Riverdale Season 3: 2 Ups & 4 Downs From 'Prom Night'

1. Lack Of Stakes

Riverdale usually struggles to relay the intensity of any of the situations that take place, but this is an issue that has been highlighted to a greater degree over the last few weeks.

This week's episode opened with the aftermath of the apparent death of Betty's father, Hal, and yet she carried on her life as normal. To be fair, she did initially think that he had orchestrated the whole thing himself, but that doesn't explain why, upon finding out that the hand did belong to him, she just continued on like nothing ever happened - and not in a subtextual "I'm fine" kind of way, but in a completely indifferent kind of way.

Similarly, following Betty's attack at the hands of the Black Hood, life just carried on as normal, with characters like Archie and his mother discussing the events that went down without actually seeming all that shocked about them. Yes, it's "really horrible" that it happened at the dance, but are the residents of Riverdale actually taking into account that multiple murders did take place?

There were no scenes of police swarming the hallways or news reporters informing us what happened afterwards, just a shaken Betty recounting how her father nearly killed her.

How are we ever supposed to buy the gravity of these events if the characters won't?

-

Did you enjoy this week's episode of Riverdale? Tell us in the comment section below.