Riverdale is a show defined by place, from the macroscale of the series’ namesake town, to iconic spots like Pop’s and Riverdale High. Season two of the CW series introduced a new location in Thistle House.
Indeed, after Cheryl Blossom burned down Thornhill House to start things over for her unusual family, they needed somewhere new to live. This other property owned by the Blossom family opened up new angles for the show. As opposed to the happiness and move toward normalcy Cheryl might have hoped for, the Blossom family parts of the show only grew more bizarre macabre. These dark turns feel linked to Thistle House, a location that remains rich in mystery.
A Fire In The Background
An early, prominent scene set in Thistle House saw the Blossom family draw together for a reading of Clifford Blossom’s will. In the background, as the will was read, a fire burned bright in the background.
While this controlled fire in a fireplace was as different as could be from the conflagration that gutted Thornhill House, it was nonetheless a reminder of that fire, and additional destruction in the family’s not so distant past. Moreover, it may well have foreshadowed ongoing drama and heated exchanges within the family.
The Nightmare
In season two, Riverdale joined a pantheon of TV shows to have a Christmas-themed episode, with “Silent Night, Deadly Night,” a replica of painting known as “The Nightmare” by artist Henry Fuseli appears over a fireplace at Thistle House. The painting fits the general creepy imagery of Thistle House well, depicting a prone woman with a demonic creature seated on her stomach.
While the painting may have been chosen simply for its macabre appearance, viewers might read some symbolism into it, too. After all, the show is deep in the mystery of The Black Hood at this point—thus the demon might represent The Black Hood and all of the people he killed, while the woman might represent Riverdale itself. Otherwise, the woman might represent Betty, given who The Black Hood turns out to be; the painting’s presence also invites us to interpret Cheryl as the woman, and any number of the ways in which her family haunts her to be embodied in the monstrous creature.
Site Of The Living Dead
Thistle House has conspicuously played host to more a steady theme of the dead seeming to come back to life. After all, when Claudius arrived at the house, Cheryl mistook him for her late father Clifford. Later, Jason’s corpse would take up residence in the chapel, and unborn brother Julian’s doll seemed to haunt the Thistle House residents.
Cheryl’s mother, Penelope, ultimately resurfaces at Thistle House—revealed to be engineering Julian’s “haunting.” She’s not literally back from the dead, but feels a lot like she is in the context of the show after going absent for the first half of season four. All in all, Thistle House has been a consistent place of rebirth for the Blossom family, though often in the darkest of terms.
Chapel On Bottom
The fact that Thistle House would have its own chapel might seem antithetical to who the Blossoms are as a family riddled with violence and crime. However, the chapel’s presence does fit with the old money and classical tropes associated with the family.
The chapel’s conspicuous placement underground in Thistle House speaks to how God and faith may play into the family—inverted, or else literally buried beneath the darker matters the Blossoms concern themselves with.
The Blossoms Stay Prickly
The name Blossom itself invokes flowery imagery, which at first blush seemed to Cheryl and Jason Blossom—vital, beautiful young people when the audience first meets them in the first episode of Riverdale. Things turn quickly, though, with Jason’s death and all manner of conspiracy and dark intrigue surrounding the family in the seasons to follow.
Indeed, more so than flowers, the Blossoms seem to relate to the sharper parts of plant life. Their original residence at Thornhill gently alludes to that element of the family; not unlike thorns, thistles, too, tend to have prickly edges that might make someone bleed if they’re not careful.
A Nod To Scottish Heritage
While the Riverdale show hasn’t spoken directly to Scottish heritage in the Blossom family, earlier comic books do. While Riverdale hasn’t always matched up to the Archie comics, the red hair of the family members reaffirms this assumed background.
Thistle House, then, takes on meaning beyond being a part of a flowering plant, but also because thistles are the national emblem of Scotland itself. That heritage may or may not ever play a significant role in Riverdale, but the show has established this characteristic in the background nonetheless, befitting a family with old money that may be particularly prone to celebrate its roots.
It’s Where The Family Eats Itself
The Blossom Family is among the most dysfunctional families in TV history, and the fact that Clifford kills his own son Jason in season one establishes the premise that they’re not above “eating their young.” In-fighting certainly continues into Thistle House, with Cheryl fending off all manner of interlopers and meddlers. There’s also that bit of family lore about Cheryl consuming her unborn brother Julian in the womb.
The idea of the family eating itself from within rises to a new level in season four’s “The Ice Storm.” There, Cheryl and Toni not only kill Uncle Bedford, but ultimately bake him into a Thanksgiving pie to feed other meddling family, to chase them out of their hair for good.
Hamlet Overtures
The cast of Blossom family members, perhaps counterintuitively, expands as more members of the family die on Riverdale. Jason, and then Clifford’s deaths bring relatives out of the woodwork.
Claudius’s arrival at Thistle House suggests deeper literary allusions in the text of Riverdale. Yes, he is played by the same actor as his brother, Barclay Hope, and as such sets up the illusion that Clifford has risen from the dead when Claudius arrives. While it would be going too far to call the Blossom storyline a Shakespeare adaptation, a Hamlet-like plot is at stake. In addition to a momentary consideration of ghosts haunting the family, there’s the suggestion that Claudius looks to swoop in at Thistle House steal his brother’s maple syrup business and other assets. That’s not unlike Claudius from Hamlet who takes the throne from the dead king, and looks to take what rightfully belongs to his nephew, Prince Hamlet.
A Link To Conversion Therapy
Cheryl Blossom is often portrayed as an empowered character, not least of all heading the Vixens cheerleader squad, and later the Pretty Poisons gang. However, she’s also a victim at different points of the show. That’s not least of all when she joined a cast of high profile LGBTQ characters from across pop culture, and her family sent her to conversion therapy.
The horrors of conversion therapy occur at The Sisters of Quiet Mercy, a nunnery and site of several injustices throughout the show. The religious implications of the place have a meaningful tie to the chapel being such a featured spot at Thistle House. In Thistle House, Cheryl takes back her power, and the hidden, private nature of the chapel also paints it in contrast to the more public Sisters of Quiet Mercy—the two places representing pure opposites in Riverdale lore.
The Vampire Diaries Connection
Careful viewers, and those who obsess over teen television beyond Riverdale, have recognized that Thistle House uses the same location as the Salvatore Boarding House in the original episode of fellow popular series, The Vampire Diaries.
