In the newest episode of Riverdale, Cheryl and Toni get back at someone who hurt Cheryl in the past, Betty teams up with Alice to figure out the real deal behind Mr. Chipping’s “suicide,” Jughead and Bret duel, and in a crossover, Veronica goes back to New York for a college interview and meets up with an old friend, Katy Keene.
Find out what all went down in the latest episode, guest starring Lucy Hale, “Chapter Sixty-Nine: Men of Honor.”
👋 @CWKatyKeene! A new episode of #Riverdale starts now on The CW! pic.twitter.com/FmxW1FW8xd
— Riverdale (@CW_Riverdale) February 6, 2020
DuPont is telling Bret he’s been challenged to a duel by Jughead, who has invoked “arcane Stonewall Prep tradition,” does he accept? Bret accepts. Fencing and fighting will be the two challenges, and in case of a tiebreaker — a chess match.
Veronica tells her parents she and Smithers are road-tripping to New York the following day. She has an interview at Barnard College and, of course, will be going on a shopping spree beforehand to find the perfect outfit. However, Hiram tells Veronica he and Hermione were just planning their own trip to The Big Apple. He has a few business meetings while Hermione is having lunch with friends. Hiram tells Veronica not to worry; as soon as they reach Manhattan, they’ll go their separate ways. “Fine. But New York is my town. Not yours.”
Betty is sitting outside Mr. Honey’s office when Alice returns. Alice tells Betty that Mr. Honey refuses to believe she acted alone and that Betty’s suspended for a week and stripped of her editor-in-chief duties at the Blue and Gold, as well as barred from attending Senior Prom. Alice also mentions to Betty that Bret is filing a restraining order against her, claiming he “fears for his life.” While leaving, they walk past the Blue and Gold office, and Betty stops, showing Alice her latest murder board. Betty is still trying to figure out the deal with Mr. Chipping’s death or murder. Betty says they let the case get cold, but they know Bret’s a total sociopath. “So let’s find out if he’s a killer, too.” The two of them start taking apart the murder board so they can move it.
After setting up the murder board at home, Alice asks Betty if she thinks Bret is behind it all. “He’s definitely the leader of the pack.” Alice asks where they begin; they have missing students, evil preppies, dead writers, and a teacher’s apparent suicide. Betty says Chipping didn’t leave a note. Donna may have painted a very incriminating portrait of him; Betty doesn’t think she’s telling the truth. Alice tells Betty that’s where they start.
Betty and Alice are talking to Mrs. Chipping and Alice promises they’re just there to help. Mrs. Chipping tells them she does not believe her husband was having an affair with Donna, he had problems, but he never cheated on her. He was drinking more than usual, complaining about the Baxter Brothers books — wishing he’d never gotten the contract. Wasn’t he proud of the Baxter Brothers books? Mrs. Chipping says he was but reveals as the years went on, Rupert felt like he had an albatross around his neck. He just finished the last book. Why kill himself if he was so close to being done? Mrs. Chipping says she doesn’t know, but she did bring a box of his personal things from when she cleaned out his office. Maybe they can get some sense out of it since she can’t. After going through his things, Betty notices Army pamphlets.
Veronica arrives in New York City and, after getting to a place called Lacy’s, spots Katy Keene (guest star Lucy Hale). After hugging, Katy says she heard that a new collection is to die for, and Veronica tells her she needs to ooze collegiate cuteness at her interview. Lucky for her, Katy tells Veronica she’s already scoped out some Barnard-ready options. After picking out the perfect outfits, Katy tells Veronica she doesn’t want this to end. Who says it has to? Veronica says they can leave their bags with Smithers and keep going. Katy brings up a dive bar that she and her friend Jorge sneak into, and Veronica says that sounds amazing.
Toni is working at the Maple Club, and Nick St. Clair walks in. Toni, not knowing who he is, helps him. Unfortunately, Cheryl sees them and gets flashbacks of what happened sophomore year when Nick drugged and nearly sexually assaulted her before being saved by Veronica, Josie, and the Pussycats. Cheryl leaves to hide.
Betty and Alice are interviewing Moose at Pop’s, wondering why he got into the Army and who helped him. Moose reveals Mr. Chipping is the one who suggested he look into the military. He is the one who recruited Moose to play football at Stonewall. However, Moose tells Betty and Alice that after the story about him coming out spread, Chipping was encouraging him to leave, then soon, he practically shoved Moose out the door. Moose also admits Bret videotaped him having sex in their dorm room with a classmate and threatened to release it any minute, saying it would be a good addition to his collection.
Betty and Alice snoop through Jughead and Bret’s room but find nothing. However, Bret finds them, and after Betty accuses him of having a certain videotape collection — one maybe including her and Jughead having sex — he says he doesn’t know what she’s talking about. He has no collection, and even if he did, it’s a good thing that he’s such a nice guy because he could really do a number on her by releasing it.
Veronica and Katy are at the dive bar, catching up — discussing relationships and college — and Katy reveals that her mother’s really sick and they’re not sure what’s going to happen. Katy apologizes, saying she didn’t want to tell Veronica and she didn’t want to cry.
“What are old friends for if not to provide shoulders to cry on?”
Toni asks Cheryl what happened; she ghosted her. Cheryl asks Toni if she remembers helping a certain customer, Nick St. Clair, and Cheryl confesses what happened between the two of them. She tells Toni she thought she worked through it emotionally but seeing him triggered her. Toni says she gets it and admits a similar experience happened to her before she moved to Riverdale. How did she do it, how did she cope? Toni tells Cheryl it took her a while, but with a lot of help, she worked through it. She wants to help Cheryl get there, too.
Jughead and Bret are on to the second duel — Bret won the first one with fencing — and almost immediately into the first round, Jughead knocks out Bret and wins. DuPont says the following day’s chess match will determine the ultimate winner. Afterward, Jughead is walking to his room, and people in the halls are staring at him. When he does get to his room, he notices a dead snake pinned to the wall in the shape of an ‘S.’
Alice tells Betty if that tape of Betty and Jughead exists, they have to find it. Betty wonders if Bret stores his collection in the room where they have the secret society meetings in Stonewall Prep’s basement. They can slip into the basement while Jughead keeps Bret busy with the challenge.
At the Maple Club, Toni serves Nick and his friends. She suggests to Nick maybe he’d enjoy it with her in a private room. Toni takes Nick to a room in the back and tells him to relax and drink up; she’s going to get a little more comfortable.
At the final challenge, Bret tells Jughead he wants to raise the stakes. When he wins, Jughead walks away from the Baxter Brothers contract. Jughead loses, and he slinks away and is never heard from again, just like his grandfather — DuPont gives the contract to Bret. The one problem with that? Jughead tells Bret he is a terrible writer, so he’s not going to accept his terms. “This is a duel about honor.” And when Bret loses, Jughead tells him it’s going to be because he is a better writer, a better competitor, and a better man. Jughead and Bret start their chess match.
Meanwhile, Betty and Alice sneak into the basement where the society is held. Betty is looking everywhere for the videotapes or any proof that Bret was doing what Moose told them. Betty notices some bricks not in place and finds a secret storage with multiple videotapes. Suddenly, Bret’s watch beeps, alarming him that someone has broken into the Quill and Skull room. Betty is still looking through the tapes and grabbing some when Alice tells her they have to get out of there. Unfortunately, they weren’t able to leave before Bret and everyone else finds them. Betty accuses Bret of illegally recording people having sex, holding a tape with Jughead’s name. Bret says all the tapes in that room are private property, consensual testimonies given by students being inducted into the Quill and Skull. The videotape Betty is holding is Jughead’s initiation confession, and Bret demands the tapes back. When they return to the match, Jughead loses on purpose, making Bret the winner. Jughead’s done playing this game, saying Bret is more of a Stonewall man than he will ever be or he’ll ever want to be.
When Veronica is back home, Hermione tells her that she and Hiram didn’t go to New York on business. They went to see a specialist, who confirmed that Hiram has a disease. It’s a neuromuscular disorder that will weaken him, his muscles will atrophy, and he’ll lose his motor skills. Hermione tells Veronica they caught it early, so there’s drugs and therapies, but they don’t know if he’s going to be fine; they just know that he’s very sick.
When Nick wakes up, Kevin and Fangs are in the room, and Fangs tells Nick things got pretty wild. Toni comes in, showing Nick a video of what happened. Toni tells Nick he doesn’t know her, but she knows him, and she knows exactly what he did to her girlfriend and what he’s probably done to a lot of other innocent young women. “You will never step foot in Riverdale again. You will not so much as even think about Cheryl Blossom. And you will never assault another woman.”
Betty mentions to Jughead she did manage to sneak something out of the Quill and Skull room, Donna’s confession. They turn on the tape, and Donna is talking about her affair with Chipping, and Betty tells Jughead it’s exactly what Donna told her. On the tape, Donna mentions a Mr. Kotter and that she’d never seen him so mad. Based on her research, Betty says Mr. Kotter is no one, and he doesn’t exist. Betty also mentions that Donna is using the same language, the exact same words that she used in the tape when she told Betty. It’s a rehearsed speech that Donna has given at least twice. All this time, Betty and Jughead have been thinking that Bret’s the evil mastermind behind Stonewall Prep. Betty thinks they need to be more worried about Donna.
Watch Riverdale Wednesdays at 8 p.m. ET/7 p.m. CT and the new spin-off series, Katy Keene, Thursdays at 8 p.m. ET/7 p.m. CT on The CW.
