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Let’s Talk About ‘Things That Go Bump in the Night’:
- Cheryl and Heather reconnect, and Cheryl makes an offer to keep Heather in Riverdale a bit longer.
- Unable to get historic status for Pop’s, Tabitha hatches a new plan to keep Percival from destroying the diner.
- Betty confides in a newly transferred agent, Drake, about her serial killer family and special powers.
- Betty asks Archie if she can move in to escape the drama of her family.
- Toni and Fangs are still fighting for custody of Baby Anthony, but Fangs has some self-doubt.
- Veronica asks Jughead for a favor, and offers him a job.
The gang’s all here this week as the battle to save the heart of Riverdale continues, while new alliances are formed along the way. The majority of the episode is the protection of Pop’s but Veronica, Betty and Cheryl also have some important business.
Veronica is still in a battle for the Babylonium and enlists Jughead’s help to boost profits, Using his mind-reading power, she proposes he start doing a mentalist act and she’ll split the profits with him 60-40 … in her favor, of course. Juggie thinks about it for a minute and agrees — 50-50, and he only reads the minds of the willing. It’s a deal, and Forsythe the Fantastic is born. Jughead amazes and astounds audiences, and his success brings with it a little bit of trouble in the form of Reggie Mantle. Reggie sees a way to make a quick buck and tells Veronica he wants a 20% cut or else he’ll tell everyone her dirty little secret about the hit she put on her father. Concerned that Reggie could do some real damage with that information, V enlists the help of Jughead again — to erase that part of Reggie’s memory. He isn’t sure he can (or should) do it, but a little research shows that it is possible so Veronica lures Reggie to her office to hand him his hush money … in small bills so he has to stand there and count it, giving Jughead time to sort through the comic books of Reggie’s mind. Finding the moment where he learned of Veronica’s misdeed, he tears that page out and Reggie has a bit of a snap. He finishes counting the money but V snatches it back from him. He threatens to tell her secret and she asks what secret. Suddenly he can’t remember what that thing is and she tells him to get out of her office. Later with Percival, who quips that Reggie looks more befuddled than usual, Reggie mentions that he feels like Veronica and Jughead did something to him and he feels that he’s forgotten something. Percival seems to have an idea what happened but doesn’t say anything.
Betty is growing concerned about her mother’s influence over her as well as what she may be doing to Dagwood and Juniper (who certainly favor the Blossom side of the family with their red hair). She’s also perplexed about her aura-reading power and confides in a newly transferred agent, Agent Drake. Betty is trying to figure out how and why her power works … or doesn’t work. Why can she see it around some people but not others? It seems that she can’t see the aura of anyone with the MAOA gene. Drake suggests it may be because of the trauma she endured for 18 years at home and suggests she move in with someone, a boyfriend … or girlfriend? Betty asks Archie if she can move in until she sorts things out and he welcomes her with open arms. But when going home to pack a few things, she sees Dagwood and Juniper playing with a cat Alice got them and Betty immediately recalls her experience with a cat. Dagwood mentions they’re going to have fun playing with its tail and then she sees a red aura around him, so she takes the cat ‘to make sure it has all of its shots’. Instead she takes it to a shelter, tells Drake what happened and then takes the kids to have them tested for the gene. Oddly enough, Juniper has the gene but Dagwood does not, but she feels it best to take the kids out of the house (did she put them in a shelter too?), which set off Alice to the point where Betty could see her aura, complicating things further because Alice does have the gene. So the gene isn’t blocking her ability (neither the killer from the hospital nor Cheryl have the gene and she saw their auras). So what is? And what interest does Drake really have in Betty?
Meanwhile, Cheryl is reconnecting with Heather over books and the supernatural, and Cheryl reveals that she’s been thinking of turning Thorn Hill into a library since Riverdale’s is under attack from Percival, and she asks Heather for her guidance. Heather is more than happy to return to help out, and as the two grow closer the topic of the supernatural comes up with Cheryl sharing her interests, and Heather offering to do a tarot card reading for her. The first card is The Queen, naturally, and the second is The Lovers signifying Cheryl’s yearning for connection, intimacy and love (don’t we all, she responds), and the third card is The Tower, a dark card promising disaster, carnage and war. ‘Welcome to Riverdale,’ quips Cheryl.
Toni and Fangs are still locked in a battle with Kevin over custody of Baby Anthony, and after a visit with Toni’s social worker friend, Fangs realizes that he isn’t contributing to their family as much as she should, or at least not as much as a judge may see, so taking care of Anthony while Toni does the bulk of the work between school and the Whyte Wyrm probably isn’t going to cut it with a judge. Luckily a job offer — or two — comes his way.
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As they bond, Tabitha is trying to find a way to keep Pop’s safe after failing to secure the diner historical status. Since she knows the diner is the heart of Riverdale and the scene of the final battle, she need to keep it protected from Percival’s bulldozers and her plan is to dismantle the building and put it into storage until she can find a piece of protected land upon which to rebuild. She enlists the aid of Archie’s construction business and he’s more than happy to help, assembling a crew to begin work immediately with a clock ticking loudly. The get most of the interior removed and locked in a truck for safety for the night, but when they return to work the next day everything is back in place. Archie and Tabitha assume Percival is responsible so while Archie and his crew get back to work, Tabitha pays a visit to her nemesis who swears he has no idea what she’s talking about. Of course she doesn’t believe him, and she breaks a vase on the way out of his shop.
With the diner interior dismantled again, Tabitha is shocked to see the place restored once more that night but this time there are people inside. When she enters the place is empty, so she pays a visit to Cheryl to relate her ghostly encounter, hoping Cheryl can offer some assistance. With Heather beside her, they attempt what Heather says is a Wiccan ritual to speak to the dead, and with Cheryl’s help they are able to conjure up four ghosts. (Tabitha revealed that several people have died at the diner.) The ghost of a waitress steps forward to speak for the dead and reveals that they are witness for the final battle. The diner must be maintained as is or the battle will not happen and all will be lost. But there is a solution — Pop’s can be dismantled but it has to be reassembled as quickly as possible or else the witnesses will no longer exist. So Tabitha asks Archie if they can rebuild the diner inside of his gym, which is an agreeable solution to the ghosts. Archie agrees but there is an issue with his crew. Percival made an appearance during one of the attempts to dismantle the diner and offered a much better deal to anyone who would join his crew.
Fangs had joined Archie’s crew to help earn some money and prove he is a provider for his family, but he’s the first to step up when Percival asks for workers to join him. Archie is a bit upset, and Toni is even more upset when she finds out but Fangs assures her that everything will be okay. Archie told him the way to resist Percival’s control is to keep an emotional tether to something and for Fangs that is the baby. Toni later surprises Fangs with a dinner to celebrate his new job and to propose to him. Fangs is a bit surprised as this came out of nowhere, but he doesn’t know Toni met with her friend again and the suggestion of marriage to show them as a strong family unit would go a long way into helping convince a judge that they are fit to be parents compared to the single Kevin.
And speaking of emotional tethers, Archie needs to reconnect with his Uncle Frank who is heading up Percival’s construction crew. Having a drink at the Wyrm, he tries to get Frank to reconnect to his family with a childhood photo of himself with Fred. Frank at first says Fred was an idealist, but later he shows up at the diner to help Archie move it to the gym, saying he did have a change of heart after looking at that picture and thinking about his family all night. Archie is happy that Frank has turned a corner, but as they lock the last bit of the diner interior in the moving truck, Betty shows up to help and sees an aura around Frank. She warns Archie that he’s up to no good and Archie confronts his uncle who reveals he was going to destroy the contents of the truck. He assures Archie that Percival will ultimately win this battle and threatens Archie with a piece of palladium. Taking a swing at his nephew’s jaw, Frank nearly breaks his knuckles, shocked to find out that Archie is now totally impervious to the metal. Archie tells him to scurry away and let Percival know he’s ready to do battle. In the end they get the diner moved and the ghosts approve.
Cheryl has a talk with Heather as she prepares to return to Greendale, commenting on her powers at the diner, speaking to the dead or necromancy. Heather admits that after her mother died, she was taken in by a group of women in Greendale, a powerful coven (the Spellmans, perhaps?), and that she is in fact a witch. And after seeing what Cheryl can do — including her power of pyrokinesis — she believes Cheryl is a witch as well … not to put any labels on her. Cheryl says that if Heather is what she says she is, and Cheryl is too, then would she teach Cheryl all she knows. Heather says she would love to.
Betty has another talk with Drake and reveals that she’s starting to see auras around people she hasn’t seen them around before, including Frank and Alice. But there’s a new aura she’s never seen before, and she isn’t sure who this person is a threat to. The aura Betty saw was her own.
Riverdale airs Sundays at 8:00 PM.
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