A lot goes down in the newest episode of this steamy CW drama: Cheryl and Toni deal with Cheryl’s relatives and an upset spirit, Betty tries to figure out just who Charles is and visits a familiar face in prison, and Veronica deals with her father coming back and how to deal with Hermosa.
Keep reading to find out what happened on this week’s Riverdale, “Chapter Sixty-Three: Hereditary.”
*clicks tongue* #Riverdale starts now on The CW! pic.twitter.com/PiYPtoNZkl
— Riverdale (@CW_Riverdale) November 14, 2019
At Thistlehouse, Cheryl wakes up to Nana Rose, Clifford, Penelope (who is holding the Julian doll), and Jason staring at her. Penelope says Julian needs a body, so they’re giving him hers. Cheryl screams and wakes up and stares at the Julian doll, switching back and forth from the doll to Toni, who is fast asleep next to her.
Betty meets Kevin and tells him what she’s logged based on the last few days of following Charles and what his daily routine is, which is pretty normal. Kevin tells Betty he’s no expert, but it doesn’t sound like Charles is a serial killer. It kind of just sounds like he’s a lonely gay guy. Betty says maybe he’s both. She starts to realize something, knowing just who to go to.
The newly extended Lodge family is getting together. Hiram is saying now that the trials are over, he thinks it’s time to let bygones be bygones. He wants them to move forward — no more secrets, no more lies.
“Speaking of secrets and lies, how many more secret children should we be expecting?”
Hiram swears to Veronica that Hermosa is her one and only half-sibling. Hermione says if they did decide to move forward together, what exactly would that look like? Hiram tells her now that the prison is bringing in a good income, he’d like to return to his true passion, and Hermosa says that his true passion is rum. Hiram further explains that rum has been in their family for generations, and Hermosa, who runs their clubs in Miami, will be staying in Riverdale to establish a rum outpost there. He also thought she could help out at the Speakeasy. Veronica says no, she doesn’t need more help at La Bonne Nuit, with the exception of her newest hostess, Hermione. Veronica tells Hiram and Hermosa they can show themselves out since it is hers and Hermione’s house.
Betty is at a prison visiting Chic, telling him she wants to know about Charles. That story Chic told them about him; she wants to know if it’s true that they lived together at the Last Resort Youth Hostel. Chic tells her it is. Betty says when she went there, a neighbor told her about seeing bloody sheets in the dumpster and Charles mysteriously vanishing. Chic admits that he and Charles were together, and one time, they brought a friend home with them, and they were doing Jingle-Jangle a little too much. Things got out of control, Charles snapped. It was like some darkness had taken over. Chic says that Charles grabbed a pair of scissors and he stabbed the guy to death. Betty wants to know how she knows he’s telling the truth, and Chic asks her why he would lie at this point. He wants to know what Charles said happened.
Cheryl is sitting in the living room at Thistlehouse, and Toni comes in saying she thought she was going to school. Cheryl admits she was, but she can’t leave Nana, and the twins alone with “you know who.” Toni tells her this has to end. She’s missed way too much school. Toni tells her to get up, or she’s going to drag her to school herself. Cheryl obliges, but there’s one thing she has to do first. They get down to the chapel, and Cheryl makes a circle of salt around the Julian doll, saying that evil spirits can’t cross it; it’s a barrier against all forms of malevolence.
At the FBI office, Betty tells Charles that she visited Chic and asked about him. Charles wants to know why she doesn’t just ask him herself if she’s so damn curious. Betty says it’s because she doesn’t trust him. All she knows is that he’s predisposed to being a serial killer, and she’s been burned before. Betty tells Charles that Chic told her about how he stabbed a man with a pair of scissors when he was high on Jingle-Jangle. She asks him if he has a polygraph machine they can use.
Cheryl is called to the principal’s office, and Ms. Bell tells her there’s been an accident at Thistlehouse. Dagwood swallowed a ping-pong ball and started to choke. He was taken to the hospital, where a doctor performed a tracheotomy. Ms. Bell tells her that she was told Dagwood is doing very well. Nana Rose is at the hospital with Juniper waiting for her. Cheryl says she’ll get to the hospital posthaste, but there’s one thing she needs to take care of first.
Cheryl goes down to the basement of Thistlehouse and finds the circle of salt broken and the doll no longer in its position. She walks over to the chapel, seeing the “Demon Doll” being held by Jason. Cheryl yells at it, saying how dare he go after Dagwood to get to her. She hears footsteps above her and checks it out. Her Aunt Cricket and Uncle Bedford are in the living room. Cheryl faints.
Betty sets Charles up on the polygraph machine. She says he claimed that he and Chic met on the streets, true or false. Charles says true — when they were both at their lowest. Then Betty asks him yes or no; someone was murdered in the room he shared at the hostel. Charles tells her yes, he came home from the grocery store one day and found a dead man in their bed and Chic covered in his blood. His instincts took over, and he dissolved the body with lime in the bathroom tub, threw out the sheets, and scrubbed the room clean with bleach. Chic watched, and that was the end of them. Charles left him and started over. Betty then asks if he’s hiding anything from them. He admits he’s a recovering addict; he attends weekly Narcotics Anonymous meetings. In Riverdale, they’re held at his gym. Charles says that’s his big secret, and he hopes she’s satisfied.
Cheryl wakes up in her room, Toni right next to the bed. She tells Toni she had the most horrible “phantasmagoria”; Dagwood swallowed a ping-pong ball, and her accursed family came to Thistlehouse. Aunt Cricket is at her door, saying they’d love to see her downstairs once she’s collected herself.
Later, Cheryl is told they want to sell the family’s maple syrup business. Aunt Cricket says the rest of the family is in agreement. With Cheryl’s father dead and Penelope in the wind, they need her participation and signature to move forward. She tells Cheryl the business hasn’t been profitable in years, bleeding them dry. Toni tells Cheryl it’s up to her. Thistlehouse has caused her nothing but pain. If she sold it, they could start somewhere new, somewhere fresh. Cheryl says she’ll consider it. Aunt Cricket asks her if she minds if they go down to the chapel to light a votive candle of Thanksgiving to celebrate; they always visit with the ancestors whenever they come to Thistlehouse. Cheryl says absolutely not; they’re not going down there. Cheryl tells them to leave; they won’t be getting her signature, nor will they ever visit that chapel again. It’s off limits to anyone but her.
Cheryl and Toni are in the Thistlehouse chapel. Cheryl tells Toni the doll has conspired to bring her extended family upon them for some devilish work. They’ll stop Julian and her hated family. Cheryl sticks the doll in a tub of what is presumed to be holy water and puts a brick on it, telling it to drown.
At the Lodge residence, Hermione is sitting at the table, and Veronica comes in, telling her she has a surprise for her but notices her father’s luggage. Hiram appears and tells her he is moving back in. He begins to tell her what happened when Veronica interrupts him and says she wants to hear it from Hermione. Hermione tells Veronica that she’s invited her father back. Veronica wants to know why he’s a murderer. Hermione asks what she is then. Veronica can’t believe her; they were done with him. Hiram asks Veronica if they can talk about what this is really about: Hermosa. But she doesn’t need to worry; she’s still his favorite, the apple of his eye, his special little girl. Rest assured, there is no reason for Veronica to be jealous of her. Veronica says she’s not jealous of her. She says he is unbelievable, both of them.
Betty gets home to FP, Alice, and Charles waiting for her. Alice says she visited that miscreant imposter, Chic; how could she? Betty says that’s her business. Charles tells her, yes, except afterward, he used his lawyer to contact the FBI to report a murder that happened in The Black Hood’s house — not committed by him but by a woman named Alice Cooper. Chic said the man was bludgeoned to death in the kitchen. He also claims to know the location of the murder victim’s burial site. FP says all that evidence is still out there. Charles says he’ll take the lead on the investigation, maybe with an assist from the local town sheriff, and see if the remains are where Chic claims. FP says not to wait up for them.
FP and Charles come back, covered in dirt. Alice asks them how it went, and FP tells her they will be okay. He and Charles took care of it. Charles leaves to file the report, but Betty stops him and tells him he doesn’t have to go. If he’s willing to go out on a limb for her, for their family, then she should be able to do that for him, and she’s sorry.
Veronica is working at Pop’s when Hermosa comes in. Hermosa tells her she came to have a little chat, sister to sister. She tells Veronica she’s very smart but doesn’t know their father as well as she thinks she does. Veronica says there is literally nothing she could tell her about Hiram Lodge that would surprise her. Her mother and Hiram had a fling, and Hermosa says that Hiram took very good care of her mother until she died. And then he took care of Hermosa. Hiram and Hermione are renewing their vows, and they’d like for Veronica to come. Hermosa tells her to come or don’t. She’s just the messenger. Veronica is entitled to her opinion of them, but Hermosa knows there’s good in him.
At Thistlehouse, Cheryl says she clearly has to get the locks changed. Uncle Bedford wants to know why there is a chain on the chapel’s gate, and Cheryl says she told him no one is allowed in there but her. Aunt Cricket tells she’s clearly having a psychotic break, and Uncle Bedford noted as soon as they have her declared unfit, they’re selling the factory, the grounds, everything. They will find out whatever it is she’s hiding in that chapel.
Veronica finds Hermosa in Hiram’s office. She tells Hermosa to tell Hiram that she’s not going to the vow renewals. Hermione can roll out the welcome mat for them if she wants, but she’s not giving up her space nor her place in this family. She’s not giving an inch. Not to Hermosa, not ever.
Cheryl awakens to noise and wakes up Toni. Cheryl says she thinks it’s Julian trying to escape from the chapel. They enter the basement and find Uncle Bedford standing in front of Jason’s corpse in the chapel. He says he always knew that their bloodline had a certain sickness, but this is monstrous. He tells Cheryl she’s going away for a long, long time. Toni tells him to let her go, and he pushes her away. He pins Cheryl up against a wall, telling her she’s sick and he’s taking her to the authorities. Maybe he’ll save them the trouble. Toni knocks him out.
Charles visits Chic in prison, and Chic asks him how it went. Charles tells him it went smooth as cream. FP led him to where he buried the body, to what was left, and everyone was appropriately grateful, even Betty.
Cheryl is talking to Aunt Cricket, who tells her that Uncle Bedford didn’t come home the previous night, and she was wondering if Cheryl had seen him. He said he might come around Thistlehouse. Cheryl says no, they didn’t see him. Aunt Cricket asks if they’d mind if she had a peek around, and Cheryl says she would mind unless she has a search warrant from the local constable in hand. Aunt Cricket says she doesn’t, but she’ll get one.
Riverdale airs Wednesdays at 8 p.m. EST on The CW.
