Hmm…the hit on Fred read pretty much the opposite way to me. It didn't feel like a Serpent trying to get revenge, but rather the Lodges trying to get him out of the way.

The most (legal) concern with it I can find is South Korea, where third cousins are prohibited from marrying. (Used to be even more so - until 1997, if you had the same surname, and your families came from the same region, you couldn't marry. Given that almost half of Koreans have the surname Pak…)

Might as well have made it Archie and Ms Grundy at that point. It would have made more sense. At least they were actually in Riverdale when he disappeared.

They're not removed, from the way the family tree is described by Hal. They're 3rd cousins, as Cliff said. That is to say, they're both three generations from their common ancestor. (Their grandpappies were first cousins, their fathers second, them third. Cliff is Polly's second cousin, once removed, Hal is Jason's.…

My theory is Jug and Jellybean have different fathers (via heretofor unrevealed adultery), and Jug just reminds her too much of FP…which is a problem either because of guilt, or because FP used to be an even worse person than he is, and abused her. Either way it's a crap reason to treat him like that, but…

… *insert sincere applause gif here*

Also, am I the only one assuming that Penelope and Cheryl…aided Cliff in getting to his final scene?

I die laughing every time I even think about the 'INCEST!' bit. I actually had to pause the show (I watch on Netflix) to recover before continuing.

I always kinda hoped that Pike would show on the TV series - not played by Perry, of course, he was busy, and it would have been weird for him to be the only actor playing the same character (although it worked for Gary Burghoff…) - but…you know…'Hey, Buffy, haven't seen you for a while!'…

No need to Weeping Angel it, yeah.

Maybe next season will have an episode titled It's a Wonderful Life.

Huh. The episode guide I checked didn't even have a TBA for episode 13. Thanks!

That they're dating isn't what's hinky, nor what she figured out. She figured out that Joaquin wasn't dating Kevin (just) because he was attracted to him, but because the Serpents were up to something. Her logic was 'this is a small town, but it's not *that* small'.

Drugs. He needs a new mule, now that Jason is dead.

To Riverdale and Back Again is actually the penultimate episode. The finale is Anatomy of a Murder. (Also, to nitpick, what the Pussycats performed was Candy Girl, by The Inner Circle, which quoted Sugar, Sugar.)

Also, Alice's figuring out that something hinky was going on with Joaquin… If it was a mixed-sex relationship, her logic would work for me, but being same-sex…yes, the town actually does feel like it's THAT small that same-sex options would be limited to that extent. Ignoring, of course, that we know she's right, it…

The best thing about the twincest line was Ronnie's delighted little grin at the thought that might actually stick.

'If you’re thinking, “Well that doesn’t sound right,” then you’ve officially put more thought into everything that happens in this week’s Archie plot than Archie does himself.'

I think we have to assume that Charm City is somewhere near Gotham and Bludhaven. Maybe just over the Delaware border. (That would put it about as close to Baltimore (nicknamed Charm City) as Gotham is to New York (nicknamed Gotham), and still within shouting distance to Gotham County.

That;s not really world-building, though. It's using the existing worldbuilding done over the last 75 years, to get the plot going without having to do a lot of worldbuilding. Which is a perfectly valid way of doing things, but it doesn't actually contribute to building a world. It actually works against it, really…