Riverdale – Chapter Fifty-Six: The Dark Secret of Harvest House | Season 3, Episode 21 | Rating: 9/11 |
This is the episode of Riverdale I’ve been waiting for all season. So let’s buckle up and get unpacking…
The Inner Workings of the Farm
While Betty might have only landed at the Farm as a means of keeping safe from her serial killer father, she’s finally getting that insider’s view of the Farm she’s been craving for so long.
During a sit down with her mother Alice, her sister Polly, and Edgar Evernever, Betty’s informed that after an accident as a child some genetic testing revealed she has the MAOA and CDH13 gene which are markers for being a serial killer. Apparently, everyone else in the family was tested and all came up negative, even her serial killer father Hal. They go on to say that she has a predisposition to violence but working with Edgar could help her overcome those tendencies. A flabbergasted Betty agrees to a session with Edgar to work through these issues – what can it hurt? Edgar lights some incense, starts up his Newton’s cradle and asks Betty to talk. Betty begins talking about the darkness she’s always felt and the other person that seems to be living in her so Edgar suggests Betty confront it head-on. Suddenly Betty is in a room with what seems to be her other self. The dark “self” that’s walking in the shadows is telling Betty about how she drowned the family cat and pushed Polly down the stairs. All this information is new to Betty; she recalls the cat running away and has no memory of hurting Polly. Betty comes to back to herself in Edgar’s office with a headache and Edgar tells her the first time can be rough but her body has located the source of her pain and they can work from there.
A chat with her sister later leads to suspicion when Polly asks if Betty’s dark self brought up the incident with the stairs because Polly forgave Betty for that ages ago. Coincidence? I think not! Betty takes some candle wax to use as earplugs for her next session with Edgar and when she enters the room where her dark self should appear, who should she see walking around in the shadows but her sister Polly. The whole thing is feeling like a sham and Betty’s quick to tell Cheryl, Toni, Fangs, and Kevin that she thinks Edgar is hypnotizing them and up to shady to business.
Cheryl runs to save Toni while Betty goes to get Kevin and Fangs. Cheryl has an epic brawl with operating room staff and after much running, they manage to find a window for Toni to escape through but Cheryl stays behind as Toni makes a run for it. Betty is not so lucky. Her attempt to get Kevin and Fangs to leave fails miserably when they say that Edgar is simply removing disease from their body and the three of them should go have a chat with Edgar to clear it up. They grab Betty when she tries to run and she wakes up on a table in the operating room with Edgar standing over her saying she put up quite the fight, she doesn’t know what she saw, and that she’s left him with no choice.
The Fall of Hiram Lodge
Veronica is not so thrilled that her dad lied to her again and she’s finally had enough. The betrayal of finding out your dad still owns the two businesses in your name and you’re paying him additional money on top of that? I couldn’t imagine.
Veronica has a chat with Archie’s lawyer mom, Mary, about her options to get her dad behind bars and Mary, in turn, calls an FBI friend for a consultation. All illegal activities have been under Veronica’s orders even though her dad owns Pop’s and La Bonne Nuit. What they really need to nail Hiram is to catch him in the act and Veronica comes up with the perfect plan but she needs Archie’s help.
Archie shows up at the steam room where Hiram is chatting with his associates about his plan to privatize Riverdale, calls out Hiram and challenges him to a fight which Hiram obviously accepts. Later Veronica tells Hiram he can’t win according to the odds that she’s hearing, which – of course – only adds fuel to Hiram’s fire. He insists they run all illegal betting through La Bonne Nuit and they will both make out for the better. All seems good, right? Well, fight day rolls around and while Archie is fighting a beefed up Hiram Lodge, Veronica is running all bets through La Bonne Nuit with Reggie and Peaches helping her out. Veronica takes the stage to sing Beyoncé’s “Daddy Lessons” (I like her cover better) while Archie is doing his best not to get hammered, especially with a biased referee. Suddenly the FBI show up to raid La Bonne Nuit just as Veronica is hearing about people wanting to bet that Hiram is going to kill Archie. Veronica surrenders to the FBI, says all things were done under Hiram’s orders and proceeds to run to the boxing gym in an attempt to keep her father from killing Archie in the ring. She needn’t worry too much as FP Jones was there and arrested Hiram mid-fight before he could do any major damage to Archie.
While Hiram tried to brag that he beat Archie and won the fight, Archie retorted that he was just keeping him busy and the look on Hiram’s face when he realized he’d been had by Archie and Veronica was absolutely priceless.
Veronica later visited daddy dearest in jail to explain that he had crossed her one too many times and he best remember that it was she who put him there.
Finishing the Quest
While Betty is going through her whole ordeal at the Farm, she’s been keeping in regular contact with Jughead. While he does offer to bust her out, she insists she’s fine and sets him out to find out where the note that sent her straight to the arms of her murderous father originated from.
After some sleuthing about the school, he asks a dude who seems to be the origin point where he got the note. He goes on to describe a kid who looks homeless as the person who gave it to him and we all know he’s describing that snot-nosed Ricky.
(For a quick refresher, Ricky “kidnapped” Jellybean while Kurtz held the Jones family hostage for a quick G&G game and he also tried to kill Archie when Archie took him in thinking he was a runaway.)
So this kid is bad news. When Jughead asks Jellybean about Ricky, he finds out that he is planning on ascending and he quickly has his little sister draw up a map so he can find him. As luck would have it, Jughead gets there in time to stop Ricky from drinking the poisonous blue drink but he’s quickly set upon by a horde of what look to be boy scouts. Jughead manages to find refuge in Dilton’s bunker and whom should he run into but Ethel Muggs. If like me, you have been wondering what she’s been up to well, she did leave the false Gargoyle King from the Sisters of Quiet Mercy but she later rejoined the true King.
At the moment, however, she’s afraid for her life because she failed her quest that Gargoyle King had given her. It turns out she was the one who gave Ricky the note that made its way to Betty. While Ethel won’t divulge who the king is because she loves him and all that garbage, she does agree to help Jughead end the game that the town has been stuck in. Ethel has the authority to call off the horde of boy scouts but one is missing. Just as Ethel and Jughead locate him and are about to take off, Jughead spots the Black Hood in the distance and he’s spotted them, as well. The entire thing is reminiscent of Betty’s escape from him at school only this is on a bus with a back door that doesn’t want to open. The three manage to escape from the Black Hood and safely make it to the sheriff’s station. Ethel decides that Jughead should be rewarded for his actions and she’s going to tell him who the Gargoyle King is in return. Plot twist: the Gargoyle King is Cheryl’s previously thought to be dead and murdered brother, Jason.
When Jughead tells Betty this news, (this is before her whole failed escape ordeal) she tells him there’s only one way to be sure: dig him up. Jughead spent his evening digging up Jason’s grave and, lo and behold, there’s no body in the casket. I guess Cheryl was right about seeing Jason at the Farm…
Other Notes:
- I love Kevin but I’ve just about had it with him and his Farm craze. Where is his father and why hasn’t he snatched Kevin back from the Farm?
- Veronica and Archie had a moment after Hiram was carted off. Archie’s mom called them “endgame” but when Archie went to see how Veronica felt, Reggie was there and she told Reggie she wanted to be his gal. Sad face for Archie.
- If Jason’s death was faked, what did FP clean up and hide? Also, this means Clifford Blossom was killed for nothing.
- What happened during Betty’s procedure?
