The Black Hood Was Unmasked in 'Riverdale'
Following last week's tense episode, in which Betty and Jughead and Archie and Veronica broke up, the mid-season finale of Riverdalewasted no time. While the town's residents celebrated Christmas, Betty and Archie joined forces to investigate the school's creepy caretaker, Mr. Svenson, whose entire family was murdered by the Riverdale Reaper when he was a child. Here's everything that happened in the final Riverdale episode of 2017.
1) Jughead and Archie discuss their relationship troubles.
As Archie is selling Christmas trees with his dad, he spots Jughead in Pop's. The pair console one another over their respective break-ups, though it's unclear if either couple is finished for good.
2) Betty has a nightmare about the Black Hood.
And he's dressed up as Santa, because this is a festive episode! In a truly hideous sequence, Betty joins her family on Christmas morning, with Santa crouching ominously by the tree. When he stands, we see that he's holding a weapon and wearing his signature hood.
3) The Blossoms are having financial difficulties.
Cheryl's mom announces that the family has no money left, but Cheryl refuses to live frugally and tells her mom to get a job. Basically, Cheryl's not downgrading her lifestyle for anything. The tension between Cheryl and her mom comes to a head at the end of the episode, when Cheryl returns home to find her mom having sex with a man in a Santa costume. Troubling.
4) Fred's medical bill arrives and it's astronomical.
Fred receives the medical bill from his stay in the hospital after being shot by the Black Hood. It totals $86,000, and Archie is understandably shocked. Needless to say, selling Christmas trees on the side isn't going to cover it.
5) Secret Santa is exceedingly awkward.
Veronica is gifted a couple's massage, while Archie gives Betty an incredibly personal present - an audio book version of The Swiss Family Robinson they used to listen to together as kids. Veronica and Jughead notice the connection between Archie and Betty and look concerned - which they should be.
6) Moose returns to school following the Black Hood attack.
Moose is finally out of hospital and returns to school. But seeing him upsets Archie, who's reminded of how much the Black Hood has hurt the people he loves. Still, at least Moose survived, right?
7) The High School has a new janitor.
Mr. Svenson is gone and Archie is worried that exposing his secret in last week's episode might have made him vulnerable. According to the School Secretary, Mr. Svenson gets depressed during the holiday season because he has no family and often calls in sick. Definitely a red flag.
8) Betty and Jughead exchange Christmas gifts.
Jug apologizes for what happened between them, but says he wants to keep Betty safe and away from the Serpents. It doesn't look like the pair are getting back together right now. Sorry, Bughead fans.
9) Veronica gives Archie an expensive watch and Archie reveals Fred's situation to her.
Archie tells Veronica that his dad is having major financial troubles, but the conversation is brief because they're not dating anymore. But Archie i shocked by the beautiful Christmas gift Veronica gives him. She's totally still into Archiekins.
10) FP doesn't want Jughead involved in any Serpent business.
FP's decision to stay in the Serpents and work off his debt to Penny Peabody continues to cause major tension between father and son. Jughead keeps offering to help and FP shuts him down every time, creating a serious rift in their relationship.
11) Archie and Betty go to check up on Mr. Svenson.
They head over to his house but no one's home, and the chicken soup Mr. Svenson's colleague delivered is now cold on the doorstep. Things certainly aren't looking good for Riverdale's creepy janitor.
12) Veronica asks her parents to pay for Fred's medical bills.
Over dinner, Veronica pleads with her parents to help Archie and his dad with their debt. However, her parents refuse, telling Veronica it'll put everyone in an awkward position.
13) Betty gets a gruesome Secret Santa gift.
Betty receives a mysterious package from her "Secret Santa" delivered right to her doorstep. Thinking it's from a friend, she opens it, but throws the box down in horror when she realizes what's inside: a disembodied finger accompanied with a note reading, "Enclosed is a finger that belongs to the sinner Joseph Conway."
The Black Hood follows up with a phone call to confirm that the finger belongs to janitor Svenson, and it's up to Betty to uncover one final sin. Apparently, after his parents were murdered by the Riverdale Reaper, Svenson committed a crime that the town needs to know about. If Betty discovers the sin, then Svenson might go free.
14) Veronica sneaks into her dad's office and impersonates her mom to pay off Fred's medical bill.
While rummaging for Christmas presents, Veronica finds the deed to Pop's. Her parents previously lied to her and said they didn't buy Pop's, so she sees this as leverage. Using her mom's American Excess (ha!) credit card, she pays off Fred's debt in its entirety.
15) Jug tells the Serpents they need to kill Penny.
They kidnap her and take her to Greendale. When Penny says that Serpents can't hurt their own, Jug replies, "Oh, Penny. That tattoo doesn't make you a Serpent." While the others hold Penny down, Jughead takes a knife, and cuts the tattoo off her arm. When did Jug get so brutal?
16) Archie and Betty visit The Sisters of Quiet Mercy.
Betty and Archie head to the convent where Polly was send to hide her pregnancy - as it turns out, Svenson spent some of his childhood there. When the nuns aren't very forthcoming with information about the janitor, Betty threatens to expose the "corporal punishment" the nuns carry out if they don't help her with her investigation into Svenson/Conway.
According to one of the staff, "a small group of Riverdale citizens took matters into their own hands," following the murder of Svenson's family by the Riverdale Reaper. The group consisted of "men and one woman... the woman had the most striking hair. White save for a cherry red stripe." Betty identifies her as Nana Rose Blossom.
Apparently, Jospeh "may have pointed a finger of accusation... at the wrong man," causing an innocent man to be murdered. So the Black Hood is seeking justice.
17) Nana Rose Blossom reveals that Betty's grandfather helped murder the innocent man.
The suspected killer was buried alive by a group of Riverdale residents, and Betty's grandfather was one of them. Back at home, Betty finds an old photograph of her grandfather with a group of men in front of a burial plot, and she realizes this is where the Black Hood is leading her next. They call the Sheriff on the way to the site of the old murder, hoping to find Joseph Conway still alive.
18) Veronica's parents bring her into their circle of secrecy.
When Veronica's parents learn she committed credit card fraud to pay off Fred's medical bills, they're livid. However, Veronica reveals she found the deed to Pop's and demands to know the truth about the family business. They allegedly tell her everything, though viewers don't get to hear the conversation. The Lodges claim they're not doing anything illegal, but Veronica rolls her eyes at this. Could Veronica be getting herself into some serious trouble?
19) Archie and Betty kiss!
Uh oh.
20) Archie and Betty rush to save Mr. Svenson, but he's not there.
Betty and Archie find a photo of her grandfather taken at Pickens Park, where he and his friends buried the body of the man they believed killed the Svensons. Thinking it's a clue to the Black Hood's location, Betty and Archie head to the park, where they find a grave with the words "Here lies Joseph Conway, sinner" scrawled across. They start digging until they find a coffin, which they open, expecting to find Mr. Svenson inside. Instead, it's empty.
21) The Black Hood arrives and orders Betty to bury Archie alive.
Just as they open the coffin, the Black Hood appears and points a gun at Betty and Archie. He threatens to shoot Betty if Archie doesn't get into the coffin. Then, he makes Betty close the lid and bury Archie alive. Let's hope they've seen Kill Bill.
22) Betty hits the Black Hood with a shovel.
When the Black Hood gets distracted by approaching police sirens, Betty manages to hit him on the head with her shovel. She quickly frees Archie from his grave, but the Black Hood rises and makes a run for it, leaving his gun behind. Archie picks it up and he and Betty chase the Hood across the bridge, where he tries to jump into the river.
But before he can jump, the Sheriff arrives and shoots the Black Hood, killing him instantly.
23) Mr. Svenson is unmasked as the Black Hood.
Finally, the identity of the Black Hood is revealed. Or is it? Something about this reveal feels a little too easy, and it's unlikely that the murders in Riverdale (and Greendale) are over. It's way more likely that Svenson was being manipulated by the real Black Hood. But we'll have to wait until 2018 to find out.
24). Veronica tells Archie she loves him.
She finally says the words she couldn't say before, and the pair kiss under mistletoe as snow falls. It would be the perfect Christmas kiss - if Archie hadn't kissed Betty mere hours earlier.
25) The mystery isn't over, and Betty knows it.
As she burns her evidence pertaining to the Black Hood, Betty looks uncertain that the reign of terror is really over. What a happy start to the holidays!
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