Riverdale‘s third season is officially in the books, and the final chapter concluded in a pretty massive way. Read on to find out the massive twists and turns from tonight’s Season 3 finale, “Survive the Night”.
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Obviously, spoilers for tonight’s season three finale of Riverdale, “Survive the Night”, below!
Toni returns to the Blossom house, explaining the Farm’s sinister plan to Penelope. As one would probably expect, Penelope quickly poisons Toni with a cup of tea. At the Farm, Edgar prepares to perform a lobotomy on Betty, but is interrupted by Penelope’s arrival. She doesn’t want to expose his plans, but rather benefit from them, and “buy organs in bulk”.
Edgar worries that the Farm has caught the attention of too many people, and that the group’s “ascension” is set to begin tonight. He also lies to Alice and claims that Betty escaped with Toni, but Alice clearly seems suspicious. Later, Cheryl attempts to convince Kevin and Fangs of the organ harvesting, but finds that the freezer is empty. She searches for additional proof, but finds Jason’s corpse in the process.
Alice confronts Edgar about the organ harvesting, but is interrupted by Cheryl’s confronting him about Jason’s body. She gets apprehended by Farmies, and Edgar attempts to carry on with the ascension ceremony. Alice later comes to Cheryl’s room, and offers to help her and Juniper escape. Alice decides to stay behind to help Polly, but asks Cheryl to take care of Betty.
Jughead tells FP his theory about Jason being the Gargoyle King, and wonders if Kurtz could have a tie to the Maple Club. He discovers that Kurtz was working with Penelope, and that Jason was also seen around the harem.
Archie, Veronica, and Jughead all get invitations to some sort of mysterious ceremony. Betty then wakes up in a bed to find a similar invitation, alongside a dress she must wear. She comes downstairs to find Archie, Veronica, Jughead, and Penelope all eating dinner in the Blossom hunting lodge. Penelope reveals that she bought Betty from Edgar right before he was going to kill her, and brings out the Black Hood and the Gargoyle King. Penelope asks Jughead to guess the Gargoyle King’s identity, and suggests that it’s someone with a connection to both Hal and Penelope — leaving only Chic Cooper.
Jughead’s suspicion proves to be true, as Penelope and Hal have both taken Chic under their wing, giving him red hair and pretending that he’s Jason. After bringing G&G to the Midnight Club all those years ago, Penelope introduced the game to Chic all the way back in Season 2, and he introduced it to Ben Button, which led to the town’s G&G obsession snowballing more and more.
Penelope makes the Core Four play one final game, in exchange for their lives. She makes them attempt to escape through the forest. Archie is the first who is given an individual quest, which is to fight a giant man dressed in a bear costume. Archie miraculously survives.
The group then comes upon six chalices, one of which contains poison. Veronica is tasked with playing Spin the Bottle to pick a chalice for her and her closest ally to drink from, which Betty volunteers to do. Veronica points out how similar this feels to when she and Betty first played Spin the Bottle with Archie after Homecoming. She and Betty both take turns drinking from the chalices, until Veronica decides to drink the last poisoned one, because she loves Betty too much. Penelope then arrives, and reveals that all of the chalices were poisoned, and they can only get the antidote once they complete the game.
Archie pulls Veronica aside, and they both reveal that they still have feelings for each other and kiss.
Toni wakes up, as Nana Rose tells her about Penelope’s quest for the Core Four. She gets reunited with Toni, and they rally the Serpents and the Poisons to save them.
Jughead gets his quest card, which orders him to fight Chic. Chic comes close to strangling Jughead, but he beats him with a rock and gets the upper hand. Betty then finds her quest, which requires her to kill Hal. Betty shoots him in a non-lethal spot, but then Penelope shoots him in the head. The Core Four ask or their reward, but Penelope decides to kill them anyway.
Cheryl, Toni, and the Poisons come to the group’s rescue, as Betty and Veronica take the antidote. Everyone goes back to the Farm to find Kevin, surrounded by the wrinkled clothes of everyone else who “ascended”.
The next day, Jughead reveals that Chic went to jail and Penelope escaped, as the Serpents and the Poisons help clean Farm graffiti off of Pop’s. Cheryl returns to the Farm, where she talks to Jason’s corpse.
Betty and Jughead get visited by the FBI, who reveal that they’ve been investigating Edgar and the Farm for years, and that Alice was their mole. The agent also reveals that there’s a reason why he and Alice know each other — he’s Charles, Betty and Jughead’s half-brother.
Betty and Jughead share the news with Archie and Veronica. Archie tells the group to make a vow to have their senior year go smoothly, and they agree and toast with their milkshakes.
During Spring Break of senior year, Archie, Betty, and Veronica stand in the woods in their underwear next to a massive fire. While Archie holds Jughead’s beanie, which is covered in blood, Betty remarks that they need to burn their clothes and never speak of what happened ever again. Archie reluctantly burns Jughead’s beanie.
Other tidbits from the episode include:
- Hermione and Veronica are walked through the assets that they now own, since Hiram is in prison. Later on, Hermione is arrested by the FBI for trying to conspire to kill Hiram. From, Hiram finds out that Hermione has been successfully framed, and hints that she doesn’t know what’s coming.
- Veronica gives over her ownership of the boxing gym to Archie. At the boxing gym, Archie debates turning the gym into some sort of community center, and enlists Mad Dog to help.
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Riverdale will return for a fourth season this fall on The CW.
