Last time on Riverdale, Pickens Day brought up bad history for the Serpents and a cause for a celebration in the North Side. At the end of the episode, the statue of General Pickens is decapitated and of course, all of the blame falls on the South Side.
This week on Riverdale, Archie is officially Hiram’s intern which basically means that he is running around town picking up things of Hiram’s. So far, it seems Hiram is liking Archie more as he’s not only going to Veronica’s confirmation, but Hiram invited him to be a server at his poker game with some of his businessmen. Granted, the latter only happens after Hiram learns that Archie beat up Nick St. Clair.
Hiram is busy making Jughead’s life worse than it already is. Hiram’s lawyer calls the school and threatens to sue the Blue and Gold for Jughead’s article about General Pickens which leads to both Jughead and Betty being suspended from the newspaper staff. Sheriff Keller also keeps showing up to Jughead’s trailer asking if they have the head, but to make matters worse, all the Serpents in the trailer park receive an eviction notice from the city. Either they deliver General Pickens’ decapitated head, or they have to leave. Hiram, of course, is behind that too because he is pulling the mayor’s strings.
![Jughead Jones (Cole Sprouse) and Betty Cooper (Lili Reinhart) in Riverdale 2.12 ‘Chapter Twenty-Five: The Wicked and the Divine’](https://i0.wp.com/78.media.tumblr.com/c61eb0999b49f060ca5c8313b21e195a/tumblr_p3i956WFcu1qa3x03o6_400.gif?resize=384%2C235&ssl=1)
Hiram’s involvement results in Jughead and Betty talking about Toni, and while he admits they did “some stuff, but not everything,” when he asks her about if she’s been with anyone, she lies and says she hasn’t. Meanwhile, Archie meets up with Agent Adams, who is angry that he can’t go to Veronica’s confirmation to spy on Hiram so Archie agrees to be his eyes and ears.
Sierra and Josie go to the Lodge’s to apologise and Josie offers to sing at Veronica’s confirmation as a peace-offering. Hermione accepts although Veronica is a little upset as she thought she would be the one singing so she reluctantly offers to do a duet. Veronica’s song of choice is “Bittersweet Symphony” from the Cruel Intentions soundtrack, which Josie doesn’t look too pleased about.
Veronica heads out to feed the homeless at a soup kitchen and she’s joined by Archie. In the middle of it, Veronica stops to talk to Archie and she warns Archie about the poker game and says that everyone there is “like daddy”. Archie tells Veronica to relax as he says he’s only going to be “refilling water glasses”. Oh sweet, innocent Archie.
Veronica goes to her father to ask what his agenda is and Hiram claims that Archie may be more like their family then they originally thought, which seems to really upset Veronica. She doesn’t want to lose the thing she loves most about Archie, which is his innocence (I don’t think he’s that innocent V). Hiram tells her that she has to choose whether to bring Archie in on the family business or for him to stay on the outside forever.
The “no-talking-about-business” poker game takes a dark turn when one of Hiram’s friends gets angry about the food and Hiram makes him apologise to Pop Tate as he confesses to owning Pop’s. After the poker game, Archie is plunging a toilet (odd) and overhears some of Hiram’s friends talking about how he had gone soft after prison and they planned to ‘remove him’ after Veronica’s confirmation.
Veronica goes to confession to ask what she should do about leading her boyfriend down an unrighteous path, but she gets zero answers. She goes home to talk to the women of her family who tell her what they pray for and tell her that “you have to find your thing” which translates to finding a way to live with yourself after all the horrible things you do.
At Veronica’s confirmation, Josie and Veronica sing “Bittersweet Symphony,” and Archie’s light (an actual light is shone on Archie) is the only thing that helps Veronica get through it.
![Veronica Lodge (Camila Mendes) in Riverdale 2.12 ‘Chapter Twenty-Five: The Wicked and the Divine’](https://i0.wp.com/78.media.tumblr.com/6f8a8a34836bd7af375b1de12ff3f0c6/tumblr_p3i8c8zlr71wpxh24o1_540.gif?resize=392%2C232&ssl=1)
Jughead tells Betty that Tall Boy asked for Penny’s help with the eviction notices, and in exchange for her help, she wants back into the Serpents. She also wants Jughead kicked out of the Serpents, and wants to be the one to carve his Serpent tattoo off his arm. Jughead mentions that there is going to be a vote among the Serpents: Penny or Jughead. He tells Betty everything he did to Penny and then claims that the worst part is that Penny’s back so it was all for nothing. Betty gets a call right then from someone who saw their flyers about the decapitated head that they put up earlier.
The two head to a scrapyard where a man tells them that he found the head in one of his fridges, and the man admits that someone wearing a jacket like Jughead’s. Jughead then asks if the person was tall, which the man says “yes” to. Wow, they’ve officially identified Tall Boy as the culprit.
Tall Boy says that Hiram made him do it (what a surprise?) and still tries to pick a fight with Jughead. FP steps in and exiles Tall Boy from the Serpents. When Tall Boy says that he wants Betty to leave, FP responds and says, “she’s one of us.” Um, since when? Oh right. Her little “dance”.
Back at the confirmation, Veronica is telling her father not to include Archie in the family business anymore. However, Archie asks to speak with Hiram in his office and he tells him that he thinks the other men are going to make a move against him. Hiram takes the warning and dismisses Archie. By the end of the episode, the man who was planning to eliminate Hiram is shot, which Archie finds out from the FBI and Archie claims he knew nothing.
Betty goes back to Jughead’s trailer and they sit on the couch a little awkwardly, but when she’s leaving, Jughead asks her to “stay”. This, naturally, results in a make-out session when Betty pauses and wants to tell him something, but then she decides against it and instead says she wants all of him. Despite this, it’s a moment that was sure to make most Bughead fans happy.
The Serpents’ send General Pickens’ head to the Lodges and the hour ends with Betty returning home to find her mom cleaning up blood of some guy who showed up on their doorstep searching for Chic. Apparently they killed him, but who—Mama Cooper or Chic?
![Alice Cooper (Madchen Amick) in Riverdale 2.12 ‘Chapter Twenty-Five: The Wicked and the Divine’](https://i0.wp.com/78.media.tumblr.com/790594569f93b850e6b5ecb825c1e582/tumblr_p3isqnyY4s1tmtp6yo1_540.gif?resize=423%2C196&ssl=1)
Final Thoughts?
I liked this episode a lot more than last weeks as it had a lot more action and drama. I loved the Bughead moments and it was interesting to see different storylines this episode!
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