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Winter finale time and Riverdale wraps up one storyline while introducing a few news ones … and giving us even more of a tease as to what’s to come during Spring Break.
As far a wrapping up, it seems that everyone is finally ready to put Jason Blossom to rest. Literally. But it took Cheryl faking her own suicide attempt to get it done. No, she wasn’t trying to elicit sympathy from Toni, Nana or anyone else, she was trying to suss out the rats in the walls. More specifically the one rat who’d been gaslighting her. And it shouldn’t come as a surprise to anyone that the rat was Penelope. And her reason for trying to drive her daughter mad? She was jealous that Cheryl was still able to have a relationship with Jason, however twisted it may have been, while she couldn’t. Cheryl put her mother on trial, Penelope expected to be executed, but Cheryl sentenced her to solitary in the bunker, not only for the gaslighting for for the murders and attempted murders under her belt. Something tells me Penelope is the one who will be mad by the end of this … and I hope it means more juicy scenes with Nathalie Boltt. I’ve missed her this season. And it all ends with Cheryl, Toni and the others who helped save her from the icy waters of Sweetwater River sending Jason off with a proper Viking funeral.
Another storyline seems to have come to a close this week as well — Jughead’s search for his grandfather. With some help from Charles and FBI resources, he was able to find grandpa Forsythe living in a bus and learned the truth about the Baxter Brothers story that he believed Mr. Dupont stole from the senior Jones. Juggie was correct that his grandfather wrote the first book, but Dupont didn’t steal the story, at least not in the legal sense. Dupont paid Jones $5000 for the story and built an empire. It was the anger at his feeling of being shafted that led to his terrible behavior towards Jughead’s father and grandmother, and for that he was sorry. Jughead needed to know this because Dupont has impressed enough with his own story, which seems to have been based on the events surrounding Jason Blossom’s death from what we heard, to offer him the contract as the new ghost writer … if he played by the rules. He accepted and hoped this information would forge a reconciliation between his father and grandfather.
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FP, however, had gotten himself into a spot of trouble. Coming after Archie for continuing his reckless vigilante behavior when he should be focused on the kids at his community center, FP agreed to step outside the law for one night to help Archie run Dodger and his family out of town once and for all. And it worked but Dodger decided to leave them both with a literal parting shot, coming into Pop’s like the Black Hood and shooting FP in the chest. Thankfully it was not a lethal shot, nor even as bad as the time Fred was shot, but it was enough to drive Archie to one last act of vengeance. Approaching Dodger and his mother as they were preparing to leave Riverdale, the two went at it in a bare-knuckle brawl to end things once and for all. Archie took a beating but gained the upper hand and nearly pummeled Dodger to death … and then was shocked to see a group of kids from the community center watching. He succeeded in getting Dodger and his family out of town, but now his violent behavior is sure to have an impact on those he’d vowed to protect. And surprise, Uncle Frank arrives!
But by the time FP agreed to Jughead bringing his father to the hospital, the elder Forsythe had already packed up and left, leaving Jughead disappointed that he couldn’t make the meeting happen. But he did sign the contract and accepted everything that went with it — including a non-disclosure agreement — and got a mysterious note under his door telling him to meet in the woods at a specific time. Going, Jughead was confronted by his classmates wearing robes and apparently ready to re-enact some Gargoyle King sacrifice. Place a skull on a tree stump, Jughead smashed it with a rock and was welcomed into the Skull & Quill Society. He passed his initiation so perhaps he won’t be having any more trouble with Bret.
Veronica is finding her college applications being turned down, most likely a result of Hiram’s interference so she pulls out the big guns — her grandmother, revealing to her what Hiram has been up to. And when she confronts her son with a slap across his face, followed by Ronnie revealing she now has the family rum recipe to really go head to head with him, that only lights another fire under Hiram to destroy his daughter. First, as mayor, he has the liquor license for Pop’s and the speakeasy revoked. So Ronnie decides to throw one last big bash before the time expires. But Hiram has another trick up his sleeve, inciting the administrator from Columbia, with whom Veronica was to have an interview with the following Monday, to the party, an attempt to expose Veronica as an under-aged young woman running an establishment serving liquor. And he also alerts Ronnie to the fact that he holds a patent on that rum recipe, so if she uses it, she’ll be sued for everything she has. But Ronnie knows how to make lemons from lemonade, she does her scheduled performance, and it seems to be enough to impress the woman from Columbia, who is more interested in someone with a good story than any academics … and Veronica Luna has a good story.
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There was no mention of the mysterious VHS tapes this week, but things at the Cooper-Jones household did take a dark turn. Alice received news that Polly attempted to maul a nurse at the mental health facility … a nurse named Betty … but Polly claims she has no idea what happened. One minute she was sitting in a chair, the next she was tied to a bed. Betty told Alice she believed her and then the phone rang. Hanging up the phone, Alice calmly walked back to the kitchen and pulled a knife from the drawer, and attempted to kill Betty. Realizing she was hypnotized, Betty was able to snap her mom out of her trance but the question was who could have implanted some suggestion into Polly’s and Alice’s heads.
Well, Edgar Evernever, of course. But he’s dead. Evelyn, however, is not and Charles was able to trace the phone call to Shankshaw Prison where Evelyn is behind bars. Paying a visit, Evelyn reveals that everyone who was at the farm has a post-hypnotic suggestion that is triggered by the word ‘tangerine’ said three times. When hearing that, the subject becomes Betty Cooper and must try to kill the Dark Betty. But is Betty herself under that spell? She’s not sure and she gets Charles to help her. Saying the trigger word, Betty is transported to the time she was a child and killed Caramel her cat. She believes this was the birth of Dark Betty so Charles suggests she go back to that moment and stop her younger self from killing the cat. Betty tries, and just as her younger self is about to administer the killing blow, Betty takes the rock from her hand and tells her to go play. Waking up, Betty feels that perhaps she did kill Dark Betty in the process. But did she?
Flash forward four weeks, Jughead’s skull is smashed by a rock … that Betty is holding. Archie says Jughead is dead and asks Betty what she did … and that’s a wrap until January 22. So did Betty kill Jughead, was it Dark Betty? Is Jughead really dead? We have plenty to think about over the holidays and into the new year.
Have a great holiday and we’ll see you in January!
What did you think of this episode? Let us know what you think in the comments section below.
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