As the show nears the end of its second season, Riverdale delivers an homage to Carrie: The Musical in an episode that highlights the show’s best and worst qualities.

Riverdale has never been a show that cares much about what anyone thinks of it. In its 31 episodes, it’s established a distinct tone and attitude, one that feels like a hodgepodge of classics with an aesthetic eye and modern edge.

The show’s choice to do a musical episode, while certainly not a novelty in 2018, is a rather questionable decision. It’s a choice that begs quite a few questions including the obvious why? A musical homage risks making the episode feel like a filler or waste. Moreover, what if your actors can’t sing? What’s more, how does Carrie: The Musical inform Riverdale in a way that is particularly meaningful or even entertaining?

With those questions in mind, let’s break down Riverdale’s “A Night to Remember.”

Let’s start with the good news: Carrie and Riverdale are an extremely well suited pair. Both stories are steeped in the melodramatic and macabre, telling tales of intense teen drama combined with sharp edge of violence. The high wire emotional stakes and threats of danger that run through both make them a perfect match.

The way in which Carrie’s story portrays violence as a response to deep emotional and psychological trauma is well-aligned with Riverdale . The show began with Jason Blossom’s death, focusing on the dramatic and frequently violent reverberations his death had on the characters and the town.

The central plot lines in season 2 — the Black Hood murders and socio-political upheavals in between the Northside and Southside in Riverdale — also explore the way in which violence is a byproduct of emotional distress.

Moreover, the musical episode posits an interesting commentary on the show by using the characters in Carrie as foils for the show’s own cast.

Riverdale has done an excellent job of elevating its characters from their initial archetypes into more three dimensional characters. In casting the musical, the show plays with the character’s archetypes — articulating the various ways that the characters continue to both uphold and subvert these characterizations.

For example, in the middle of a rehearsal Betty critiques Veronica for being, “the literal embodiment of Chris” — the ringleader of a group of girls that harass Carrie. “Never has a role ever been so perfectly typecast,” Betty continues. “Spoiled rich girl? Check. Major daddy issues? Check. Bad to the bone, trying to control everyone around her including her boyfriend and best friend? Check check check.”

Betty’s comments are clearly reductive, ignoring much of Veronica’s characterization, but it plays into the way the episode draws connections between Carrie and Riverdale.

For example, Archie plays Tommy, the affable, well-meaning boyfriend to Sue Snell (played by Betty…) that invites Carrie to prom. This characterization, while aligned well enough to season 1 Archie is a stark contrast to Archie’s season 2 characterization, one that has sent him down a dark path, putting him at odds with both his best friend and his own father.

One of the best things about this episode is that it refuses to be just a musical episode. The episode pushes the plot of the season forward in unforeseen and exciting ways. Cheryl begins receiving threats demanding that she give up her role as Carrie or else. Kevin enlists Jughead to make a documentary of the production, a choice that gives the episode an added perspective with which to capture the events. The political rivalry in Riverdale continues to heat up as Archie struggles to reconcile his relationship with his father with his loyalty to the Lodges.

When the curtain comes up at the end of the episode, there’s no doubting the significance of the events in this episode; if anything, this episode marks a clear turning point for the season as it moves into its last few episodes.

However, this episode also reveals some of the show’s weakest qualities. While the show uses the school musical as an excuse for doing a musical episode, the execution of such a vision leaves a lot to be desired.

Not only does it seem unrealistic that Kevin would direct the musical, but the timeline of events are poorly constructed — there’s just no getting around how jarring it is to see a musical go from casting to rehearsals to opening night in an hour. Glee ran into a similar issue when it attempted to do a West Side Story episode in season 3.

Riverdale is a fast-paced show that frequently burns through plot. While often that works to the show’s advantage, in “A Night to Remember” it just feels amateurish. The episode introduces lots of compelling ideas and points of dramatic tension, but breezes through them in order to reach a conclusion more quickly. It’s disappointing to see the show pass on what could have easily been two or three episodes worth of content in just a single hour.

The episode also emphasizes how frustratingly underused Josie is in the show as a whole. Since season 1, Josie has often been used as a tool for developing other characters, including Archie, Veronica, and Cheryl. Josie is such a compelling character, but often only takes up space on the sidelines. This episode really exacerbates how underused she is; it would be nice to see the show use her and her talent more often.

Moreover, the musical performances themselves leave a lot to be desired. They look good, are well choreographed, and sound good enough, but they feel sort of shoehorned in. Save for a couple stand out performances (including Veronica’s performance as Chris), the performances feel incongruous with everything else that’s going on in the show. The musical feels like little more than a distraction.

Ultimately, the musical episode comes out in a wash. Full of high and low points, it never really proves why it should exist, but it’s certainly fun to watch. It’s hard to imagine this episode winning over any new viewers, but fans of the show will no doubt enjoy it.

Riverdale embraces camp in a way that is often refreshing, acting as a nice tonic for those TV shows that take themselves too seriously. This is the joy of Riverdale’s musical episode — it’s full of the high energy melodrama that makes the show so compulsively watchable even if it’s a bit difficult to swallow.