The flashback episode is here! All the show’s actors took on the roles of their parents and it was amazing!
We start the episode with all our regular teens looking through the Gryphons and Gargoyles game. Every time an adult confiscates a rule book, another one pops up, until eventually, Mayor Hermione Lodge tells them she is banning the game as it could foster violence in developing minds. She has also set up a hotline for anyone who needs someone to talk to, where Kevin will be assisting, but only available after school.
Later, Betty gets a call from the coroner revealing that someone died a ‘suspicious death’ many years ago and the deceased had blue lips. It was right around the time Betty’s mother Alice would have been in high school. Betty goes to her mother and Alice agrees to tell her daughter the whole story.
We go back to when all of Riverdale’s parents were juniors in high school—when “phones had cords, Winona had Johnny, and everything smelled like teen spirit.” Well, that’s how Alice (who was known as Alice Smith back then) puts it. She was the “bad girl from the wrong side of the tracks with great hair and a huge problem” as she had just found out she was pregnant with FP’s child. Hermione and Sierra catch Alice crying in a bathroom stall before Penelope sticks her nose in it. Penelope calls Alice a bastard baby so the two start fighting in the girls’ bathroom.
In another part of the school, FP (who is a football player) is being forced to streak as it is a Bulldog tradition. FP is hesitant until Fred (a baseball player) agrees to come with him as he’s already done it once. So, the two do it which ultimately lands them in detention, along with the girls from the bathroom fight.
Alice tells Betty (in present day) that it was supposed to be one Saturday where six people—the bad girl (Alice), the rebelling Catholic (Hermione), the teacher’s pet (Penelope), the artist/athlete (Fred), the political animal (Sierra), and the ladies man (FP)—sat in silence for eight hours and wrote their 1,000 word essays about what landed them in detention. But obviously, this didn’t happen.
The moment that Principal Featherhead (played by Anthony Michael Hall from The Breakfast Club) decided he could leave the kids unsupervised and return to his office is when things get interesting. First of all, apparently Sierra and Tom Keller were a major (albeit secret) item and that is when they all realise that they don’t know anything about each other. Sierra suggests a round of ‘Secrets and Sins’. Sierra’s secret is her relationship with Tom and Hermione says she’s interested in Hiram, but her parents don’t approve. Fred, thinks Riverdale is the greatest place in the world and sees herself playing baseball and music here until he runs for mayor (which Sierra scoffs at).
More than anything, Fred wants to stay to look after his sick father. When it’s Alice’s turn to tell a secret, she decides to out FP as a guy who lives in Sunnyside Trailer Park and wears a varsity jacket like he’s from the North Side. She tells him that he’ll end up just like his dad, but FP one-ups her by revealing that his dad is the one who broke his arm when FP told him that he wanted to be the first Jones to go to college. As for Penelope, she reveals that she’s not a Blossom. She grew up at the Sisters of Quiet Mercy orphanage until the Blossoms showed up when she was 8 and asked to see all the red-headed children. They picked her out from the group and took her home to be Clifford’s sister and life companion (ew, omg!). She says that she takes every opportunity to escape the house.
Hermione and Penelope end up fighting, and it leads to all the kids earning three additional Saturday detentions. But, their punishment leads to friendship, especially when Hermione breaks into the teacher’s desk drawer to find something that had been taken from her. There, they find Gryphons and Gargoyles. In another town, someone had almost died playing it which is how they’d heard of the game, but they play it anyways cause it’s so enticing.
They start playing it so much that they decide to take the game off-board and play it in real life. Penelope pairs Hermione and FP, and Alice and Fred and asks the pairs to go find something she’s hidden in the school. Alice and Fred bond over their shared sadness (but she doesn’t say anything about her pregnancy) and they kiss. FP tries to kiss Hermione who pushes him away telling him she’s not interested. Soon, two new couples form while they play this game: Hermione and Fred, and FP and Alice.
After their detentions have ended, they still continue to play the game. They sneak into the school after hours and call their gang The Midnight Club. Soon, they run into another group of kids who are playing the game: Hiram Lodge, Tom Keller, Dilton Doiley’s father, and Reggie’s dad. They decide to join forces and one night they all receive invitations to the Ascension Party from the Gargoyle King. That night, they are all meant to flip a coin for their fate and drink from a chalice but Hiram doesn’t see it as a party. He brings out Fizzle Rocks, which is the latest drug on the streets of Riverdale. Everyone but Alice partakes as she is pregnant.
The night gets crazy and begins with a concert from The Fred Heads (which is the worst band name, ever), which includes FP, Alice, Hermione, Sierra, and Fred singing their version of ‘Dream Warriors’ and FP playing the drums. Later, Alice heads to the bathroom to vomit and the others are going crazy as the drugs completely take over. Then the lights go out in the bathroom, and she sees two chalices and a coin, plus ‘Flip for your fate’ is written all over the walls, which causes Alice to run. Then when she turns a corner, she sees the Gargoyle King.
Alice sees Principal Featherhead arrive at the school and she goes home, not bothering to get her friends or warn the principal. The next day, she runs into Hermione at school, where she finds out that Principal Featherhead is missing and Fred’s father died last night.
After Fred’s father’s funeral, they all meet at Pop’s and Alice tries to get them to confess with her, but Penelope makes them all swear to keep their mouths shut about everything. A little while later, Principal Featherhead’s dead body is found at the school and his lips are blue. Alice tells all of them about the chalices filled with blue liquid in the bathroom, but when no one fesses up to staging the Ascension Party, they all decide to stop playing the game. They also agree to destroy the manuals and scatter the other pieces of the game all around town. They make a pact to take this secret to the grave.
And that is when all the Riverdale parents turn into the people we know today. Fred gives up his guitar and goes into construction. Hermione starts dating Hiram. Sierra and Tom break up. Penelope commits herself to a life at Thornhill with Clifford. FP gives up his dreams and varsity jacket for a Serpent jacket. And Alice gave up her Serpent jacket for a tweed blazer and begins to talk to Hal Cooper.
Alice says that Featherhead’s death was ruled a ‘suicide under suspicious circumstances’ as they never found out who poisoned the cups. As for the Midnight Club, they all grew up thinking that someone in their group was a murderer. Now, Alice makes Betty promise her she won’t play the game, and Betty promises. But she will investigate it.
Betty heads to the school, and finds the chalices in the trophy case. Then, she heads to Dilton’s bunker to tell Jughead about everything, but she’s too late. Jughead, Cheryl, Toni, Fangs, and Sweet Pea are already immersed in the game. Jughead’s on level three and he’s very excited to ascend.
Final Thoughts:
This episode is one of my favourites of all three seasons so far. I loved seeing the Riverdale parent’s pasts and I am obsessed with it. It’s so cool to see how much they all look like the actors/actresses who play their parents. Also, I love their outfits. Can I borrow some of young Alice’s?
Who did “young Alice/Betty” take to Pop’s at the end of the episode?
Hal Cooper!