'Riverdale' Recap With Spoilers: "Prom Night" Turns Sinister

With only a small number of episodes left in Season 3, the twisted world of Riverdale is only [...]

By Jenna Anderson

With only a small number of episodes left in Season 3, the twisted world of Riverdale is only getting weirder and weirder. Tonight's prom-themed episode brought some long-awaited questions and answers, and a bone-chilling last ten minutes. So, what do you need to know from tonight's installment? Read on to find out.

Obviously, spoilers for tonight's episode of Riverdale, "Prom Night", below! Only look if you want to know!

Betty and Veronica visit the site of the prison bus crash, and Betty still isn't sure if Hal actually survived the crash or escaped. Betty warns Alice that Hal might have escaped and is going to continue being the Black Hood, but Alice refuses to believe it. Later, Betty gets a call from Dr. Curdle Jr, who positively IDs Hal's remains from the bus crash.

Jellybean reveals to Jughead that she met the Gargoyle King while playing G&G with Ricky. FP and Jughead follow the clues from what the Gargoyle king told Jellybean, and Jughead finds a book of G&G lore inside of a junkyard van. Betty and Jughead investigate the book, and Betty realizes that, at the end of the day, the Gargoyle King can be killed just like anybody.

They then visit Kurtz's autopsy, where they learn that he has the G&G sacrifice symbols tattooed on his back. They find the artist who made the tattoos, who revealed that he gave the same symbols to somebody a year ago -- a guy who sounds a lot like Edgar Evernever. Betty takes this as confirmation that Edgar is at least one version of the Gargoyle King.

Betty crashes a session at The Farm, accusing Edgar. She gets him to take off his shirt, and does not find the tattoos. Jughead cites a prophecy in the G&G book that could lure the Gargoyle King out, as long as Betty is crowned prom queen. They try to convince Cheryl to change the theme to something G&G-adjacent, and she agrees. Betty and Jughead convince the Poisons and the Serpents to guard the prom, and hopefully find the Gargoyle King in the process.

Prom commences, and Betty stuffs the ballot box to make sure she wins Prom Queen. She gets a letter from the Gargoyle King, inviting her to the bathroom where the Midnight Club ascended all those years ago. Betty leaves, but gets announced as Prom Queen soon after. She finds the same "flip for your fate" prompt as her mom did all those years ago, as well as the Gargoyle King lurking in the hallway. She points a gun at him, but she gets sacked by the Black Hood - who now has a hook hand - and drops it. He chases her throughout the school, and she finds multiple dead bodies in the process. She ultimately escapes and hides in the same closet that Featherhead's body was found in until Jughead finds her.

Betty tells FP and Jughead that the whole quest was just to allow Hal to escape and cross paths with her again. She relays the news to Alice, and worries that he could be targeting The Farm next. Edgar suggests that Betty stay in The Farm to be better protected, and she agrees.

Meanwhile, Mary arrives back to Riverdale, wanting to spend more time with Archie. Veronica enters Archie in a major boxing tournament and offers to invest in him and the gym. Archie just needs his parent's signature to participate in the tournament, but Mary does not want to sign off on it. Archie forges her signature. When Archie comes home that day, Mary suggests that he look into boxing for the Navy. Archie visits with the Navy representative, who wants Archie to organize an exhibition that Friday to show off his skills.

Archie learns that he's six pounds overweight for the boxing tournament -- and also that it's happening on the same day as his exhibition. He tries to juggle both tournaments, and Veronica agrees to help. He loses the weight and goes to the tournament fight, but loses. He still wants to attend the exhibition match anyway, and immediately gets knocked out. When he comes to, Archie tells Mary that he doesn't want to go to college or join the Navy, and just wants to try to be a boxer.

Mary offers to stay in Riverdale to look after Archie, and realizes that it might be a good thing for him to know how to defend himself.

Other tidbits from the episode include:

  • Cheryl and Toni campaign for Prom Queens, reminding the Core Four that prom is even happening to begin with. Betty and Jughead agree to go to prom together, and Archie and Veronica decide to go as friends. Evelyn chastises Cheryl and Toni for running for prom queen, but they continue to do it. Edgar also questions Cheryl running for prom queen, saying that she won't be able to talk to Jason anymore if she follows through with it. Cheryl agrees, but begins to question whether or not she should be part of the Farm.
  • As she's leaving for prom, Pop decides to tell Veronica that Hiram conned her with a fake deed, and that he really owns the diner and the speakeasy. She decides that she'll find a way to get back at him for it.

***

Riverdale airs Wednesdays at 8/7c on The CW.

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