Who Dies In The 'Riverdale' Season 2 Premiere?

Riverdale is officially back – and judging by tonight’s season premiere, so is the Angel of Death.

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MAJOR spoilers for tonight’s Riverdale season premiere, ‘A Kiss Before Dying’, below. Only look if you want to know!

After an explosive season finale episode, viewers waited on the edge of their seats to see if anyone (or really, one very particular character) would bite the dust. But what ended up unfolding was certainly unexpected, and should definitely have an impact on the show in the episodes to come.

So, who ended up dying in the Riverdale season two premiere, and what does it mean going forward? Click through to the next slide to see the answer…

NOT Fred Andrews

The fate of Fred Andrews hung in the balance throughout tonight’s episode, after he was suddenly shot inside of Pop’s Diner.

Archie quickly ran Fred to the hospital, where medical staff tried to save Fred from succumbing to his injuries. Along the way, Fred began to dream about pivotal moments in Archie’s future – graduating from high school, proposing to and marrying Veronica, and inheriting the Andrews family business – before omens of death reminded Fred that he might not be present for them.

Eventually, Fred pulled through, waking up to Archie by his bedside. And by the end of the episode, Fred is recovering in the Andrews household, with Archie vowing to find the Black Hood that caused this to his dad.

So, what does that mean for the show going forward? Well, aside from more scenes featuring Luke Perry, it does provide an interesting twist on the show’s newest mystery. Fred will have the ability to essentially help solve his own attempted murder, something that varies from the Jason Blossom case of last season. And even with Fred surviving the attack, the whole ordeal will bring about a very different side to Archie, according to showrunner Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa.

“What happened to Fred changes Archie’s life and sets him on his hero’s journey…but as always with Riverdale, it’s not a bright, fun journey.” Aguirre-Sacasa told ComicBook.com after the finale. “It’s a journey towards darkness, towards revenge, towards violence. The real question is, is Archie going to make that turn toward heroism? I think Archie was raised very well by Fred and that his basic nature is very good, but we’re really going to discover a different side of Archie in season 2.”

But while Fred lives to fight another day, that doesn’t mean that the Black Hood walked away without any victims. Which brings us to…

Ms. Grundy

Yes, Geraldine Grundy (a.k.a. Riverdale High’s former music teacher/Archie’s former beau/a frequent former suspect in Jason’s murder) made her return in tonight’s episode.

She was shown giving music lessons to a student in the nearby town of Greendale. She kissed the student before he left her house, and then began to tidy things up. As she did, the Black Hood suddenly appeared behind her, strangling her until she dies.

So, what does this mean for the show going forward? At this point, it’s too early to tell, but there are a couple big questions raised by her death.

The running theory posited in tonight’s episode was that someone involved with the Lodge family ordered the hit on Fred, as payback for not selling them Andrews Construction. If that were true, Ms. Grundy has no bearing whatsoever on that storyline, seeing as she left the town well before Fred and Hermione really started doing business together.

There is also a more concrete link between Fred and Grundy’s attacks – their connections to Archie. But in Grundy’s case, that opens a whole other can of worms, seeing as a select number of people knew about her and Archie’s relationship before she left town. Unless someone found out about it in the months since, that creates a pretty narrow list of people potentially tied to the Black Hood.