"Riverdale" Recap Season 3 Episode 5: Can Archie Escape From a Teenage Fight Club ?!
Each week, Teen Vogue will be taking you on a journey to Riverdale, a quaint little town hiding some very big secrets.
We’re back in 2018 for this week’s Riverdale episode, and right in the middle of a Gryphons & Gargoyles game in Dilton’s bunker. Everyone is rapt as Jughead reads the turn, and we also see that Archie and Joaquin are about to initiate their attempted escape from Leopold & Loeb, thanks to Baby Teeth cutting the power to the electric fence that encircles the prison yard. Joaquin signals to a fellow prisoners, who start a fight as a distraction while the two start running. But then, Joaquin trips and falls and Archie, of course, doubles back for him. By the time they’re up again, the guards are shooting rubber bullets and their escape is foiled.
Back in the bunker, Betty has arrived — we're back to where we left off at the end of last week’s episode — and once everyone leaves, she tells Jughead about what happened with their parents back in the day and urges him to stop the game. But Jug has a theory: they’ve been playing the game for a long time, off-board and without knowing it. The name of the world in G&G is an anagram for “Riverdale” and since they couldn’t find the game online, he reasons that it must only exist here. He says it’s a narrative still being played out and once he can prove he’s at the Gargoyle King’s level as a gamemaster, he’ll meet him. Betty is exasperated and decides that as long as he’s playing in the bunker, he’s safe, so she leaves to follow the nine, parent-sized leads her mom’s story just gave her.
Over at the Pembrooke, Hiram returns from his morning run and tries to goad Veronica into a fight by filling her in on Archie’s attempted escape. V just tells her daddy dearest that she’ll get Archie out and then Hiram will be the one rotting in jail. As she leaves the room, Hiram makes a call to Warden Norton. That can’t be good. The warden is busy though, torturing Archie, who is tied to his cell bed and claiming full responsibility for the escape. Warden Norton brands Archie with a hot poker as a reminder that he “can’t fight his destiny.” What?!
At school, Betty loops Josie, Kevin, and Reggie in on the events of the '90s G&G game — but she doesn’t tell them about Principal Featherhead’s death. Everyone is in disbelief and Betty shares her theory that whoever ran the game back then might be running it now — so they’ll need to be discreet when questioning their parents. Considering the pact the Midnight Club made, I’m sure they’ll take being questioned by their teenagers well.
Speaking of teenagers doing the work of adults, Veronica is entertaining Elio (one of the five family suitors she met with last season) at her speakeasy, and after the two exchange compliments on how well their respective businesses are doing (speakeasy and casino, in case you’re keeping score at home), she asks him to look into Archie’s whereabouts at L&L. She hasn’t heard from him in weeks, has hit a dead end with the Innocence Project, and has heard that L&L has connections to the mob. Elio says he’ll sniff around, but makes it clear that he expects to be paid back for his efforts. He later calls her up and tells her that he can get her to Archie — she just needs to get dressed as his date, all incognito-like.
Over at Sunnyside Trailer Park, Jughead is at home when Cheryl and Toni rush in with a problem: Sweet Pea and Fangs are playing with weapons and it interrupted their canoodling. The boys want to go off-board and are frustrated with Jughead acting as gamemaster AND king of the Serpents. I mean, yes, it is a lot for a teenager to take on and still go to school and stuff, but somehow I don’t think that’s why Sweet Pea is so concerned. Juggy is mad that his friends are questioning his leadership, so he has Cheryl William Tell him (calling her Deadeye, like from the G&G game). When she does (go Cheryl!), he challenges Sweet Pea to let her do it to him, and when SP declines, Jug reinforces that he’s gamemaster. Later, Jug and F.P. talk about the game and Featherhead, and Jug explains his theory to his dad. F.P. mulls it over, looking thoughtful.
At Pop’s, Josie and Kevin try to get their parents to talk about high school, and they get fed a bunch of lies for their efforts (for starters, Tom and Sierra deny knowing each other well during their high school days). And THEN they get to hear that their parents have decided to get married! Unfortunately, we don’t get to see the actual announcement, but we do see Kevin and Josie filling Betty in later.
Elio has brought a blonde-wigged Veronica to a “decommissioned rec center” AKA the empty pool, which I guess is not in the juvie basement like I’d originally thought. Archie is brought out to fight. Afterwards, Veronica manages to sneak into the locker room where Archie is busy icing his hands. They embrace, hook up, and strategize about how to break him out. Archiekins mentions the drain in the pool ring, and Veronica tells him to be ready when the time comes — the next fight.
She then interrupts B’s regroup with Reggie, Josie, and Kevin — who are talking about their parents’s impending nuptials as a distraction tactic and how Reggie’s dad punched him when he asked about the game and what Betty isn’t telling them — to gather the troops for Mission Free Archie. Betty tries to get Jughead involved, too, but all he says is that a rescue mission is the missing piece from the new quest he’s writing. Betty snaps at him that this isn’t a game, it’s his best friend’s life, and tells him she’s taking his bike.
At L&L, Archie dines with the warden and questions why he would get such treatment after trying to escape. He figures out that it must be his final meal before his final fight, which the warden confirms. Norton tells Arch that he has powerful enemies (Hiram?) and Arch plays into the “final meal” thing to ask Warden Norton for honesty: how did Hiram Lodge pin Cassidy’s murder on him? Answer: Hiram paid Cassidy’s three friends $10,000 each to lie under oath. They’re in hiding now, either in the woods or in the mines by Shadow Lake (where the warden would hide). Archie asks if Hiram has always owned he warden, too, and Norton says that judgment of all men belongs to “he who resides in the kingdom alone” and that he’s always watching.
Back in Riverdale, Jughead starts the new quest with his G&G crew and Veronica lays out the plan for Mission Free Archie, which first involves Josie, Kevin, and Reggie doing some experiments in chem lab. Before the fight, Joaquin wraps Archie’s hands and Archie tries to hint to his new friend that he might be escaping soon. In response, Joaquin says he’s sorry, mentions the warden and “ascending,” kisses Archie, and then stabs him in the stomach! My head is spinning! Everything that’s happening is lining up with Jughead’s quest narration about the Red Paladin they need to rescue, by the way. Archie is shocked and in pain as a guard leads him away, and Joaquin even looks a little shocked by what he just did. So is the warden playing a G&G game with the prisoners? We’ll find out.
Reggie and Blonde Veronica show up for the fight but have the outdated password — again, this is all intercut with the G&G game scenes/narration, and one mirrors the other — Veronica claims her name is Monica Norton, like the warden. The guard lets her and Reggie in. Kevin, posed as the delivery guy, brings in the cans that the group altered in chem lab. Archie is brought into the pool, where his opponent is Mad Dog. He tries to talk to his old roomie, but Mad Dog just throws punches. Betty, in her Serpents jacket, busts something in the engine of one of the parked cars outside the fight. Inside, an incognito Josie tells V and R that she heard guards betting heavily against Archie. V tells Josie and Reggie to get in position and wait for her signal. Outside, Kevin finds the drain tunnel exit — but it’s locked. ALL OF A SUDDEN, he sees Joaquin running by. Kevin is shocked, but Joaquin is less so. He just tells Kevin it’s too late for Archie and that he’s joined a new gang and that he and Kevin should both go. He runs off and inside, Mad Dog goads Archie into hitting him and while the two are in an arm-lock, Archie whispers the plan to MD. Betty arrives at the tunnel and starts to pick the lock while Kevin runs after Joaquin.
Veronica is on her way to set the plan in motion when she sees her father, who recognizes her immediately. They question each other quietly and Hiram tells her to end whatever she’s starting — so she stomps on him with her heel and progresses with her plan. She, Reggie, and Josie start throwing the cans into the pool, where they function like smoke bombs. Archie tries to get Mad Dog to escape through the drain with him but Mad Dog says he won’t fit — he’s tried — and instead, he fights off the guards while Archie escapes. Chaos ensues, the guards and the warden lose Archie, and they set off to search for him in the outside world. Archie makes it to the end of the pipe; he’s bloody and dirty but he and Betty are happy to see each other. The warden’s car won’t start — thanks to Betty — and she soon whizzes by on her bike with a passenger in the back. A tense chase ensues — with Jughead’s G&G gang fully into it, as a chase is occurring in his quest, too — and when Betty’s bike is finally cut off by guards, we see that her passenger is actually Kevin. Plot twist! So where's Archie? With Veronica, who him to a car where Reggie and Josie are waiting. Whew!
In the bunker, everyone asks Jughead if they completed the rescue in the quest, and he admits that he doesn’t know — he made a last-minute change to the quest and was hoping that the ending would reveal itself by the time he got there. Everyone is confused, and we see the warden question Kevin about the Red Paladin (before Betty threatens to mace him) and then! Archie drops into the bunker! Jughead races to hug his BFF. A little while later, Toni patches Archie up and everyone has assembled in the bunker. Archie fills everyone in on what Joaquin did and Veronica says they’ll fill him in on everything — like what’s up with his new home, Dilton’s bunker — later. She notices the brand on his hip, which looks like a rune from the G&G game, and swears everyone in the bunker to extreme secrecy re: Archie’s location. She also makes it clear that Archie is to have constant companionship/guarding.
At the Pembrooke, Hermione is screaming at Hiram for his part in the underground fight club and Archie’s escape. Veronica walks in and is treated to some yelling, too. Hermione eventually storms out to do damage control as mayor, telling her husband and daughter that one day their mutual obsession with Archie Andrews will destroy them all. Well, when you put it that way...
At Pop’s, Kevin tells Josie and Reggie that he couldn’t find Joaquin and that he’s still out there. Reggie can’t believe they pulled their mission off! Then, the three of them pull out a G&G manual and debate starting a game — to find out more about what their parents and Betty are hiding. Don’t do it y’all. Just then, a news bulletin comes in over the radio warning the town about escaped convicted murderer Archie Andrews.
Archie, meanwhile, is asleep, and Jughead and Betty — taking first watch — discuss his brand and how it looks like a G&G symbol. Jug thinks maybe the warden is the Gargoyle King, and Betty thinks Jughead needs to go home to get some sleep. She takes over the watch and Jug leaves.
In the warden’s office, Norton examines two playing cards and hears that Hermione has arrived for a meeting. Before he lets her in, he puts the cards down on a G&G manual, poisons a cup of Fresh-Aid with cyanide, and drinks it. And dies. We see that the playing card he’d been looking at says, “Kill the Red Paladin.” WHAT IS GOING ON.
Back in the woods, Jugheads stumbles upon the Gargoyle King just chillin’, and seems to give a little bow before the episode cuts to credits. So will Juggy finally get his face-to-face GK meeting? And will he survive it? Oooh I can hardly wait to find out!
Want more from Teen Vogue? Check this out: This Is What Happens When You Challenge the Stars of Riverdale to TRUTH OR DARE
