Last week, we got confirmation that the Black Hood has returned, and we saw the exit of Chic. Needless to say, it was pretty crazy and the craziness continues this week. After all, it is Riverdale.
We open with Archie ‘campaigning’ for his father by going door to door to hand out flyers. But what he’s really doing is looking to see who has the Black Hood’s green eyes that he can’t forget. Then there’s Betty who thinks she’s sitting across from the Black Hood during breakfast (aka Hal Cooper), but Betty isn’t so sure yet.
Betty confides in Cheryl because she knows what it’s like to have a murderer for a father. Cheryl tells her that they must have concrete proof, a confession, or both in order to get her dad locked up. Betty doesn’t think her father will hurt her, but Cheryl warns her that she never thought her dad would shoot her brother in the forehead until he did. She says, “that’s the world we live in,” which is super sad if you think about it.
Veronica Lodge is also in an interesting situation as apparently holding Nick St. Clair for ransom impressed some of the underground families, so now they’ve sent their young sons to Riverdale in order to court her with fancy business proposals. Most of them are rather dull and boring, but opening a casino in Riverdale stands out to her.
While Veronica is dealing with this, Archie meets with the Dark Circle at Hiram’s request. Hiram plans to have Hermione use it against Fred in the debate. Also, apparently Kevin has now joined the Dark Circle because why the hell not—I was rooting for you Kev! We were all rooting for you! At the meeting, Moose confesses that before Midge died, she told him that she’d been seeing a Serpent behind his back. The Bulldogs barge in on a Serpent meeting and throw around accusations.
Jughead finds out that it’s all true as it seems Fangs wasn’t just giving Midge notes in her dressing room when Jughead saw them together. Fangs swears he didn’t kill her and Jughead desperately wants to get the footage back from the cops so he visits the new sheriff who was hired by the Lodges. Meanwhile, Archie tells Reggie to lay off the Serpents before he heads to Pop’s to meet up with Veronica. She is discussing the Sweetwater Casino with one of her suitors (Elio) but when she goes to the bathroom, we learn that people seem to think that Archie killed Papa Poutine and his son, Small Fry is looking for revenge.
Betty and Alice get back to work at the Register as a plan to find out what her father’s hiding. After her parents leave one night, she uses a bobby pin to break into his desk drawer and steals her dad’s planner to cross-reference the dates of every Black Hood attack and each one matches up perfectly. Just as Betty explains this to Cheryl, the Register’s phone rings. It’s the coroner’s office, saying, “I have a warm corpse for you.” Apparently an unidentified male turned up off the highway and for a price, Betty can see him. Betty is very worried that it is Chic, but it isn’t.
Seeing the dead body freaks Betty out and she takes a good look in the mirror and doesn’t like what she sees. She thinks the Black Hood is right and that they are the same. Cheryl tells her she isn’t and to focus on her father. It’s time to confront him with as much of the truth as Betty wants and then she can wait and see how he reacts.
When Betty gets home, she makes a confession to her parents. She tells them about her phone conversations with the Black Hood and the fact that she delivered Chic to him. She says that if he’s dead then she’s an accomplice to murder and she’s okay with that as there’s always been darkness inside of her. She says that the Black Hood helped her understand that—well, that’s not worrying at all.
Alice is speechless and looks terribly worried, but Hal explains that he understands the darkness and that fighting it is why they need each other. The camera cuts to a close-up on his eyes and this is getting very intense.
Archie is back on guard duty in his living room with his bat despite the fact that there’s a trained deputy outside their house. Earlier that day, Fred received a letter that read, “You’re next sinner”, but Fred won’t cancel the debate.
Fangs isn’t looking so good as someone released the footage and he was arrested at school, which was made worse since he had a pocket knife on him. But Fangs getting arrested is apparently not enough for Reggie who is now leading the Dark Circle. He and the Bulldogs head to the Whyte Wyrm to slash the Serpents tires and light a dumpster on fire. Archie tries to disband the circle, but Reggie won’t as Hiram is paying them and it was Hiram’s idea to attack the Whyte Wyrm.
Betty and Cheryl break into Hal’s B&B where he still has a room and they find the Nancy Drew book that the Black Hood used to make the cipher.
Then it’s debate time where Hermione uses the Dark Circle against Fred on the stage. However, this victory is short-lived when the Black Hood shows up and starts shooting everyone. No one is hit, but Hal pulls Betty to safety—so, is he the Black Hood or not?
Hermione is shaken after the debate, but Hiram refuses to let her withdraw from the race. Veronica is angry with her father and says that she’s going to go through with the casino on her own. However, Hiram is one step ahead and took the money she got from Nick’s parents to put it in a trust that she can’t touch until she’s 21. Veronica is even more angry and goes to Archie’s where she announces her support for Fred Andrews, saying she can’t trust her parents anymore. Oh, and then Archie and Veronica have sex—what’s new?
Betty confronts Hal and he claims that the book was a birthday gift except she doesn’t believe him and decides that she’s going to settle this once and for all. She calls her father and tells him to meet her at the town hall, but we don’t get to see what happens because that’s for next week.
As for Fangs, Joaquin is back to help him disappear, but first they have to get him out of jail. He’s free to go thanks to the assistance of Josie’s mom who has been his lawyer, but there’s an angry mob outside and part of that mob is Reggie who is even dumber than Archie.
For some reason, the police are doing absolutely nothing. How corrupt is this town? Instead, they leave the Serpents to take care of Fangs. The four core younger Serpents come together and promise that they’ll get him out. The Serpent’s walk him out, and Archie is trying to stop Reggie who shows up with a gun in his pocket. This is a very dramatic scene as Archie tackles Reggie to stop him, but the gun goes off! And guess who it hits? We see it hit Fangs in a slow-motion scene and it’s a total mess.
The episode ends with the Black Hood showing up at Cheryl’s door, which makes everyone wonder, if the Black Hood is knocking on Cheryl’s door, who knocked on the town hall’s door?
Final Thoughts?
This episode was almost better than last week’s. Is Hal the Black Hood or not? Also, Fangs… It was so upsetting to see Fangs in so much pain this week and then he gets shot. I can only hope that he’s alive!
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