I fancy myself as the type of person who is not manipulated
by media propaganda, but stands firmly anchored on God’s all-knowing,
all-loving, and unchanging truth. I
research my facts, and formulate my thoughts through logical reasoning. I am well aware of the media’s slick and
tireless attempts to deceive people into supporting evil, with the shrewdness
to cater to our strongest sensibilities and deepest emotions, to the point
where our thoughts become twisted to believe that right is wrong and wrong is
right.
Thus, it is to my own shame that, while watching Episode 18
of RIVERDALE on the CW Network, last night, I somehow let my guard down. How, in less than an hour, was I deceived into
HATING a new character so much, that I was happy to see (spoiler alert) when
Betty (Lili Reinhart), under duress, cooperated with the show’s central villain
(The Black Hood) to put a hit out on him?
Read on.
To give some background on the show, for those who are not
familiar, RIVERDALE is based on the characters in the Archie comics. There is a character on the show known merely
as “The Black Hood,” whose actual identity is the central mystery surrounding this
season of the show. The Black Hood has
attempted to murder Archie’s father, Fred Andrews (Luke Perry.) The Black Hood had murdered Miss Grundy
(Sarah Habel), one of the former teachers at Archie’s high school, and shot at Moose
(Cody Kearsley) and Midge (Emilija
Baranac), both of whom survived.
Suddenly, the Black Hood has started to make some phone calls to Betty,
who has the Chordettes’ “Lollipop” as her ring tone. The Black Hood is forcing Betty to do some
terrible things, with the threat that Betty’s older sister Polly (Tiera
Skovbye) would be murdered, if Betty does not cooperate.
Archie (KJ Apa) is romantically involved with Veronica
(Camila Mendes.) Veronica’s parents are about
to enter a major business deal with a family from another town, where they once
lived. That family has a son named Nick
St. Clair (Graham Phillips) who is Archie and Veronica’s age, and a childhood
“friend” of Veronica’s. From the moment Nick enters the scene, he just
emanates sleaze, at least from a male perspective. He appears to be the type of cocky jerk who
would knowingly and shamelessly try to seduce another man’s girlfriend, fiancé,
or wife, without a second thought. Men
can identify these types of scumbags instantly, by the expression on their
faces. For some reason, many women,
especially fans of gangsta rap, tend to have a more difficult time seeing past
these scuz buckets’ charm and appearance, a fact that makes these men all the
more despicable to decent men. In
talking to her other friends, Veronica praises Nick to the skies, something
that naturally would make Archie’s radars go up. When Archie is in the room with Veronica,
Nick proceeds to make flirtatious comments towards Veronica, as if Archie and
his relationship with Veronica mean nothing.
Nick proceeds to influence Veronica, Archie, and many of their friends,
to take Jingle Jangle, the drug of choice among the teens in Riverdale. When Archie and the other friends eventually
leave the room, leaving Nick and Veronica alone, Nick tries to aggressively
seduce Veronica, to the point where it becomes sexual assault. Nick even badmouths Archie to Veronica and
suggests that Nick’s parents won’t make the deal with Veronica’s parents unless
Veronica gives in to Nick’s sexual demands.
Veronica has none of it, as she slaps Nick across the face. I must say, as happy as I was that Veronica
did not yield to Nick’s advances, I was hoping she would kick him where it
counts, instead of a mere slap to the face.
Regardless, Nick’s behavior triggers extremely angry emotions both
in any man who has ever witnessed
another man trying to hit on his girlfriend, fiancé, or wife, and in any woman
who was ever a victim of aggressive unwelcome sexual advances.
The following day, Nick tries to pass himself off as a
decent guy to Veronica, even apologizing for his behavior, the typical male
reaction when the woman doesn’t give in, sexually, hoping that if the
aggressive behavior doesn’t work, playing the “I’m really a decent guy who made
a mistake,” card might work. Veronica is
cordial to him and understanding, which undoubtedly would have made Archie
furious at them both, had he known.
Cheryl Blossom (Madelaine Petsch) takes notice of Nick and
is not the least bit subtle about her attraction towards him. Nick reciprocates the attraction, but
discreetly slips a date rape drug into her drink. Josie (Ashleigh Murray) & the Pussycats,
Valerie (Hayley Law) and Melody (Asha Bromfield) are performing a song live,
with Veronica, when they notice that Cheryl appears drowsy as Nick is guiding
her away to a hotel room. They quickly
follow, as Nick places Cheryl down onto a bed, with plans to rape her. Veronica, Josie, Valerie, and Melody arrive
in time to prevent the rape from happening, as they aggressively gang assault
Nick, much to the delight of all the fans watching the show. The only downside for me was that Archie
wasn’t there to get any shots in. Still,
I can understand from the perspective of female viewers, especially those who
have been victimized themselves, that seeing the heroes all being female was
likely a very empowering moment that I would not deny them.
Meanwhile, the Black Hood has told Betty to publish a
scandalous article about her own mother, Alice (Mädchen Amick), to sever ties with Veronica, and to break-up with
her boyfriend Jughead (Cole Sprouse.) These
are all heartbreaking moments, as Veronica and Betty were best friends, and the
relationship between Jughead and Betty was a highly likeable one. Nevertheless, to stop the Black Hood from
committing more acts of murder, Betty succumbs to the Black Hood’s requests.
In the final scene of the episode, Betty receives another
phone call from the Black Hood. The
Black Hood is angry with Betty, because Betty had informed Archie about the
phone calls. The Black Hood claimed that
Polly would now be killed. Betty begged
the Black Hood not to harm Polly. The
Black Hood was willing to negotiate, telling Betty that if Polly was not to be
the next victim, Betty would have to declare who the next victim would be…
It is at this moment that many RIVERDALE fans, including me,
were manipulatively drawn into absolute darkness and evil thinking. While some of us may justly support capital
punishment for SOME convicted felons, suddenly we found ourselves not only
supporting, but excited about the prospect of cold blooded murder by a serial
killer, as long as the victim was the exact person who Betty named and revealed
the location of, “Nick St. Clair.”
Wow! I realized what
had happened to me, before the ending credits finished, but how did that happen
to me? I considered myself better than
that. The reality is that I was manipulated
in the exact same way the media deceived so many decent people into hating
Donald J. Trump. They played upon our
emotions and sensibilities, in order to get us to hate a fellow human
being. Granted, in the case of Nick St.
Clair, it is a fictional character, but did we not all identify him with
someone we once knew or knew of, someone real?
Love and forgiveness, found by God’s grace is the answer, the only way
to healing. With today’s media, and
current levels of hatred that it has provoked and is provoking among Americans,
our guards must be up even higher, as we pray for God’s protection against the
snares of the devil. We should pray for
the redemption of all our enemies, by the grace of God who wills for all to be
saved and come to knowledge of the truth.
The writers of RIVERDALE were able to present a story with such a strong
emotional pull, that in less than an hour, the viewers aligned themselves with
the mindset of the central villain, a cold blooded serial killer. That is scarier than any fictional horror
story ever written.
This was more than merely an episode of a television
show. It was a social experiment in
using media to manipulate and control minds, even of people who are hyper-alert
to the ways of media propaganda and deception.
Even my wonderful wife(who consented to me writing this), who is always
kindhearted to everyone, was drawn into the same trap as I was, in hoping Betty
would answer, “Nick St. Clair.”
Excellent acting, directing, and writing from all involved, but at the
same time, terrifying to see how quickly and easily our minds were drawn in a
direction that we would not willingly choose to take them.
I am looking forward to next week’s new episode of RIVERDALE on the CW
Network at Wednesday, November 15, at 8:00P.M. EST.
