Riverdale – Chapter Forty-One: Manhunter | Season 3, Episode 6 | Rating: 8.5/11 |
Either the whole town of Riverdale is under a mass delusion or something very supernatural and creepy is roaming through the county going unchecked. It’s hard to know for certain what’s going on and with the adults playing the blame game, it’s difficult to spot the truth. But one thing is for sure: the Gargoyle King is a menace and it’s starting to get personal.
Investigation: Midnight Club:
Betty is like a dog with a bone when it comes to the Gargoyle King and things get exacerbated when Jughead runs back to the bunker and explains that not only did he run into the Gargoyle King in the forest on his way home, but now he has masked disciples with him. Archie wakes long enough to relay what Joaquin said to Kevin on the day of his escape about Joaquin joining a new gang. Betty is determined to find a link between Warden Norton and the Midnight Club since both are connected to Gryphons & Gargoyles.
As it turns out, Warden Norton was the ROTC instructor when the Midnight Club was formed at school. In an effort to get some answers, Betty tricks the Midnight Club by sending them an invitation to Veronica’s speakeasy from the Gargoyle King. They all showed up and when confronted with her questions, either want to run or start playing the blame game. The finger gets pointed at Penelope Blossom by Hermione Lodge as she was the “game master” but Penelope blames Daryl Doiley as he was also “game master.” Penelope says that Daryl was in love with her and wanted them to ascend together but she turned him down and he never emptied the poison from the glasses. According to Penelope, Daryl confessed all of this to her years later due to his lingering guilt and when she turned him down again, he committed suicide by carbon monoxide poisoning.
The Midnight Club quickly flee from Betty with no real answers given so Betty looks into the death of Daryl and discovers that he wasn’t killed by carbon monoxide: it was oleander which is something Penelope grows in her greenhouses. When Betty confronts Tom Keller as to why he didn’t investigate it further, he claims to have been protecting the Midnight Club and points the finger at Penelope due to the oleander. When Betty talks to Aunty Penelope, she says she would never use oleander as it leaves traces but perhaps Betty should talk to her mother who covered the story in the paper. Again, so much finger-pointing. Betty is in the middle of confronting her mother about it when the lights suddenly go out and there’s a knock at the door. It’s super creepy as no one seems to be at the door and suddenly, out of nowhere, in the corner of the room is the Gargoyle King. In. The. House.
The Quest of the Paladin:
Archie is still in recovery in the bunker but he’s not feeling so well at the moment. Thankfully, Kevin was there keeping an eye on him and discovers that Archie’s wound is infected. I guess that can happen when you crawl through a drainage pipe to bust out of your terror of a jail.
So Kevin calls Betty who suggests coroner Dr. Curdle Jr. can be trusted and will help Archie. Once he’s patched up, Archie is a man on a mission to find the men who helped convict him. The warden told Archie that they (the guys Hiram paid off) are likely hiding in the mines at Shadow Lake and are the only ones who can help to clear his name. Kevin, being the awesome dude he is, goes with Archie to keep him safe since there is a town-wide manhunt for Archie. This quest is strictly against Veronica’s wishes as she is hoping to find something by going back through the evidence from Archie’s trial and wants him to stay put, but Archie is nothing if not stubborn in his nobility.
As Kevin and Archie make their way towards the mines, they hear something and see Sheriff Minetta hightailing his way up towards the mines. Thankfully, he doesn’t see them, but when they reach the mine they find the three who can clear Archie shot dead. Well, two are dead and one is wounded pretty badly so Archie and Kevin get him to the hospital. Sadly, the third guy died at the hospital and Archie – being as stupid noble as he is – decides he can’t stay in Riverdale because no matter what, Hiram will always be after him.
Even though Veronica managed to get him exonerated before the end of the day, we can’t argue with his logic. That’s right: she discovered the interrogation tape had been edited and found the missing footage on her mother’s computer at the Mayor’s office. The footage clearly shows Sheriff Minetta bribing one of the Shadow Lake men to say he saw Archie shoot that guy and Veronica managed to email it to herself before getting caught and put in jail for her troubles. It’s also worth noting the folder that the footage was in had that strange symbol that’s branded on Archie as the file name. Weird right?
Later, Veronica was bailed out thanks to attorney McCoy and was in the midst of planning a welcome home party when Archie called. Veronica told Archie that she’d gotten him exonerated with the footage he found but Archie said he couldn’t come home: as long as Hiram was around, anyone close to Archie was in danger. It was, undoubtedly, one of the worst breakups you could imagine with Veronica insisting that if Archie loved her, he would come home and Archie saying that he was leaving because he loved her so much. Two sides of the same coin, I guess.
They never said goodbye as Veronica wouldn’t allow it and she broke down in tears, but Archie said the word after they hung up and is on the run and hopping trains with Jughead by his side.
Other Notes:
- Jughead was after Joaquin for some answers about Warden Norton. The Serpents caught up with him and he did finally talk but gave up very little information. Joaquin said the symbol on Archie means sacrifice and if he isn’t dead now, he will be soon. He also said that Jughead knows who the Gargoyle King is: it’s the man in the black suit. Joaquin was later discovered dead the Serpent camp with a tarp over him and that very same symbol on his forehead.
- Josie had a seizure in class. This was while Sheriff Minetta was pushing the kids into talking about Archie’s escape. This is the third seizure with Evelyn Evernever in the vicinity, the third seizure while under stress, and the third seizure with no known cause.
- Veronica used her one phone call in jail to call Fred Andrews. She relayed the info that Archie was okay and that he and Kevin were on their way to Shadow Lake to find the men her father had paid off. Fred called Tom Keller and together they found their bodies in the mine and called it in. They later caught up with Kevin in the hospital but Archie was already gone and left a note for his dad.
- Once again Jughead went after Hiram but Hiram denied being the Gargoyle King instead opting to point the finger at Jughead’s father, FP as well as Tom Keller, Clifford Blossom, and Hal Cooper.
- When FP found out Jughead is still playing Gryphons & Gargoyles, he decided to handcuff Jughead to the fridge for a G&G detox. Thankfully, Betty showed up later and had a hairpin available to break him out.
- There were strange symbols in the mine where Hiram’s men were hiding out and they look like they are from Gryphons & Gargoyles. The question is, what do they mean and who put them there?
- We find out that Alice wasn’t the only one who saw the Gargoyle King on ascension night: FP also saw him but thought it was a hallucination.