After a month-long hiatus and an unforgettable cliffhanger, Riverdale is finally back, featuring spirit week, football, estranged uncles, and a true Riverdale vs. Stonewall rivalry. Plus, we get even closer to finding out what exactly happened to Jughead on that fateful Spring Break night.
Keep reading to find out everything that happened in the 10th episode of Riverdale‘s fourth season, “Chapter Sixty-Seven: Varsity Blues.”
Football is a way of life. A new episode of #Riverdale starts now on The CW! pic.twitter.com/2vTRY9MUNt
— Riverdale (@CW_Riverdale) January 23, 2020
Jughead meets with Mr. DuPont at his office and is told he has an interview with Yale. How? Jughead didn’t even apply. DuPont reveals the recruiter is a friend of his, so he slipped him a few of Jughead’s short stories, and he was impressed. Jughead is reluctant since Yale was Betty’s dream school, and she didn’t get in. DuPont tells Jughead to take his advice, figure it out, don’t be foolish.
Betty is interviewing Archie, Reggie, and Munroe for a piece for the Blue & Gold on the last football game of the season. Reggie tells Betty the only reason Stonewall is undefeated is because they play dirty, and every team that’s gone up against them has suffered some horrible injury. “They don’t play to win. They play to hurt”.
That night, Archie is talking to his Uncle Frank. Frank tells Archie he appreciates Archie putting him up in the Center for the last couple of weeks and getting to meet and know him, but he thinks it’s time he moved on. Archie asks, what if he didn’t leave? Frank could help out at the Center or Andrews Construction. Frank says he’d be lying if he said he wasn’t interested, but the problem is telling Archie’s mom he’s in town.
Archie and Frank talk to Mary, who is not happy to see Frank. She asks him if he even visited his brother’s grave, and he didn’t bother to show up for the funeral. Frank defends himself, saying he was on a crab boat. He didn’t even get the news until a month ago. Archie tells Mary he was thinking Uncle Frank could get a job at Andrews Construction; it was his idea. Mary gives in and warns Archie that the second his uncle has to do even an ounce of hard work, he will bolt so fast his head will spin.
At Pop’s, Betty asks Jughead what’s going on, and Jughead confesses he has an interview with a college recruiter from Yale and hopes it’s okay. Betty wonders why wouldn’t it be, because she got rejected? She would never ask him to turn down an opportunity like that. That’s life-changing. Betty tells him, “so you’re obviously gonna go and ace that interview.” Meanwhile, Betty is working on her article for Mr. Honey. Jughead asks Betty if she thought about interviewing the opposing team. Bret’s the team captain. It could be drama for her piece.
Betty is interviewing Bret at Stonewall, telling him she wasn’t going to interview him, but then she heard rumors that his team plays dirty. Bret asks Betty if she has ever really watched or studied football; it’s not a knitting circle. He says, “Football is a sport of gladiators, and you win by debilitating and slaughtering your enemies.” Bret leaves, telling Betty she can quote him on that. Betty responds, “You bet your ass I will.”
Betty is at Pop’s, interviewing players from a few different high school football teams, trying to get the truth about the Stonewall Stallions. She tells one player from Seaside she’s been studying game tape, and there’s a definite pattern of wanton violence. He says the guys are maniacs. Another player tells Betty that a Stonewall lineman broke his arm while in the pile. A player from Centerville, who has a neck brace, tells Betty it was definitely on purpose. The hit came out of nowhere. The player with the broken arm tells Betty they pay off the refs to look the other way. The worse the injury, the bigger the bounty. He says the Stonewall coach pays his players to hurt the other team.
Munroe is leaving the Center to go home but not before he’s met with four guys wearing masks and carrying a golf club. Archie and Reggie can hear Munroe screaming, and they and two others run outside. They find Munroe on the ground, holding his knee. Munroe says he got jumped, and one of them swung a golf club at his knee; they were wearing masks, so he didn’t see their faces. Reggie says they don’t need to see the faces; they know exactly who they are.
The Bulldogs pull up at Stonewall to have a talk with the Stallions. Archie tells Bret he couldn’t even wait to play dirty on the field. That’s how scared he was of Munroe. Jughead walks in, wondering what’s going on. Bret asks Jughead if he’s friends with these welfare cases. Archie says, “What did you just call me?” and punches Bret. The Bulldogs and Stallions are in full fighting mode, with Jughead trying to break it up.
Later, Jughead is meeting with Gerald Brooks from Yale Admissions. Brooks compliments Jughead’s writing, sensing H.P. Lovecraft as an influence. After not talking for a little bit, Jughead apologizes, saying he’s not used to people actually treating him like a real writer. Brooks tells Jughead that at Yale, everyone earns their spot. Should he be accepted, he will succeed or fail on his own merits.
After busting Archie out of a jail cell, Uncle Frank talks to him at Pop’s, wanting to know what exactly happened. Archie tells him “those Stonewall bastards” attacked Munroe, busted up his knee so he can’t play, looking for payback. Uncle Frank tells Archie he shouldn’t be ashamed. He’s the last person that should be judging anyone, especially when it comes to fighting for your friends. Uncle Frank says Archie’s dad was the same way; Fred was pretty level-headed, all things considered, except when someone came after a friend or a family member, then he’d turn into a bit of a madman. Archie tells Uncle Frank he can’t imagine his dad throwing punches; he’s taught him every sport, but not boxing. Frank brings up the fact that he boxed while in the Army, and they start bonding over the sport.
Betty tells Veronica about Munroe being jumped outside the Center the previous night, and Veronica says she knows; Archie told her. Betty says Archie thinks Munroe was attacked by someone from Stonewall, and based on the masks those creeps were wearing … Betty agrees that it was probably Bret. Betty wants to break the story in the Blue & Gold, but she needs proof or a confession. Reggie says he heard Stonewall is throwing a party that night to get everyone psyched up for the game, and Veronica wonders if she smells another classic “B&V” caper. But it will have to be just a Veronica caper since Betty can’t get close to Bret; he knows her. But Betty was hoping maybe Veronica could go, turn on her femme fatale charm. Veronica says she’s down and is willing to wear a wire.
At the Stonewall party, Veronica tells Betty it’s not just a football party; it’s a football party “hosted by Stonewall’s lame-ass secret society.” Veronica spots Bret and walks over to him. She tells Bret her name is Monica. Bret says the Stallions are undefeated and that the winning streak will continue. Veronica brings up that, especially now, now that Riverdale’s top dog is out of the mix. The star player on the opposing team was randomly victimized right before the big game. Quite a stroke of luck for them. Bret says no, they make their own luck. Just before Bret is able to spill any more about the Stallions being undefeated to Veronica, Jughead spots her. Veronica leaves to talk to Jughead, both of them wondering what the other is doing there. Jughead says he goes to school there; why is Veronica in a wig? Veronica wants to know since when has he been part of a secret society. Does Betty know? Because if not, she just found out.
Jughead meets with Betty, saying he didn’t tell her because it’s a secret society. Betty says, “Four months ago, you hated those guys. You wanted to drop out and come back to Riverdale”. Jughead says he stayed, and he’s glad he stayed. He got a book contract. Betty mentions not to forget about his Yale interview, thanks to his new friends. Jughead says he got the Yale interview because he’s a member of the society. If he got accepted, it’s because of his writing. Does that really make him such a horrible person? Betty says no, but she hates that they’re keeping secrets from each other; she thought they were done with that. Jughead apologizes, saying he should have told Betty about Quill and Skull. Betty says it’s fine, and Jughead asks what Veronica was even doing there. Betty tells him she was helping her, and Veronica was trying to get Bret to brag about attacking Munroe. He was dancing around it, but then Jughead blew her cover. She’ll just have to use quotes from unnamed sources, which she has plenty of. However, Betty isn’t very hopeful that it’ll be enough.
Archie is talking to Munroe at the Center, asking him how he is. Munroe says the doctor said if he plays, he could cause permanent damage. Frank interrupts, asking Munroe if he had a way to play through the pain, would he do it? Munroe responds, “In a heartbeat.” Frank tells Munroe he has some pills and meds from the VA. They’re not going to fix anything, but they’ll numb him long enough for a game. Archie tries to tell Frank that Munroe isn’t taking any pills from him, but Munroe stops him, asking Frank what kind of pills he’s talking about. Archie tells Frank he’s not a doctor and Munroe can’t do this. Archie asks Frank what he’s doing, and Frank replies that he’s just trying to help. Archie leaves, telling Frank he’ll see him at the game.
Betty gives Mr. Honey her piece, and after he reads it, he tells Betty it’s not the piece he asked her to write. Betty says no, it’s better; it’s an expose about a culture of violence that’s fostered at Stonewall. Mr. Honey tells Betty they cannot publish a story based on hearsay. He advises her to write the article she agreed on, or don’t, saying, “There’s no way in hell we’re printing this.”
Munroe walks into the locker room, and Archie asks him what he’s doing there. He tells Archie he’s not fighting him on this; he’s not sitting out of the game. Munroe confesses that Uncle Frank gave him the pills, but this is it for him. A scholarship to Notre Dame would change his life and his family’s life. If he goes pro, he’ll be set. Archie says if he gets hurt, maybe he won’t ever play again. Munroe tells Archie this is his choice.
After the game, Bret meets up with Jughead and Betty and says he heard her article was killed. Jughead tells him to just take the win, and Betty says her article wasn’t killed. She only started digging, so who knows what she’ll find? Bret leaves, telling Jughead he’ll see him in class and Betty to do this again sometime; he really likes winning against her.
Betty meets with Mr. Honey, who tells her he’s pleased she came around. It’s a stellar article and great press for the school, even though they lost the game. Betty says they may have lost the game, but they haven’t lost the war. She’s been doing more and more research on Stonewall Prep and found out they have a world-class quiz team. She says, “the captain of that team is none other than athlete, scholar, scumbag Bret Weston Wallis.” Mr. Honey says that the championship is only a few weeks away, and Riverdale doesn’t even have a team. Betty volunteers, and Mr. Honey says he would love to get his hands on at least one trophy this year. Betty says there is nothing that she would enjoy more than to give Stonewall Prep “a royal ass-kicking.” Mr. Honey tells Betty she has his full support.
At Stonewall, Jughead walks into the classroom, only to be greeted by the society, DuPont, and FP. DuPont says he felt it only appropriate that his father be there to celebrate with them. Celebrate what? He’ll be receiving official word by the end of the following week, but Jughead got into Yale. He’s the “first Jones to go to college! And an Ivy League one, at that”. Bret reveals he got into Yale too, and if they’re lucky, they’ll be roomies again.
In a flash forward to one month later, Betty is cleaning up Jughead’s stuff in his room at Stonewall. Bret finds her and tells her to save her tears, no one’s watching. Bret says she got her wish. Jughead isn’t going to Yale, so he guesses it’ll just be the two of them in New Haven.
Watch Riverdale Wednesdays at 8 pm E.T. on The CW.
