Riverdale‘s fourth season has some pretty big mysteries to solve, including the apparent murder of Jughead Jones (Cole Sprouse) in the coming months. Everyone’s favorite beanie-wearing weirdo seemed to be in pretty dire straights at the end of last week’s Halloween episode, which adds a whole new level to the events of this week’s installment. Outside of Jughead’s drama, there’s also the nature of the Lodge family going to court, Archie hitting another snag with his community center, and so much more. Here’s what you need to know about this week’s episode, “Chapter Sixty-Two: Witness for the Prosecution”.
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Mary and Veronica prepare Hermione for her trial. Pop Tate gets a subpoena for Hiram’s trial, and says that he doesn’t want to have to lie to protect Veronica during the trail. Veronica confirms Hiram about it, but he doesn’t budge. Veronica meets with Hiram’s prosecutor and decides to admit to having Pop Tate doctor his books due to Hiram extorting her.
FP testifies at Hermione’s trial. The prosecutor uncovers papers that suggest that the cabin was under Hermione’s name, but Hermione suggests that Hiram forged the papers. Veronica suggests that they get the governor to try to pardon Hermione. Veronica meets with Governor Dooley and blackmails him into pardoning Hermione. Hermione pleads guilty, setting the pardon in motion. While at the speakeasy, Veronica meets a woman named Hermosa, a private investigator who has been tracking her. She also reveals that she’s Veronica’s half-sister. Hiram is later (falsely) proven innocent, and announces his candidacy for mayor with Hermosa by his side.
Meanwhile, Jughead continues to research about the Stonewall Four. He accuses the kids of making Moose disappear, but Donna reassures that he’s just in basic training for the Army. During class, Jughead learns that Chipping is the latest in a line of ghostwriters of his favorite children’s book series, The Baxter Brothers. Jughead tracks down his collection of the books, which clearly seems to weird out FP. While reading one of the books at Stonewall, Jughead notices that some of the pages are ripped out. In class the next day, Chipping introduces the students to the original ghostwriter, Dupont, who reveals that they’re currently searching for someone in the class to succeed Chipping.
Jughead discovers that Dupont was classmates with his grandfather, who was a writer and apparently kicked out of school under mysterious circumstances. Dupont invites both Jughead and FP to a reception, but FP turns it down and argues that his father was not a good person. At the reception, everyone plays a game that Jughead wins. Dupont offers Jughead the role of ghostwriter. Brett later confronts Jughead and argues that he’s just a charity case, and the two of them almost grow violent. Jughead almost considers dropping out, and FP tells him to stick with it. FP also admits that the Baxter Brothers books were courtesy of Jughead’s grandfather. Jughead later looks at one of the books and finds a message from his grandfather inside, which FP had initially ripped out. Jughead decides to enter the Baxter Brothers contest — and decides to start going by Forsythe. He then learns that the prompt for the contest is (of course) murder.
In a flash-forward to after spring break, FP barges into class and arrests Archie, Betty, and Veronica for Jughead’s murder.
Other tidbits from the episode include:
- Archie begins to become a vigilante (yes really), wearing a black ski mask as he attempts to save a woman from a purse-snatcher. He promptly gets pepper-sprayed in the face. The next day, one of the community center kids, Toby, gets in trouble for shoplifting at a convenience store. When leaving the center that night, Archie scares away two guys who were trying to steal hubcaps off of a car. He then is confronted by Toby, who admits to working with Dodger. Archie and Mad Dog tell the kids that they can’t work for Dodger and be part of the community center. Toby confronts them about that, and then leaves. FP later tells Archie that the kids are being accused of petty crimes, and suggests that they try to get to know their neighbors. Archie holds a press conference where he announces a Big Brothers, Big Sisters program, and asks the other local businesses to join in. A man who owns a hardware store later tells Archie that Dodger has all of the local businesses in a deal, where they need to protest the community center in order to ensure the protection from his gang. Archie suits up and confronts Dodger, attempting to run him out of town.
Betty recruits Kevin for the Junior FBI program. Charles leads the class, and Betty correctly identifies a serial killer in every exercise — because of their shared “serial killer” genes. Betty gets tested for the genes and comes back with a positive result, but hides it from Kevin. During Junior FBI the next day, Charles explains how serial killers usually tortured an animal in their youth, and Betty remembers that she probably drowned her cat, Caramel, as a child. Betty has a nightmare about her younger self killing Caramel.
At the next Junior FBI class, Charles talks about childhood diaries, leading to Betty revisiting her own. Betty then remembers that Hal made her kill Caramel after it had been hit by a car. She tells Kevin this information, and he suggests that they leave the Junior FBI program. Betty tells Charles she’s considering dropping out, and he reveals that he has the genes as well. Betty later tells Kevin that they’re staying in Junior FBI — largely so she can track down Charles and figure out his true motives.
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