‘Riverdale’ Reveals Who Shot Hiram Lodge in “The Red Dahlia”

Last week on Riverdale, someone tried to kill Hiram Lodge, gunning the shady Man in Black down in his office. However, the mystery of who pulled the trigger didn’t linger too long for fans of The CW series with the would-be murderer’s identity revealed in “The Red Dahlia” tonight.

Spoilers for tonight’s episode of Riverdale, “The Red Dahlia”, below.

Tonight’s episode kicked off with Veronica hiring Jughead to ferret out the person who tried to kill her father and while Jughead did get to the bottom of things, it turns out that there was more than one person involved in the assassination attempt — a trigger man, a mastermind, a fall guy, and surprising loose end.

Right out of the gate, Jughead suspected that Hiram’s wife, Hermione, was involved and that’s where his investigation began. While questioning the mayor herself led Jughead down a couple of other paths — including one that introduced him to Hiram’s mistress, a water inspector played by Kelly Ripa — his instincts weren’t wrong. Hermione did, in fact, put the shooting into motion. But she didn’t pull the trigger.

F.P. Jones did. Hermione had Jughead’s dad do the deed and he was glad to do it after Hiram nearly had Jughead killed. Shooting Hiram is also how F.P. ended up sheriff. The title was his payment for pulling the trigger and F.P. though being sheriff would protect him from Hermione should she choose to double cross him. It didn’t, though. Hermione was overheard plotting with former sheriff Minetta — yes, he’s alive. Minetta was going to finish off Hiram with a sheriff’s department weapon that they could then use to pin the murder on F.P.

That’s not how it ultimately went down though. With F.P. knowing Hermione’s plan, he decided to go public and announce that they had caught Hiram’s shooter. The crime was blamed on Tall Boy who was killed last week after being unmasked as Hiram’s Gargoyle King. As his body had been stored at Jughead’s bunker while they desperately figured out what to do about the situation, Tall Boy made the perfect fall guy. Blaming the crime on him closed the case while putting Hermione on notice that F.P. was onto her.

All of this left only one thing to tidy up: Minetta. Her plans ruined — in addition to killing Hiram, Hermione had planned to sell the Fizzle Rocks business something Veronica ruined for her — Hermione was left needing to eliminate the loose ends. At the end of the episode, Hermione is seen enjoying an intimate moment with the former sheriff, only to get up, take out a gun, and fire multiple times, presumably killing the not-so-good officer of the law for real.

So, did you predict who was behind the shooting of Hiram Lodge? Let us know in the comments below!

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