of his work firmly in the crowd’s mind.

Galloway tried to tombstone piledriver Riddle on to a chair and Riddle’s championship belt, but Williams and Yehi drove Galloway away. Larry Dallas and Earl Cooter appeared for a momentum killing segment. Yehi then accused Riddle of being selfish and challenged him to a match.

7. Evolve championship match: Timothy Thatcher (c) vs. Zack Sabre Jr.

By this point, Timothy Thatcher had become the most hated wrestler employed by Evolve and WWNLive. The string of listless title defenses in 2016 and his disappearance for months in 2016 didn’t help the perception that Thatcher had been exposed as a poor professional wrestler. I have said previously that Thatcher’s skill had been in his attention to detail during his matches; his struggles feel titanic and his matches demanded attention to detail. However, even that skill slipped, and the crowd was frustrated with Thatcher because he seemed unemotional in the ring. This coincided with Matt Riddle’s rise in Evolve, which included unsuccessful title challenges for Thatcher’s championship.

Zack Sabre Jr. only became more famous in 2016 after his participation in WWE’s Cruiserweight Classic. After the recent announcement that he would face Katsuyori Shibata for the Revolution Pro British Heavyweight Championship at New Japan Pro Wrestling’s 45th Anniversary show, Sabre’s chances of winning the Evolve championship seemed to plummet. After all, how could Evolve change from one champion who missed months of shows to another champion who could be similarly limited because he would have commitments to fill with New Japan.

Sabre and Thatcher charged each other at the opening bell and sought to trap the other in an arm bar. Sabre locks Thatcher in the guillotine, but Thatcher escapes with ground and pound strikes. The crowd began to chant “Ooh, Zack Sabre Jr.” but quickly changed to chanting “Thatcher’s garbage” and “Ooh, Thatcher is garbage.” This finally got Thatcher to react to the crowd; later in the match, Thatcher shouted, “I’m fucking winning” and smirked when Sabre was laid out in the corner. Thatcher used his size advantage to force his way out of Sabre’s holds and change the pace of the match by suplexing Sabre with a belly to back suplex. This match had a more urgent pace than their previous matches, which matched the crowd’s energy. Sabre eventually gains the advantage and locks in the octopus hold, but Thatcher escapes. They trade submission attempts as they enter the nearfall sequence. Sabre traps Thatcher in the double arm bar, but Thatcher counters into a cradle for a two count. Sabre follows up with a bridging German suplex that gets a two count. Sabre tries to press with the penalty kick, but Thatcher counters it with a dragon screw leg whip and follows it up with a gutwrench suplex and an arm bar. Sabre escapes by touching the ropes, Thatcher counters the PK, hits a dragon screw leg whip and follows with the gut wrench suplex into the arm bar. Sabre makes the ropes. Thatcher shouts at the crowd, giving Sabre some much needed breathing space and recovery time. Sabre attempts the O’Connor roll, but Thatcher escapes and locks the sleeper hold. He then transitions to the prawn hold for a near fall. Sabre kicks out and hits the penalty kick. He locks in the triangle choke, but Thatcher escapes. Thatcher hits the knee strike and locks Sabre in the sleeper. Sabre escapes and traps Thatcher in the octopus hold and beats Thatcher with elbows and kicks. Sabre traps Thatcher’s free arm and forces him to submit to win the championship, causing the crowd to erupt in celebration with one of the loudest cheers I’ve ever heard.

There was a sense of urgency in this match that was missing from other title defenses, and Thatcher actually showed some personality by smirking at the crowd and interacting with the audience, which is an advantage that professional wrestling has over other forms of performance.

Sabre jumped into the crowd to celebrate, and Thatcher pried the championship belt from Stokely Hathaway’s grip. Before Thatcher could hand Sabre the championship belt, Ethan Page attacked Sabre. Thatcher dropped the belt and walked away; ACH, the next challenger, forced Page to retreat. Sabre then cut his short promo about how wrestling and this planet is for everyone, shook hands with the roster, and left. Keith Lee was the last person to shake hands with Sabre, and they shared an intense staredown before Sabre went behind the curtain.

Sabre went to his merchandise table as I was on my way out of La Boom, and I wanted to tell him how entertaining his match was. More importantly, I wanted to tell him how proud I was that he believes that professional wrestling is an inclusive art form despite its dubious history of inclusiveness and sensitivity. I felt energized after the show; as much as Timothy Thatcher was key to my entry into Evolve, I feel that Sabre and Evolve’s burgeoning roster can continue to entertain me in some new ways. This was another Evolve show that is easy to recommend.

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thorias · 7 years

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Random thoughts watching Riverdale episode 8

The episode begins with Jughead describing the Coopers as the Stepfords of Riverdale, meaning there’s a whole lot of insanity bubbling up right beneath the surface and it probably only takes one fly in the ointment to release sheer unadulterated lunacy on anyone in the general vicinity. Yeah, that sounds about right.

I know Archie has been compared to Jason before on this show, but seeing that flashback of Jason with Polly before his death makes it positively eerie how much Archie and Betty look like carbon copies of them. This was obviously intentional; I just wish I knew what it was meant to symbolize.

Veronica’s solution to getting the Coopers and the Blossoms on the same page with the Polly situation is to throw a party. The fact that she doesn’t see how getting them all in the same room together would just make things worse is cause for concern. Looks like this may another one of those episodes where Archie is not the most thick-headed person in town for a change.

Archie looks a wee bit uncomfortable when Veronica calls Betty/Jughead boyfriend and girlfriend, and I’m still right there with him. There aren’t enough NOPE gifs on the internet to express how I feel about this pairing.

The Blossoms are suddenly trying to put Fred out of business by luring his construction crew away. Because the Blossoms are assholes. And these are the people Veronica thinks can be civil with people they can’t stand when there’s a baby involved? Yeah, okay.

If Betty thinking that a baby shower with the Coopers and the Blossoms is an amazing idea isn’t a giant, blazing red flag, I don’t know what is. No offense to Betty, but I don’t exactly trust her judgement anymore.

Betty tells Polly that the entire Cooper family will support her at the baby shower. What is she basing this on? Alice just made it very clear that she thinks this whole thing is a terrible idea and she wants this baby out of the picture. Then again, this is the same Betty who didn’t remember going all Darth Betty and nearly drowning Chuck, so maybe it just slipped her mind.

Hermione think this baby shower is going to turn into a bloodbath. So the kids think this party is a great idea, while the parents are the ones actually seeing clearly for a change? This is still Riverdale I’m watching, right?

Archie has gotten all his friends to replace Fred’s crew and help out his dad. Okay, THIS is the Archie from the comics. Where has THIS kid been for the last eight episodes?

Is Polly 18 yet? Because if she’s not, Alice could legally force her to come home. It’s a little strange that Alice hasn’t brought the police into this.

Polly, the teenage mother, wants Betty, her younger teenage sister, to be the baby’s godmother. Um, are there any responsible and sane adults that she can consider for the job instead? I don’t think Betty’s fragile mental state should be subjected to that kind of pressure.

Archie is going to the south side to find the Serpents who attacked Moose. That sounds like a good way to get killed, but god damn it, Archie is doing what he thinks is right to help someone who needs it. As ill-advised as this decision may be, I can’t tell him not to do it. This is character surgery Archie needed badly.

I hope Jughead at least gave his dad a call and asked him to watch out for Archie, Moose and co. when they’re in Serpent territory. Otherwise, Jughead isn’t coming off so well here. I know that he doesn’t want anyone knowing that his dad is a Serpent and I sympathize, but this is a pretty dangerous thing his friends are doing and he’s not having their back here.

Does Kevin’s Serpent boyfriend bear a downright scary resemblance to a young John Travolta or is it just me?

Archie confronts one of the Serpents in the Serpents’ hangout and pretty much starts a fight. Okay, he’s not getting any smarter exactly, but doing a stupid thing for the right reason is still a big step forward for him.

Cheryl wants to be the baby’s godmother? Um... until we know what exactly the nature of her (twincest?) relationship with Jason was and exactly how desperate she is to hold onto any piece of him, no matter how small, I would advise against that. Man, this kid is going to be so messed up...

Cheryl’s insane grandma thinks Polly is having twins. I want to think she’s just off her rocker, but wouldn’t it be just like this show if she turned out to be right?

When the baby shower was actually going well, I assumed it would be the Blossoms who ruined it. Ironically, it’s Archie who makes things awkward first by barging in and telling everyone about Jughead’s dad being in the Serpents. He could have done this in private and it’s a dick move to tell anyone else without talking to Jughead first, but Archie did just almost get his ass kicked and Jughead did let him go into that bar knowing that might happen. Hard to say who’s being more of a jerk here, so let’s just call it a wash.

Now the Blossoms are inviting Polly to live with them. Dear god, if Polly walks through Thorn Hill’s gates, she’s not coming out alive.

The baby shower ends with the Cooper and Blossom moms at each other’s throats. Who could have possibly seen this coming? Besides everyone, I mean.

Anyone else surprised that it was Polly’s dad who tried to force her to get an abortion and not Alice? Daddy Cooper has always seemed like the more reasonable one, so I guess I should have expected the writers to drag him further into the mud at some point.

Few things in this show make Archie as sympathetic as the scenes with him and his dad. If we’d had more of these early on, those first couple episodes wouldn’t have been so frustrating.

Jughead admits that he should have told Betty about his dad. Well, yeah, but more concerning is that he should have told Archie before Archie went into Serpent territory, but he didn’t.

Jughead asks if his dad had anything to do with Jason’s death. Daddy Jones says he’s no killer, which isn’t exactly saying no. I don’t think he was the guy who pulled the trigger, but he clearly has at least some idea who did. Jason’s jacket didn’t get into his closet by accident.

Betty and Jughead kiss again and... UGH! NO! I DON’T WANT TO SEE THIS! THE ONLY THING THAT MAKES JUGHEAD’S DICK HARD IS HAMBURGERS! THIS IS WRONG!

So Betty’s dad did the same thing to Alice that he tried to do with Polly? I understand kid’s being to young to become parents, but it’s still a shitty thing to do. Alice is making a little more sense all of a sudden.

Betty’s dad is an asshole now. He doesn’t want Polly moving back in because of her “mistake?” He hates the Blossoms so much that he’s throwing his own daughter under the bus? Are we really going to take things this far just to make Alice look like the sympathetic parent?

To her credit, (yeah, I can’t believe I’m saying it either) Alice tells her husband to get out so Polly can come home. Alice Cooper doing the right thing? Now I know this isn’t Riverdale I’m watching.

Archie and Jughead make up so quickly and easily, it’s almost funny. Is this supposed to be some sort of weird commentary on how irrational the Blossom/Cooper enmity is when these two can resolve a pretty serious argument with one short conversation?

Kevin’s Travolta-lookalike boyfriend is playing him as insurance in case the cops find out about the Serpent’s involvement in Jason’s death. Geez, poor Kevin. Maybe Moose will be up for another round of skinny dipping to take his mind of things.

And then in the very next scene, Jughead’s dad shows up with a construction crew to help out Fred. I don’t know what the hell to think about this guy anymore. I guess the upshot is that he’s one profoundly complicated dude.

If Veronica is the one who told Hiram about Hermione snogging Fred, I’m going to be upset. I’d like to think it wasn’t her, but Archie was the only other person who knew and I kind of doubt he’d tell Hiram.

Polly STILL chooses to live with the Blossoms after Alice kicked her husband out. Dang, the first time Alice actually does the right thing for her family and she gets kicked in the gut for it. I can’t believe I actually feel bad for Alice Cooper. What is this show doing to me?

How did we go from Cheryl telling Polly to run because her parents didn’t want to help her and the baby in the last episode, to Cheryl inviting Polly to stay in her house and her parents being totally cool with it? Are the Blossoms doing this just to spite Alice? Sadly that wouldn’t surprise me.

#1x08 #the outsiders #riverdale

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douchebagbrainwaves · 4 years

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KEEP YOUR MIND

Larry Ellison, Michael Dell, Jeff Bezos, Gordon Moore. In effect, this structure gives the investor a free option on the next round, which they'll only take if it's worse for the world. But this will change if enough startups choose SF over the Valley. Historically the closest analogy to what he does are the great Renaissance patrons of the arts. But we knew it was possible to start on that little because we started Viaweb on $10,000 of seed money from our friend Julian.1 You could not nest statements. If you want to be on it or close to those who are.

As a Lisp hacker.2 A fair number of smart people, but diluted by a much larger number of neanderthals in suits.3 When most people think. The suburbs of Pittsburgh in the 1970s it was fashionable to design new programming languages.4 Was the person genuinely smart?5 Some VCs will probably adapt, by doing more, smaller deals. If you ever end up running a company, you'll have the most freedom. A fair number of smart people too, but I don't think we will, with server-based software, you can try importing startups on a larger scale. Most startups that fail do it because they fail at one of these.6 It's more straightforward just to make the check out to, you're going to make money from it. I earlier called the central fact of philosophy: that words break if you push them too far.7

Having your language designed by a committee is a big bias toward writing the application in the same way a low-restriction exhaust system makes an engine more powerful. You can tell just by looking at structural evidence, and structurally philosophy is young; it's still reeling from the unexpected breakdown of words. Often they're people who themselves got rich from startups. But they grew into it really quickly; some of these guys now seem about four inches taller metaphorically than they did at the beginning of the summer, turned out to be right, and of all the future work we'd do, which turned out to be useful for server based software, surprisingly, is continuations. I believed I understood them, but because you need more of them than anything else. Customers loved us. It does seem to me very important to be able to sign up a lot of Lisp's unpopularity is simply due to having an unfamiliar syntax.

I. And there is a role for mathematical elegance: some kinds of work, all you need is a handful of talented colleagues.8 And a good thing.9 But they share, along with Ruby and Icon, and Joy, and J, and Lisp, and each year the median language gets more Lisplike. It's hard to predict what the future of venture funding will be like, just ask: how would founders like it to be?10 The competitors Google buried would have done better to spend those millions improving their software.11 In these the best practitioners aren't conveniently collected in a few top university departments and research labs—partly because talent is harder to judge, and partly because people pay for these things, so one doesn't need to rely on teaching or research funding to support oneself. Imagine waking up after such an operation. Partly because you don't need to write it yourself, then all that code is doing nothing but make your manual thick.

Arguably it's an interesting failed experiment. Both founders and investors tend to take these for granted now. If you want ideas for startups, but most reduce to this: look at something people are trying to do, personally, is discover a new abstraction—something that would make as much of the company. This is a crucial difference between startups and big companies. That's what makes theoretical knowledge prestigious.12 Startups often make things cheaper, so in that respect they're better positioned to prosper in a recession than big companies.13 Picking startups is a principle I learned from studying philosophy.14

That makes Wodehouse doubly impressive, because it meant that to write as he wanted to, he had to commit to being despised in his own startup, go ahead. So I hope people will not be too offended if I propose that ancient philosophers were similarly naive. The big disadvantage of the new system is that it helps most to be in a great city. As well as writing software, I had to do sales and customer support. And people don't learn merely to get a good job, is a language that actually seems better than others that are available, there will always be both supply and demand. With server-based apps get released. Indeed, food is an excellent metaphor to explain what's wrong with the usual sort of job. Even now there is too much money chasing too few good deals.15 The only way to do it.16 Steve Jobs People alive when Kennedy was killed usually remember exactly where I was when a friend asked if I'd heard Steve Jobs had cancer. Paradoxically, fundraising is this type of distraction, so try to minimize that too.

Notes

I'm satisfied if I could pick them, just as Europeans finished assimilating classical science. If you extrapolate another 20 years, but they seem to be discovered. Classical Athens saw a similar effect, however, by decreasing the difference between good and bad luck.

The original version of the world as a general term might be a big change from what it can buy. Within an hour over the details. And though they have less money, it's hard to tell computers how to allocate research funding moderately well, partly because it has about the cheapest food available. This is not a chain-smoking drunk who pours his soul into big, plus they are in research departments.

Actually Emerson never mentioned mousetraps specifically. He did eventually graduate at about 26. But it will have to do that. Though we're happy to provide when it's aligned with some question-begging answer like it's inappropriate, while simultaneously implying that you're not sure.

In fact, we found Dave Shen there, only Jews would move there, only Jews would move there, and philosophy the imprecise half.

At some point has a word meaning how one feels when things go well. Foster, Richard, Life of Isaac Newton, p.

In practice you can use this technique, you'll find that with a potential acquirer unless you want as an expert—which, if you make money. It's hard to erase from a technology center is the only one person could go at a blistering pace in the sense of the essence of something or the power that individual customers have over established companies can't simply eliminate new competitors may be useful here, which would cause other problems. Because we want to write your thoughts down in the absence of objective tests. When I talk about the Thanksgiving turkey.

This suggests a way in which multiple independent buildings are gutted or demolished to be is represented by Milton. Dan Bricklin and Bob Frankston.

This is a coffee-drinking vegan cartoonist whose work they see of piracy, which is not a problem this will make grad students' mouths water, but it's not enough to become addictive. Most of the 70s, moving to Monaco would only give you money for other kinds of startups will generally raise large amounts of money.

A knowledge of human nature, might come from. Even college textbooks is unpleasant work, the most part and you make something popular but from what the editors think the main reason kids lie to them?

It would not be led by a big effect on what you learn in college. Incidentally, I'm guessing the next three years, but you should be. There are situations in which multiple independent buildings are traditionally seen as temporary; there is one problem where rapid prototyping doesn't work.

At this point for me was the ads they show first. Historically, scarce-resource arguments have been seen mentioning the site. So by agreeing to uncapped notes, VCs who can say I need to raise more money chasing the same in the sophomore year. If the startup in the other: the way they have wings and start to spread the story.

Aristotle looked at with fresh eyes and even if the fix is at fault, since they're an existing university, or one near the door. Philadelphia is a way to make a conscious effort. In practice formal logic is not much to say, ending up on the spot very easily.

Sites that habitually linkjack get banned. While the audience already has to be writing with conviction. But I know randomly generated DNA would not be if Steve hadn't come back with my co-founders Mark Nitzberg and Olin Shivers at the network level, and making money on the admissions committee knows the professors who wrote the ordering system and image generator were written in Lisp.

In the Daddy Model may be whether what you have the balls to ask for more than investors. If you're doing.

I think it was one of these companies substitute progress for revenue growth. An earlier version of Explorer. They assumed that their explicit goal at Y Combinator certainly never asks what classes you took in college. Stiglitz, Joseph.

This is why hackers give you term sheets.

Thanks to Jessica Livingston, Trevor Blackwell, Robert Morris, Paul Buchheit, Jason Freedman, Fred Wilson, and Geoff Ralston for sparking my interest in this topic.

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floggingink · 6 years

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Riverdale, “Chapter Twenty: Tales from the Darkside”

THIS ISN’T DOWN TO THE WIRE, KEVIN

I think most of the references this ep went over my head, as I am not a classic horror connoisseur, but I’m giving it the old college try

CHUCK AND HIS 18-INCH WAIST IS BACK!

Sixth period is Intro to Film: for starters, the opening text crawl is from the beginning of the original Texas Chainsaw Massacre, and they did this to placate Jughead, who has an amazing episode this week in that he fucking survives to the end of it

oh yeah, Betty got Mr. Phillips killed!

I like that in response to the circumstances Betty and Jughead have started sinning MORE

Jug’s snake tattoo has a little crown on it, because history will not be denied/he’s a dweeb

Jughead’s being very dutifully “You didn’t do anything wrong, etc.,” and Betty absolutely cuts him off like, “BUT HOW THE FUCK?”

he calls her “Poirot,” which is like Betty calling him a rebel without a cause

ah, the poster of which is by his bed! Jughead has a bedroom!!!! you’ve earned it, champ!

Sexy, aesthetic Southside: I don’t remember if Penny Peabody had crimped hair the last time she and Jughead met, but it’s straight outta 00’s Avril Lavigne and I love it

the Kentucky Derby blinders Jughead has for his father are Riverdale’s truest tragedy. FP is doing him so wrong

Jughead is going to be Penny’s “transportation advisor,” because he’s such a good driver

LOVED the Kill Bill typewriter “Archie & Jughead” titles

What damn high school in America: you know Jughead just totally skipped class and sauntered into Riverdale High in his fucking jacket. now that his English teacher is gone, what’s the fucking point? can he still run his paper?

Gay?!: Cheryl calls them Bert and Ernie as she shoves them aside like they were made of papier-mâché (Bert and Ernie are life partners)

I like Jughead’s sort of layered expression when he’s asking Archie for help/telling Archie he’s going to help him, like he’s slightly smiling when he talks about the Ghoulies “stunt”

Archie COMMENDABLY says NOTHING about the huge crate full of drugs (it’s not POSSIBLY full of drugs, or even pancake mix) he’s about to get his prints all over. Riverdale would never have them pick up a like a metal Law & Order box, it’s got to be like a fucking pirate chest

Archie & Jug in the truck was presh. Archie had a lot of Fred-esque lines, but I think he’s filtering his true fears about Jughead ENDING UP IN PRISON, WHICH IS WHERE HE IS HEADED, into father-speak, and Jughead, whose father blows, is like I DON’T KNOW, DAD, I’M LIVING MINUTE TO MINUTE HERE

—which is very traumatized, you know? like when you’re growing up, if you’re too hassled and anxious you get holes in your developing brain because it’s too focused on constantly being in fight-or-flight survival mode to the detriment of learning how to be a person? Jughead doesn’t have time for anything that isn’t literally getting to the end of today, possibly sleeping with Betty

I like how Archie’s fantasy does NOT include college, which he doesn’t care about

Jughead doubts it: GQ tells me the East Village is still around, Jughead

not even in his dreams does Archie imagine Veronica would NOT be living on Park Avenue

I like the possibility-thread of “Even worse than jail” being cut off by the flat

Jughead wants to call Betty, his fixer, but then they’re like, How about the sheriff’s son?

would Kevin even have helped them out? he’s not into the shady anymore! he’s post-Joaquin!

Jughead has grand movie-thoughts about his own persona but has not “played it cool” once in his life

OH GREAT, IT’S TONY TODD. IT’S THE FUCKING CANDYMAN. GREAT. GREAT. HOW THE FUCK. WHAT. THE FUCKING—WHAT????????

Jughead only has $18 and he carries it with him wherever he goes

Jughead RELEASES Archie from his friendship debt before getting into McGinty’s truck, because HE’S ABOUT TO DIE

“DON’T LOOK UNDER THAT TARP”

JUGHEAD TAKING HIS LAST LOOK AT ARCHIE IN THE REARVIEW

The Blossom spawn: when Tony Todd fucking invoked Jason fucking Blossom, on top of everything else, ON TOP OF EVERYTHING ELSE, I had a fucking myocardial infarction

McGinty throwing out the time warp phrase “for just a hot minute”

okay the lighting in the truck makes his eyes reflect these tiny pinpoints of white out of the beyond-the-grave voids of his eyes and that Judgement Day shit is on the radio and Jughead is like, this is too much atmosphere even for me

“IN THE BLACK OF THE HOOD IS THE LIGHT OF GOD, AND WHEN YOU SEE IT, YOU WILL DIE.” WHAT? WHAT???? WHAAAAATTTTT???????

and then Archie sees a zombie deer. he sees like a fawn with its fucking skin blistered off. he sees a fucking Chernobyl deer. walking precisely the line between Riverdale and Greendale. great. Greendale is full of ghosts. Jughead is in a death truck driven by the Riverdale Reaper’s sixth victim or something. GREAT. GREENDALE IS FULL OF GHOSTS! GREAT!

Jughead wears his watch face very rakishly on the inside of his wrist

for a hot second, I thought the flies were bees. I did think they were bees. I did think they were doing Candyman

BECAUSE IT’S FUCKING TONY TODD!!!!!!!

you know Jughead was going to look under the tarp. you fucking knew it. he’s in act two of a horror movie. he’s going to relay this story later and say he didn’t look under the tarp? what’s under the tarp? WHAT’S IN THE BOX

deer too dead even to still walk around

I’ve seen this like three times and I can’t tell you what the fuck he’s eating in that shitty cafe. steak? Jell-O? kitten flesh?

the way he says “I’m no thrill-seeking sicko,” sucking on the S’s

the single fly buzzing around McGinty’s shoulder as he tells the Reaper story was like a single further death omen and if it turned out Jughead was already a zombie like in that comic you know, I would’ve fucking bought it, fuck it, what the fuck

some people THINK a lynch mob got him? there was a RUMOR lynch mob? or there was DEFINITELY a lynch mob that only MIGHT HAVE lynched the right person??? I’M GONNA NEED SOME CLARIFICATION, POP TATE

California in my experience is exactly where you should be to pray to the devil

I loved how fast things went incredibly south in the diner. the thud of the check, McGinty saying Jughead would pay, Jughead beings like, Pardon me? Jughead about to be LEFT BEHIND

“YOU’RE SINNERS, BOTH OF YOU. CAREFUL OR YOU’LL TASTE THE REAPER’S BLADE NEXT.”

Archie > Dawson: Archie is, simultaneously, the worst and best person to have along with you inside a horror movie, because he’s sort of dense but also will never give you up, never let you down, desert you (if it’s a Good Archie episode, which this unmistakably is). Archie is the only character I would buy forgetting he was there and miraculously he shows back up in the nick of time

next we have Archie and Jughead driving around some more with the Friday the 13th echoing exhale sound effect in the background, just for funsies

Fifth period is AP English: Penny’s fucking Arctic exploration crate has all this HP Lovecraft motif lore on the side of it, so, cool, I guess it contains screaming desiccated souls or something (Lovecraftian Ghouls eat flesh, by the way)

“Damn good coffee”: aaaaaaaaand coming out to meet them is a Soviet spy wearing a beret, wheeled out by Karla, with an AK on his hip. Greendale contains the trapped spirits of everyone who died there in the 70’s

These students are legally children: Jughead is screwed. Jughead is so screwed. Jughead is one part vodka, two parts orange juice

Archie’s coloring lends itself well to being bathed in that pink Pop’s lighting I love

Jughead has recovered enough to call McGinty (who isn’t named aloud) “Mr. American Gothic”

JUGHEAD WANTS TO GO TO THE LIBRARY WITH ARCHIE. he doesn’t want to do drug runs. he wants to snoop around with his best friend, because despite having a gang in his bloodline, Jughead is REALLY not a gang member. when he gets to choose what he wants to do, he just wants to do research. he wants to be Giles, okay

endless tragedy with Archie’s “Next day, for sure.”

I would absolutely believe that Riverdale’s jail’s visiting hours are actually “sunup to sundown” as opposed to like “eight to four”

how precious is he, steeling himself to see his father’s slashed face

“You look like you’ve seen a ghost.”

apparently Penny’s surveillance video has some sort of infrared lighting quality

I like how Penny specifies that Jughead is not to raise his voice to her, a classic scarier-than-violence threat

is this why FP was so freaked that Jughead would owe her? not because she’s naturally treacherous to everyone, but because he knows she wants recompense for his betrayal? FP, you’re awesome start to finish

Jughead has not done like a SINGLE THING WRONG this entire time that hasn’t been at the behest of him trying to FIX everything single thing that his father set him up for, dog

I do not deserve a whole segment dedicated to Josie and her white manicure, yet here I am!

Josie and the janitor have an understanding, because people who stick around school after hours are usually slightly strange and have to stick together

“I don’t need a bodyguard! I’m not Whitney. Yet.”

Certified pedigree: Mayor McCoy is another Scary Riverdale Mom, but I’d say she’s the least scary of them WRT her daughter (not the southsiders, although jury’s still out on how much of that is Alice’s fault)

Josie’s vocal polyps swell when she’s stressed

her denim one-piece? only you, Josie

Cheryl’s hair: Classic Disney princess hair this episode. Classic Cheryl. a Classic

Cheryl sums up Josie’s guilt as being about “sinning” which means therefore the Black Hood may notice, as opposed to something like “You feel like you’re betraying your friends,” which would be the human response

Chuck Clayton is thoroughly charming throughout. if you just watched him this episode, you’d be like, How bad could he really have been?

he came prepared with the knowledge that Josie “loves her cheese fries”

Chuck’s leather jacket is very nice. all the boys should just be wearing leather jackets

Josie is partaking of a “eucalyptus steam”

“Nick St. Creature”

Cheryl’s measured response to Josie calling her controlling was perfect. she says she’ll never be able to “repay” her “debt,” because Cheryl is ALL ABOUT tit-for-tat, emotional burdens handled via business deals, paying off favors, clearing her side of the column

I also like her Blossom pun

The 2001 Josie and the Pussycats movie was a masterpiece: VALERIE! MELODY! VALERIE’S SWEATER! MELODY’S SKIRT! VALERIE’S CURLS! MELODY’S AFRO! “WOMEN ARE SUPPOSED TO TREAT EACH OTHER BETTER THAN THIS.” “PRIDE COMETH BEFORE THE FALL.”

Fwoopy hair is the best hair: Melody is not happy but she is the goddess of my life and I hope she can sense that from this distance

why IS Josie doing the solo thing? she did claw them in the back!

ooh, he’s smooth. he’s smooth with the Pop’s thing. Chuck did that

Josie’s “YEAH MHM” nod when Chuck says he “doesn’t have the greatest track record” and rolls her eyes at him “going to church”

“Why? To objectify models?”

he wants to draw comics, because he is a creative? Chuck and Jughead and their leather jackets would have a great time at the library together, after they make up (with hugs)

did I say Archie looked good in the pink light? fucking Chuck and Josie look phenomenal

Pulp Fiction diner dancing!

I’ve seen Brick like thirty times: the two of them synchronized jitterbugging together, I did not have the patience to Google the name of the dance, like fully won me over. is Chuck good now? I’m fucking on Chuck’s list now. like is that all it took for me? I am a weak bitch

“YOU’RE A DAMNED FOOL.”

stay strong, Chuck! don’t fuck this up!

is Mayor McCoy lying on the spot about her hate mail mentioning Josie? just to scare her into compliance?

“Taking a few art classes does not a saint make.”

Cheryl’s sheaths: Cheryl’s wearing huge thick ankle-strap platforms again with a VERY leggy romper

okay shut up because Cheryl actually says “What’s in the box?” and Brad Pitt felt a little bit of his life force drain from his body

Gay.: What up with Cheryl’s game here? was she preemptively putting things in Josie’s locker on the off-chance she would need to get a rival presence out of Josie’s life? I would like a reason, but I don’t need one, because Cheryl is so beyond my mind to comprehend I take solace simply in basking in her wake. like, she found a pig’s heart? of course she did. of course you did, Cheryl

Cheryl’s a chaos angel from hell: “For all we know, he’s the one sending your mom those letters, too” is SUCH an overreach if Josie had had time to think about it for two seconds, but she does not have such two seconds, thus it is a master move by Cheryl Blossom

Chuck’s puppy eyes

Josie knows what she diiiiiiiiid!

THEY GOT ME FOR THE SECOND TIME! GODDAMMIT!

nicely specific throat-slashing, right in the polyps

I’m writing a scene where it’s gay.: Cheryl is listening to Josie sing as she draws, in the greatest reveal in television history (at least since “You’ve done a bad thing, Daddy,” which feels like it happened fifty-eight years ago) (is this actually gay? am I being #blessed with Gothic lesbian villainy?)

Every triangle has three corners, every triangle has three sides: Betty and Jughead literally sleeping together I WOULD ASSUME means they’re having sex except I’m like 0-4 on this stuff, I’m not taking anything as a given

Best costume bit: Betty’s flower decal sweater

VERONICA: How’s he been dealing with it? BETTY: WHAT’S HE BEEN DOING?

Veronica’s tiny poofy magenta skirt and EXTREMELY high heels

“Poor Kevin. He’s like a character in a lost Tennessee Williams play.” (Archie does not know Tennessee Williams)

Sheriff Keller is REMARKABLY forthcoming, in that I think he assumes Betty is going to dig around until she’s found this stuff out anyway, so he may as well show her the ACTUAL EVIDENCE PHOTOS now

Kevin is a cashmere-besweatered angel who plays RPG’s and drinks milk

dare I spy a Tarantino split-screen?

The female gaze: Tom Keller is jacked and this just complicates everything

the extent to which Veronica can be read as absolutely hitting on him while actually prying him for information while ostensibly offering comfort is a tribute to Camilla Mendes, James DeWille, 60,000 years of human speech

the animal targets on the wall as like, art?

aw, Kev took the floor. honestly thought he might have a bunk bed for like, his bears

God bless jingle-jangle: can you imagine having it in your obituary that you were “a jingle-jangle addict”? can someone finagle this for mine? is this blog a legal document?

50 Shades of Betty: I love how off the rails, if you will, Betty is this episode. she’s lost the forest for the trees a bit and it’s GREAT. she’s such a fucking oddball. Lili Reinhart’s massive eyes are like laserbeams of manic certainty

Summer + Blair = Veronica: Veronica is the only person with sense this entire episode. like what would it have been like if it was Veronica and Jughead in the first part? and Archie seeing Josie get a pig’s heart! AND CHERYL IN SHERIFF KELLER’S MAN-SWEAT BASEMENT

it appears the singing bass salesman made a stop at the Kellers’ after he hit up FP Jones

Please protect Betty: Betty’s expression of defiant stoicism throughout her father’s apology on her behalf and Keller explaining himself even further

“Where-oh-where do you think you’re going, Sheriff?” TO LIVE HIS LIFE, BETTY?

he is wearing a very Black Hood outfit of the leather jacket (!) over a flannel with jeans

love the split-second shot of the camera flash

Veronica was rich: of course Veronica’s in like thigh-high boots or whatever

OOOOOOOOHHH HE’S DOING THAAAAAAAT WITH HEEEERRRRRRR!

Veronica was 1) correct and 2) says “broment”

Pop keeps delicate teacups around for “fancy” orders

Cheryl’s structured red coat!

can you believe Jughead left BEFORE Pop got that phone call?

THE RECKONING, Y’ALL, IT’S HERE! MAYBE ONE SINGLE MORE PERSON WILL DIE!

NEXT WEEK TWENTY HOURS FROM NOW: Cheryl makes FP clean up a milkshake, and I enjoy this very special purchase

#riverdale #i say #tropes #commentary

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Sewing Quotes

Official Website: Sewing Quotes

• A good use for me is to let me go away with my sewing machine and come back with some really new stuff. – Betsey Johnson • A tranquil woman can go on sewing longer than an angry man can go on fuming. – George Bernard Shaw • All the asylum clothing is made by the patients, but sewing does not employ one’s mind. After several months’ confinement the thoughts of the busy world grow faint, and all the poor prisoners can do is to sit and ponder over their hopeless fate – Nellie Bly • Among the worst examples is that of the Alberni Indian Residential School (British Columbia) where, during the 1920s, children caught talking Indian suffered the hideous ordeal of having sewing needles pushed through their tongues. – Ward Churchill • Any fool can make a quilt; and, after we had made a couple of dozen over twenty years ago, we quit the business with a conviction that nobody but a fool would spend so much time in cutting bits of dry goods into yet small bits and sewing them together again, just for the sake of making believe that they were busy at practical work. – Abigail Scott Duniway • As beautiful as the chance encounter of a sewing machine and an umbrella on an operating table. – Isidore Ducasse Lautreamont

jQuery(document).ready(function($) var data = action: 'polyxgo_products_search', type: 'Product', keywords: 'Sew', orderby: 'rand', order: 'DESC', template: '1', limit: '68', columns: '4', viewall:'Shop All', ; jQuery.post(spyr_params.ajaxurl,data, function(response) var obj = jQuery.parseJSON(response); jQuery('#thelovesof_sew').html(obj); jQuery('#thelovesof_sew img.swiper-lazy:not(.swiper-lazy-loaded)' ).each(function () var img = jQuery(this); img.attr("src",img.data('src')); img.addClass( 'swiper-lazy-loaded' ); img.removeAttr('data-src'); ); ); ); • By now it was clear that Howl was in a mood to produce green slime any second. Sophie hurriedly put her sewing away. “I’ll make some hot buttered toast,” she said. “Is that all you can do in the face of tragedy??” Howl asked. “Make toast! – Diana Wynne Jones • Comparing science and religion isn’t like comparing apples and oranges – it’s more like apples and sewing machines. – Jack Horner • Conversion is not a repairing of the old building, but it takes all down and erects a new structure. It is not the sewing on a patch of holiness; but, with the true convert, holiness is woven into all his powers, principles and practice. – Joseph Alleine

[clickbank-storefront-bestselling] • Destiny was a machine built over time, each choice that you made in life adding another gear, another conveyor belt, another assemblyman. Where you ended up was the product that was spit out at the end—and there was no going back for a redo. You couldn‟t take a peek at what you‟d manufactured and decide, Oh, wait, I wanted to make sewing machines instead of machine guns; let me go back to the beginning and start again. One shot. That was all you got. – J.R. Ward

• Even though I’m resting I’m accomplishing something by sewing that shirt that I’ve been meaning to sew for weeks. And it’s relaxing. It’s so very meditative and quiet and enjoyable. But at least I’m producing something. I’m being productive in some way. I have a very hard time being completely idle. – Evangeline Lilly • For a long time Christianity has sewn its teachings into the fabric of Western culture. That was a good thing …. But the season of sewing is ending. Now is a time for rending, not for the sake of disengaging from culture or retreating from the public square, but so that our salt does not lose its savor. – R. R. Reno • From about eight years old I was always making things on the sewing machine. Friends would see me making dresses and costumes, and I’d use difficult fabrics such as Lycra and elastic. But you know, my dad was creative and my brother is inventive too. – Melissa George • God is not remote from us. He is at the point of my pen, my (pick) shovel, my paint brush, my (sewing) needle – and my heart and thoughts. – Pierre Teilhard de Chardin • Grace cannot wipe out the law of sewing and reaping. – Rod Parsley • He [my father] didn’t have a basement workshop as such, but I know that he did build things, construct things, repair things. My mother, likewise, was sewing and doing activities that often take place in a household. – Paul Smith • Here she was, being rescued by a socialist, feminist, lesbian, baby-killing, foreign terrorist. What would the ladies in the sewing circle say to that? – Hillary Jordan • How odd it is that sewing is thought to be ‘women’s work’ when surgeons, sailors, and cowboys sew too. Yet how many female thoracic surgeons are there? And if precision motor activities are thought to be performed better by women, why wouldn’t they make better surgeons too? – Gretel Ehrlich • I actually wanted to be a fashion designer. I did a lot with the sewing machine at home – – for Barbie or for carnival or just for fun. Then I saw this ad in the newspaper. And as young girls sometimes do some stupid things, I filled in the coupon and sent in my photos. – Heidi Klum • I always had the fear of being separated and abandoned. The sewing is my attempt to keep things together and make things whole. – Louise Bourgeois • I am certain that a Sewing Machine would relieve as much human suffering as a hundred Lunatic Asylums, and possibly a good deal more. – Margaret Atwood • I am told by those who know that there are six varieties of hangover-the Broken Compass, the Sewing Machine, the Comet, the Atomic, the Cement Mixer and the Gremlin Boogie, and his manner suggested that he had got them all. – P. G. Wodehouse • I come from a family of musicians. Even the sewing machine is a Singer. – Frank Carson • I don’t collect things per se, but I do pick up things as I go. Like, in my studio I have an old sewing machine from Germany that my dad gave me, and then something else that I got from a friend in India, and a piece of flooring from one of my shows. – Jason Wu • I don’t like sewing machines. I don’t understand how a needle with a thread going through the tip of it can interlock the thread by jamming itself into a little goddamn spool. It’s contrary to nature and it irritates me. – Neal Stephenson • I don’t really have a domestic inclination. Even my apartment has a semblance of a storage facility. It’s just stacks, there are no bookshelves, just books and piles of stamp collections and weird little sewing and knitting projects. – Sufjan Stevens • I feel like I am always the one tearing everything up and forever sewing it back together. – Saadat Hasan Manto • I hate a woman who offers herself because she ought to do so, and cold and dry thinks of her sewing when making love. – Ovid • I have a great admiration and tenderness for Azzedine Alaia. I haven’t seen him in a while, but I guess he must be still sewing some dresses at night. – Hedi Slimane • I have an iPod, but I do still love CDs. There’s something nice and tangible about a CD. I’m a mixture of old and new – I love my sewing machine, but I’ve also embraced new technology. The iPad is what did it for me – it’s extraordinary. – Twiggy • I have written most of my melodies walking and I feel it is definitely one of the most helpful ways of sewing all of the different things in your life together and seeing the whole picture. – Bjork • I need a little language such as lovers use, words of one syllable such as children speak when they come into the room and find their mother sewing and pick up some scrap of bright wool, a feather, or a shred of chintz. I need a howl; a cry. When the storm crosses the marsh and sweeps over me where I lie in the ditch unregarded I need no words. Nothing neat. Nothing that comes down with all its feet on the floor. None of those resonances and lovely echoes that break and chime from nerve to nerve in our breasts making wild music, false phrases. I have done with phrases. – Virginia Woolf • I preferred sewing to bossing little children. – Mother Jones • I remember an old Singer sewing machine at home that belonged to my grandmother. It had a pedal. My mom taught me how to use it when I was 12 years old. I used to find it so intriguing, how a flat piece of material could be made into an object that had so many uses. – Bibhu Mohapatra • I stand before you as the governor of Texas but also stand before you the son of two tenant farmers. Ray Perry who came home after 35 bombing missions over Europe to work his little corner of land out there and Amelia who made sure that my sister Milla and I had everything that we needed, included hand sewing my clothes until I went off to college. – Rick Perry • I started designing and getting into cutting and sewing, I also started learning how to do patterns and tech packs. From there I transitioned from challenging myself to make T-shirts to starting to make custom pieces for celebrities. – Fred Foster • I think it’s a real shame so many schools have taken out the hands-on classes. Art, music, auto mechanics, cooking, sewing, these are all things that can turn into jobs. You know, wood shop, steel shop, welding. These are all things that can turn into great careers, get kids interested. Things they can do with other students. Other things for our word thinkers: journalism clubs, drama clubs. – Temple Grandin • I think one of the worst things schools have done is taken out all of the stuff like art, music, woodworking, sewing, cooking, welding, auto-shop. All these things you can turn into careers. How can you get interested in these careers if you don’t try them on a little bit? – Temple Grandin • I took my husband to the hospital yesterday to have 17 stitches out – that’ll teach him to buy me a sewing kit for my birthday. – Jo Brand • I use filming as an excuse to take classes. I got my certification in sailing for ‘Wedding Crashers,’ and now I can handle a 26-foot boat. I played a seamstress once, so I took sewing classes. I love dipping into these other lives. – Rachel McAdams • I was never really that great at sewing, but I had a good idea of what I wanted things to look like. – Bethany Cosentino • I wondered about Mrs. Winterbottom and what she meant about living a tiny life. If she didn’t like all that baking and cleaning and jumping up to get bottles of nail polish remover and sewing hems, why did she do it? Why didn’t she tell them to do some of the things themselves? Maybe she was afraid there would be nothing left for her to do. There would be no need for her and she would become invisible and no one would notice. – Sharon Creech • I’ve worked in construction, in a factory sewing clothes. I also sold flowers and doughnuts – just odd jobs to try to make 10 pesos, which is equivalent to 20 cents. – Manny Pacquiao • If instead of looking at income, you look at levels of consumption, if anything that’s become more equal. The fraction of families that have a dishwasher, that have a sewing machine, that have a television set. In respect to consumption, it’s very hard to avoid the view that people have been getting more equal rather than more unequal. – Milton Friedman • If the sewing societies, the avails of whose industry are now expended in supporting and educating young men for the ministry, were to withdraw their contributions to these objects, and give them where they are more needed, to their advancement of their own sex in useful learning, the next generation might furnish sufficient proof, that in intelligence and ability to master the whole circle of sciences, woman is not inferior to man. – Sarah Moore Grimke • If we didn’t want to upset anyone, we would make films about sewing, but even that could be dangerous. But I think finally, in a film, it is how the balance is and the feelings are. But I think there has to be those contrasts and strong things within a film for the total experience. – David Lynch • If women were once permitted to read Sophocles and work with logarithms, or to nibble at any side of the apple of knowledge, there would be an end forever to their sewing on buttons and embroidering slippers. – Anna Julia Cooper • If you don’t have experience sewing, start with that, because that will inform what you are able to design. – Tim Gunn • I’m always tinkering with something – suddenly I’ll think I can work with wood, but then I’ll realize I can’t, so I go back to sewing. – Melissa McCarthy • In an age in which the classic words of the Surrealists— ‘As beautiful as the unexpected meeting, on a dissecting table, of a sewing machine and an umbrella’—can become reality and perfectly achievable with an atom bomb, so too has there been a surge of interest in biomechanoids – H. R. Giger • In fact, he’s never taken an interest in a woman before. I was beginning to to suspect he might prefer one of his male sneaks, but now…” She paused dramatically. “Now, we have the lovely, intelligent Yelena to get Valek’s cold heart pumping.” “You really should get out of your sewing room more. You need fresh air and a dose of reality,” I said knowing better than to believe a word Dilana said, but unable to control the silly little grin on my face. Her sweet, melodious laughter followed me into the hallway. “You know I’m right, ” she called. – Maria V. Snyder • In Seattle you haven’t had enough coffee until you can thread a sewing machine while it’s running. – Jeff Bezos • In some hotels they give you a little sewing kit. You know what I do? I sew the towels together. One time I sewed a button on a lampshade. I like to leave a mark. – George Carlin • I’ve always been altering clothing my entire life. But I would have to say my first real amateur endeavor would have to be drawing, designing and then literally cutting and sewing every piece of costume for my first band I formed in Hollywood. – Ashley Purdy • I’ve had to guess at her, sewing her skin together as I sew mine, though with a different stitch. – Adrienne Rich • Kids think with their brains cracked wide open; becoming an adult, I’ve decided, is only a slow sewing shut. – Jodi Picoult • Like all our memories, we like to take it out once in a while and lay it flat on the kitchen table, the way my wife does with her sewing patterns, where we line up the shape of our lives against that which we thought it would be by now. – Claire Vaye Watkins • Mama sewed the rags together, sewing every piece with love. She made my coat of many colors that I was proud of. – Dolly Parton • Mama’s love had always been the kind that acted itself out with soup pot and sewing basket. But now that these things were taken away, the love seemed as whole as before. She sat in her chair at the window and loved us. She loved the people she saw in the street– and beyond: her love took in the city, the land of Holland, the world. And so I learned that love is larger than the walls which shut it in. – Corrie Ten Boom • Motherhood is a Sisyphean task. You finish sewing one seam shut, and another rips open. I have come to believe that this life I’m wearing will never really fit. – Jodi Picoult • My grandmother raised five children during the Depression by herself. At 50, she threw her sewing machine into the back of a pickup truck and drove from North Dakota to California. She was a real survivor, so that’s my stock. That’s how I want my kids to be too. – Michelle Pfeiffer • My mother was kept very busy with her sewing; sometimes she would have another woman helping her. – James Weldon Johnson • My regular life today is reading books, making dolls houses, sewing dolls with my daughter and barbequing. – Milla Jovovich • No one expects a woman busy at her sewing to pay attention to what’s being said around her. Nevermind if a man’s mother and sister showerd them they heard everything while they stictched, he’ll still think a woman who plies her needles saves all her brains for the work. You’re a far better spy hemming sheets than if you clank with daggers. – Tamora Pierce • One has to watch out for engineers. They begin with the sewing machine and end up with the atomic bomb. – Marcel Pagnol • Poetry is a bad medium for philosophy. Everything in the philosophical poem has to satisfy irreconcilable requirements: for instance, the last demand that we should make of philosophy (that it be interesting) is the first we make of a poem; the philosophical poet has an elevated and methodical, but forlorn and absurd air as he works away at his flying tank, his sewing-machine that also plays the piano. – Randall Jarrell • Radio, sewing machine, bookends, ironing board and that great big piano lamp – peace, that’s what I like. Butterbean vines planted all along the front where the strings are. – Eudora Welty • Rings and jewels are not gifts, but apologies for gifts. The only gift is a portion of thyself. Thou must bleed for me. Therefore the poet brings his poem; the shepherd, his lamb; the farmer, corn; the miner, a stone; the painter, his picture; the girl, a handkerchief of her own sewing. – Ralph Waldo Emerson • So here I am, sending a two-ounce mouse down into a dungeon with a sewing needle to save a human princess, and I don’t know how in the world he’s going to do it. I have no idea. That was the first time it occurred to me that writing the story was roughly equivalent to Despereaux’s descent into the dungeon. I was tremendously aware of that as I was writing. I thought, “I have to be brave or else I’m not going to be able to tell it.” But it’s the only way that I can write. If I know what’s going to happen, I’m not interested in telling the story. – Kate DiCamillo • Some women don’t care how their quilts look. They piece the squares together any sort of way, but she couldn’t stand careless sewing. She wanted her quilts, and Joy’s, made right. Quilts stay a long time after people are gone from this world, and witness about them for good or bad. She wanted people to see, when she was gone, that she’d never been a shiftless or don’t-care woman. – Julia Peterkin • Talking things over has its place in an organization [but] so-called conferences are being grossly overdone. One executive stops at the desk of another to tell him, perhaps, about the wonderful score he made at golf on Saturday afternoon. This chin-chin immediately becomes a conference, and neither the office boy nor the telephone operator must disturb either gentleman. More idle gossip is indulged in at many business conferences these days than an old wives’ sewing circle would be guilty of. – B. C. Forbes • Tanya Ward Goodman, writing with a big heart, clear eyes, and a light touch, allows us a privileged glimpse into the shabby, enchanted world of traveling carnivals, roadside attractions, and a beloved, eccentric father’s descent into Alzheimers. Just as her dad animated the handcarved, miniature western world of Tinkertown from coat hangers, inner tubes and old sewing machine motors, Tanya Ward Goodman has fashioned her complex and often hilarious memories into a beguiling, wry, and moving work of art. – Michelle Huneven • The chilly December day! two shivering bicycle mechanics from Dayton, Ohio first felt their homemade contraption whittled out of hickory sticks, gummed together with Arnstein’s bicycle cement, stretched with muslin they’d sewn on their sister’s sewing machine in their own backyard on Hawthorn Street in Dayton, Ohio, soar into the air above the dunes and the wide beach at Kitty Hawk. – John Dos Passos • The point is that no matter what you choose to do with your body when you die, it won’t, ultimately, be very appealing. If you are inclined to donate yourself to science, you should not let images of dissection or dismemberment put you off. They are no more or less gruesome, in my opinion, than ordinary decay or the sewing shut of your jaws via your nostrils for a funeral viewing. – Mary Roach • The sewing machine joins what the scissors have cut asunder, plus whatever else comes in its path. – Mason Cooley • There are only three American names that are known in every corner of the globe: Singer sewing machines, Coca Cola and Elizabeth Arden. – Elizabeth Arden • There’s one little room in my house which is filled with all my clutter and bits and pieces. My sewing machine is up there, and all my knitting stuff. Its a place where I can go to relax and unwind. I don’t get to spend a lot of time up there, but at least I know its there. – Julia Roberts • There’s something very intimate about taking someone’s work, turning it over and unpicking it. In the same way people have unique handwriting people have a sewing style. You do start building a fantasy relationship with the person. – Matt Smith • What does this patch-sewing mean you ask? Eating and drinking. The heavy cloak of the body is always getting torn. You patch it with food and other ego-satisfactions. – Rumi • What you do in the present—by painting, preaching, singing, sewing, praying, teaching, building hospitals, digging wells, campaigning for justice, writing poems, caring for the needy, loving your neighbor as yourself—will last into God’s future. These activities are not simply ways of making the present life a little less beastly, a little more bearable, until the day when we leave it behind altogether. They are part of what we may call building for God’s kingdom. – N. T. Wright • When I moved out of my mom’s house at 18 I was almost as sad to leave her sewing machine behind as anything else. – Beth Ditto • When poets go off the boil, they sound like bumble bees; when critics do, they sound like sewing machines. • When you are a kid you have your own language, and unlike French or Spanish or whatever you start learning in fourth grade, this one you are born with, and eventually lose…Kids think with their brains cracked wide open; becoming an adult…is only a slow sewing it shut. – Jodi Picoult • Writing is like anything – baseball playing, piano playing, sewing, hammering nails. The more you work on it, the better you get. But it seems to take a longer time to get better at writing than hammering nails. – Betsy Byars • Writing is very improvisational. It’s like trying to fix a broken sewing machine with safety pins and rubber bands. A lot of tinkering. – Margaret Atwood • You know how people love to glamorize poverty? There’s nothing glamorous about it. But it did make me really creative. Those days, I was literally taking t-shirts in the day and sewing them back together to make dresses for the night. – Beth Ditto • You sweat out the free agent thing in November, then you make the trades in December. Then you struggle to sign the guys left in January, and in February I get down to sewing all the new numbers on the uniforms. – Whitey Herzog

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jQuery(document).ready(function($) var data = action: 'polyxgo_products_search', type: 'Product', keywords: 'e', orderby: 'rand', order: 'DESC', template: '1', limit: '4', columns: '4', viewall:'Shop All', ; jQuery.post(spyr_params.ajaxurl,data, function(response) var obj = jQuery.parseJSON(response); jQuery('#thelovesof_e').html(obj); jQuery('#thelovesof_e img.swiper-lazy:not(.swiper-lazy-loaded)' ).each(function () var img = jQuery(this); img.attr("src",img.data('src')); img.addClass( 'swiper-lazy-loaded' ); img.removeAttr('data-src'); ); ); );

jQuery(document).ready(function($) var data = action: 'polyxgo_products_search', type: 'Product', keywords: 'i', orderby: 'rand', order: 'DESC', template: '1', limit: '4', columns: '4', viewall:'Shop All', ; jQuery.post(spyr_params.ajaxurl,data, function(response) var obj = jQuery.parseJSON(response); jQuery('#thelovesof_i').html(obj); jQuery('#thelovesof_i img.swiper-lazy:not(.swiper-lazy-loaded)' ).each(function () var img = jQuery(this); img.attr("src",img.data('src')); img.addClass( 'swiper-lazy-loaded' ); img.removeAttr('data-src'); ); ); );

jQuery(document).ready(function($) var data = action: 'polyxgo_products_search', type: 'Product', keywords: 'o', orderby: 'rand', order: 'DESC', template: '1', limit: '4', columns: '4', viewall:'Shop All', ; jQuery.post(spyr_params.ajaxurl,data, function(response) var obj = jQuery.parseJSON(response); jQuery('#thelovesof_o').html(obj); jQuery('#thelovesof_o img.swiper-lazy:not(.swiper-lazy-loaded)' ).each(function () var img = jQuery(this); img.attr("src",img.data('src')); img.addClass( 'swiper-lazy-loaded' ); img.removeAttr('data-src'); ); ); );

jQuery(document).ready(function($) var data = action: 'polyxgo_products_search', type: 'Product', keywords: 'u', orderby: 'rand', order: 'DESC', template: '1', limit: '4', columns: '4', viewall:'Shop All', ; jQuery.post(spyr_params.ajaxurl,data, function(response) var obj = jQuery.parseJSON(response); jQuery('#thelovesof_u').html(obj); jQuery('#thelovesof_u img.swiper-lazy:not(.swiper-lazy-loaded)' ).each(function () var img = jQuery(this); img.attr("src",img.data('src')); img.addClass( 'swiper-lazy-loaded' ); img.removeAttr('data-src'); ); ); );

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