Riverdale‘s third season is beginning to come to a close, and this week’s installment may have taken the show into a whole new territory. Tonight’s penultimate episode, “The Dark Secret of Harvest House”, brought even more off-the-wall reveals and hair-raising moments than ever before. If you (understandably) need help breaking down what you just saw, we’re here to help.
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Obviously, spoilers for tonight’s episode of Riverdale, “The Dark Secret of Harvest House”, below! Only look if you want to know!
The episode opens with Jughead investigating the immediate aftermath of prom night. He learns that Hal probably cut off his own hand to fake his own death. He then tracks down the person who originally had Betty’s letter from prom, and he reveals that it was given to him by Ricky. Jellybean tells Jughead that Ricky is preparing to ascend, and he tracks him down in the forest. Once he finds Ricky, Jughead is chased by a group of Boy Scouts and led into the bunker, where Ethel is hiding out from the Gargoyle King. She reveals that she got back into the real G&G and organized the letter that got Betty to the Black Hood. They track down Jack, the youngest boy scout, in a run-down bus filled with G&G paraphernalia. They are chased down by the Black Hood, but escape.
Afterwards, Ethel decides to give Jughead a reward for his help — the identity of the Gargoyle King. Jughead calls Betty, and reveals that Jason is supposedly the Gargoyle King. Betty suggests that he dig up Jason’s body to make sure, and he agrees. Jughead digs up the coffin, and finds it empty.
Betty gets used to life at The Farm, and finds Evelyn hooked up to some weird machine. During a meeting with Edgar, Alice and Polly tell Betty that she essentially has a genetic predisposition to be a serial killer. Edgar holds a therapy session with Betty, where she admits that she’s been struggling with Dark Betty. Betty then wakes up in a dark corridor, where she’s face to face with a hallucination of Dark Betty. Betty calls Jughead about it, and they plan out how they’re going to continue to solve their respective mysteries.
At lunch at The Farm, Betty learns that Edgar has been performing massive surgeries on everyone, as a way to “remove” their pain. Betty then has another therapy session, where Dark Betty threatens to take over and become a serial killer, but Betty can clearly see that it’s Polly pretending to be Dark Betty. Betty holds a meeting with the rest of the Farm kids, who aren’t phased by the news that Edgar is hypnotizing them.
Betty then confronts Evelyn about the machine she is hooked up to, and discovers that Edgar has been donating Farmies’ organs as part of “removing” their pain. Betty tells this to Cheryl, who finally believes her and goes to rescue Toni from her pending “surgery”. Betty tries to convince Kevin and Fangs, but they don’t believe her and try to restrain her. Toni finds a way to escape, but Cheryl stays behind to fend off the guards.
Betty wakes up chained to a hospital chair, as Edgar prepares her for her “procedure”.
Meanwhile, Veronica overhears Hiram revealing his plans to buy Riverdale, whether or not Hermione supports it. Veronica has Mary look over her deeds for Pop’s and the speakeasy, and comes up with an idea to potentially frame Hiram for the illegal things happening at the speakeasy. Mary puts Veronica in contact with an FBI agent, and suggests that they need to catch Hiram in the act of committing a crime in order to arrest him. Veronica organizes a way for that to happen, which involves Archie challenging Hiram to a boxing match. Veronica then gets Hiram to agree to organize betting on the match through the speakeasy. Veronica enlists Reggie to help carry out the bets, and Archie prepares for the boxing match with Mary’s approval.
As the match goes on, Veronica performs “Daddy Lessons”. The FBI then raids the speakeasy, and Veronica points them to the boxing match. Hiram is about to brutally kill Archie, but Veronica and FP show up and arrest Hiram. Veronica reveals that his assets are going to be sold to the public, so even if he gets released from jail, he won’t have an empire anymore.
After the match, Mary suggests that Archie and Veronica are endgame, and he decides to act on it. He goes to the apartment — just as Reggie was confessing his feelings to Veronica.
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Riverdale airs Wednesdays at 8/7c on The CW.
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