At the suggestion of my good friend Chris Nelmes, here is a summary of Season One. Be aware: spoilers abound. So, if you want to get a feel and not be surprised when you actually watch the show, read on. By the way: every episode has a nod to classic films in its’ title, along with being labeled as Chapters. Thanks to IMDB for that bit of information!
In CHAPTER ONE: THE RIVER’S EDGE, we meet our cast of characters. As comic fans know, our core four is Archie Andrews (KJ Apa), Betty Cooper (Lili Reinhart), Veronica Lodge (Camila Mendes), and Jughead Jones (Cole Sprouse). We also meet Archie’s dad Fred (Luke Perry), Alice (Mädchen Amick) and Hal Cooper (Lochlyn Munro), and Hermione Lodge (Marisol Nichols). Other key cast members include the Cheryl, Jason, Penelope and Cliff Blossom (Madelaine Petsch, Trevor Stines, Nathalie Boltt, Barclay Hope), Kevin Keller (Casey Cott), Reggie Mantle (Ross Butler), Miss Grundy (Sarah Habel), and Josie and the Pussycats (Ashleigh Murray, Asha Bromfield, Hayley Law).
With Jughead, who is writing a book about everything, acting as our narrator, we learn that Cheryl and twin brother Jason Blossom went out in a boat to Sweet Water River on the Fourth of July and only Cheryl came back. Archie, whose parents are separated, is a high school sophomore who is working for his dad’s construction company and playing football, while also trying to pursue his love of music. He tries to convince his music teacher, Miss Grundy, to be his private tutor, but they had a heated love affair over the summer and she feels it is best they don’t get together. During this affair, it is revealed they were at Sweet Water River when Jason drowned and apparently heard gunshots that morning.
Veronica and her mother Hermione have moved from New York to Riverdale while her millionaire father Hiram is in jail facing embezzlement charges. Secrets abound as we learn that Betty’s sister Polly had a mental breakdown and was sent away. It apparently has something to do with her relationship with Jason. And it’s possible that Cheryl may be hiding a secret regarding Jason’s death.
At the school dance, Cheryl convinces Archie, Betty, and Veronica to go to her after-party, where Archie and Veronica play a game of Seven Minutes in Heaven, much to Betty’s dismay. Later, openly gay Kevin Keller and Moose Mason are alone at the lake when they discover Jason's body with a bullet hole between the eyes, meaning this mystery just got more mysterious.
In CHAPTER TWO: A TOUCH OF EVIL, Miss Grundy insists that neither she nor Archie can tell anyone about being at the lake on July 4th or hearing the gunshot. But Jughead later sees the couple holding hands, realizes their connection and fights with Archie, who he thinks should go to the sheriff. The next day, Cheryl who blames Polly for Jason's death, gets arrested. It seems Jason's autopsy shows he was murdered a week he supposedly drowned.
When CHAPTER THREE: BODY DOUBLE begins, we have the sheriff questioning Cheryl, where she reveals that Jason wanted to leave Riverdale and she was helping him stage an accident to cover up his disappearance. Archie later meets with Sheriff Keller and says he was at the lake and heard the gunshot, but it was just him and his dog. Cheryl tries to thank Archie for his confession by hooking him up with Josie and the Pussycats, who might be able to help him with his musical aspirations. Meanwhile, Betty decides to restart the school newspaper and she sends Jughead to interview Dilton Doiley-the Scoutmaster who found Cheryl on the 4th. Dilton was out with the Adventure Scouts training them how to shoot and the shot that Archie heard was them. He reveals that he saw Ms. Grundy's car by the river that day.
Veronica is now dating football star Chuck Clayton and learns that he and other members of the football team, including Jason, have been engaged in slut shaming, leading her to find his playbook, which, among others, has Ethel, Veronica and Polly’s names in it. Looking for revenge, Veronica and Betty drug Chuck and brutally torture him, with Betty dressed in lingerie and a black wig. Betty covers him in maple syrup and, calling him Jason and referring to herself as Polly, she demands he apologize for hurting her. Chuck gets thrown off the football team by his father, who is the coach, while Betty and Cheryl burn the evidence.
Remember: at this point, we’re only three episodes into the season.
As Episode Four, entitled THE LAST PICTURE SHOW begins (one of my favorite films which I recently secured the soundtrack to), Jughead has learned that the Twilight Drive-In Theater where he works is closing. On it’s last night, Veronica sees her mother meeting with the leader of the criminal gang known as the Southside Serpents, who turns out to be Jughead’s father, F.P. Jones (Skeet Ulrich), and handing him some sort of payoff. When Veronica confronts her mother, she learns that Hiram is the anonymous buyer of the property and this payoff is related to the Serpents involvement in that scheme.
Archie and Fred have dinner with Miss Grundy at Pop’s Diner, leading Betty to confront Archie about a possible romantic affair with his teacher. He fesses up to it and Veronica overhears, meaning all three members of the romantic triangle are in on the secret. Betty decides to interview Miss Grundy and does some investigative journalism, finding out that Geraldine Grundy was an elderly woman who died seven years ago. Betty and Veronica break into Grundy’s car, where they find a driver’s license saying she is Jennifer Gibson. They also find a revolver. Grundy explains to Archie that she changed her name after a divorce from her abusive husband. Faced with exposure by Betty’s newspaper reporter mother, Grundy agrees to leave Riverdale forever. In the end, someone steals all of the evidence on Jason’s murder from Sheriff Keller’s office.
Chapter Five is called HEART OF DARKNESS. Cheryl’s mom tears up the eulogy Cheryl had written for Jason and her parents refuse to let her speak at his memorial. But she manages to do it, wearing the same dress she wore on the day he “drowned”. Betty and Jughead sneak away to go search Jason’s room, but run into Cheryl’s grandmother. She mistakes Betty for Polly and spills it that Polly and Jason got engaged with an antique ring that he gave her. Looking to replace Jason, Coach Clayton pits Archie and Reggie against each other for the role of team captain. While trying to work on his other passion, his music, he meets with a songwriter from New York named Oscar Castillo, who turns him away after he feels Archie’s songs are childish. Hermione has a cardboard box with a snake inside left for her at the diner-an obvious message from the Southside Serpents. Later, Betty finds out that her dad was aware of the engagement before he reveals that Betty’s great-grandfather was in the maple-syrup business with Cheryl’s great-grandfather until he was murdered by Mr. Blossom. In the end, we see that it was Mr. Cooper that stole the files on Jason’s murder.
In CHAPTER SIX: FASTER PUSSYCATS! KILL! KILL!, Betty digs through her mother’s purse and finds a check made out to the Sisters of Quiet Mercy. Betty and Jughead head out to the place and find Polly, who is not sick, but pregnant. She had a plan for her and Jason to run away together. On the 4th of July, they were going to meet on the other side of the river, but the Cooper found out and had her taken away. When Polly asks if Betty had talked to Jason, she tells her sister that he is dead. Later, Betty and Jughead kiss, followed by Betty saying that Polly mentioned that Jason had a getaway car stashed on Route 40. They find the car, along with Jason’s jacket and drugs. They contact Sheriff Keller but, by the time he arrives, the car has been torched Meanwhile, Archie tries to get ready for Riverdale annual variety show with the help of Valerie, who quits the Pussycats. In the aftermath, Veronica ends up in the band and Archie and Val kiss. Hermione is now working at Andrews Construction and wants to award the Drive-In developments contract to his company, but she needs Veronica to sign off on it. When she won’t, Hermione forges the signature.
Chapter Seven is called IN A LONELY PLACE. Polly has escaped from the Sisters of Quiet Mercy, leading to the town organizing a search party. Betty eventually finds Polly hiding in their attic. While the Blossoms want to take Polly in, Cheryl feels that her parents have bad plans for her and Polly moves in with Veronica and Hermione. Jughead convinces his father to ask Fred for a job at the construction company. We learn that F.P. and Fred founded Andrews Construction together, but Fred cut him loose after he had to bail him out of jail. It also turns out that F.P. has Jason's jacket in his trailer, making him the prime suspect in the torching of the car. Sheriff Keller takes Jughead into custody, as he is now a person of interest in the murder, but Fred provides the alibi.
Chapter Eight is THE OUTSIDERS, where Polly tells the sheriff that Jason was supposed to make a drug delivery for what is assumed was the Southside Serpents. With Clifford Blossom hiring all the qualified construction workers in town, in an attempt to bankrupt the construction project, Fred is forced to hire the Serpents. F.P. tells Hermione that Hiram found out that Fred and her were a couple and that Hiram was responsible for hiring the Serpents to cause havoc at the construction site. F.P. also tells fellow Serpent Joaquin to keep seeing Kevin, so he can spy on things involving the sheriff. Veronica decides to host a baby shower for Polly. But during the event, Penelope and Alice fight over whom she should live with and Polly decides to head back to Thornhill and live with the Blossoms. At the same time, Polly tells her mother that even though she is mad at mom sending her off to the Sisters of Quiet Mercy, at least it wasn’t as bad as what her father had done by making an appointment for her to have an abortion. Alice heads home and throws Hal out of the house because of this.
In Chapter Nine: LA GRANDE ILLUSION, it’s time for the Blossom family's annual maple tree-tapping ceremony and Cheryl invites Archie to be her date. Archie is inclined to decline until Penelope tells him that Cheryl’s great-uncle is on the board of directors for a music school and she offers some quid pro quo. Under pressure, Archie accepts. He finds out that Polly moved in with the Blossoms to get evidence regarding Jason’s death and he tells this to Betty. She and Jughead decide to write a piece for the school paper and Alice Cooper, recently fired from the town paper by her husband, decides to join them. Ethel Muggs’ family is going to lose their home soon as it seems Mr. Muggs invested with Hiram Lodge and Mr. Muggs has recently attempted suicide because of it. After the tapping ceremony and banquet, Archie finds out that Mr. Blossom wants him to be a part of his company but also finds out that Clifford was responsible for sending Hiram Lodge to jail. Later, Val breaks up with Archie and he decides that he wants no part of the Blossoms, even if it means losing his chance at the music school.
Four episodes until the season finale…
Chapter Ten is called THE LOST WEEKEND. While being threaten by the family attorney to testify as a character witness for her dad, Veronica discovers that the Blossoms have been making payments to Lodge Industries for generations and only stopped when Hiram got arrested. Further pressure is put on her when she gets a letter from her dad saying she must testify or else he will implicate her mother. While Fred goes to Chicago to finalize his divorce, Betty finds out Jughead's birthday is coming up and she convinces Archie to throw him a party at the house. Chuck Clayton’s suspension is over and he has a run in with Betty at school, where she gets so angry she cuts him palms open with her fingernails. At the party, Cheryl and her crew, including Chuck, show up uninvited, leading to a game of “Secrets and Sins” where Veronica accuses Cheryl of murdering Jason.Dilton reveals how Archie was fooling around with Ms. Grundy while Chuck tells about Dark Betty. F.P. is here and pulls Joaquin aside to quiz him about what he has learned from Kevin. He says he overheard Veronica say that her father may have had something to do with Jason’s murder. Jughead and Chuck get into a fight leading to F.P. ending the party, but not before he confronts Betty’s mom, who he reveals was once a Serpent. When Fred returns home, following an Archie phone call begging him to not sign the divorce papers, he has his wife Mary (Molly Ringwald) with him.
TO RIVERDALE AND BACK AGAIN in the title of Chapter Eleven. Archie’s mother is back from Chicago and Veronica finds out that her father may be released from prison soon. Jughead has given his dad a copy of his novel and F.P. suggests that Jughead needs to move on from it. Cheryl tells her parents that she is bringing Polly as her date to the dance so they can be co-queens in honor of Jason. Meanwhile, Polly and Cheryl find the ring that Jason had used to propose to Polly with. Mrs. Blossom explains that Jason walked away from the family and threw the ring at his father. Mrs. Blossom gives Polly a drug laced milkshake, which causes her to pass out and miss the Homecoming Dance. Alice invites the Jones to dinner before the dance, which allows Veronica and Archie to search F.P.’s trailer for evidence. During dinner, Mr. Cooper shows up, the conversation shifts to the night of THEIR Homecoming Dance, when he talks about a huge fight Hal, and Alice had that night. At this year’s Homecoming Dance, Archie and Veronica perform together while his parents arrive hand in hand with Hermione. The police search F.P.’s trailer, where they find a lockbox with a gun in it, and promptly arrest him for the murder of Jason Blossom. When Archie and Veronica tell Betty the news, they swear that they found no gun when they searched, which means someone planted that evidence.
In Chapter Twelve, ANATOMY OF A MURDER, Jughead heads to the bus station, so he can go to Toledo to be with his mom and his brother jellybean, even though she forbids him from coming. In jail, F.P. confesses to Jason's murder, burning Jason’s car, and tampering with evidence. He tells how Jason needed cash to make his getaway, so F.P. arranged to have him make a drug delivery. He kidnapped Jason, held him at the Whyte Wyrm, and put in a ransom call to Mr. Blossom. When tried to escape, F.P. killed him. He also admits to stealing Sheriff Keller’s file, even though we see Hal Cooper trying to destroy that evidence. Then he reveals the family secret: the Coopers are actually Blossoms. Hal’s grandfather was murdered by his brother and that side of the family changed their name to Cooper. This means Jason and Polly were related to each other by blood. The Coopers go to Thornhill, accuse the Blossom’s of murder to cover up the incest, and take Polly back home with them.
In jail, F.P. used his one phone call to call Joaquin, leading Archie and company to quiz him about events surrounding the murder. He tells them that he got a call from F.P. to do a clean-up at the Wyrm’s and, in addition to cleaning up all the blood, helped put Jason in the freezer. That confession leads them to one of the Serpents, who the kids find dead of an apparent self-inflicted overdose. The police arrive and find a bag of cash under the guys’ bed, in a bag with the initials H.P. on it. For his own safety, Kevin sends Joaquin out of town. Betty, Veronica, and Kevin find Jason’s varsity jacket and discover a USB drive in the lining. The kids plug it into a laptop and are shocked by what they see. At Thornhill, Cheryl gets into a fight with her mother about what really happened and she drags her out to the barn to show her all the barrels of maple syrup. Betty calls Cheryl and tells her to get out of the house, she does, but not before she accuses her father of doing a bad thing.
Mrs. Cooper turns the USB drive over to the sheriff and the mayor. It shows Jason tied to a chair in the basement of the Whyte Wyrm when Clifford Blossom shows up, takes back the engagement ring and then shoots him between the eyes. F.P. confessed because Clifford came to see him the night he was arrested and threatened to kill Jughead if F.P. didn’t own up to the murder. When the police arrive at Thornhill, they find that Clifford is dead and hanging from the rafters, next to several barrels filled with heroin.
In the season ending episode, THE SWEET HEREAFTER, we learn that Clifford was using the Maple Syrup business to smuggle heroin from Canada. Jason found out about it and Clifford killed him because of it. While F.P. has been cleared, he still is facing a number of charges and lengthy prison time. Alice tells Betty that the fight the night of their Homecoming Dance had to deal with her being pregnant. She went away to the Sisters of Silent Mercy and she was forced to give their son up for adoption.
Jughead is told that he needs to go to a foster family on the Southside, which means he goes to a Southside High-a tough school filled with metal detectors. Betty, Veronica, and Archie “rescue” him, even though it looks like he has made some new friends. Veronica gets a text from Cheryl that seems to imply she is going to drown herself in Sweetwater River. The trio gets there just in time to see Cheryl crash through the ice and Archie frees her by smashing the ice until his fists are bloody.
Hermione fires the Serpents and hires a new construction crew because she doesn’t want Hiram, who has been officially released from prison, to get in any trouble by associating with them. And she also wants to buy Fred out with a generous offer, which he turns down. Penelope Blossom is dealing with Clifford’s death pretty badly, saying that maybe they should all just end it. Later, she comes home to find Cheryl standing in front of their fireplace, throws a lit candelabrum on the gasoline soaked carpet and Thornhill burns to the ground.
The town’s 75th anniversary celebration is coming up and Mayor McCoy asks Archie to perform with the Pussycats and asks Betty to make a speech. Because of his rescue of Cheryl, Josie allows Archie to sing a song he wrote about his friends while Betty gives a speech, which points a lot of fingers at a lot of people in town-both in a good way and a bad. Despite her criticisms, it get her a standing ovation. After the Jubilee, Archie and Veronica go to her apartment for some alone time while Jughead and Betty head off to F.P.’s trailer and do the same, getting interrupted by the Serpents. Jughead is told they will watch his back while F.P. is away and they give him a Serpents jacket. The next morning, Archie meets his dad at Pop’s. Archie goes to the bathroom and comes out to find an armed robbery in progress. A gunshot rings out and we end the season with Archie cradling his father, who has been shot in the stomach by the robber.
Holy cliffhanger Archiekins! What happens from here? Will Fred live to see Season Two? Will Archie’s mom ever come back to Riverdale? What will happen when Hiram Lodge (Mark Conseulo) comes back to town? With Thornhill gone, where do Cheryl and her mom end up? Will Jughead become a full-time serpent? Will he and Betty ever go all the way?
That’s it for the first season of a show that introduced such phrases as “sticky maple”, “booty tutor”, and “twincest” into our lexicon. Over thirteen episodes, we have seen cool characters, creepy characters, wild situations, and a look at hometown America turned sideways. While many fans and critics alike absolutely hated this show because of what it did to the Archie legacy, I personally gravitated to it right from the early moments of Chapter One. I highly recommend it to comic fans and followers of the CW!
Seriously…great, quirky show that deserves a bigger audience. And, as of June 18th, you can binge watch the entire quirky first season from the beginning.
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