The rise and fall of Mr. Honey played out during the early season 4 finale of Riverdale.

Riverdale Season 4 Episode 19 was not supposed to be the finale, but alas, the coronavirus pandemic had different plans for all of us. 

Still, it was a fitting way to end leaving us on a head-scratching cliffhanger that brings the mystery of the videotapes to the forefront. 

The VHS tapes have been sprinkled in throughout much of the season but larger mysteries like the shenanigans at Stonewall Prep took precedence. 

The episode blurred the line between fact and fiction delivering two very different realities that slightly paralleled each other and offered up some beneath-the-surface commentary about the murderous and twisted town of Riverdale. 

Jughead, who was given a shot at attention the University of Iowa, had to submit yet another story and felt inspired by the group’s collective hatred for Mr. Honey, the principal who set out to ruin their senior year by cancelling the yearbook (gasp!) and senior prom (the horror!). 

I had to dig deep and put myself in the mindset of a senior to fully grasp the motivation here. Admittedly, senior prom is a big deal, but the yearbook, well, a year from now, none of them will even know they chucked the thing.

Prom, on the other hand, was the student body’s treat for enduring a twisted year ranging from psychopaths to murderers, so they weren’t going down without a fight; they deserved this. 

Mr Honey made a lot of enemies during his short-tenure and initially, it seemed almost justified since he’s never given the characters or the audience a reason to root for him. In fact, many of us were convinced he was the season’s villain and the man behind the tapes. 

Alas, Riverdale had other, bigger plans for him. 

Both storylines started off with an epic senior prank only in Jughead’s fictitious story, the prank was darker and involved kidnapping Honey dressed as Stonewall Preppies.

In reality, Honey retaliated to the sticky prank by cancelling prom completely, which is where the seniors brought in reinforcements: the hot moms and dads of Riverdale. The dads, aside from Hiram, were simply there for muscle. But the moms… oh, they meant business. 

They threatened to sue, they threatened to gather the PTA, it was nuts. 

Credit: Riverdale/ The CW

And they got their way until Honey made a copycat video pretending to be the Voyeur to get prom cancelled once again under the guise that it was too dangerous. 

In Jughead’s short story, Mr. Honey was kidnapped and got a good beating from Reggie. Veronica and Archie found him passed out and the group covered up his “accidental” murder by pretending to never speak of this moment again. Sound familiar? Betty, Jughead, Veronica, and Archie have been down this road once before, so Jughead was definitely pulling from his own reality. 

In the story, Reggie’s guilty conscience got the best of him so they killed him too. Ruthless. 

In reality, once the group succeeded in firing Honey in reality and Jughead read the letter of recommendation that the principal wrote on his behalf did he realize that he needed to change the narrative of his story. 

Miss Bell informed them that Honey has been the best principal Riverdale High has ever seen (sure, I guess), and was only trying to protect them. 

At this point, Jughead realized he’s been reveling in the twisted narrative of the town and using it as an excuse. Mr. Honey may not have made a good impression on any of us, but he was right that the murder, mayhem, and manipulation was not normal and needed to be eliminated. 

However, it’s hard to accept that Mr. Honey was truly trying to steer the students towards a new and promising reality since there was never any explanation as to why Honey wanted to cancel prom. He explained he was trying to protect the students and prepare them for the real world, but what did prom have to do with that? Did he know who was behind the tapes?

It didn’t explain why Honey cancelled prom at every other school he worked at or why he was a frequent visitor of the Blue Velvet where all the Voyeur’s tapes were found prior to it getting shut down.

It almost felt like the writers needed to redeem him so they did it without offering up expanations to any of our other questions and we were just supposed to go along with it. 

And let’s say that we did just go along with it, the final moments in the episode were equal parts twisted and confusing.

Whoever is sending the tapes knows about the cabin where Veronica’s mom had an affair. They could’ve picked any place for Betty and Jughead to go, so what’s the significance of that cabin other than its the place Sheriff Minetta was murdered?

The Voyeur also seems to be interested in reminding Riverdale of all its sins while also trying to frame Betty, Jughead, Archie, Veronica, Cheryl, and Reggie for murder as the cliffhanger featured six masked people dressed as them killing “Principal Honey” by stabbing him. 

This, again, paralleled Jughead’s story prior to his re-writing. 

It seems they’ve walked right into the Voyeur’s trap. 

Early on in the episode, Jughead gave away the point of the videotapes as being the rehearsal before the actual murder. 

Everything we were seeing was “the rehearsal” leading up to that final moment where Jughead and Betty were visibly shaken and disturbed by the videotape. 

It’s weird to say that I was glad to see them express such disturbance, but for a moment there, it seemed as though Betty and Jughead were normalizing murder as a way of life because they’ve been exposed to it for so long. The town turned them into monsters and they were okay with it. Thankfully, they diverged from that path rather quickly and their reactions to the tape of a man, a good man, possibly dying, prove it. 

Now, the fact that Honey accepted a job at Stonewall Prep in the first place after everything that happened during Jughead’s time there makes me think he’s not as “good” of a principal as they let on. 

It’s also unclear whether or not Mr. Honey was the man “murdered” in that final scene or if it was just a re-enactment as if the tapes were serving as a “I Know What You Did Last Summer” reminder. 

And then, there’s the question of who is actually behind them.

Jughead focused on writing his story for much of the episode, and aside from his core group of friends, the only other person who knew about it was Charles. 

In my review of Riverdale Season 4 Episode 18, I argued that their half-brother is behind the videotapes because he has time, access, and control of the situation. He’s been privy to every “private” situation, and could have gotten the other tapes when the FBI raided the Blue Velvet.

Think about it — what if Charles, Chic, Ethel, Evelyn, Donna, and Brett are all working together and the ones behind that final video to mess with #Bughead. 

However, with Jughead leaving pages of his short story around the school randomly, it’s possibly its someone else entirely.

The mystery and all the relationship drama (that was completely absent from the episode) would have likely been wrapped up in the final episodes of season 4, but with the current situation, everything is being pushed to season 5.

So, no worries, Riverdale fans, we’ll get our answers soon, we just have to wait a bit longer than expected. 

Other Sticky as Maple Syrup Moments

• The classic prank of sticking Honey to a chair and phone was an oldie but a goodie. I thought maybe it would foreshadow that he got his hand stuck in the honey jar (aka — he’s the culprit behind the tapes), and I still think that would’ve been cute. 
• It was fun to see the cast all together in the scenes including Cheryl and Reggie. It adds a new dynamic because their personalities are so distinct. 
• RIP Midge Klump.
• As of this episode, Cheryl is going to Highsmith College, Veronica is going to Barnard in New York, Betty is going to Yale in Connecticut, Archie is off to the Naval Academy, Jughead tentatively heading to University of Iowa, and Reggie is hopefully going to attend Riverdale Community College. 
• I couldn’t help but laugh that they all have experience moving a dead body except for Reggie. Welcome to the team.