‘Riverdale’ Recap: Season 4, Episode 5 “Chapter Sixty-Two: Witness for the Prosecution”
As both Hiram and Hermione’s trials are getting closer, Veronica is trying to ensure that her mother comes home, not her father. However, that might not be so simple as someone new shows up in town in this week’s episode of Riverdale. Betty and Kevin join a Junior FBI training program, and while doing so, Betty finds out something about herself that she doesn’t like.
Find out what went down on the newest episode of Riverdale, “Chapter Sixty-Two: Witness for the Prosecution.”
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— Riverdale (@CW_Riverdale) November 7, 2019
At Riverdale High, Betty meets Kevin at his locker and tells him to join her for her first Junior FBI class. She asked Charles if he could enroll, and he said everyone’s welcome. Kevin asks Betty if Charles is gay or straight, and Betty says she has no idea, but seniors from different schools have signed up, so who knows? Maybe Kevin will meet a cute, gay FBI agent-in-training. Kevin agrees.
At the prison, Mary sits with Hermione and Veronica, saying that the DA is pinning her entire case on linking Hermione to Hiram’s would-be murderer, Tall Boy. Hermione says that’s absurd since she’s never interacted with him. Mary says there is still the issue of the large sum of money the police found in her monogrammed Tucci bag in Tall Boy’s apartment. Hermione says obviously Hiram planted it there to frame her. Mary tells her that FP will testify that he searched Tall Boy’s apartment right after he died and that there was no money or evidence there at the time. She tells Veronica that the federal prosecutor is going after Hiram pretty hard from what she’s heard. Veronica says she knows; she’s been meeting with her on the down-low. Veronica says that the goal for this week is, “Get Mom out of jail, and make sure Daddy stays rotting in his.”
To start them off in the first class of the Junior FBI Training Program, Charles put together an exercise about serial killers. They have to identify a serial killer from three pictures of three different people. Betty gets every one correct. Charles asks her how she got the first one right, and she says intuition; after the second right one, Charles says it’s like her intuition is a sixth sense. He tells her it’s like a raw instinct after the third one. Kevin tells Betty she’s like Beautiful Mind, but for serial killers. Charles then tells everyone that all three of them have one thing in common, a specific set of genes, the MAOA and the CDH13 genes, aka the serial killer gene.
Your average after-school serial killer class. #Riverdale pic.twitter.com/hJgpFYZvZF
— Riverdale (@CW_Riverdale) November 7, 2019
Betty is at a doctor’s appointment, and the doctor says he pulled her files and can confirm that she has the MAOA and CDH13 genes. Kevin is outside the room waiting for her, but she tells him there’s nothing to worry about; she doesn’t have the genes.
At the next Junior FBI Training Program class, Charles talks about serial killers and instances of animal cruelty in their youth; i.e., Jeffrey Dahmer started killing dogs when he was in grade school, and Ian Brady killed his first cat when he was 10. Betty starts to think back to what she might have done to her cat, Caramel, when she was younger. Betty gets up and leaves, saying she needs to get some air.
At Hermione’s trial, FP testifies, saying he arrived at the cabin alone. Tall Boy got violent, resisted arrest, and FP had to discharge his weapon. He died on his way to the hospital. Mary asks him, when he searched Tall Boy’s later, did he find Hermione Lodge’s Tucci bag full of cash? FP says no. Mary states the prosecution claims they found the bag there. FP says if it was, it was planted after he had left. The counselor interrogates FP, showing him a copy of the cabin lease where FP claims to have shot Tall Boy. FP assumes it was Hiram’s cabin. FP gets asked to read the owner’s name to which FP says, “Hermione Lodge.”
At the prison, Veronica is talking to Hermione, telling her that Mary is back-channeling with the DA’s office, and they’re talking plea deals. Veronica wants to know why she didn’t tell them that the cabin was under her name. Hermione tells her that it wasn’t. Hiram must have forged the lease contract or something. Veronica wonders why she didn’t just say that she’s never been to the cabin. Hermione says she has. Veronica is begging Hermione to tell her the truth.
Mary says that if everything Hermione told her is true, she has no moves left. The more the prosecutor digs, the guiltier she’ll be. And that’s for crimes that aren’t even on the radar. Veronica wonders if Hermione can just change her plea to guilty, which might make it all go away. Veronica tells them they have to be realistic. “Why not admit to what everyone already knows, before something else, something worse comes out?” Mary tells her that Hermione could be sent to prison for life, and Veronica says not unless they find someone with a magic wand to pardon her. Mary tells her unless she’s friends with Governor Dooley, that’ll never happen. Veronica says they are not friends, but they have a history, all of them.
In a dream, Betty is at her house and sees a younger version of herself with Caramel. She asks her younger self if she’s okay and what she’s doing. She watches her younger self kill Caramel with a rock. Betty wakes up.
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— Riverdale (@CW_Riverdale) November 7, 2019
Veronica meets up with Governor Dooley at La Bonne Nuit and says she has a small favor to ask. She gives him a folder that has evidence that paints a somewhat corrupt portrait of him. It shows the Governor ordering a bogus quarantine, accepting drug money as a bribe, and receiving kickbacks from Hiram’s jail. Veronica tells him to help her now, which will be the last time she’ll blackmail him. Her mother’s on trial, and if she pleads guilty, Veronica will need the Governor to grant her a pardon immediately. In exchange, she won’t release this file of incriminating evidence.
At the next Junior FBI Training Program class, Charles tells everyone that serial killers leave clues, take trophies, and keep records, journals, diaries, and letters. They see themselves as the heroes in their own stories, and sometimes it’s difficult for them to distinguish between reality and fantasy, fact and fabrication. After the class, Betty looks through all her childhood diaries, trying to see if there are any connections and proof that she could be on her way to becoming a serial killer herself.
At Hermione’s trial, Mary tells the judge that her client would like to say something for a closing statement. Hermione says after careful consideration, she’s decided to change her plea. She pleads guilty to the charges against her.
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At Pop’s, Betty tells Kevin that she lied to him. At the doctor’s, she was told she does have the genes. And there’s more, something she thinks she may have repressed. She asks Kevin if he remembers her cat, Caramel. Betty found her on the front lawn after getting hit by a car, in pain and dying. It sounded like someone was screaming. She went to get her dad for help. In a flashback, Hal is telling Betty that Caramel is her cat. She needs to take care of this. Betty tells Kevin that he handed her a rock, and she killed Caramel. Kevin tells her that it wasn’t her. That was her deeply screwed-up dad. Kevin suggests considering withdrawing from the class, as things might get a little too intense.
Betty finds Charles and informs him that she’s quitting the program. Charles assures her that she’s a natural. She tells him that’s the problem; it’s too easy for her. Betty could identify every single killer on his slideshow because she’s like them. She has the same genes as them. Charles says it’s all the more reason for her to stay in the program. She tells him he wouldn’t understand; he just doesn’t get it. Charles says he does. He has the genes, too; it’s why he joined the FBI in the first place, to control those impulses. Charles tells her that she can use this, harness this, to keep the darkness in check, and he does.
At La Bonne Nuit, Veronica is on the phone with Governor Dooley, and it sounds like he granted Hermione the pardon. A lady at the bar says it sounds like she just got good news. Veronica says she did, her mother’s been away for a while, and she’s finally coming home. The unknown lady wonders about her father and Veronica asks if they know each other. She tells Veronica no, they do not, but she’ll tell Veronica the same thing she told the federal prosecutor. She’s a licensed private investigator hired by Hiram Lodge to uncover any malfeasance against him. Also, she can unequivocally prove that the federal prosecutor colluded with Veronica to frame and bring false charges against Hiram. Veronica says that’s not true.
The woman tells her it is; she has multiple recordings of the two of them plotting, including a conversation they had in a booth at La Bonne Nuit discussing Pop Tate’s subpoena. She had the place bugged. The woman tells Veronica the federal prosecutor has already told the judge that she’s dropping the charges against Hiram, thanks to the information provided. Veronica says whatever Hiram is paying her, she’ll double it. The woman says nice try, but that won’t work with her. “You see, our father needed help, someone he could trust. So he had me come up from Miami. I fix things. That’s what I do.” The woman reveals herself to be Hiram’s other daughter, Hermosa. Hiram needed her, so she came.
At the courthouse, Hiram’s trial has just ended. He tells the press he couldn’t be happier about the outcome. Hiram announces his candidacy for mayor of Riverdale.
Betty is with Kevin, who is confused. He thought they were bailing on the FBI class. Betty interrupts, saying that was before she had privileged information making her realize that they don’t know anything about Charles. Forget whether he’s straight or gay; she’s interested in whether or not he’s a serial killer. The only places she’s ever seen Charles are Pop’s, her house, and the FBI office. What does he do all day? Where does he live? Why is he still in Riverdale? Kevin thought Charles was helping out Jughead’s dad in some cases. Betty wants to know what cases? He’s keeping secrets from her; she knows it. That’s why they have to stay close to him.
In a flash-forward to biology class of the spring semester, FP bursts through the door saying, “Archie Andrews, Betty Cooper, and Veronica Lodge, you’re under arrest for the cold-blooded murder of my son, Jughead Jones.”
The future’s not looking so good. Thanks for watching #Riverdale! Stream free tomorrow only on The CW App. pic.twitter.com/xgukHIRUET
— Riverdale (@CW_Riverdale) November 7, 2019
Also in the episode: Jughead, Bret, and the group at Stonewall are tasked to write “The Perfect Murder” for a contest to ghostwrite the next Baxter Brothers novel, and Archie tries to get the community to see that the center isn’t bad at all.
Having Hiram’s other daughter in town will be interesting, and finding out just who Charles is will be another storyline that will keep fans guessing and theorizing. We are getting closer to finding out just what happened to Jughead and putting clues together. What’s next? Find out when Riverdale airs Wednesdays at 8 p.m. ET/7 p.m. CT on The CW.