Betty suffered a life-threatening health scare and Archie’s fate was decided as his murder trial concluded during the Wednesday, October 10, season 3 premiere of Riverdale. Plus, a new, super creepy villain emerged. Keep reading to see what you missed.
Playing With Fire
Betty (Lili Reinhart) burned the candle at both ends all summer as she interned with Archie’s mom (Molly Ringwald) and Josie’s mom (Robin Givens), who were representing Archie (KJ Apa) at his trial. Polly (Tiera Skovbye) encouraged Alice (Mädchen Amick) to consult with The Farm after Betty’s dad was identified as The Black Hood, while Betty told her mother she was taking a different approach: therapy and journaling.
Polly discovered that Betty had been abusing Adderall and had made up her therapist, instead forging her own prescriptions. The newly minted Serpent Queen — she was by Jughead’s (Cole Sprouse) side as the Ghoulies threatened to invade the North Side — shared her worries with her boyfriend about facing her problems, but he assured her they were partners in everything.
Betty came home one night and found Alice, Polly and the twins participating in a cult-like ceremony. Alice appeared to drop Polly’s kids over a burning fire, but they remained unscathed as they floated over the flames. Upon witnessing this, Betty collapsed as she suffered from an apparent seizure and Alice rushed to her side.
Guilty Until Proven Innocent
Archie spent his summer on trial for first-degree murder after Hiram (Mark Consuelos) framed him for a crime committed by the Lodges’ late doorman/bodyguard Andre. Veronica (Camila Mendes) begged her father to right his wrong, but he insisted the matter was out of his control. The judge encouraged Archie to spend Labor Day weekend with his loved ones as the jury deliberated. The lovable redhead, Veronica, Jughead and Betty went to Sweetwater Swimming Hole, where Archie encouraged Veronica not to dwell on him if he was convicted.
When they returned to the court, the jury was deadlocked, with a mistrial set to be declared. However, Archie didn’t want to put his family through another trial and felt he needed to take responsibility for his behavior over the last year, so he agreed to a plea deal: two years in a juvenile detention center if he pleaded guilty. As he was carted away, Hiram admitted to Veronica that this was her punishment for picking Archie over her family, and Fred (Luke Perry), FP (Skeet Ulrich) and the former Sheriff Keller (Martin Cummins) vowed to prove Hiram set him up. Fred even punched the villain as they left court.
A Head-Scratching New Villain
Dilton Doiley (Major Curda) reached out to Jughead several times, but they kept missing each other. During the brief time they did speak, Dilton warned Jughead that a role-playing game he and another boy had been toying with was real, as was the mysterious Gargoyle King. Jughead later found Dilton, who appeared to be dead, and another boy taking part in a freaky ritual in honor of the new big bad.
Riverdale airs on The CW Wednesdays at 8 p.m. ET.
