Tonight’s episode of Riverdale was a wild one. All of the twists and turns in the mystery of the Black Hood came together tonight with one big reveal — but even with one major addressed, many more still need answers.
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Spoilers for tonight’s episode of Riverdale, “Judgment Night”, below.
After Betty’s suspicions about her father began to grow in the last few episodes, her worst fear was confirmed. Her father, Hal Cooper, revealed himself to be the Black Hood. It comes by way of him forcing Betty to reveal what crimes she attributes to him and ends with some pretty disturbing family secrets. That alone would be a lot to deal with, but this is Riverdale, and there was plenty more drama to go around.
With the shooting of Fangs Fogherty last episode, the town erupted into fights and violence, leading to even higher tensions between the South Side Serpents and the rest of Riverdale. For the Lodges, even more of Hiram’s machinations were revealed and Veronica and Hermione were forced to pay for some of Hiram’s sins. The Serpents had more than the town’s tensions to deal with, too as it was revealed that the Ghoulies were back — with Penny Peabody in tow with that all leading up to a devastating moment that no doubt has fans wondering about Jughead’s fate.
Did we mention that Archie’s dad got shot again? That happened in tonight’s episode, too. And the Black Hood came for Cheryl. Truly, there was non-stop action, even until the very last moments of the episode.
See what we mean by wild?
So, with all of that going on in tonight’s episode, we’ve got some questions. Ten of them, to be exact.
What’s next for Veronica?
The last few episodes have been eye-opening for Veronica. Nick St. Clair kidnapped Archie and held him for $1 million in ransom, but despite Archie’s loyalty to the Lodges, Hiram refused to pay up. This lead her to take matters into her own hands, getting her own cool million in ransom when she turned the tables and kidnapped Nick. It earned her a place at the table, but when she tried to use her money to form a legitmate business, she discovered that her father had locked the money away in a trust — and doesn’t seem that interested in her ideas anyway.
Tonight, however, might have been the biggest moment of all. Veronica discovered that her father had planned to sabotage Fred Andrews’ mayoral campaign by exposing his affair with Hermione — throwing Hermione under the bus in the process. If that wasn’t enough, Papa Poutine’s son, Small Fry, showed up to kill both Veronica and her mother. While Hermione dispatced Small Fry and saved Veronica, she can’t save Hiram from the fact that Veronica now knows the truth about her father.
So where does Veronica go from here? It seems pretty clear that whatever is next, Hiram’s not going to like it. Veronica is very unlikely to simply go along with his plans now and that includes the mayoral race. Veronica made it clear in tonight’s episode that Fred Andrews gets her support.
What is Hiram’s endgame?
Hiram Lodge is up to something bigger than just a for-profit prison. The question is what, and tonight we’re asking that question more than ever. Not only did we learn of his “October Surprise” plan to reveal Hermione and Fred’s affair, but he’s more or less responsible for the riots breaking out in Riverdale — he set up Reggie to go after Fangs, after all — and he became very upset when Pop revealed that Fred came to his rescue.
Winning that mayoral race is cearly significant, but why? There doesn’t really appear to be much in the way of his prison, but Hiram wants Fred out of the way and doesn’t mind trashing his wife to do it. That’s an awful lot to do just to build a prison.
Oh, we should probably mention that he offered a $1 million bounty for the Black Hood and he’s working with Penny Peabody and the Ghoulies, too.
Is Jughead dead?
The big cliffhanger at the end of the episode involved Jughead, specifically his fate.
In the middle of the riots and other issues in Riverdale, Penny Peabody returned and this time she’s working with the Ghoulies. They plan to take over the South Side and sell drugs so she gives Jughead an ultimatum. The Serpents need to leave town or they fight the Ghoulies at Pickens Park at dawn. The Serpents vote to fight, but Jughead doesn’t agree.
After making a deal with Hiram, Jughead offers himself in exchange for no battle with the Ghoulies and with Jughead outnumbered, it’s a brutal fight and the last thing we see in the episode is a distraught FP carrying Jughead out from Penny’s hideout. It looks very, very bad for our narrator, but is he dead?
Considering that Jughead is one of the show’s “Core Four” it’s unlikely that Jughead is dead, but he is likely very gravely injured, something that will surely only spark more unrest among the Serpents and create more chaos in Riverdale.
Oh, and according to the synopsis for next week’s season finale? FP makes a surprising announcement to the Serpents — including Jughead.
Is Hal Cooper really the Black Hood?
Does Hiram know about Hal?
If Hal Cooper is the Black Hood, does Hiram Lodge know? Hiram has been shown as being very interested in the Black Hood situation, encouraging Archie to form the Red Circle, then supporting his aim to kill the Black Hood. Hiram also bought the Register, technically meaning that Hal works for Hiram. It would be an interesting turn of events if Hiram knew about Hal’s secret.
Or, there’s also the possiblity that Hal is just one of Hiram’s puppets and maybe Hiram is really behind the Black Hood….
What does this mean for Dark Betty?
One of the big parts of Hal’s Black Hood reveal was his emphasis on how the “darkness” that lives in him is one that he got from his own father — Grandpappy Cooper murdered his own brother, after all. Now, Hal says that darkness lives on in Betty.
Betty and her darkness is something that has been a theme woven through this season of Riverdale, with the Black Hood calling on Betty to be his accomplice, to Betty seeking answers about the darkness through Chic and, when he’s revealed to be an imposter, a darkness she embraces when she more or less hands him over to the Black Hood. Betty may not be completely dark,but her darkness has been growing.
Does this growing darkness mean that we might see Dark Betty fully emerge? It seems like it would be possible, first with Hal’s reveal and then with Jughead’s situation. All of the drama this season might just have been enough to see Betty crack.
What’s next for Archie?
Archie has struggled all season after his father was the first victim of the Black Hood. Tonight, though, he was delivered four big blows.
First, he discovered that Hiram Lodge manipulated Reggie and the Dark Circle which means that Hiram has been lying to and manipulating him. Then, the “Black Hood” shot his father again, right in front of him though this time Fred was wearing a bulletproof vest only for Betty’s dad to be revealed as the Black Hood. Then, finally, he watched as Jughead’s body was carried out by FP.
The events of tonight’s episode turn Archie’s life as upside down as Betty’s now is making it a big question as to what Archie will do next.
What is Chic’s status?
The last time we saw Chic he was running from the Black Hood and likely certain death. It’s something that Betty feared this episode, so much so that when a call came to the house about a dead body that was found, she went down to the morgue and paid the attendant just as her mother has in the past to find out if the body the found belonged to Chic.
It didn’t, but the mystery of Chic’s fate is one that remains open and likely will through the end of the season. It’s something that Lili Reinhart teased at PaleyFest earlier this year.
“The mystery of Chic is just being unraveled,” Reinhart said. “There’s so much that we’re about to find out about this person who is just seemingly an intruder in their home. The mystery of Chic is just beginning to unfold, and it carries through the end of the season. So, there’s a lot, a lot to unveil.”
What’s next for Cheryl?
Maybe not as big of a question as some of the others from the episode, but what’s next for Cheryl is on our minds. She had been helping Betty investigate Hal as the Black Hood only for the Black Hood to show up on her doorstep. Cheryl turns out to be an adept archer and fights him off, but that doesn’t end things.
Hal’s reveal that it was his father, not Cheryl’s grandfather, that did the killing in their family history. That will certainly have some significance down the line, but more than that, Cheryl is seen with the Serpents when they vote to fight the Ghoulies. Does her relationship with Toni mean that Cheryl will take a more active role in that part of the town’s drama?
More pressing: will archer Cheryl be a regular thing? She’s pretty impressive with the bow and arrow. Hey, if Oliver Queen goes to prison, maybe she can move to Star City and be the new Arrow. She won’t fail that city.
How does Riverdale move on?
A serial killer. Political intrigue. Riots. Gangs. Riverdale has been turned upside down and shaken more times than we can count this season, but tonight’s episode may have rocked the town the hardest. The violence has led to more deaths, the high school is torn apart, and one of the most respected men in town has been revealed to be the Black Hood. With everything that has happened and continues to be happening how will Riverdale as a town move forward?
With only one more episode left this season, we’ll find out next week.
Riverdale airs Wednesdays at 8/7c on The CW.
