Riverdale fans have had a lot to take in with the show’s fifth season, especially once the series’ seven-year time jump came to fruition. The hit The CW series has already presented a wallop of surprising plot twists, new couples, and new mysteries — and that was especially the case with this week’s installment. If you need to catch up on the most essential details and storylines from Riverdale‘s latest episode, we’re here to help. Here are the biggest reveals and Easter eggs from “Chapter Eighty-Two: Back to School” Obviously, spoilers for the latest episode of Riverdale, “Chapter Eighty-Two: Back to School”, below! Only look if you want to know!
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Everyone prepares for their first day teaching at Riverdale High. Veronica teaches Economics, Archie teaches RROTC, Betty teaches Auto Shop, and Jughead teaches English, and all of them are met with disdain from their students. Jughead runs into some of his students while working at Pop’s, and they begin to belittle him for working a second job.
Veronica considers turning Blue Velvet Video into a jewelry store. Later, Chad surprises Veronica during one of her classes, to her chagrin. Toni invites everyone to karaoke night at the Whyte Wyrm, and they accept. Veronica goes up for karaoke and performs “Shallow,” which Chad turns into a duet. The two of them sleep together afterwards, and Chad suggests that he stay in Riverdale for a few more days. They work out balancing their schedules between Riverdale and New York, but Chad suggests that he move to town full time and help Hiram manage SoDale.
Betty and Archie go to some creative lengths to continue hooking up — including doing so in the Auto Shop car. After a fire alarm goes off, the pair find Stonewall Prep football players burning a trash can in the middle of the school hallway. Archie tells Toni, Weatherbee, and Sheriff Keller about it, but they tell him that Stonewall’s football team — which is run by Reggie — is too good to get in trouble.
Archie confronts Reggie at Stonewall’s football practice, punching him in the face, and revealing that he’s bringing back Riverdale’s football team. Archie recruits eleven students to play on the team, and asks Cheryl if she can provide the funding, but she refuses. Archie accepts defeat about the funding, but considers asking Veronica for help. He ultimately does so, and she agrees — but Chad adds a caveat of him earning the money by renovating their apartment. This upsets Veronica, who suggests that they spend some time apart.
Archie and Veronica celebrate the football team being funded, and Veronica asks to be addressed by her maiden name. Hiram learns about this and tries to enact revenge.
Toni also flaunts the new crop of Vixens and their budget around the school, and news of that ultimately gets back to Cheryl, who is upset about it and gets drawn back into the ongoings of the town.
Toni tells Betty that some of the Serpents have seen Polly at a truck stop outside of town. Betty and Kevin investigate, and reach out to one of the truckers who Polly has seemingly been messaging with. They stake out the truck stop he mentioned, and interrogate him. He reveals that Polly jumped out of the truck and ran away when they’d last seen each other. Alice and Betty later find Polly’s belongings on the side of the road, and the FBI track her location down to a swamp.
Betty and Archie hook up again.
Cheryl and Nana Blossom decide to pull off an art heist — forging duplicates of paintings in order to get more money. They pull off the forgery with a painting of Jason that was supposedly done by a famous artist.
Jughead interviews Tabitha for his new book, and learns that she left a wealthy job in Chicago in order to help improve Pop’s.
At karaoke night, Tabitha tells Jughead about another person he should interview — a recluse man with tales of “The Mothman.” He visits the man, and he recounts his story — each of his fellow miners had been kidnapped by a group of extraterrestrials called “The Mothmen.” Jughead investigates all of the miners, and learns that they all died of cancer, which he suspects could be tied to the Mothmen’s capture of them. Tabitha offers to help Jughead in the investigation.
The episode ends with Archie and Jughead’s house being surrounded by fire.
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Riverdale airs Wednesdays at 8/7c on The CW.
