In the latest ‘Riverdale’ recap, Archie and Veronica do their own investigation and a suspect is arrested in Jason Blossom’s murder…
By Damon Martin — Editor/Lead Writer
If the title of the latest episode of ‘Riverdale’ sounds vaguely familiar, that’s because it should.
‘To Riverdale and Back Again’ was not only the 11th episode in the first season of ‘Riverdale’ but it also happened to be the title of the ill fated Archie reunion film from the early 1990’s that was supposed to launch the franchise into a possible television series. Instead, the made-for-TV movie dropped like a stone to the bottom of the ratings and now it’s widely considered a rather forgettable chapter in the history of ‘Archie’ comics.
That being said, it’s also the perfect title for the latest episode of ‘Riverdale’ considering the focus was the homecoming dance with sins from the past being dug up all around the characters this week.
Alice Cooper has pegged FP Jones as a person of interest in Jason Blossom’s murder, which connects back to the same curiosity that Veronica Lodge has after discovering that Jughead’s father also worked for her dad Hiram Lodge and he has a massive grudge against the entire Blossom family.
Meanwhile, Archie’s mom is back in town and she quickly realizes why she left Riverdale in the first place but the reverberations of her visit may shake the Andrews house to the core after she asks her son to relocate with her to Chicago.
And finally an arrest is made in long gestating Jason Blossom murder investigation but it seems more than certain that the person sitting in jail isn’t the one who pulled the trigger.
All that and some really great 80’s covers played throughout the episode.
With that said, let’s recap the latest episode of ‘Riverdale’ titled ‘Chapter Eleven: To Riverdale and Back Again’…
Suspicious Minds
It’s homecoming week in ‘Riverdale’, which is supposed to be a celebration of the past, present and future but instead feels more like ghosts are coming back to haunt many of the characters on the show.
Archie is dealing with his mother Mary being back in town as she finalizes her divorce with Fred while Veronica is stuck in an endless circle of guilt after hearing that her father Hiram may be released from jail at any moment following a glowing testimonial from his family on his many fine attributes. Of course, Veronica is still questioning if Hiram had Jason Blossom killed as an act of revenge after the Blossom family helped to put him behind bars but Hermoine wants to hear none of it.
At school as preparations for the dance are underway, Alice Cooper is starting to dig deeper and deeper into her own theories about Jason’s death, which she believes is somehow connected to FP Jones. Her own suspicions are realized when Veronica divulges that Hiram hired FP and the Southside Serpents to help tear down the drive-in so he could buy the land before then also revealing that her father has a grudge against the Blossom’s for putting him in jail.
It all leads to a lot of questions surrounding FP’s possible involvement as Hiram’s hitman, but Betty doesn’t want to hear any of it. She’s standing by Jughead after he told her that he believed his father wasn’t involved in Jason’s murder.
As tumultuous as Jughead’s relationship with his father has been all season long, FP has been trying to clean his life up lately. Not only has he been committed to working for Fred’s construction company but when Jughead shows up with coffee that same morning, the family trailer has been cleaned from front to back and FP even shaved, which apparently is a rarity.
FP even read through Jughead’s book of essays, which revolve around Jason’s murder, and he can’t help but ask his son questions about what he’s discovered during the course of his writing. When Jughead tells this information to his friends at school, that only makes Veronica that much more curious about FP’s possible role in Jason’s murder.
Veronica decides to rope Archie into her investigation but he’s more interested in rekindling the kiss they shared from a week ago. Veronica has tabled her passion for now and instead convinces Archie to help her because if FP really is guilty it could also implicate Hiram but finding out that information would crush Jughead. Archie agrees to help in hopes of sparing Jughead any further pain from a lifetime of disappointments courtesy of his father.
Dinner for Five
Betty refuses to go along with her mother’s plan to investigate FP Jones, but Alice has other plans. She ends up inviting FP and Jughead to dinner before the dance begins so she can get to know her daughter’s new boyfriend. Of course her real agenda is to lure FP away from his trailer so Veronica and Archie and dig around without worry of being caught.
At dinner, Alice wastes no time turning a friendly question into a full inquisition into FP’s activities as a Southside Serpent, which makes an already uncomfortable dinner turn completely awkward. FP sees right through what Alice is doing and as it turns out so did Betty before this evening ever started.
To counter her mother’s offhanded attempt to interrogate FP while passing it off as a family dinner, Betty invited her father Hal, who hasn’t been at home for weeks after the falling out with his wife over how he treated Polly and her child to be.
The dinner ends with FP bringing up a rather inappropriate story about Hal and Alice’s homecoming dance together, which prompts everybody to call it a night. It’s safe to say, FP Jones can give as good as he can get and Alice doesn’t know anything more about who killed Jason Blossom than she had when the dinner started.
Meanwhile at FP’s trailer, Veronica and Archie aren’t having much more luck when it comes to tying Jughead’s father to Jason’s murder. The new almost couple digs through every facet of FP’s life but comes up with next to nothing outside of a few dust balls he missed while cleaning up the place.
Alice sends Veronica a text warning her that FP has left the dinner, which prompts them to bolt from the trailer before they are busted.
Kids in America
Just before the dance kicks off, FP drops off Jughead and Betty but keeps his son back for a moment to talk to him about something important. FP has really cleaned his life up, including no more drinking, and he now wants to reunite their entire family. He hopes to convince Jughead’s mother to come back home and bring their daughter Jellybean with her. There’s just one catch…
FP wants to relocate the entire family to Toledo — (side note as a native Ohioan, moving to Toledo isn’t going to be good for anybody).
Jughead is caught off guard by the sudden idea to move, especially with the relationship he’s been building with Betty.
At the dance, Archie and Veronica prepare to sing a duet after promising Mary Andrews that she’d get the chance to see him perform. Of course, Archie has to agree to do something a little more upbeat because his own songs make you want to slit your wrists — in a good way (according to Jughead) — so instead he picks the classic track “Kids in America” by Kim Wilde.
While Archie and Veronica play their song, Betty is staring at both of them with daggers in her eyes. She saw them talking to Alice earlier in the night so she’s already suspicious about their involvement in her mother’s witch hunt to take down FP Jones. Of course, Betty could also be noticing how close Archie and Veronica are getting, which can’t be easy considering her lifelong crush on the boy next door.
Elsewhere, Mary Andrews runs into some old “friends” from high school, which quickly make her realize why she bolted from Riverdale in the first place.
And finally as Archie and Veronica have the whole school clapping during their song, the police arrive at FP Jones’ trailer with a warrant to search the premises because he’s being investigated for potential involvement in Jason Blossom’s murder following an anonymous tip. Inside his home, the police comb every nook and cranny before coming across a toolbox hidden in the back of a closet.
Inside the locked box, Sheriff Keller finds a gun — and we later find out it’s the weapon that took the shot that killed Jason Blossom.
Ring of Fire
Polly Cooper agrees to attend the homecoming dance with Cheryl as a tribute to Jason, but really she’s more interested in digging around the Blossom compound for evidence that the family had something to do with their own son’s murder.
Polly discovers that Clifford Blossom has a room full of crimson wigs that cover his graying hair before later finding the ring that Jason gave to her when he proposed marriage. It’s a disturbing discovering considering Jason had the ring on him when he died, which convinces Polly more than ever that the Blossom family had something to do with his death.
To explain away the engagement ring, Penelope explains that Jason gave back the ring on the day he disappeared after disavowing his own family. It all sounds like a load of crap and of course Polly still doesn’t know what to believe. Penelope ends up dosing Polly with a sedative so she’ll stop asking questions for at least one night while Cheryl reveals that she dumped the ring down the toilet so that way it couldn’t come back to bite them as part of the police investigation into Jason’s death.
If Polly claimed that Jason had the ring and now it’s back in the Blossom home, it could be grounds for a further investigation. Now Cheryl has done away with the evidence to protect them all, which makes Clifford rather happy. He wonders if perhaps he didn’t put faith in the wrong child to carry on his legacy.
It pleases Cheryl to have her parents’ approval but it turns out she didn’t dump the ring after all. She’s keeping it safe but why? Was she the one who retrieved it from Jason before his death?
With Friends Like These
Following their performance, Betty confronts Archie and Veronica about what they’ve been doing on behalf of her mother, Alice. They confess to digging into FP to see if he was connected to Jason’s murder, but after rummaging through his trailer, they are happy to report that there’s no evidence that he had anything to do with it.
When Jughead shows up, Betty makes a tearful confession to him about what’s been going on — from Archie and Veronica breaking into his dad’s home to her mother inviting them over as a distraction so they could do it in the first place. Jughead is livid with everybody involved, including Betty who allowed him to believe her mother was putting on a dinner to get to know him better but it was all a set up to interrogate his father.
Before Jughead can storm away, Fred Andrews and the rest of the parents arrive with disturbing news — FP Jones has been arrested and charged with the murder of Jason Blossom.
Jughead is now tormented after his father was arrested and his friends all lied to him. He runs away back to his father’s trailer where he can be alone. Betty searches for him all over town after warning her mother not to get involved any further into this case.
Finally, Betty ends up at the Chock-Lit Shoppe but Jughead is nowhere to be found. She does run into Archie and Veronica, but she proclaims that she no longer wants anything to do with either of them. Unfortunately, Archie and Veronica have to talk to her about something rather crucial to the murder investigation.
Archie and Veronica reveal that they searched FP’s trailer no more than an hour or two before his arrest and there was no lock box in the closet much less a gun inside that implicated him in the murder. That means somebody planted the evidence to make FP look guilty.
One more note about that gun — it looks like the same weapon that Miss Grundy had in the back of her car at the start of the season before Betty stole it from her. Alice Cooper then took the gun away from her daughter. Is it possible she’s the one who planted the gun at FP’s trailer? It would certainly seem like she’s a suspect but my money is on Hal Cooper having something to do with it. He was a potential suspect after his hatred of the Blossom family was revealed and what better way to ensure the cops don’t get any closer than handing them FP Jones with the murder weapon stashed in his closet.
Either way, FP is sitting in jail, his son may have lost faith in him and there’s still a murderer roaming the streets of Riverdale.
SOUNDTRACK
“Adore” by Savages
“Blue Monday” by New Order
“Bette Davis Eyes” by Rogue Wave
“Dance Hall Days” by Imperial Mammoth
“Kids in America” by Archie and Veronica
Only two episodes of ‘Riverdale’ to go this season with rumors that Jason Blossom’s murderer will finally be revealed next week! Don’t miss it when ‘Riverdale’ returns next Thursday night at 9pm ET on the CW.
https://youtu.be/vpXrJfOEOe4
