Riverdale is officially back and Season Two picked up right where Season One ended. If you’re like us, then sometimes you just need a minute to process all the drama that went down for Archie, Betty, Jughead, Veronica and Cheryl and to pick your jaw might up from the floor. The plot twists never end! Well, we’re here to bring you a quick recap of all the majorly dramatic parts of each episode you need to know about. In case there’s a chance you missed it on TV and need to chime in with your group chat with something to say, we have your back. Be sure to catch our live recaps every night after the episode airs on Snapchat (j14magazine). Warning: spoilers ahead!
Episode 2×13 The Tell-Tale Heart:
Another week, around round of murder. Yes, we’re being serious. The episode begins right where last week left off with Betty walking into her home to find her mom cleaning up all the blood from a murder that just went down in the Cooper family’s dining room. Basically, a man — who ended up being a drug dealer — came to their house asking for Chic and Alice it’s claiming this murder was all in self-defense since he attacked them. Although she doesn’t let Betty call the police to report this, instead enlisting her daughter to help her clean the house and move the body, so not too sure Alice is telling the whole truth here. Sure. K, we’ll go with it for now. And Chic suddenly is so silent and still, not even bothering to help his mom and sister out as they clean up literal blood and a corpse. All VERY suspicious and no one is more suspicious than Hal, Betty’s dad. While he did yell at Chic a bit — which is always so sad to see honestly even though there’s a good chance Chic is pure evil — Hal’s been busy spending time with Cheryl’s mom and well, it’s all rather awkward.
But of course, Betty couldn’t go through all this intense family drama alone, so she spills to Jughead what’s really going on. And yes, he’s back to being cute AF boyfriend Juggy we all love. Still in the leather jacket. A combo. But after he helps Betty push the victim’s car into a river to hide more evidence, he then tells his dad, FP what happened. And FP being the guy he is, went to the spot in the woods where Alice and Betty hid the man’s body and he “took care of it” for them. Basically, FP made it not so obvious a dead man is rotting in the woods and we know he’s covered up a murder before. (Ahem, Clifford blackmailing our fave Serpent into covering up Jason’s death.) This led to FP, Alice, Betty and Jughead all meeting in Pop’s where FP reminded Alice “we always take care of our own,” and most importantly, he held her hand.
Too soon to start shipping these two???!! In other news, Archie had that mysterious Agent Adams after him again, this time coming after Fred about some investigation. Why do the Andrews men just believe everyone who shows up to their door claiming to be in the FBI is legit? We need some more solid proof. But this led to Archie obviously getting upset himself at the Agent, but he refused to spill any incriminating secrete about Hiram. Archie loves Veronica and while yeah, her dad is a mob boss, Arch doesn’t ever want to do anything that would hurt his girl. And then we got treated to another plot twist at the very end: the Lodge family’s driver shows up to bring Archie to the boss. When Archie gets out of the car and yes it’s very late at night and he could easily be pushed off a cliff where they are, he isn’t greeted by Hiram like he thought, but Hermione. So both of V’s parents are seriously up to no good at all times. She reveals Agent Adams isn’t real: Hermione hired him to pretend to be an FBI Agent who was investigating Hiram to see if Archie would snitch. Since he’s loyal AF, Archie passed the test and is now welcomed into the family. YIKES, not really the warmest of welcomes now, is it?
Episode 2×12 The Wicked and the Divine:
A confirmation, a romantic reconciliation, and two murders are just a few of the WHAT IS HAPPENING moments from the latest installment of Riverdale and seriously, only here does anything like this go on all at the same time. So let’s dive in: most of the action in this episode surrounded Veronica’s confirmation, which was supposed to happen a few years prior when she was younger but you know, life happens. Archie meanwhile is working hard to be her dad Hiram’s right-hand man and he’s starting to find out that yes, Hiram is a crime boss and V doesn’t want her love anywhere near it. She realizes while she’s in church committing herself to a life free of evil that Archie is her one source of pure goodness, not tainted by the wickedness that exists in the Lodge family, so she doesn’t want him to be involved with anything to do with her dad’s “business” plans.
And while she tells Archie her dad isn’t a very good guy, Arch cuts her off reminding her he loves her no matter what. Let us not forget that Archie is friends with that FBI Agent who wants inside scoop on Hiram and his illegal activities, so the less Archie knows, the better. He’s not really that great of a liar, let’s be honest here. But when another man of crime ends up dead, Archie pretends he doesn’t know anything about it when tbh, we all know Hiram was involved since that man was planning on turning on Hiram. Mob bosses live very complicated lives, that’s for sure.
Speaking of complicated, everything for the Serpents is legit going wrong and it all boils down to Jughead. They all get served eviction notices from Mayor McCoy, which is definitely a response to the statue of General Pickens being beheaded. She thinks a Serpent is guilty and FP is tired of all this drama. He puts Jughead in his place, especially after Penny the Snake Charmer no-good lawyer comes back to town and she informs FP about how his son attacked her. She vows to get even by cutting Jughead’s Serpent tattoo off like he did to her, with a dirty knife no less. FP tells Jughead all of the bad decisions he’s made lately will lead to the demise of the Serpents and that’s when Juggy FINALLY confides in Betty. He tells her that since their breakup, he hasn’t been doing all that well in life in general and they realize they really are better together. That’s right, we get the Bughead reunion couch makeout session we’ve all been waiting for.
We’re just going to gloss over the fact that Betty didn’t tell Jughead she and Archie kissed after Jughead admitted he and Toni had a bit of a fling that’s already fizzled out during this breakup period because we know it’s going to come out eventually and mess things up. So let’s be happy for a moment here. Just as Betty gets home all happy from her visit with Jughead though, she sees her mom and Chic cleaning up blood in their dining room. Blood that’s coming from the body of a man who is now dead. Yes, another murder went down and this time, the Cooper family is 100% guilty. Yikes.
Episode 2×11 The Wrestler:
Pickens Day is upon us in the town of Riverdale and yes, that means there’s plenty of drama. The Lodge fam along with Mayor McCoy decide to throw a full-on celebration to honor General Pickens, the man who founded the town, as a way to bring together the North and South Sides. But we have Cheryl over here claiming that it was her great-great-great grandpappy Blossom who was the true hero of Riverdale, and then there’s Jughead, who interviewed Toni’s grandfather and actually discovered something dark and awful about the town’s origin story: General Pickens led a raid under the order of Grandpappy Blossom that led to many people being killed. The Uktena tribe lived in the town and it’s the Serpents who are carrying on their traditions. This leads us to Pickens Day where the Serpents show up and protest and even Cheryl joins in since she too was unaware of what her ancestors had done to the Uktena people.
Veronica also ends up betrays Josie by becoming the new lead singer of the Pussycats and performing at the event so Pickens Day was literally a mess. Our boy Archie though spent most of the episode trying to get on Hiram’s good side, but V’s dad doesn’t think our beloved redhead is good enough for his daughter. Archie is also still working with that sketchy FBI agent who wants him to get close to Papa Lodge in order to find any incriminating evidence. So Archie decides to try out for the wrestling team since Hiram is obsessed with wrestling and was a big shot on the Riverdale High team back in his day. Archie isn’t very good though so when it comes time for Archie to wrestle Hiram — because wrestling your girlfriend’s dad at your school team tryouts is totally normal — he loses, badly. Kevin shows Archie some pointers and Archie ends up redeeming himself, so he’s on Hiram’s good side. So good in fact that Hiram has offered Archie an internship of sorts where he’s going to show Arch how he runs a business. Simple as that. K, sure. As we know, Hiram likes to play by his own rules so perhaps Archie will end up getting all the inside info his FBI Agent friend needs after all.
Meanwhile, the Cooper fam is still getting used to life with Chic. Naturally, Alice is thrilled her long-lost son is living in their house but Hal wants Chic gone ASAP. It hasn’t been explained yet but there is the theory out there that Chic possibly isn’t Hal’s son, which would make sense as to why he’s so angry about this new addition to the family. Betty though wants to get to know her brother in an effort to get to know herself better. As we all know, Betty has a darkness in her and she knows Chic does too; they both have the scars on their palms to prove it. Chic deals with his darkness in a rather unconventional way, creating racy videos online he makes money from. He introduces Betty to this too and well, we have a feeling this might not end well. Just another week in Riverdale.
Episode 2×10 The Blackboard Jungle:
FINALLY, Riverdale is back from its winter hiatus and my oh my do we have a lot going on in our favorite, twisted town. The episode begins with the major announcement that Southside High is officially closing so that means Jughead, Toni, Sweet Pea, Fangs and more Serpents are heading over to Riverdale High. The Serpents are looking forward to this move since they’ll be in an overall better school but Jughead is not about it. As we saw, the closing of the high school is part of the Lodge family and Mayor McCoy’s top-secret plan we don’t know much about, but Veronica sure does since she’s part of the family business now and her parents instructed her to make sure the welcoming of the new students at school goes well. Surprise, surprise it doesn’t: Cheryl is not having it and even throws the oddest, yet very Cheryl-like insult at Toni.
Reggie and Jughead get into a fight and Jughead gets suspended for refusing to take off his black leather Serpents jacket in school which his dad FP doesn’t even understand. Like bro, you don’t have to wear the jacket all day long to prove you’re still a serpent, but we digress. As for Bughead, they’re still being weird with each other but Veronica and Archie as back to being all in love. So what about that kiss between Archie and Betty the night they caught the Black Hood? Archie tells V about it, only after Cheryl threatened to expose the truth herself, and Ronnie took it pretty well. It was a heat of the moment type thing and they were broken up, but still, proves the Betty/Archie/Veronica love triangle will always be lingering.
Meanwhile, Betty really hasn’t had time to think about her love life since she’s dealing with all of her family drama. Her sister Polly surprises her by coming home, only to be packing up her things and OH YEAH SHE GAVE BIRTH TO HER TWINS. Straight-up didn’t tell Betty or their mom, which lets B know her sister doesn’t want their family in her babies’ lives. Ouch. And she gave her twins the wildest names ever: Juniper and Dagwood.
Betty’s reaction = all of us.
Polly is off to live on a farm with her children and honestly, it was a bit heartbreaking to see Betty realize her sister doesn’t want to be part of their family anymore and breaking the news to Alice was even harder to watch. So Betty came up with the perfect idea: time to track down her long-lost older brother. She asked Jughead’s social worker to help her out and once her bro turned 18 years old, his files became public records so she got an address for where Charles Smith lives, which happens to be a sketchy motel. Even though her dad Hal was against it, Betty and Alice go to meet Charles, who goes by Chic. He is not happy to see his family though and doesn’t want anything to do with them either, until the next time Betty decides to visit him again and ends up saving him as he was getting attacked by a scary looking man. She brings him back to the Cooper residence and their parents take care of him. Chic ends up staying over, except he goes into Betty’s room as she’s sleeping and legit creepily stares at her. Right next to her bed. Umm so yeah, he’s got some dark secrets of his own that’s for sure.
And who else has secrets he’s keeping? Our dear Archie. Our fave redhead truly has a heart of gold, but he often ends up getting himself into trouble all in the name of meaning well, trying to protect those he loves. A man who claims he’s from the actual FBI comes up to Archie and asks for help when it comes to getting incriminating evidence about Veronica’s dad, Hiram Lodge. Archie first needs to find out what really happened to Nick St. Clair and his “accident,” and obviously Archie has a feeling the Lodges were behind it. He pays Nick a visit and ends up getting money for Cheryl and breaks Nick’s nose for what he did to Cheryl and Veronica, which okay thanks, Arch, but like he’s working with the FBI now??? How can he just trust this man? Love you Arch, really do, but like you shouldn’t be so gullible and trustworthy, don’t think this whole double agent life is going to pay off for him. At all. Archie makes this agent promise his dad and Veronica are off-limits and stay safe and he’ll do his part to help out this supposed investigation because Archie doesn’t think the man they caught last episode is the real Black Hood, so he’s going to need some help eventually when it comes to tracking down the ACTUAL mastermind. So yeah, the Black Hood mystery is alive and well in Archie’s eyes. Not time to close that chapter just yet.
Episode 2×09 Silent Night, Deadly Night:
It’s Christmas in Riverdale and as you expected, it’s not the merriest of places. The Black Hood is still on the loose and Archie and Betty are determined to find out who he is. But first, it’s time for Kevin’s Secret Santa party, where Archie gave Betty a sentimental gift from their childhood, which really started to kick-off the Betty/Archie/Veronica triangle yet again. It’s always been a reoccurring theme in the Archie Comics Universe and will continue in the show. Which leads us to the next big storyline of the episode of Arch and Betty going after the Black Hood. They need to figure out what Joseph Conway aka Mr. Svenson the janitor’s sin is since his family is the one who was killed by the Riverdale Reaper when he was a kid, leaving him as the only survivor. They figure out he accused the wrong man of being the killer, which led to a group of townsfolk, including Cheryl’s grandma and Betty’s grandfather, killing an innocent man as revenge. While the Black Hood is making Betty bury Archie alive in an empty grave (casual), he ends up getting shot and killed by Sheriff Keller who Archie and Betty had called beforehand and the unmasking happens. YES, WE KNOW WHO BLACK HOOD IS. And it’s…Mr. Svenson, the janitor. He was once the boy whose family was killed by a serial killer and then decided to bring terror back to the town, perhaps maybe feeling guilty for being the reason an innocent man was killed. So all our Riverdale faves have made it out alive, and the Black Hood drama is (mostly) over. Oh, and did we mention how Betty ad Archie kissed in the car before going to confront Black Hood?!
Yup, not over it. And Cheryl witnessed this all happen, so you know that’s going to come into play later on. Elsewhere, Veronica uncovered the fact that her parents lied to her about buying Pop’s Diner so she takes it upon herself to use her mom’s credit card to pay for Fred Andrews’ $86,000 medical bills Archie told her they couldn’t afford. This is when Hiram and Hermione decide to fill her in on everything they have planned, which seems a bit shady and we don’t know what exactly their plans are all about yet. But after V says she never wants to do anything illegal, she makes a deal to help her parents out. Now she’s no longer Daddy’s Little Girl as her mom said and is officially a member of the Lodge ~family~ business, whatever that entails. Another character who’s dealing with family drama: Jughead. Jug hates how his dad has to repay this looming debt to Penny Peabody in exchange for her leaving Jughead alone so along with some of the younger Serpents, they run Penny out of town. And Jughead cuts her arm where her Serpent tattoo is. OKAY THEN. FP is not happy Jughead did this since he knows the Snake Charmer will be back and this time she’s going to be even worse, but Jughead believes he was very persuasive. We’ll see, bro. In Bughead news, the couple is still on the outs but Juggy did get B a heartfelt gift that made her swoon.
And once V got the locket Archie gifted her, she finally came to her senses and told her she loved him, giving him a kiss under the mistletoe. Veronica knows she needs some pure goodness in her life and that is Archie. Someone was creepily taking pictures of the couple though, so we’ll have to wait to see what that’s all about and who was spying on them when the show comes back in January.
Episode 2×08 House of the Devil:
Honestly, no one can be happy in the town of Riverdale is the general takeaway from this week’s episode and we’re still a mess over it. So basically, Archie and Veronica are dealing with all the stress of the Black Hood being on the loose by turning to each other and hooking up everywhere whenever they have a free minute. Which is quite often.
Things seem to be going well for the couple and they even investigated more into the Riverdale Reaper saga and found out the school’s janitor was part of the family who was all killed. But he’s not the Black Hood so, just another suspect crossed off the list. Oh, but then there’s the whole Archie tells V he loves her and she doesn’t say it back to his situation. After realizing she’s never even heard her own parents exchange these three little words, she tells Archie she just can’t express that feeling to him yet and doesn’t know when she ever will be able to. Arch isn’t happy with this and she leaves in tears so there is major trouble for Varchie at the moment.
Meanwhile, we were treated to a little bit of happiness as Jughead’s dad FP was released from jail, thanks to some overcrowding and Cheryl’s testimony a few weeks ago. He’s a free man ready to turn his life around. FP decides he no longer wants to live the Serpent life and even gets a job at Pop’s. Betty proposes the idea of throwing a retirement party for FP which Jughead agrees to, but of course, this party doesn’t go well. At all. Veronica and Archie end up singing the saddest karaoke duet of all time since their relationship is hanging on by a thread and Betty then gets up on stage to finish the song and does the Serpent Dance, where she starts taking some of her clothes off. Basically, Betty told Toni she wants to be involved in the Serpents to an extent so she can be in this part of her beloved Juggy’s life, but Jughead doesn’t want that for Betty. Then much to everyone’ surprise, FP announces he isn’t retiring after all. He reveals to Jughead that he knows all about Jughead’s favor he had to do for the snake charmer herself Penny Peabody and in exchange for Jughead’s freedom, FP is now back in the gang and will be working for Penny. FP sacrificed himself for his son since he wants Jughead to have a life outside of Riverdale where Jughead goes to college and keeps up his writing. FP just won Riverdale dad of the year with that move and tbh, he’s disappointed in his son for lying to him about what really went on with that wretched Penny.
Oh, and we can’t forget how Alice Cooper joined her daughter Betty at the party, fully embracing her Serpent roots dressed in black leather and dark lipstick and slayed our souls again. After the bash ended, to the parking lot we go, where Betty and Jughead have a super serious conversation since Jughead is not happy Betty wants to be part of the Serpent life. He feels like he can’t protect her from the harm he knows that will come her way, especially since Penny threatened Betty earlier in the episode. After knowing he was directly responsible for FP’s return to the Serpents, he tells Betty to go home and now he’s the one pushing B away. So now Bughead is in a rough patch too and our fave ships just basically broke up.
OKAY, COOL. Worst party ever.
Episode 2×07 Tales From the Darkside:
This time around, we were given a different type of episode, one that was broken up into three parts and there was plenty of drama like always. Basically, the Black Hood sent a message that if the town could stay pure and sin-free for 48 hours, then he would stop this cleansing/killing spree he’s been on and will be on his merry way. How nice. In the first chapter, we spend time with Archie and Jughead. See the Serpent lawyer Penny Peabody tells Jughead his dad FP was attacked in prison in retaliation to some of the high-ranking Ghoulies being caught and arrested by the Sheriff during that street race Jughead orchestrated. She asks him to do her a favor and she’ll make sure FP stays safe while his dad is still behind bars. Jughead has to pick up and deliver a huge crate of “pancake mix” to Greendale so he asks Archie for help since you know, the Andrews family has that big truck. Well, the exchange happens but when Jughead goes to visit his dad, he sees that FP is just fine and he discovers Penny straight up lied to him in order to blackmail him into working for her. She is a legit SNAKE if we ever saw one and she claims FP owes her for something so she’s using Jughead now. Awful. Plus, there was a random guy who gave Jughead a ride after Archie’s dad’s truck got a flat tire and he told Jughead all about the Riverdale Reaper who years ago killed an entire family in their sleep. That is not only a terrifying story but hey Black Hood, are you the same guy? Or just a copycat…
Chapter two was all about Josie and it was nice to see her have a big storyline. Josie is basically getting creepy love notes and gifts (including a pig’s heart, cute) from a super jealous, secret admirer. Could it be the janitor who seems to feel protective of Josie and keeps an eye on her since she stays late in the school to work on music? Or is it Chuck? Yes, as in Chuck the jerk from last season. He’s back and is crushing on Josie, claiming he is a changed man now who goes to church and takes art classes and is just trying to be a better person. He and Josie do hang out in Pop’s for a bit, but her mom Mayor McCoy isn’t having any of it. Well, but the end of the episode, Josie is convinced it’s Chuck who’s creepily stalking her but we find out that it’s none other than Cheryl.
Cheryl is seen making the drawings of her and Josie and things just took a massive turn. Cheryl is also trying to help Josie out with her music career and this solo idea doesn’t sit well with the Pussycats who end up ditching Josie. Cheryl really wants Josie all to herself, that’s for sure.
Chapter three in this saga sees our girls Betty and Veronica back in action together, this time investigating Sheriff Keller. Betty has a feeling he could be the Black Hood while Veronica is totally convinced he’s having an affair. V goes over to have a slumber party with Kevin who adorably likes to play board games and drink milk during his sleepovers and she ends up finding a shirtless Sheriff working out in the basement and suddenly leaving in the middle of the night. This is all Betty needs to break into the Keller home the next day to try and find Black Hood evidence, but the Sheriff finds her and promises he won’t tell Kevin since this accusation from Betty would break Kev’s heart. B and V decide to take matters into their own hands yet again and follow Sheriff Keller to a motel. They think they’re about to see him hurting someone but nope, he’s kissing Mayor McCoy. So V was right, he’s having an affair and it’s with Josie’s mom. This town is so wild, I tell you.
Episode 2×06 Death Proof:
OK, so we thought the Black Hood was the only villain to worry about but alas, so many new threats are facing everyone in Riverdale. The illegal drug that is Jingle Jangle is becoming a serious problem in the town and it’s all thanks to another gang, the Ghoulies, not the Serpents. Jughead makes it his mission to put a stop to all the tension between the Ghoulies and the Serpents and decides to have a street race to settle it all, thanks to an idea from his dad FP who Juggy and Archie visit in jail. But unbeknownst to Jughead, Archie has alerted Sheriff Keller about the race and the leader of the Ghoulies gets arrested. We have a feeling this problem isn’t going to go away just like that though Arch…
Meanwhile, our poor girl Cheryl is over here trying to convince her mom to be honest with her. See, the Black Hood wants Betty to uncover the identity of the Sugarman, the person who is supplying the Jingle Jangle and Cheryl’s mom knows how this is since her dad Clifford’s maple syrup business was actually a cover-up for all the illegal drug selling he was doing. In the episode’s most heart-breaking scene Cheryl pleaded with her mom to finally care about her and her well-being for once and tell her who this man is. Plus, Cheryl is upset her mom doesn’t want to press charges on Nick St. Clair after he attempted to sexually assault our fave River Vixen.
No one should ever have to deal with that. Cheryl’s mom eventually comes around though when she realizes she does need to be there for her daughter, so she burns the check the St. Clair family had given her to keep quiet about the attack and she tells Cheryl who the Sugarman is: Jughead’s English teacher/newspaper advisor. Cheryl tells Betty and Betty published his name in the school’s paper, along with telling Sheriff Keller before she tells the Black Hood. She tells the Black Hood the ball’s in her court now and she only has to find out who he is now to put a stop to all the madness in her life. Speaking of that, she finally fesses up to V and Jughead that she only turned on them because Black Hood told her to, otherwise he would’ve hurt them. So our Bughead ship is sailing again, as these two are back together and B & V are besties again. Oh and about Toni. Well, she made it super clear to Jughead that she is actually bisexual and prefers dating girls, plus she knew he wasn’t over Betty yet so that kiss they shared seems to be a one-time thing. And what about the monster that is Nick St. Clair? Well, he left town with his parents, but they were all in a car accident and Nick is now severely injured. We’re going to ahead and say this wasn’t actually much of an accident since once Veronica told her parents Nick attempted to assault her too, they flipped out and we’re sure they were the ones behind this all. Unique parenting style I would say.
(Once again, if you or someone you know needs help, please call 1-800-656-HOPE to be connected with a trained staff member from a sexual assault service provider in your area.)
Episode 2×05 When a Stranger Calls:
This Black Hood guy is really starting to mess everything up now, especially for our dear Betty Cooper. So homeboy keeps calling her with that creepy “Lollipop” song ringtone and is basically making her turn against everyone she cares about and if she doesn’t do what he says, he’s going to kill her sister and go after her entire family and friends. So Betty has no choice and at first, she ends up publishing her mom’s mugshot from her teenage serpent days in the school newspaper. Mama Cooper’s wrath B can deal with. But then he makes her turn against Veronica, which was painful to watch, and after we get the sweetest Bughead convo in Pop’s where they realize they are a modern day Romeo and Juliet with hopefully a much happier ending, Black Hood tells her she needs to end things with Juggy. She can’t bear to break Jughead’s heart and since Archie is the only person she’s told about these horrifying phone calls, she sends him to deliver the news for her and Jughead had the most heartbreaking reaction.
Oh, and Jughead is a full-on serpent now. Yep, he went through the initiation process to become a member of the gang, which included dog-sitting Hot Dog and getting bit by a snake in order to retrieve a knife from a tank. Casual. And he even got a serpent tattoo, which really makes it all permanent. Plus, Toni swooped in for a kiss once she caught wind Jughead is no longer dating Betty so naturally, we all freaked out because NOTHING AND NO ONE IS COMING BETWEEN BUGHEAD OKAY?! It’s only a matter of time before Juggy finds out it’s really the Black Hood who is making Betty turn against everyone since he’s straight-up blackmailing and manipulating her. Meanwhile, Veronica still doesn’t know why Betty freaked out on her, but she has more drama to deal with thanks to a visit from her old friend Nick St. Clair. Nick is pure trouble and tries to force himself onto V, which she doesn’t take lightly. He then puts something in Cheryl’s drink and tries to take advantage of her while she’s barely conscious but thanks to Veronica and the Pussycats, they see what’s happening and intervene before Nick could physically assault Cheryl. She is obviously shaken up and not okay with what happened, and everyone is outraged. (On a serious note: If you or someone you know needs help, please call 1-800-656-HOPE to be connected with a trained staff member from a sexual assault service provider in your area.)
And this week’s shout-out for the best moment goes to Alice Cooper herself, who shows up to a v fancy party hosted by the Lodges full embracing her serpent past, gold snake necklace and all.
100% served up some major Taylor Swift, “Look What You Made Me Do” vibes. Goals.
Episode 2×04 The Town That Dreaded Sundown:
Archie Andrews has just about lost his mind this week, but luckily he has her beloved Ronnie to bring him back to the good side before he did something truly unthinkable. So basically, everyone in town has seen Archie’s Red Circle video and has ~feelings~ about it. Papa Fred is not approving of Archie’s tactics, neither are V’s parents who want her to kick her bae to the curb, and the principal suspends the football team because of it. But Veronica stands by Archie, even passing out t-shirts in school to get everyone on board. Archie then takes it upon himself to head over to the Southside of town to spray paint the red circle symbol, in hopes of luring out the Black Hood who he seriously wants to kill. Archie has a gun and all and this is just craziness.
As Veronica reminds Archie, he’s not a killer and this isn’t him. In the slightest. After a full-on brawl with the serpents that ends with Dilton Doiley getting stabbed in the leg (but don’t worry he’ll be fine) and Veronica firing off the gun into the sky to get everyone to scram before they all got really hurt, Archie realizes this vigilante life of danger is not what he should be doing and he and V throw the gun into Sweetwater River.
While all this was going on, poor Betty has been struggling with the fact that the Black Hood sent her a personalized letter in a code only she could crack that basically said he is on this killing rampage because of her and his next target was going to be the town hall meeting. He’s claiming he was inspired by the speech she gave at a town hall meeting last season and now she’s blaming herself for all of this, which is already heartbreaking to see. We were also treated to some Bughead cuteness in-between all the madness so let’s appreciate it:
And Kevin once again gave us the most memorable scene of the episode when he had the best comeback ever to Toni telling Betty maybe she should let down her ponytail.
No one messed with Betty’s ponytail. Oh and the episode ends with the Black Hood actually calling Betty in a creepy AF cliffhanger scene so that’s what we’ll be thinking about until next week now.
## Episode 2×03 _The Watcher in the Woods_:
So this [Green-Eyed Man in the Black Hood](https://www.j-14.com/posts/who-is-green-eyed-man-in-black-hood-on-riverdale-145194 “_self”) is really making everyone go crazy in Riverdale in the latest episode. We see how the paranoia and fear are starting to creep into everyone’s lives and cause plenty of drama between some of our fave relationships. So let’s dive in: Archie is taking it upon himself to really protect the town he calls home and he created the Red Circle, which is pretty much a team of Riverdale’s finest guys who are patrolling the streets, ready to hunt down the Man in the Black Hood. He straight-up declares war on this crazed killer after having an interesting convo with Veronica’s dad, the one, and only Hiram Lodge. Yep, V invited the squad over to finally met her dad and seriously, this man is no joke. After having the “my boyfriend is meeting my parents” dinner, Hiram took Archie into his study that has a massive portrait of Veronica overlooking his desk (sure, let’s pretend that’s not creepy at all) and basically told Arch to never hurt his daughter and pretty much manipulated Archie into going after this guy who is attacking Riverdale full steam ahead, not waiting around for the police to do anything about it. Archie, should you really be taking advice from a criminal mastermind who just got out of prison???
Elsewhere in town, the Man in the Hood was coming between one of our fave friendships: that of Kevin and Betty. Basically, Betty was in full-on overprotective mode and kept getting on Kevin’s case to stay out of the woods, since he’s been frequenting there to have casual rendezvous with different guys. Hey, he’s still nursing his broken heart after his boyfriend Joaquin left town so give him a break, B. But she’s worried for his safety and this leads to the two getting into a heated fight, since Kevin feels like Betty is not approving of his life choices and just isn’t understanding that being openly gay in a town like Riverdale doesn’t really give him many dating options or fully let him be his true self. He’s just lonely and Betty then tells his dad Sheriff Keller what’s going on, so you know Kev wasn’t too happy about this. But the interaction with his dad gave us the scene of the night when the sheriff tells Kevin he wants to be able to talk to his son about anything and everything and the emotion that poured out of this scene brought on all the tears.
The Man in the Hood didn’t stop with his nonsense there though: he sent a letter to Alice Cooper, demanding she prints it in the newspaper which obvi she did, where he takes credit for shooting Fred, Midge, and Moose in the woods (all three survived btw) and killing Miss. Grundy. He feels like it’s his duty to go after the town’s sinners to prove Riverdale isn’t the innocent safe place everyone makes it out to be. We don’t know why he feels the need to punish people for living their lives and why he’s getting in everyone’s business but sure crazy dude okay. This led Polly to flee town since she’s currently an unwed soon-to-be-mom and the father of her twins is a distant cousin, so she doesn’t want to risk being a possible target. In Polly’s defense, she and Jason were going to get married until his dad killed him and they didn’t know they were related so honest mistake. Meanwhile, our dear Jughead has started school at Southside High and made friends with Toni Topaz, who first of all is pink hair goals and they already have a cute friendship. She’s going to work with him on the school paper and she’s a nice serpent, a crowd he reluctantly has to stick with since he already got beat up by kids from a rival gang when he tried to pull the whole I’m a lone wolf thing. So yes, things are getting even crazier in this town and this season is just heating up.
## Episode 2×02 _Nighthawks_:
Everyone’s favorite milkshake and burger place, Pop’s Chock’lit Shoppe, was the center of drama this week on _Riverdale_, with Betty making it her mission to save the beloved diner that was now at the risk of being sold. While Betty was organizing a fundraiser night that ended up featuring Cheryl stepping in as a member of the Pussycats for the night, Archie was spiraling. One of our fave redheads hasn’t been sleeping, unable to ease his fears about the masked killer who is still on the loose. While Veronica wants Archie to talk to the school counselor, he decides that asking Reggie to supply him with something to keep him awake and getting a gun is the way to protect himself and his family and friends. Umm Arch, don’t think this is how you should be coping with your anxiety after witnessing your father being shot. And on to our other fave redhead, Miss. Cheryl Blossom. She went on the witness stand to help Jughead’s dad FP hopefully get a lighter prison sentence since he was facing 20-40 years for helping cover up Jason Blossom’s death. Of course, this came after Betty threatened to expose the video of Clifford Blossom killing his own son and that’s one thing Cheryl would never want the world to see so she played along.
Veronica is also dealing with family drama, doing everything she can to avoid her parents. Well, Hermione and Hiram Lodge fooled V into wanting to try being a family again and she’s willing to let down her guard a bit as long as they’re honest with her. But Papa Lodge secretly bought Pop’s and Hermione lied about being the one who wrote Veronica that letter her dad had sent her from prison telling her she needed to testify on his behalf or bad things would happen to Mama Lodge. It was actually Hiram who did write it, but Hermione lied to her daughter’s face to try and smooth the tension in the family over, so there are still plenty of secrets swirling in that house. Oh, and the masked killer? Yeah, he’s still out and about and at the very end of the episode, he shoots two Riverdale students who were kissing in a car together. So adding more victims to his list and this time, they’re not directly connected to Archie so what’s this guy’s motive besides bringing fear and havoc to town? We’ll just have to wait and see…
Episode 2×01 A Kiss Before Dying:
Season 1 gave us that gut-wrenching finale moment of Archie’s dad Fred getting shot by a masked man in Pop’s and most of this first episode back centered around Fred’s fate and Archie coping with this traumatic experience. By the end, Fred does live, with his desire to protect his son and be there for all of Archie’s life milestones being the driving force behind his soul’s return. And while Fred ends up back home, there’s another father back in town: Hiram Lodge. Yes, we finally got to meet Veronica’s dad as he has returned from prison and V is not happy. She pretty much thinks her parents are the worst and are connected to the person who shot Fred but we’re not entirely sure. But at least things are going well for her and Archie since she really stepped up to the plate and was the support he needed during this dark time. Archie sobbing into Veronica’s arms after she refused to leave him knowing he needed her the most was a powerful moment for the couple. Also, still not over the core four group hug we got in the hospital:
Cheryl, on the other hand, is taking control of her life after you know, setting her home on fire. She legit told her mother, who is in the hospital for injuries Mama Blossom suffered from said fire, that she is now the Queen Bee of her own life and she’s not messing around. Literally threatened to end her mom if she ever told the truth about Cheryl being the one who started the fire. OK GIRL. We had a sweet Betty and Jughead moment too though, with B letting her bae know she’s there for him, no matter what since he’s basically a part of the Southside Serpents now and will be attending a different school. But the final WHAT IS HAPPENING moment came when we headed over to Greendale to see the one and only Miss. Grundy, seemingly in love with another one of her music students. Right as he leaves though (and can we just say her behavior is super problematic) we see the same masked man who shot Fred sneak into her some and murder her. So clearly this man, who Archie is committed to finding, is going after people our beloved redhead cared about and that is where our first big mystery of the season comes in.
Check back in next week for another quick Riverdale recap!
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