This season of Riverdale has been entertaining in a campy way with the gang getting superpowers and banding together to fight the new big bad: Percival Pickens. However, this episode makes no sense. The idea of biblical plagues is cool in theory. And the twist with people dying at the end is fun. But the character aspect of this episode is nonsensical.
But, for some reason, the big event of the season is the wedding of a couple that nobody cares to see. Toni and Fangs's relationship is the biggest mystery of the season. Because why are they together? "It just happened while we were raising Baby Anthony," seems to be the answer of the season. But there's nothing good about their relationship. I don't think they've had one nice, romantic moment this entire time. The only thing they've done is argue about the custody battle of their son. Toni's initial proposal to Fangs was because she wanted to win the custody battle against Kevin. Believable. She would do anything for her son. In this episode, everything that was previously set up there goes down the drain because, just minutes into the episode, Kevin drops the custody battle that we have spent HALF THIS SEASON talking about. What a pathetic resolution to a storyline that this show wasted so much time on. And what makes it worse is that Kevin, a GAY MAN, lets the custody battle go, tells Toni and Fangs that they're Baby Anthony's "real" parents (because they're biologically related to him), and apologizes profusely. This is already homophobic, but the episode only gets worse for Toni's character. The custody battle was dropped, but Toni is still marrying Fangs! What? We don't even hear why. It isn't even acknowledged that she proposed for the custody battle. This aspect has basically disappeared from the show and we are now supposed to believe that Toni just wanted to marry Fangs because she loves him? Why would she want that when their relationship has been nothing short of terrible and argument-filled since season 6? There is no reason anyone should want this couple to get married because the show, up until this point, has given no indication that Toni even likes being with him.
Toni's previous relationship with Cheryl Blossom was a fan-favorite that this episode completely disrespects. In prior episodes, Cheryl revealed that she still had been harboring feelings for her ex-girlfriend and had hoped that they would get back together. She has been trying to let Toni go since finding out about her marrying Fangs. So, in this episode, it was already a big slap in the face to Choni fans to see Cheryl sadly watch Toni marry Fangs. They even made Cheryl officiate the wedding! She was obviously sad, but Toni had no hesitations about marrying Fangs. What an unnecessarily hurtful move to fans of the main lesbian couple on this show! All for a couple that nobody even understands why they're together or getting married.
Just a terrible episode for LGBT fans. This show is already stiffing with its minimal LGBT couples and representation, but it took the disrespect to LGBT fans to a new level with this episode. Not a fan!
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