#joneswuzhere

in their 6.02 apartment argument, tabitha and jughead are in parallel to ‘demonologist’ partners ed and lorraine warren of the conjuring series.

in the climax of the conjuring 3, pictured here, the warrens have entered an occultist’s lair to find a way to break a murder/suicide curse she set (affecting 3 pairs of victims including the warrens) before it’s too late. the occultist possesses ed and forces him to attack lorraine with the hammer he used to break into the lair. before he lands a blow on her, lorraine uses her clairvoyant ability to telepathically speak in ed’s mind, encouraging him to see her and focus on the memory of how they met and fell in love. ed is able to break thru the possession and destroy the occultist’s satanic altar, ending her curse and ultimately causing her death.

this conjuring scene is itself an homage to the shining, when jack is possessed by the hotel’s demonic forces and swings at wendy with an ax. but it uses this parallel to make a point - the warren’s love and faith in each other sets them apart and enables them to defeat forces that would overcome others.

ed and lorraine’s relationship is the heart of the three main films in the conjuring universe. their dynamic in this particular scene is best understood as a culmination of their trials throughout the series.

in the first conjuring film, ed is fearful about lorraine participating in the investigation at hand bc at a previous job she was deeply traumatized by a vision. lorraine counters by reminding him he once said to her ‘god brought [them] together for a reason,’ to help people, and they do it best together.

in the conjuring 2, lorraine sees the traumatizing vision again - revealed to be a portent of ed’s death - and she decides it’s too risky to keep taking cases involving demons. ed counters with a similar idea: ‘[lorraine’s] visions are a gift from god’ and she must receive them for a reason - so that they’re better prepared to face danger. he reminds her they don’t run from fights when people need their help.

so in this third film, there’s no question between the two that they’ll confront their opponent together. even tho ed is weak after a heart attack and lorraine is fearful of what is able to look back at her thru ‘the connection’ of her clairvoyance, they both understand that their power is their faith in each other.

the takeaway from this 6.02 storyline between jughead and tabitha seems to be this same conclusion - that their love and trust in each other is their grounding strength against adversity, whether mundane arguments or supernatural ghosts.

to support that tabitha and jughead’s parallel to the warrens extends beyond the one film, the conjuring 2 is also referenced in their argument scene.

in the second film’s opening sequence, lorraine visits the amityville house (located, interestingly, in babylon LI) and enters a trance to view the past defeo murders. when she crosses a mirror we see the one whose steps she’s retracing.

tabitha’s mirror check is visually very similar to lorraine’s vision of the past, altho tabitha is physically in the present and holding a weapon for real.

i think this aspect of the rd scene also bears influence from 2021′s candyman wherein mirrors reveal the ghost possessing a character. candyman and the fear street series are another two subjects of rd’s film homage in early s6 and the interplay between these films and the conjuring series upon rd’s canvas is really interesting.

 there’s similarities between the fear street series and the conjuring 1 and 3, with a witch possessively haunting her land and a curse from a satanist with an underground altar affecting locals, respectively.

there’s also a parallel between painter ed warren, who takes inspiration from a demonic vision, and anthony mccoy, the artist in candyman who becomes obsessed with the local legend. rd’s sam, one of the apartment ghosts, resembles anthony in action and literally resembles a character, the warren’s assistant drew, in the conjuring 2. cool shirt

*this is the 2004 director’s cut

ok. except for the bunny mask (look at those teeth) and the porn collection, this one felt like kind of a reach to me. at least, it did until i finally put together that there’s a virginia/d.c. urban legend, the bunny man. you can take ras out of d.c. but nobody stopped ras from adding d.c. lore all over this season (see also: mr. dupont, shady grove treatment center, etc.)

bret’s masked axe moment bears a strong resemblance to the bunny man legend. this film, which is set in virginia, most likely also draws on the bunny man.

the eponymous donnie, a possibly-schizophrenic high school senior, begins hallucinating a man in a rabbit suit who directs him to commit seemingly random acts of trespassing and destruction. the rabbit, frank, is in fact (probably? i guess??) a time traveling ghost who is leading donnie through a sequence of events to resolve the dangerous split dimension they’ve accidentally become the center of. or maybe not, idk. interpretations vary.

item 1. a count down of days until death

item 2. school’s closed, axe pranks and inexplicable bunny masks

item 3. the third of his name

item 4. knife + a prophetic wound to the mask. note that rd’s mask has jughead’s head wound. in the film, donnie, sick of being controlled, attacks his hallucination in the same location that he will later shoot the real frank as retaliation for accidentally killing donnie’s girlfriend - none of which donnie knows about in this scene

item 5. area teen’s actions lead to the reveal of a secret illegal porn stash, reported on local news

i personally wish there was more here to explain why jughead put on the mask and what exactly his plan was, but neither riverdale nor this film are big on definitive answers.

earlier this season i took note of the placement of this oscar wilde poster and romeo & juliet poster in 4.02.

[ continued in parts one and three ]

#1 dad award narrowly misses fp once again when he implies he’s going to disown jughead and then have him killed and dumped in a lake.

in this godfather ii scene, michael and his brother fredo, in havana for business, attend a new years eve party on the cusp of the chaotic revolution. michael reveals that he knows fredo has betrayed him - fredo, the resentful elder brother who was passed over as heir to the family business, traded info to an enemy that resulted in an assassination attempt on michael and his wife and children. following this exchange, michael disowns his brother and doesn’t speak to him for years. as soon as their mother dies, he has fredo disposed of.

at fp’s failed retirement party, after jughead used penny’s help to get him out of decades of prison, film buff jughead possibly picks up on the threat fp is making. no but seriously fp gave his own son the fucking kiss of death?? anyway, the scene parallel reinforces the new tense power balance between father and son. but the camera lingers on jughead, suggesting that, if either of them is (a leader? betrayed?) like michael, it’s him.

”something worse than death stalks the living.”

jughead is in parallel with the tragic renfield in the 1931 film adaptation of bram stoker’s 1897 novel. wait, but... dracula in spanish? it’s more likely than you think.

as was sometimes the practice in early hollywood, universal pictures filmed two versions of the same script, one in english and one in spanish. by daylight the studio shot the version many of us recognize today, starring bela lugosi. and at night, with the same sets and costumes, a different director, cast, and crew shot a separate spanish language film.

the night shoot benefited from seeing the day’s rushes and were able to improve upon lighting and camera angles to make a more visually interesting film - and, it turns out, a film that’s way easier to gif. however, don’t read too much into my aesthetic choice - this scene referenced by riverdale is present in similar form in the english version.

renfield’s part is the same in both films. disregarding locals’ warnings, he travels to castle dracula to deliver the lease for a property that count dracula has rented in london. he unsuspectingly drinks drugged wine served to him, tries to get some fresh air, and is then descended upon by vampires.

jughead’s juxtaposition to renfield lends his later conversation with betty greater weight. in the coffin, thinking about betty saved his hope and sanity; renfield has no such protection. after the drugging and the vampires and then a harrowing trip locked in a ship hold, he is transformed from a mild and naive businessman into a raving half-vampire madman, obsessed with consuming spiders and flies for their life force.

weak-minded renfield is torn between dracula’s will and his own conscience. dracula uses him as a slave, to spy and to gain entrance to buildings and access to victims. renfield is terrified of dying with innocent blood staining his soul; he desperately tries to give warnings without disobeying dracula’s powerful will. ultimately, the count kills him for his betrayal.

interestingly, renfield never enters a coffin in either film. it’s dracula who must return to a coffin filled with his native transylvanian soil during daylight to rest and retain his powers.