"Riverdale" Might Have Finally Revealed Who Appears to Have Killed Jughead

This week on Riverdale, family members come out of the woodwork, Jughead gets a big opportunity, Cheryl turns the tables on her gaslighting foe, and more. But before we break out the Roach Bomb and have a lawyer review that Baxter Brothers contract, we need to cover the main plots of the evening.

Tangerine, Tangerine, Tangerine

Polly Dearest attacks a Shady Grove nurse named Betty and Alice—while in a trance— and nearly slices Betty to bits with a kitchen knife. Betty and Charles realize that someone from the Farm is using voice-activated hypnosis over the phone to get people to attack her. The calls are coming from Shankshaw, which leads Betty to Evelyn Evernever. Evelyn exposits that the trigger word is “tangerine” (said three times in a row) and it causes the subject to become Betty…and thus want to kill actual Betty, who they see as Dark Betty. Edgar apparently put this plan in place before he died. Sure, okay. Through some complicated and honestly kind of outlandish fugue state stuff, Betty and Charles hypothesize that Betty needs to go back and stop her past self from killing her cat Caramel, which will stop her shadow self from every being born/unleashed. So…she does…? Where’s Mrs. Burble when you need her to explain all this psyche stuff? The present-day episode ends with Betty saying “tangerine” three times to herself in the mirror, smashing the said mirror, then telling Alice the dark Betty is really and truly gone. Hmm…

Trimming the Family Tree

Three of the main plots this week involve new family members: Jughead’s grandpa, Veronica’s abuelita, and Archie’s uncle. Jughead, with Charles’ FBI help, tracks down his grandpa and discovers the truth of the Baxter Brothers saga—it was indeed Forsythe the First’s idea, but he sold it to Mr. DuPont for $5,000. He grew bitter once he saw the success the series later found, treated everyone including F.P. badly, and then skipped town (and now lives in a bus in the woods). Jughead tries to reunite his grandpa and dad, only to find himself disappointed by his grandpa just like F.P. always was. At least F.P. and Jughead have a touching moment…right before Jughead is officially inducted into the Quill & Skull Society. You know, the secret club that has only two surviving former members. Great idea, Jones. Just great.

Veronica, meanwhile, invites her grandmother to town to rat on her father’s recent behavior and get her rum recipe, which she soon learns that Hiram has patented, prohibiting her from actually using it. V also throws a speakeasy bash before her liquor license is revoked (by the mayor…AKA Hiram), sings an oddly soulless rendition of “Saturday Night’s Alright” with Kevin, and most likely rocks her Columbia University interview. Maybe V will end up in NYC with her BFF Katy Keene? Seems likely.

And ol’ Archiekins finds himself going head-to-head with the Dickinson clan again, first with F.P. by his side and then solo—though he’s seen by some of the Center kids as he’s beating Dodger to a pulp. Yikes. Just after Archie confesses to Mary that he’s concerned about who he’s become, and wondering why people like Dodger get to live while Fred is dead—but P.S. Archie still doesn’t move back home, even though the threat is ostensibly gone—Fred’s apparent brother, Frank, walks into the boxing gym. On this show, no one should ever trust a family member popping out of nowhere because there’s an 80% chance they’re a faker, but, well, the jury’s still out on Uncle Frank.

Long Live the Red Queen

Cheryl, officially over being gaslit, gasses her house full of Roach Bomb spray to smoke—or gas—her tormentor out of their hiding place. Surprise: It’s (obviously) Penelope, who, when on living room trial by Cheryl, offers not-very-much explanation for her continued horribleness. She was jealous and/or angry about Cheryl experiencing happiness with Dead Jason? Uh, what about all the horribleness before Jason’s corpse resurfaced, Pen? Anyway, Cheryl declares her mother guilty and hateful and locks her up in the G&G bunker (RIP Dilton) for an undefined amount of time. Until Penelope shows remorse, maybe, which will probably be never. Cheryl then convenes her friends at Sweetwater River, where she officially says goodbye to JJ, setting a boat with his body in it on fire and then letting Archie and Jughead push it out into the water. She cries, tells Toni she wishes her love could’ve met her brother, and hey—here’s hoping Cheryl finally finds some peace.

Rumordale dot com:

•Three cheers for Madelaine Petsch, who has been absolutely killing it this season. She consistently serves up Cheryl’s emotional torment as well as the funniest parts/lines of any given episode.

•Congratulations to Jughead Jones, not only for winning the Baxter Brothers ghostwriting contract, but also for admitting he was wrong once he finally stops spinning conspiracy webs to hear the truth. Is he growing up? Just in time to apparently die on spring break?

•It seems significant that we see Jughead signing an NDA along with his Baxter Brothers contract; who wants to bet that he actually does discover something nefarious afoot in the franchise but is now legally prohibited from speaking out about it? Not that that would stop Jughead for long. The boy’s not exactly a rule follower.

•There’s some nice pseudo-father doubling stuff happening with F.P. and Archie. First, F.P. steps in to help Archie with the Dodger issue, in a very different way than Fred would’ve (which F.P. acknowledges). Then, F.P. gets shot by a masked man in Pop’s—just like Fred did. And finally, when Archie goes back to the hospital to see F.P., he stops short of entering the room because he sees that F.P.’s actual son is there. Perhaps this is all to set up Archie’s inevitable clinging to a perhaps-not-trustworthy Uncle Frank?

•Flash-forward alert: Four weeks later, Archie kneels over a bloodied and unconscious Jughead in the woods, feels his pulse, certifies he’s dead, then asks Betty what she did. Betty trembles and looks down at her hands, one of which holds a big rock. Like a Caramel-killing size rock. Uh-oh.

•Riverdale—and these weekly recaps—will be on a mini-hiatus until 2020, so Happy New Year everyone and see you back here next year!

Originally Appeared on Teen Vogue