Writer: George Gladir
Pencils: Dan DeCarlo
Inks: Alison Flood*
Colors: Barry Grossman*
Letters: Bill Yoshida*
Original Publication: Betty and Veronica, No. 104
Cover Date: October, 1996
Length: 6 pages
I’m reviewing this story from the digital edition, which came out on October 25, 2023.
*These aren’t credited in the story. I assume the same people colored and lettered the entire issue.
At the Lodge mansion, most of the gang is outside, eating. Veronica and Reggie come to the door. Ronnie invites everyone inside, because she’s about to play the video that Reggie took of last week’s beach party.
Archie, Betty, Moose, Midge, Jughead, and Nancy join them in the living room. As Ronnie plays the tape, she mentions she’s having the cook bake Archie’s favorite lemon meringue pie.
Betty asks Archie who he’s waving at on the tape. Archie says he doesn’t remember. Reggie says he was curious, too, so he “zoomed in” to find out. It was Cheryl. Archie nervously plays off the “friendly li’l wave”. On the tape, Ronnie realized she forgot to bring the case of soda that she had in her van. Ronnie drives a van? Well, anyway, Archie volunteered to go get it.
Betty says it was so nice of him to volunteer. Ronnie recalls it took Archie “a long, long time”. Archie nervously says he had some trouble finding her van. Reggie says he also wondered why it took him so long, so he again “zoomed” his camcorder “in on Archie”. Archie was with Cheryl, which pisses Ronnie off. Archie says Cheryl said hello, and he couldn’t ignore her.
On the tape, Archie volunteered to fetch the hat that Betty left in the van. He took two cans of Ronnie’s soda in case he got thirsty on the way. Reggie says this is where he “zoomed in on Archie again”. What kind of magic camcorder does Reggie have that he can find Archie with Cheryl just by “zooming in”? Betty, shocked (for some reason), says Archie’s back with Cheryl. Ronnie angrily realizes Archie was giving Cheryl one of her sodas. On the tape, Archie finally returned with Betty’s hat – and a lip print that Ronnie hadn’t seen before. How did she not notice Cheryl’s lipstick on Archie’s cheek back then?
The cook arrives with “ze pie”. Ronnie splats Archie in the face with it. Betty points out that Ronnie got meringue all over her new carpet. Ronnie says her dad will have a fit and tells her to get her a wet rag. How did Ronnie not see this coming? Jughead reveals he also took a video at the party and “zoomed in on some interesting subjects”. He plays the tape. Ronnie cleans the floor. Moose, enraged, spots Reggie with Midge on the tape and threatens to punch him.
As Moose chases Reggie, they make a mess, including smashing a vase (I think). Ronnie says her parents will ground her forever. The doorbell rings. Ronnie hopes it’s not her parents. It’s Dilton. He heard she’s showing videos of their beach party, so he brought along the video that he took that day. Ronnie slams the door, saying they’ve had enough videos for one day. Dilton is confused.
This story was pretty dumb. The girls somehow never realized Archie was with Cheryl during his multiple, lengthy absences and found out only through a video tape. Three guys took videos of the same beach party. One of them (Dilton) wasn’t even revealed to be at the beach party until the very end of the story. And why was Nancy in this story? She did absolutely nothing.
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