Riverdale Finally Reveals The Farm’s Master Plan in “The Dark Secret of Harvest House”

The Farm has been a shadowy figure on Riverdale in some aspect or another since The CW show’s first season. Back then, it was mentioned simply as a commune, a place where Polly Cooper and Jason Blossom had planned to run away to. In the second season, The Farm was mentioned again, this time offered up by Polly as balm to heal Alice’s emotional wounds after the discovery that Hal Cooper was the Black Hood. This season, though, The Farm has full cult status with an increasingly sinister presence in the Town With Pep and tonight’s penultimate Season 3 episode revealed just how sinister the group really is.

Spoilers for tonight’s episode of Riverdale, “The Dark Secret of Harvest House”, below.

At the end of last week’s episode Betty, rattled at the reappearance of the Black Hood (who she believes is her father), agrees to stay at The Farm with her mother and sister for safety. While there, she not only observes the goings-on of the group but participates in one of the mysterious leader Edgar Evernever’s healing sessions which prompts Betty to “see herself” — literally, a manifestation of her Dark Betty personality who is far more bloodthirsty than we’ve previously seen. After, she speaks with Jughead and determines that she may have been hypnotized by the sound of beads Edgar has on his desk and plans accordingly next session, wary of his “healing”.

She also discovers that her friends — specifically Kevin and Fangs — have undergone surgical procedures to remove “pain” from their bodies as part of Edgar’s healing. Toni is set to go next and that’s when things start clicking for Betty. You see, the scar on Kevin’s back looks like something major was removed from his body and earlier in the episode Betty observed Evelyn Evernever receiving dialysis. Betty confronts her and discovers that Evelyn is also receiving anti-rejection medication. She’s had an organ transplant — and Betty’s gut tells her the only crop The Farm is harvesting are human organs.

Betty locates the organ collection room as well as the fridge they are being kept in, much to her horror. She reveals this to Cheryl — complete with showing her a harvested organ — and it’s enough to snap Cheryl out of whatever hold the cult has on her. She quickly goes to rescue Toni while Betty attempts to get Fangs and Kevin to leave, too. That, however, goes off the rails when the boys restrain her and by episode’s end, Betty finds herself strapped to a table with Edgar preparing to harvest her next.

The idea of The Farm harvesting organs is a sinister, but not entirely weird turn. The creepy group’s mantra about the many becoming one has long had a slightly unnerving energy of sacrifice attached to it. Prior to tonight many fans may have considered that the sacrifice element was attached somehow to the paranormal — and they still could be, considering that Jason Blossom is apparently running around out there as the Gargoyle King and may also be connected to the cult — thanks to the bonfire scene in the season premiere. However, this is Riverdale and it may not end up being quite so cut and dried as a demented urban legend gone awry. Both Evelyn and Edgar insist to Betty that she doesn’t know anything in regard to the organ harvesting, something that could end up being a huge twist in next week’s season finale.

“Edgar and The Farm, they do have an agenda, and that agenda will be uncovered quite soon,” Chad Michael Murray, who plays Edgar, said in a recent interview.

Riverdale airs Wednesday at 8 p.m. ET on The CW.

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