Riverdale: Betty and Veronica Do. Not. Play.

“Body Double” only gets more righteous from there, diving head first into messy conversations about male privilege, slut shaming, double standards and issues of sexual assault on campus. When Veronica and Betty confront Chuck in the locker room—a shot of the nearly-nude Archie just so happens to find its way into the scene—and he shows no remorse, the two friends band together to get revenge. But Riverdale doesn’t just make this a story about our main characters. Instead, the series takes a more impactful, meaningful approach by broadening the scope: As Betty re-launches the student newspaper, a number of women step forward to tell their stories about being publicly shamed by members of the football team, and how the team keeps a “playbook” that rates all the girls in the school based on looks and sexual activity.

It’s a storyline pulled straight from real life, as the Harvard men’s soccer team was recently reprimanded for keeping such a playbook, and it imbues “Body Double” with a sense of urgency and importance, especially when you consider Riverdale’s target demographic. While Betty eventually goes a bit off the rails in her payback, slipping into a wig and maybe acting like her sister, Polly, there’s something to be said about the portrayal of her and Veronica as young women that stand up for themselves, even when the system is working against them.

Veronica shoots down Cheryl’s nastiness about the whole “playbook” situation by telling her how important it is to believe victims. “When they’re done with us they shame us into silence,” she shouts at Cheryl, exposing the toxicity of victim blaming and how it punishes women who speak out. Cheryl comes around once she realizes Jason had his own notes about Polly in the playbook, and with any luck she’ll become another member of this growing group of no-nonsense women—which includes a clever nod to another forgotten woman, as Ethel is played by Shannon Purser, better known as Barb from Stranger Things.

So, while the mystery deepens in “Body Double,” as the gunshot is traced back to scout leader Dilton Doiley, a kid who tells Jughead and Betty that he saw Ms. Grundy’s car down by the river, the episode’s strong suit is its burgeoning voice. The messages that course through it deserve to be treated as more than just checking off the boxes of “hot button” issues related to gender or race. (Josie gets a nice moment speaking about the struggles her mother faced getting elected mayor, and how she has to work harder than Archie to get a foot in the door in the music business.) Inequality isn’t a trending topic, it’s a lived reality; Chuck’s usage of the word “betas” to describe the men Veronica’s dealt with in the past is ripped straight from the blowhard blogs of MRAs and the alt-right. Watching as Betty, Veronica, Josie, Cheryl, and the others deal with and challenge that reality adds some serious thematic weight to Riverdale, and confirms that the series continues to grow and deepen as the season rolls on.