Riverdale Season 3 Finale: 8 Ups & 3 Downs From 'Survive The Night'

Downs...

3. Some Of The Reveals Fell A Little Flat

Jughead piecing the puzzle of the Gargoyle King's identity together was a classic example of how to reveal crucial information to the audience. It wasn't just effective because he was the town's greatest detective, it also helped that his monologue was accompanied by visual proof in the unmasking of the Gargoyle King. Unfortunately, some of the episode's later reveals didn't quite have the same effect.

It was undoubtedly a welcome twist to hear that Farm-obsessed Alice Cooper was actually an FBI informant, but when you think about it, is this the kind of information that we should have just heard? Alice's irrational behaviour has played a major role this season, so it needed a huge payoff like this. But the fact that we were just told this information robbed us of a chance to see Alice shock us all by revealing the information herself. Now that would have been the payoff both the character and the story deserved.

Similarly, Agent Smith's bombshell (that he's actually the long-lost brother of Betty and Jughead) didn't register with either of those characters in the way that it should have. A brief reaction followed by a rushed debrief with Archie and Veronica is not the way to payoff a storyline that had been built up over a two-and-a-half year period.